I bet most of the people haven’t heard of copywriting. But if you have googled through my blog, then you surely are an exception to this. Most of the people often interchangeably use this term. But they are entirely different from each other in intent and writing techniques. While one of them is persuasive writing, the other is written for descriptive purposes. For example, copywriting is more like trying to sell a wallet, while content writing is describing the features of the wallet. We will have a look at both of them in detail below.
1. Introduction to copywriting and content writing
Content writing
Content writing, on the contrary, doesn’t have anything to do with pain points and human psychology. It focuses more on detailing the products and their features. Content writing doesn’t use any persuasive tones. It is more focused on providing information to the customer. The content is often lengthy and broad. Content writing is the art to represent a brand voice. Though not persuasive, content writing still focuses on attracting potential customers.
2. Which one should you use for your business?
3. What is the difference in writing style?
Copywriting and content writing differ not only in the purpose but also in writing techniques. Copywriters write copies while content writers write content. Though both of them are writing techniques, writing a copy and content vary in their style. Let’s look at both of them.
Writing a copy involves using compelling sentences and headlines. It includes CTA to prompt users to take the intended action. The action may consist of anything like sharing, commenting, providing reviews or buying products, and many more. The languages used are concise and to the point yet highly compelling. It targets the emotions of people, their pain points, and exact solutions. It’s more like hitting the center of the target. The sentence structures are readable in a single breath. Also, there is no restriction to use grammatically perfect language. Anything that triggers your customer to take action is acceptable while writing copies.
While writing copies, you are supposed to avoid walls of text. User readability and user experience are kept a high priority. Another thing copywriting includes is focus points. The top priority sentences are highlighted using an exclamation(!) mark, writing them in bold, or underline them. Using the perfect emoticons is also considered best practice in copywriting to convey proper emotions. The language should be straightforward, not beating around the bush. Writing copies is all about giving your customers emotional excitement with logical satisfaction.
Writing content differs with writing copies in almost all the above techniques. Content writing usually is not too straightforward. A topic is explained in as much detail as possible. Often copywriting has higher word counts than copywriting. The language should be grammatically correct. No persuasive nature is fed into writing. The content doesn’t focus on short term action and return values. It targets long term goals and a broader set of audiences. Writing tone is almost silent, unlike the surges of excitement provided by copywriting. It should be written in detail, answering all the curiosities a customer can have regarding a particular topic or product. The writing is focused on creating a productive engagement over time. It should focus on building trust in the long run. Content writing can start with an impressive background and can revolve around topics related to it as well. It has nothing to do with audience psychology. The sentences are written in formal or informal tones. Mostly the sentences focus on passing information to the audiences.
The following are the differences I have listed in detail.
4. Which one is paid higher?
It depends. Both copywriting and content writing are high demanding jobs. Since the digitization of every single business has started, the companies are tirelessly seeking skilled copywriters and content writers. Both of these jobs are paid high in their respective industries. But to get paid more, you need to find a company worth your skills. An advertisement company will pay a copywriter more than a content writer.
Similarly, a blogging agency will pay content writers more than a copywriter. It all depends on where you choose to show your skill sets. The earning structure also depends on how experienced you and the quality you can provide to the company.
According to the aggregated data from Payscale, the average salary of a copywriting job is $51,433. But it can range anywhere between $36k to $74k depending upon the location, experience, and quality of work you provide.
Accordingly, the average salary of a content writing job is $45,731. But this can vary anywhere between $32k to $71k depending upon various factors like location, experience, and work quality.
Since content is the king, you should produce contentful videos. No one will return to your channel once they find out you post very generic and not the useful content they are looking for. So, I recommend you to follow these masterpieces to produce excellent quality content: