Copywriting vs. content writing: What’s the difference?

Freelance Writing Coach

Website content, social media posts, marketing emails, press releases—freelance writing is an umbrella term for many types of writing. But most freelance writers specialize in either content writing or copywriting (not both.)

Writing in any form produces content, which is why copywriting is often lumped together with content writing. Confusing, right?!

The good news: We’ve done both types, and there are plenty of differences between the two. Today, we’re breaking down how they’re unique entities (to clear things up.)

Content writing vs. copywriting: What’s the difference?

Content writing often refers to the writing found in articles, long-form blog posts, and ebooks. Copywriting is usually found in advertisements, landing pages, and sales letters.

The primary difference in both writing forms is how they relate to the reader's response. Copywriting corresponds to a direct response, whereas content writing does not.

Copywriting works to get people to take action and make a conversion (AKA to get them to purchase something, sign up for a newsletter, etc.) On the other hand, content writing often focuses on educating the reader—for example, a how-to article or a blog post on upcoming trends in your industry niche.

The style of writing also differs between content writing and copywriting. Content writing has a narrative style that relies on storytelling. Copywriting is persuasive, backed by the psychology of human behavior.

Variety in pricing approaches

Aside from the writing differences, copy and content projects are priced differently. (Lots more on pricing in this episode!)

Due to their direct response nature, copywriting projects can have result-oriented pricing. For example, copywriters can experiment with getting paid a percentage of the sales generated by the copy they’ve written in addition to a flat fee.

Content writing projects are more often priced per word or per project and don’t have a scope for royalties.

You can make good money in both content writing and copywriting, but copywriting has the potential to make large amounts of money in a short amount of time. This makes it more financially lucrative for freelance writers (especially if you’re writing for a company with a huge sales volume and you can tie the results to your work.)

Client expectations and experiences

Copywriters help generate more sales, and content writers help build brand authority and thought leadership. The outcome of copywriting is easy to visualize and measure. It’s much harder for content writing.

Thought leadership and brand authority are tricky to measure, and thus ranking higher in search results is sometimes treated as the measure of the quality of content writing. This difference in the measurability of results means that content writers often have to work a bit harder to sell their services and raise rates over time.

What about case studies?

The skills of content writing and copywriting tend to overlap in offerings like case studies where you're telling the story of a customer's success while also working to convince a reader to buy.

“One of my case study clients told me: “Whatever you’re thinking of charging, double it.”

Case studies are valuable to every business. Their sales teams use them as tools on sales calls, during walkthroughs, and as testimonials, especially on the enterprise level. Since case studies bring your clients more money, you can also price them at a higher price point.

What should freelance writers do: Content or copywriting?

You can be good at copywriting and content writing and take on both types of projects. However, most freelance writers prefer to specialize in one as their core marketed service. This is primarily because clients remember freelance writers based on the type of content they specialize in. The good news is that you can occasionally take on different projects but not actively market them.

The best way to figure out what’s best for you is to try various freelance writing services. From there, you can figure out which one suits you best

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