The terms "copywriting" and "content writing" are often used interchangeably. In reality, copywriting and content writing are two separate skill sets that differ significantly.
Content writing aims to inform and engage the target audience through valuable content, while copywriting focuses on persuading the audience to take specific actions that drive conversions.
In any case, both are key for successful and well-balanced digital marketing strategies.
In this guide, I'll show you the exact difference between copywriting and content writing—and see how these two can work together.
What you will learn
- What content writing and copywriting is and the key differences between the two
- How they address the target audience for different purposes
- How their results are measured
- How you can use copywriting and content writing to attract and convert leads
What is content writing?
Content writing is creating informative and engaging long-form materials to educate or entertain a target audience, fostering trust and brand loyalty.
This is done through high-quality pieces that give readers genuine value around a specific topic.
For instance, check out this blog post by Beardbrand that aims to "answer every question" their audience might have about beard oil.
Content writing mainly covers the following formats:
- Blog posts
- Case studies
- White papers
- E-books
What is copywriting?
Copywriting is crafting persuasive and compelling text designed to motivate the audience to take specific actions, such as making a purchase or signing up for a service.
Sticking with Beardbrand, here's a snippet from one of its promotional emails:
This time, the copy fully focuses on driving readers to purchase the company's beard and hair conditioner. It does this through social proof, using a customer review and highlighting the product's benefits and standouts.
Copywriting can cover the following formats:
- Emails
- Website and landing page copy
- Social media taglines
- Product descriptions
- Advertisement copy
7 differences between content writing and copywriting
The main difference between copywriting and content writing is their formats and objectives.
This translates to numerous other differences ranging from how they appeal to the target audience to how their results are measured, and so on.
Let's get into the details and see exactly how these two strategies differ.
1. Content length
Content writing is long-form content, typically above 500 words. Copywriting is short-form content.
The Beardbrand blog post I showed earlier is over 1,400 words in length. But it can also go beyond that.
For example, this Pipedrive e-book is more than 20 pages long.
In contrast, copywriting usually involves short-form content—as short as a simple sentence—just like in this GAP Meta advertisement:
Content writing is longer and much more time-consuming to create.
However, you can always rely on AI content writing tools like Surfer AI. With it, you can reduce hours of research and writing to mere minutes.
Surfer AI automatically calculates the optimal length of your content based on SERP analysis, so you know you're writing a comprehensive piece.
2. Funnel stages
The sales funnel is generally comprised of four stages:
Awareness stage: Leads are aware of their problems and look for solutions to alleviate their symptoms—but they may not be aware of a specific fix or your company and products.
Interest stage: Leads identify the root cause of their problems and start to pinpoint potential solutions—your brand potentially being one of them.
Consideration: Leads weigh up their options before making a final decision. They look for more information about each potential fix, such as product/service reviews, comparisons, and so on.
Conversion: Leads identify their optimal fix and finally turn into purchasing customers.
Both copywriting and content writing are key parts of the sales funnel.
Going back to Beardbrand, let's see how it implements copywriting and content writing in its marketing strategy.
Let's say I type in "How to trim a beard" in the search bar.
One of the top organic listings covering the topic leads to Beardbrand's blog post. Like in the previous example, the blog is highly informative and provides readers with practical advice on trimming their beards.
But here's what happens when readers reach the bottom of the blog post:
Beardbrand switches its tone.
It shifts to copywriting to spark visitors' curiosity, capture their interest, and encourage them to progress to the next funnel stage by taking a quiz.
It does this through the question-based heading and carefully chosen phrases, such as "find out if you're the rarest type. "
After taking the quiz, Beardbrand will send visitors to a web page where they can see their results:
Again, the company employs copywriting tactics to relate with visitors, subtly hint at its products, and drive them down to the final stage of the sales funnel through personalized product recommendations.
The web page also invites visitors to read yet another blog post based on their specific quiz results—perfect for offering extra value in case visitors are not ready to make a purchase.
Either way, Beardbrand is an excellent example of how content writing and copywriting can attract leads and gradually turn them into actual customers.
Of course, you can leverage content writing to target leads from specific sales funnel stages.
Product comparisons would work for audiences within the consideration stage, while how-to guides work for the awareness and interest stages.
However, the sales funnel may vary from company to company. For instance, the B2B sales cycle is longer and more logic-driven.
That means a greater emphasis on content writing to educate readers about their pain points and encourage them to move down the funnel from a rational—not an emotional—perspective.
3. Style and emotions
Content writing aims to establish trust with the target audience by offering readers as much value as possible. As such, it adopts an informative tone of voice, usually reinforced by a direct writing style.
This Zendesk blog post is a great example:
The content is straight to the point and packed with useful information. There's no need for power words or other tactics designed to evoke emotions—those would only seem out of place in this context.
It's also worth noting that content writing heavily emphasizes readability because it is long-form. Simple language, whitespace, and proper content structure are key to valuable content that's easy to digest.
In contrast, copywriting employs psychological tactics and impactful words to trigger emotions and nudge readers to convert as quickly as possible.
Just like what Babbel's promotional email does here:
This particular email banks on the Fear Of Missing Out (FOMO) factor—it reminds recipients that it's their last chance to get 65% off the platform's Lifetime subscription as one final push for monetary conversions.
The copy instills a sense of urgency through phrases like "Offer ends today" and "Don't let a lifetime of languages at our best price disappear. "
The bulleted list highlighting the pricing plan's contents and benefits further reinforces the FOMO effect.
