Not all business writing is the same. Some types of texts are best created by people within the company, for the sake of accuracy and details. In other cases, it might be better to ask a professional to handle the writing when it comes to making the product or service as appealing as possible to the audience. This distinction is especially apparent in the fields of copywriting and content writing.
What is content writing?
At the dawn of marketing writing, copywriting was essentially the only game in town for building texts meant to attract consumers. The pre-Internet era was also the era of ad agencies, which dealt with all the writing stuff. Then came the Internet and with it, the concept of branding through content.
Content writing is the practice of creating the texts for blogs, white papers, e-books, and other kinds of information-oriented marketing efforts. The goal of content writing is to establish the author and their organization as experts in their field as a means of branding. The connection of informative and interesting content with a certain website, subject, or personality can give a brand mind share when it’s time for a consumer or business to make a purchase.
Great content writing can be a huge advantage for an organization. According to this study, it costs 62% less than traditional marketing but generates about three times as many leads. Content is also the most important factor for a search engine-friendly website, so having a blog that includes important search terms only benefits your ranking.
Speaking of which, an effective content writer should still be aware of important principles whenever they post something new. That includes proper keyword insertion, the inclusion of external and internal links, and the correct use of images.
What is copywriting?
Copywriting creates the text that we read in ads, product descriptions, video descriptions, social media posts for businesses, and landing pages. Copywriting is used to build a headline – which is a make or break selling point – and supporting texts in the paragraphs that follow it. Copywriting is responsible for the slogans, taglines, product information, and key selling points that are vital for persuading a customer to make a purchase.
In other words, copywriting has a short-term conversion objective. It wants you to buy something now. In comparison, content writing seeks to convince you that the brand behind the blog or white paper is trustworthy, so you should buy from it the next time you need their product.
Central to high-quality copywriting is “wordsmithing.” A consumer buys something according to a number of factors, and that includes emotion. Even a busy office manager going through an online hunt for a new supplier will be attracted to a funny headline or a compelling product description. It takes a certain amount of writing talent to create the text that evokes an emotional response from the reader.
The skills behind copywriting vs. content writing
Content writing is all about information. Although being able to write clearly is essential to this task, style is usually not an issue (that said, there are some business bloggers out there who are really entertaining). Instead, authority concerning the topic at-hand, the ability to provide practical advice, and ahead-of-their-time ideas are what makes for great content.
On the other hand, copywriting is very much about style. Not everybody can come up with something on the level of “Just Do It.” Behind many successful marketing campaigns is a great copywriter, and behind a great copywriter are experience, top-notch copywriting skills, and in-depth knowledge of the audience, the product, the market, and other variables.
For these reasons, many companies have good writers on staff, but they often lump the copywriting duties on top of all of the other tasks that the marketing department is responsible for. Plus, with today’s plethora of marketing channels, those copywriters are extremely busy. They need to cover multiple platforms like LinkedIn, Twitter, and YouTube while keeping track of all of the various rules and best practices that these channels require. It’s a complicated job.
In short, it might be said that copywriters can be content writers, but not necessarily vice versa.
Put Anyword to work for quality copywriting
As discussed, writing copy that converts partly relies on the proper use of emotion and related style elements like power words and action language. But how does the copywriter know which words and what language will be most effective for their particular audience?
Answer: if you are using Anyword’s AI writer, you don’t need to think about it; instead, artificial intelligence will do this thinking for you.
Anyword possesses a big data collection that records the conversion rates of advertising spots that are worth more than $250 million. With AI, Anyword analyzes this ad inventory to understand the copywriting nuances that appeal to certain audiences.
When you begin an Anyword copywriting project, you input certain basic information about your product and industry. With this data, and its AI analysis, Anyword’s AI writer will build multiple versions of copy according to what appeals to your audience. The result is ad texts that are primed to convert the audience; Anyword even provides a predictive performance score to tell you which version is best.
The Anyword platform can create ads, product descriptions, landing pages and more for all of the main social media apps and websites. It allows the insertion of keywords and a choice of writing styles such as ‘hard hitting’, AIDA, and ‘6th grader’, among others. The technology will synthesize the all-important headline along with the paragraphs that expand upon it.
