March 19, 2024

Content MarketingOnline Content Marketing

Content Marketing & Copywriting 

What’s The Difference?

Content Marketing is the creation of valuable content that has a marketing purpose.

Copywriting is the actual text or script version of the content and it is designed to capture the reader’s attention, engage the reader, and compel the reader to take a specific action. The action could be making a purchase, getting someone to subscribe, or having someone call on the phone for more information. Copywriting can also be the e-mail that your auto responder sends to confirm an email opt-in. Copywriting can be represented by a website, your blog, an online sales letter or the script for a video.

Content marketing could include blog postings, articles, a newsletter, white papers, special reports, and video materials. I also view Content Marketing as requiring an overall plan for your content which meets certain objectives. Objectives can include:

  • Develop your persona (your brand)
  • Improve the perception people have of you (become more of an authority or more of an expert)
  • Solve problems for your audience
  • Achieve backlinks into your site (citations)
  • Create greater depth of content to attract more people and the search engines
  • Add value for your audience
  • Build your online traffic
  • Sell products

Copywriting is the actual website or blog post copy, the infomercial script, or the direct mail piece that is written as part of your content marketing plan. Copywriting also will have objectives and the objective of any particular piece should fit at least one of the objectives of your content marketing plan.

Copywriting is the implementation of content marketing. This marketing approach includes devising a plan for what content will be created and how all the pieces will fit together. This approach asks questions up front as to the nature, market and timing of your content. It means that the specific pieces of copywriting all fit nicely together. None of the individual pieces will appear to be random. High quality copywriting and the increased depth of content created by each piece of your online content marketing plan help will also help to generate in-coming links and this leads to a higher position in the search results for your content marketing topic.

Once you have the content marketing plan copywriting comes into play in writing specific pieces. Content marketing and copywriting mesh together. Copywriting can be the writing for a single item and can stand alone. Content marketing is the “big picture” planning and the approach to implement the plan. The content marketing plan will make your copy more effective. It will make your business more effective as a marketing machine.

Good Content

Without a Plan

is a Waste of Time.

There are blogs out there with great content and few readers. There are wonderful websites with very little traffic. Is your blog or website one of them?

If you feel you have the essence of great content that could benefit and delight people but your site is not attracting enough traffic you may benefit by creating more effective content that is optimized for search. Remember the copywriting will include some component of SEO and the combination of good copywriting and SEO needs to mesh with your content marketing plan. Good copywriting and SEO will ensure the following:

  • Your content will be found
  • Your audience will click through
  • Your reader will understand the value you offer
  • Your reader will find you credible and trustworthy
  • Your audience will follow through on your call-to-action

Good Content and SEO Engages

and Solves Problems!

If you have great content with the potential to solve problems for people you are most of the way there. But your content must be found in order to be useful. If your content is being found but your bounce rate is high (more on this later) then your content is not engaging the reader. This is when you need to examine your copywriting and your headlines. You need to create intriguing and eye-catching headlines for all your content pieces. Fix your headlines before you try anything else if your bounce rate is high.

Effective copywriting convinces your reader to take a specific action. Keep in mind that the term copy extends to a podcast (an audio script) or a video (the verbal script). Your script for these items needs to be considered and planned just as thoroughly as the written copy on your website pages, blog posts, and online sales letters.

The use of copywriting to create interesting and delightful content for your blog or website will convince your readers to subscribe to your content, opt in to your email newsletter, and share your content with other readers who know, like and trust them. Engaging content will encourage others to market for you. That’s how you grow a large and loyal audience.

Your Copywriting Deserves a

Content Marketing Plan.

If you are going to spend time developing copy you should increase its effectiveness by creating a marketing plan. Use and develop your copy with the lens of a content marketing plan. This will make all of your copy more effective.

If you have a plan for your blog posts, then this plan must mesh with your website(s) and your brochure(s). Your blog posts will be more effective if they link to your website pages, or if they have a link to a video that provides additional support for your blog content. If your blog posts are published in a logical sequence or manner, this helps your readers and supports your ability to provide valuable content to them.

My #1 rule of content is that it will be well-written, valuable information that benefits the reader. If you do a brilliant job of marketing poor-quality content, you will only be effective in broadcasting how bad your content is. This is the opposite of what you want to accomplish. Your business results will not be good.

Smart content marketers still need to keep these essential cornerstones of great content marketing in mind:

  • Delight your readers.
  • Be generous. If your free content is good, just imagine what people will think about the content that you’re selling.
  • If your content looks like an ad, smells like an ad, and feels like and ad, it is probably an ad. The natural tendency is for ads to be thrown away. Make your “advertising” too valuable to throw away by wrapping it in wonderfully beneficial, delightful and readable copy.
  • Content marketing helps your online materials to be easy to find using a search engine. However, always write for humans – not the search engines. Write for people first, then go back and make your content search-engine friendly so people can find you.
  • And of course, always remember the #1 rule – create delightful content.

Engaging content is unsurpassed at building rapport. With it you can deliver a sales message without your audience feeling like they have been pitched to. Delightful content gets your potential customers to want more.

That is why the sharpest copywriting minds always develop their copy within a content marketing plan. Content marketing and copywriting go together perfectly. In fact, one without the other is not good marketing. A combined approach is essential to maximize your success.

Content Marketing – Content Marketing and Copywriting Summary

It is all about creating delightful content. It is about sharing your content to your target audience in a way that helps you to display your expertise and engage them. An effective approach is to start with a plan and then to create content pieces that fit this plan. The quality has to be high and engaging and this is where copywriting plays a key role.

How about you? How are you using content marketing and effective copywriting on your site or within your blog to build more traffic, and to convert that traffic into loyal readers and customers? It is an essential question.

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