What’s the difference between content writers and copywriters?

[SARubin]

Well, there’s a question that's been asked 1000 times. So if you’re wondering “what’s the difference between content writers and copywriters”, here’s my best answer for you…


Of course, both copywriters and content writers serve many of the same clients, and the crossover between the two is fairly obvious (the whole “writing thing” ) but generally speaking there's a couple major differences between the two…


Content writers create blog posts, articles, stories, white papers and the like, with a primary purpose of engaging visitors with useful and informative (or sometimes just clever) content.

On the other hand… Copywriters write the words in marketing materials with the main purpose of getting visitors to take action, or buy something.

And when it comes to “Direct Response Copywriting” the primary purpose is to get your visitors to take some immediate action in direct response to your promotion. (it could be to contact you for more info, sign up for your mailing list, make a direct purchase, etc.)


So that’s the basic difference between content writing and copywriting… Which I guess makes this particular post “content writing”.

Anyway, that’s my though for the day (hopefully I'll have at least one more before the day ends? )


So whether we’re into content writing, or copywriting…
...just keep on writing…

All the best,
SAR

[WordyWordpecker]

I’ve been writing mostly content for about 5 years. I’m just starting to write more advertising copy for clients over the last year +/-

My question is, isn’t all advertising on the internet “direct response”? I mean when they click on your ad it’s a direct response to the ad, and on the internet it’s easy to track the response.

[SARubin]

Yeah, I suppose all advertising on the internet could be direct response. But you might be surprised how many people I talk with who still don’t use decent analytics to track and measure response to their ads.

It seems obvious to you and me, Wordy Wordpecker, (by the way… Love the screen-name) but as long as there are people out there who don’t understand, then people like us can continue to get paid for explaining it to them.