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Whilst ‘copywriting’ has been around for as long as the printed word, the term ‘content marketing’ is more of a recent phenomenon. But they’re not the same thing, despite plenty of overlap.
There are three things, in my opinion, that differentiate between copywriting and content marketing:
Intent
Immediacy
Format
What’s the intended purpose?
One of the most important things that distinguishes copywriting from content marketing is intent. In simple terms, copywriting has a simple, direct purpose: to sell! It seeks to persuade a prospective customer to do something – whether that’s to register for an event, buy a product or sign up to a product demo.
The intent behind content marketing is very different – ultimately the goal is to win customers, but the immediate goal of content marketing is more often to inform, entertain and engage with potential and existing customers. As a result, you can use content marketing to support multiple strategies including:
Brand awareness
Positioning your company as an authority on specific topics
Encouraging customer loyalty and therefore repeat business
How quickly do you want to see sales?
Copywriting is short-term – it often seeks immediate action from a prospective customer through compelling headlines and persuasive calls to action.
The sales time-frame for content marketing is longer as you’re trying to engage with your audience. Ultimately you want these prospective customers to buy from you, but often people need warming up first. Content marketing can do this through informative content, designed to educate or entertain, gently encouraging prospects through your sales funnel. Almost subliminally, it will turn prospects into customers and customers into repeat buyers.
Whilst you may not see immediate sales from content marketing, you will build valuable customer loyalty. Done right, content marketing will deliver increased engagement and once you’ve hooked an audience and delivered valuable content, you’re likely to keep them because they’ve already invested a lot of time and effort with you.
What medium/channel do you use?
The chosen format is often quite different between copywriting and content marketing, but there is plenty of cross-over.
Content marketers rely on blogs, social media, white papers, e-books and articles, whereas copywriters will use direct mail, adverts, sales emails and landing pages.
So which do I choose to focus on?
There’s an easy answer to this – you need a balance of both. But there are some things to take note of:
Often, copywriting is used in content marketing. For example, you may decide to do a regular eNewsletter to deliver informative articles and entertaining content to engage with your audience. But, how do you develop a database to send that eNewsletter to? Copywriting is the perfect choice as you’re seeking an immediate action from your prospects, ie signing up to your eNewsletter.
The balance of the two will depend upon your product/service and market. If you have a short sales cycle, you may choose to use copywriting tactics more often as the purchasing decision is easier. Conversely, I would argue that in business to business sales, where the sales cycle can be much longer, content marketing is ideally suited to support the business.
Business goals will inform your choice – if you have specific objectives around becoming a known authority on a topic in your industry, then content marketing will become very important to you.
Ultimately, you need to find a good balance between the two that suits your market, customers and business objectives.
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