You certainly heard the word ‘copywriting’ many times. Copywriting is not a copyright! Both are completely different. With the evolution of digital marketing, copywriting is gaining more and more popularity day by day. Even if some people have heard, they are confused between the two words, i.e., copywriting and content writing. Many think both are the same. But actually, they are not!
Copywriting, in reality, originated centuries back but started gaining popularity after the publication of printed material. It is the reason why people buy something. Copy means text used in advertising goods and services.
In this article, you can be able to know what copywriting is, who copywriters are, what their work is, how you can become a copywriter, how a copywriter is different from a content writer, and it is good to choose copywriting or content writing as a career, if then which? So read to know everything in detail.
What is copywriting?
Copywriting is the most vital part of advertising and marketing. It is the written content or text (known as copy) to persuade people. The main purpose of copywriting is to advertise goods and services. There are different places where you can find copywriting, like mass media advertising, direct marketing, and digital marketing, including the caption of Facebook ads, headlines of Google ads, and many more.
Who are copywriters?
Copywriters are professional writers who write or create copy for advertisement and marketing. They are mainly responsible for writing promotional materials. They plan, do extensive research on the subject, and then create such persuasive copy on behalf of a client or company. If you can create persuasive copy that is able to convince the reader or audience to take action, like purchasing the product, then you are considered a good copywriter. Copywriters have good communication and creative skills.
What do they do?
Copywriters create promotional copy for advertisement and marketing campaigns. Their main focus is to persuade and convince readers to take action by purchasing the company’s products or services.
Their job roles and responsibilities:
- Analyse and determine the advertising approach before writing.
- Study products and create concepts for advertisement and marketing campaigns.
- Research customers, products, services, competitors, website search trends, and the entire industry.
- Write copy in various formats to move the reader to action.
- Create clear and concise copy that meets the client’s needs.
- Developing brand voice.
- Analyse campaign results to write future copywriting strategies.
- Reviewing and editing until it is final.
What do they write?
Copywriters write persuasive words, phrases, sentences, taglines, and paragraphs as per the requirement to sell the products or services. They do various work. Sometimes they write business-to-business (B2B) copy for the companies selling products or services to other companies, sometimes business-to-customer (B2C) copy who sells their goods through a retail business, or occasionally write direct-to-customer (D2C) copy for companies who sell their products or services directly to customers through online or websites.
Their writing may be for:
- Print ads in newspapers and magazines
- Scripts for radio and podcast ads– aired or announced with voiceovers by announcers, actors, or show hosts.
- The caption of social media ads like Instagram, Facebook, Twitter, YouTube, and many more.
- TV and streaming service ads in the form of taglines, onscreen words, and scripts.
- Headlines of Google ads
- Websites(landing page, home page, category page, product description, about page, etc.)
- In-store signs to sales products in the store.
- Billboards and posters alongside the roads.
- Awareness ads by the government.
- Emails
How to become a copywriter?
There is no specific degree or course to become a copywriter. You can do the copywriting task if you wish to become such. You must be a voracious reader. In addition to this, you must have some skills such as communication skills, creativity, curiosity, decision-making, problem-solving, analyzing, and listening skills which will help you a lot in your copywriting career.
However, to look like a professional copywriter, you must have at least a bachelor’s degree to get a good job posting and salary. It is because many companies ask for certificates, skills, and experiences. Though a certificate or degree is not mandatory in these below-mentioned fields, if you have one, it is better for you.
- Mass communication
- Journalism
- English
- Marketing
- Business
How are they different from content writers?
People are often bewildered between copywriting and content writing. They think both are the same. Though they look like overlapping, they are actually different due to their core objectives.
In copywriting, the goal is to make a sale. Such writing is often short or medium in form and has a clear, simple, and persuasive message to move the audience to action. Their writing fully targets converting traffic into customers. The action may be in the form of registering, signing in, buying, or any other compelling way. Copywriters help businesses to make money directly.
On the other hand, the purpose of content writing is to bring traffic and retain the traffic by providing valuable information, education, and sometimes entertaining the reader. They are usually written in longer forms, such as blog posts, pillar posts, articles, ebooks, white papers, and scripts. All the informative, educative, and entertaining videos are also content. The purpose of good content writing is to build strong and long relationships with the customers and then indirectly convince them to take action by attracting them with your content.
Which is better as a career?
Both copywriting and content writing is a respectable jobs. Both require research. If you want to become a copywriter or content writer, you do not mandatorily require a degree or certificate. Your skills are the top priority in both the field. You can get a salary based on your skills and experience. These jobs give a good scope to do work from home.
However, if you have good knowledge of marketing and business, you can start your career as a copywriter. If you don’t have good knowledge of marketing or business, it is better to start your career as a content writer. You can later on switch your career to a copywriter. At that time, it is easy for you to do copywriting. As every business mostly needs a copywriter for direct sales and revenue, they get paid comparatively more salary.
