What’s the difference between copywriting and content writing?

In this blog, I’m offering my two pennies on something that I didn’t realise people cared about.  However, it recently came to my attention that some people do care AND other people get confused about it…I realised it might be helpful to share my thoughts on it! So without father ado: what’s the difference between copywriting and content writing?

This question came to my attention several weeks ago on Facebook. I don’t spend much time on Facebook these days, but I am a member of some freelancer groups and one or two equine and rural business groups. It was on one of these groups that someone advertised that they were giving away copywriting services for free… And boy did they get some grief! But that’s not why the whole debacle caught my eye. 

Another day on the internet…

The person posting (the original poster or OP, as I believe the cool kids say) was offering to write a blog or website copy for small businesses and not take payment. They are trying something new and wanted to get their business off the ground by building a portfolio of work. So far, and all pretty standard stuff. I read plenty of posts like this every week from people offering their services in web design, photography and content creation for free to build up their portfolio. It honestly doesn’t bother me – I’m lucky to have a portfolio of work I’m incredibly proud of and an excellent reputation that leads to lots of word-of-mouth work. Plus, if a brand or businessperson’s budget for copywriting is $0.00, I’m not the right writer for them. Or, to put it another way, they are not the customer for me!  

So why am I telling you about this?

What caught my eye were the comments underneath the post. They had clearly caught a few other people’s attention too, as I had multiple screenshots sent to me for my opinion! The comments in question had been left by another copywriter whose feathers seem to have been ruffled by the post. I understand that it feels like people are undermining our work when they give away services for free, but there’s nothing you can do about it. However, this group member and fellow writer had proceeded to attack the OP in the comments. She claimed they couldn’t possibly be a copywriter, giving several reasons for her claim. E.g., she had done some analysis on a website from their previous business to see if they could SEO-optimise his copy (he failed her test, quelle surprise), highlighted the lack of lead magnet on their site and was generally being rather mean.

Her comments were dressed up as a warning to other people in the group to be wary of people offering their services as copywriters when they don’t have the expertise to back up their claims. In principle a fair warning, but not well executed and you could forgive the original poster for feeling attacked. Putting her butthurt (there’s no other word for it) to one side for a moment, I was interested in the comment where she insisted on separating copywriting and content writing into two different specialisms.

So, what’s the difference between copywriting and content writing?

Is there a difference? If so, what is the difference between copywriting and content writing? I thought I’d share my thoughts with you here. Nope. And it absolutely doesn’t matter. 

Not one bit.

For most business owners the argument is completely and utterly irrelevant and what’s more, she got in a bit of a muddle in her definitions of the two. Now, if you Google ‘the difference between copywriting and content writing you’ll find lots of blogs confidently giving you the answer:

• A copywriter writes words to persuade people to do things, for example taglines, adverts, sakes pages and email newsletters. 
• A content writer crafts words that educate people, for example blogs, white papers and case studies.

I hope those blogs were all written by someone with the official job title of content writer, given that they are educating anyone who cares to read them on such an important matter. OK, that might be some sarcasm slipping in! Personally, I think it’s all nonsense. Here’s why… 

Content marketing is relatively new; copywriting isn’t very new

Content marketing is a relatively new strategy in the world of marketing and is a direct result of the rise of digital media channels. The idea is that if you have a website to sell your products or services then you need a content plan and a content writer to create lots of blogs, white papers and case studies! That way you can rank higher in Google and educate your audience. They will, thanks to your content, think you’re the number one authority in your sector and buy from you. Let’s ignore the fact that the content marketing bandwagon has been careering along unchecked for years now and there’s a lot of nonsense out there dressed up as educational content. And with the advent of generative AI, that’s bandwagon is getting heavier, faster and harder to control as every brand can churn out blogs, blogs based on information from thousands of other blogs and content about the same subject already on the internet. But that’s a subject for another day… 

Can copywriters turn their hand to content writing?

So: content writers write content. That’s nice and clear, isn’t it? But here’s the rub – lots of copywriters can write blogs and white papers too. Whisper it quietly, but the ability to write an epic email subject line doesn’t mean that the part of your brain that can write a blog dies and falls out of your ears. Copywriters have existed as long as marketing has been around. My favourite marketing book is Ogilvy on Advertising by the godfather of all copywriting, David Ogilvy. This man is a legend, and the book is full of his amazing words that were features some of the world’s most famous adverts. Famous if you’re nerdy about marketing and advertising, I must add. Not so much if you’re not. And would you know it, in some of those adverts his copy is both educating people AND trying to persuade them to do something. Crazy, eh? 

And what happens if you need to send out a newsletter that has both an offer in it and a CTA to read your latest blog? As per those tight definitions of copywriter versus content writer that you’ll find online, you’d need a copywriter to write that email but, ohmygod, you’d need a content writer to craft that blog for you. Off you go to find one of each, please. Don’t let that copywriter near your blog. 

What nonsense. Most writers must be versatile these days – on any given day I might need to write a magazine article and some social media captions and copy for online adverts.

So… that’s why I call myself a copywriter and frankly don’t give a stuff the difference between content and copywriting. What’s the difference between copywriting and content writing? In my mind, not anything really. The only time I come across requests for more nuanced types of writing are in pitches to large marketing agencies who have a whole team of writers. There are long-form copywriters, short-form copywriters, technical writers, SEO writers and conversion (also known as direct response) copywriters. However, they all come under the umbrella of copywriting and perhaps I’ll go into the differences between them another day…

Don’t be an a**ehole (online or IRL)

For now, I’m signing off with one final thought, unrelated to ‘what’s the difference between copywriting and content writing’ but relevant to posting on social media. Don’t be an a**ehole online. The lady who was so cross and commented on the mans’ post couldn’t stop him giving away his copywriting services for free. She did, however, trigger messages of support for him and the extra activity on the post probably helped him reach more people. And it made her look a little desperate or scared… Probably not her aim, was it? C’est la vie! If you’d like to chat to a writer – both a copywriter and content writer, I suppose – why not drop me an email?