Content writing and copywriting are terms you can come across in the writing industry. While they both sound similar, they are quite different. This post will examine what roles involve and how they differ.
Content Writer | Definition
A content writer is technically defined as someone who creates written content of any kind and category.
And sticking to this broad definition, the term “content writing” covers all the different types of writing, including copywriting.
Since this post aims to highlight the differences between a content writer and a copywriter, we won’t treat the former as a substratum of the latter.
In our current context, a content writer can be defined as a person who is tasked with writing long-form content for instructional or educational purposes rather than for advertising/promotion.
Content Writer | Job and Roles
Expanding on the definition above, let’s look at what a content writer’s role can typically entail.
- Content writers can be tasked to write blog posts. This is the most common task that they do. In this context, blog posts refer to the articles published on a website’s blog and the contributory content published on other websites to expand the main website’s readership. The latter process goes by “guest blogging.”
- Content writers can likewise be tasked to write manuals and instructional content, i.e., guides for a particular product or software, etc.
- Content writers can also play a role in creating newsletters and messages for email campaigns. While promotional stuff lies mainly in the category of copywriting, email campaigning can often involve educational content that has to be dealt with by content writers.
Copywriter | Definition
Let’s move on to discussing copywriters.
A copywriter can be defined as a writer who is mainly tasked to prepare written content for advertising or promotional purposes. To better understand what a copywriter is, it can be helpful to understand the definition of a copy itself.
A copy is written content that educates and informs the reader about a particular offering (service or product) to convince them to buy/acquire the offer.
Likewise, a writer whose job is to create copies is said to be a copywriter.
Copywriter | Job and Roles
Now let’s discuss some of the jobs and roles that copywriters are typically required to do.
- Copywriters can be asked to write product descriptions. Product descriptions must be written in a specific catchy style to attract readers and make them buy the product. It requires wit and creativity – which is why it’s not something that everyone and anyone can do. Copywriters are mainly tasked with writing these.
- Copywriters also write social media captions and posts since they must simultaneously be short and catchy. Such captions/posts can often only comprise a single sentence with a hook.
Short-form content that requires a hefty amount of creativity to create sums up the content that copywriters must create.
What are the Main Differences Between Copywriters and Content Writers?
To sum it up, we can describe the differences between these two as follows:
- The content written by copywriters is generally for advertising purposes, which is not a condition for content writers. Content writers are typically required to write long-form content like blog posts.
- The content written by copywriters is shorter and has to be saturated with creativity. On the other hand, content writers can make their stuff longer with simpler stuff and still make it work.
- Copywriters have to prioritize catchiness in their content – which can often lead them to paraphrase a text repeatedly to make it look right. On the other hand, content writers can make do with simplicity.
FAQs on Content Writer vs. Copywriter
Yes, a copywriter can be a content writer. Copywriting is a more demanding and skilled area than content writing. Copywriters typically start as content writers before moving on to preparing copies.
Copywriters earn more than simple content writers since their work is more creativity-intensive. In other words, their trade/work is more valuable than simple content creation – typical of content writers.
Conclusion
Content writing and copywriting are both popular jobs nowadays. In the post above, we have highlighted the main differences between these two and described the respective jobs/roles.
The next time someone asks you about the difference between these two, you’ll have quite a bit to tell them.
Awesome one; I hope this article answers your question.
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