Content Marketing vs. Copywriting: What’s the Difference?

Like box braids vs. boxER braids (I’m still pissed about that, Kim K), content marketing and copywriting aren’t the same thing! And if you’re using them interchangeably, you might be missing out on some serious conversion opportunities.

Think of it this way: content marketing is like being the cool friend who always has valuable tips to share, while copywriting is your friend who knows exactly what to say to get you to try that new restaurant. Both are valuable, but they serve totally different purposes.

In this post, I’m breaking down exactly what makes these two different, when to use each one, and how to make them work together to get you better results. Let’s dive in!

What is Content Marketing?

Content marketing delivers meaningful and entertaining content that inform, help, or entertain your audience while sparking conversations. That can be through social media posts, newsletter emails, blog posts, videos, or podcasts.

Content marketing’s main goal is to attract and retain a lot of ideal customers to your brand (usually with SEO and organic growth), get a lot of engagement going, and establish your authority.

And that’s over a long period of time — you aren’t going to achieve all that in a weeks, a year, or even a year. It takes TIME, so you have to be patient.

How to measure your content marketing success:

• High impressions
• Increase in likes, comments or replies, shares, and saves
• Sustained engagement in the form of comments, replies, shares and saves

What is Copywriting?

My definition of copywriting is using research, strategy, creativity, storytelling, brand voice, and brand personality to connect with your audience, stand out in the market, and sell your products & services.

Copywriting is everywhere — website copy, sales pages, email sequences, social media ads, product descriptions, billboards, video scripts, and more.

The whole purpose of copywriting is to persuade people to take action right away — usually to buy or sign up for something.

So, the key metrics for copywriting are often:

• High website traffic and click-through rates, which tells you a lot of people are coming to your site (and SEO is good)
• A decrease in bounce rates, which says that people are staying on your website long enough to ready your copy
• An increase in leads and an increase in aligned leads, indicating more people want to work with you and you’re attracting the right kind of people
• An increase in conversions, which shows your copy is helping you turn browsers into buyers
• A decrease in questions and objections, which indicates your copy reads people’s minds and settles any drawbacks there may be to choosing you

How They Work Together

Because content marketing is a long-term gig, it helps establish a relationship long before you try to sell people something. So by the time you’re trying to make the sale you’ve already given your people free education, informed them all about your offer(s), and built trust!

For example, last year when I wanted to book more website copywriting clients, I posted a bunch of social posts of my website copy work, used social media trends to show the human behind my brand and my “it” factor, educational content to get people to understand why their website copy isn’t hittin’, then promoted my Copy Retainer as much as possible.

As a result, I’ve been booked out for 3 months — all with Copy Retainers 🥳.

Common Mistakes

Selling all the time is NOT the move. It’ll just make your target audience feel like your relationship is purely transactional, when you should be using content marketing to attract them, build trust, and entertain in between trying to sell to them.

Because the customer journey is not something to balk at. Things have changed, of course, with our increasingly digital world and Gen Z changing the rules of marketing. But if anything, that just proves that having a human connection with your people is more important than ever. So tried-and-tested things like the 5 stages of awareness and the essential marketing funnel is still a good template to follow.

When you have a launch, you’ll want to use content marketing most at the beginning, then pepper it here and there at the end of your marketing funnel.

And you’ll want to lay the copywriting on thick toward the middle and end of the marketing funnel, when your customers have really gotten to know, like, and trust you, and all that’s left is to buy from you.

Best Practices

Content marketing tips

• Use research tools like social media, SEMrush, UberSuggest, or ContentIdeas.io to find relevant and engaging content ideas
• Always write copy for your content marketing as if you’re having a conversation with your reader/viewer. You can even talk it out and transcribe what you say so you can humanize your content
• Try and find the funny — you can always find the funny in any situation, and that kind of content is more memorable
• Carousels and short-form video are most popular, even on YouTube. Though people do love a long-story-long as well, so you can elaborate in places like a blog, YouTube channel, email newsletter or podcast
• Use storytelling often to stay in the minds of your consumers, and connect to the solution your offer provides (content marketing that also uses copywriting is the clincher)

Copywriting tips

• Figure out your one reader and only talk to them — when you try to talk to too many people, you end up talking to no one
• Always focus on the benefits of your offer’s features, because that is what people care about most
• Always put your readers first, and focus on them — when you focus on your brand it sounds too “me me me” when it should be “you you you”, you know?
• Get super strategic with your hero section and CTAs, because they’re the most important pieces of copy real estate. They do the most convincing, and it’s what people remember most when reading an entire page of copy
• Write copy for every stage of awareness your reader might be in
• Understand why your reader would buy your product, and whether you should speak to them on an emotional, personal, or intellectual level
• Keep it simple!
• Always break up chunks of copy with imagery
• Don’t use semicolons — no one really uses them in everyday life, and it doesn’t make you look smarter lol
• Use social listening to understand your audience’s lingo, because your copy will appeal much more when they can read it in their own words

Conclusion

Now you know the difference between content marketing and copywriting — and more importantly, how to use each one to grow your business!

Remember: Content marketing builds the relationship, copywriting seals the deal. You need both to create a marketing strategy that actually works.

Ready to level up your content and copy game? Book an intensive strategy call with me, and we’ll get your words working better in 90 minutes.