4. Time frame
Content writing is a long-term investment.
It involves a consistent flow of valuable information that helps companies establish themselves as thought leaders within their niche, earn the trust of the target audience, and promote brand loyalty in the long run—all of which contribute to future sales.
In other words, a single blog post probably won't be enough to turn readers into customers.
However, a well-developed content marketing strategy that includes a series of blog posts, lead magnets, and informative newsletter campaigns will draw and maintain leads in your ecosystem, eventually leading to monetary conversions further down the road.
In contrast, copywriting is short-term oriented.
It employs persuasion and other psychological tactics to tug at the audience's emotions and generate on-the-spot conversions.
As such, a single email or social media post can result in immediate conversions.
This Foot Locker Twitter post, for example, uses social proof via influencer endorsement to nudge followers into purchasing a product "now".
5. SEO tactics
Content writing is primarily SEO-centric. It aims to attract organic traffic by optimizing long-form content like blog posts with relevant keywords and valuable information for search engines.
In contrast, copywriting involves optimizing short-form content, such as product descriptions and landing page copy, to align with search terms and drive immediate conversions.
Proper keyword research is a must for both copywriting and content writing.
You can start keyword research using a free tool like the Google Keyword Planner.
The Keyword Planner is a great free tool, especially for writing ad copy. It lets you find new keyword ideas and view relevant ad metrics, such as bid ranges.
However, you need a specialized tool such as Surfer's Keyword Research for SEO purposes.
Surfer shows you relevant SEO metrics such as keyword difficulty and monthly search volume.
This way you can make an informed decision which keywords to target.
However, SEO doesn't end with keyword research. That is just the beginning.
Both copywriting and content writing require on-page optimization, which includes populating your writing with the right terms at the right frequency.
For that, you can rely on Surfer's Content Editor.
Follow the Content Editor's guidelines and you'll make sure your published pages will be found.
6. Success metrics
Since copywriting and content writing serve different purposes, the metrics used to measure how well they achieve these purposes differ.
Copywriting focuses on metrics like click-through, conversion, and customer acquisition costs.
These KPIs reveal how well the copy captures the target audience's attention and persuades them to convert.
One tracks these KPIs when launching a new campaign, ad, or landing page. The results are more immediate.
Even though a well-optimized website copy will bring you results over time.
Content writing focuses on page traffic, impressions, and bounce rates.
These metrics help determine how well-optimized the content is and how well it maintains the target audience's attention.
You can track your copywriting and content writing efforts using free tools like Google Analytics and Google Search Console.
If you're looking for an auditing tool that also gives you actional insights, then check out the Surfer Content Audit.
In the Content Audit you can see at a glance how your content is performing and your best improvement opportunities.
7. Required skills
Another key difference between content writing and copywriting is the skill set required to work on them.
Copywriters employ psychology tactics and creativity to craft short texts that catch the audience's attention, evoke emotions, and nudge for on-the-spot conversions.
Check out this banner ad from Bic:
"Perfect for candles. And more!" Coupled with the well-placed visuals, Bic thought outside the box and created a humorous advertisement that encourages the audience to use their imagination, resulting in genuinely memorable copy.
In contrast, content writers rely on research skills and the ability to turn complex ideas into information that's easy to digest for all readers—beginners or experts on the topic in question.
This blog post from Fluent In 3 Months is a great example:
It explains the French subjective grammar mood—a rather confusing topic for French novices—as clearly as possible. The content writer leverages her knowledge of the French language, along with practical examples to ensure readers easily understand the topic.
And of course, since the content's main objective is to attract organic traffic, a content writer must also be thoroughly accustomed to the SEO practices I mentioned earlier.
It's also worth noting that even if both content writers and copywriters must adapt to their brand's voice and tone, they do so to fulfil different objectives—content writers inform and copywriters persuade.
Should you prioritize content writing or copywriting?
Content writing and copywriting go hand in hand. Content writing attracts traffic across various sales funnel stages while copywriting drives that traffic further down the funnel.
Both tactics are necessary for a balanced marketing strategy that generates short-term and long-term results.
Besides, content writing gives target audiences something of value first, without immediately asking for anything else in return. That means you'll get to build trust, which eases prospects into conversions via copywriting.
Key takeaways
- Content writing and copywriting are distinct yet complementary skills, each crucial in digital marketing strategies.
- Content writing focuses on creating long-form, informative materials to educate and engage the target audience, building trust and brand loyalty over time.
- Copywriting aims to persuade the audience to take immediate actions, such as making a purchase, through short-form, compelling text.
- Content writing and copywriting are essential for a balanced marketing strategy that addresses different sales funnel stages.
- Content writing attracts organic traffic and nurtures potential leads while copywriting drives conversions and immediate sales.
- Effective SEO techniques are vital for content writing and copywriting to ensure visibility and engagement from search engines.
- The two differ in measuring success, with content writing focusing on metrics like traffic and engagement and copywriting on conversion rates and click-through rates.
- A well-rounded marketing strategy should integrate content writing and copywriting to achieve long-term brand growth and short-term sales goals.
Conclusion
Despite their differences, content writing and copywriting are key parts of an effective digital marketing strategy and can lead to significant business growth—especially when used simultaneously.
Content writing helps attract traffic and build relationships with target audiences, while copywriting pushes that traffic further down the sales funnel and is perfect for quick conversions.
Both copywriting and content writing require SEO knowledge, so ensure you have the right tools for that.
Try Surfer to write content that ranks!
