When starting a business or building your brand, you will suddenly find yourself dancing between copy and content and may not even know it. You’ll need a website! Are you going to write the words for each page or are you hiring someone to do it? Your social media needs to get up and running! Are you laying out the strategy and writing each caption or are you outsourcing? 🤔

The terms content and copy have been used interchangeably, so let’s get the record straight:

Content is to educate.
Copy is to persuade.

Content vs. copy is not better vs. worse. It is more like knowing what you are going to do on vacation and bringing the appropriate shoes. If you’re hiking or ziplining you won’t be bringing heels (as cute as they are). If you’re going to an all-inclusive resort where spas and cabanas are on the itinerary, load up on cute flip flops. One pair of shoes isn’t better than the other, it just depends on the situation. Once you know and understand the difference with your writing you can make strategic decisions for your marketing. Yay!

What is copywriting?

The long and short of it is: copywriting is the intent to sell or persuade. Where would that be used? On your website, first and foremost. Your landing page is prime real estate for a hook and call to action. Between the persuasive language describing your offerings and the buttons that literally say “Click here to sign up” that’s aaaaaall copywriting baby.

I go into it further here on the podcast. You have a business and the point of your business is to sell goods or services to customers who need them. In order to let those potential customers know about what you’re offering, you need to grab their attention and persuasively tell them why they should buy from you.

Email sequences can also be used to upsell or cross-sell a service as it is about to roll out. Each email hypes the product and builds to a final call to action to purchase. This would be another example of copywriting.

Some business owners have no problem writing themselves. Others would rather jump off a cliff than sit down and stare at a blank page and write about why their product is the best. That would be when hiring out a copywriter comes in handy 😉.

Content writing and when it’s used

Content writing is used to educate or build relationships with your audience. Perfect examples of this would be social media and newsletters. Sure, you may have a few social media posts that draw attention to a link in your bio because you just launched a new product, but overall it will be in the education and relationship building category. I like this breakdown of easy tips for content writing.

Let’s say you are a business coach. You would want to educate your audience on different types of industry-specific problems that business owners face. This would establish your expertise while also allowing your audience to get to know you over time. They could learn things they weren’t aware of before, and possibly have a lightbulb moment pertaining to their own business.

If you have a monthly newsletter, it would be a summation of everything currently happening in your business in one spot. You wouldn’t be persuading your readers to do anything. This would just be a friendly update to keep your sales funnel warm, while also making them aware of what is going on that month.

Specific examples of Copy and Content:

You see an influencer on Instagram with a picture of her coffee cup on a bistro table and the Eiffel Tower in the background. The caption reads “What a great way to wake up. I never get tired of this view!” Thaaaaaat would be content writing, because it’s building a relationship. This is a great example post.

There’s another influencer on Instagram that has just launched her own line of jewelry. The picture is of her wearing her necklaces and bracelets. The caption reads: “I’m so excited to finally share what I’ve been working on for months! My jewlery line launches today! I made sure you could layer these necklaces without them getting tangled, and all of our bracelets are mix-and-match so you can stack them however you want. Use the code BLING30 for 30% your order today through the weekend as a special offer–link in bio!” That would be copywriting even though it’s in a social media post. 

All businesses use both copywriting and content writing. Once you understand your objective you will know the tone needed. Each has its time and place, just like heels or flip-flops. Now you can go forth and write your own web pages and newsletters, or hire a professional to make it easier.

TL:DR

No matter the business there will always be a need for copy and content. Copy is written with the intent to persuade or sell, like websites or email sequences. Content is written with the intent to educate or nurture relationships with readers, like social media and newsletters.