Anyword can even automate the posting and optimization of your ads, and mimic the subtle style elements of any copy that you choose. From your end, it’s all done with just a few lines of text and a few clicks of the mouse. Anyword lets you save time for more content writing and leverage your expertise to create blog posts that build your brand.
See the magic of the market’s leading AI copywriting platform with a 7-day free trial. You’ll gain access to features that illustrate Anyword’s powerful technology and start you on the path to enjoying high performance, hands-free copywriting.
What is Copywriting – FAQ
What are the main types of copywriting?
As we mentioned before, copywriting is writing copy that aims to convince a person to take a specific action. What is this action and how do we write copy persuasive enough to inspire said action? Well, that all depends on the type of copywriting you’re doing. Let’s take a look at some of the most common forms of copywriting.
Social Media Copywriting
Copywriting existed mostly for print purposes, but in this digital age, the art of writing persuasive copy has moved off of the page and onto our screens. And thus, social media copywriting was born. Companies hire social media copywriters to convey their specific brand message across all of their social presences. Yes, it’s still all advertising — except now social media copywriters use CTA buttons and hashtags to their advantage.
SEO Copywriting
Nowadays, strong search engine optimization is the name of the game for any commerce shop owner or publisher looking to get high-quality traffic. So, that’s where SEO copywriting comes in. SEO copywriting is all about using specific keywords in your content to improve its ranking in Google.
Brand Copywriting
Just like companies use specific design elements like fonts, colors, and imagery to tell their brand story, the same goes for a brand’s tone and style. Strong brand copy creates a seamless tone that stretches across all messaging and content.
Direct Response Copywriting
Sometimes your copy needs an extra little push. Rather than telling an overarching story, direct response copywriting focuses on the here and now — telling the customer or user exactly what to do. Additionally, direct response copywriting and call-to-actions tend to go hand-in-hand.
Email Copywriting
Writing an effective marketing email may seem like a simple task, but in reality, it takes a lot of copywriting strategy. Email copywriting focuses on first, getting people to click and open the email, and second, encouraging conversions. Whether it’s a sale on clothes or signing up for an upgrade, email copywriting must be clear and direct — making it obvious what action users need to take.
Ad Copywriting
What is seen as the bread and butter of copywriting, writing copy for ads might look a little different these days. However, it still holds the main core values. Ad copywriters produce clear, engaging copy for a plethora of advertising channels — social ads, websites, print catalogs or billboards, and much more. Ads can come in all shapes and sizes (and on a variety of platforms) these days, so an ad copywriter must be able to pivot as needed.
Product Description Copywriting
What is a product description? It’s a piece of text that informs the potential buyer about all of the different details and benefits about your product or service. It’s the job of the copywriter to accurately and effectively describe the product in a way that would best motivate people to convert. Product description copywriting can be in the form of bulleted lists, short paragraphs, or even longer taglines.
What is a Copywriter?
Sure, we can say a copywriter is the person doing the actual copywriting and call it a day, but it’s actually a bit more complicated than that. Yes, it is all about writing, but great writers don’t necessarily make great copywriters. It’s the job of a copywriter to craft effective, persuasive and concise copy that easily captures the attention of the desired audience and encourages them to take action.
It might sound easy, but in practice, it takes a lot of skill and strategy. What kinds of skills? Let’s get into that next.
What Skills Does a Copywriter Need?
Great copywriters will give their audience something to remember. Not only does a copywriter need to be a strong writer at their core, they also need to have an eye for what will resonate with different customers. A strong copywriter should have the following copywriting skills:
- Write clear, concise, and persuasive copy without sacrificing any value or context (less is more, as they say.)
- Have a clear understanding of the desired audience and be able to pivot tone and style accordingly.
- Understand how and when to use strong call-to-actions.
- Write in a way that is best-optimized for SEO purposes when necessary.
- Have a strong understanding of sentence structure and different grammar styles.
What are the Main Copywriting Formulas?
PAS (Pain, Agitate, Solution)
The PAS formula involves three main points:
- Lay out a problem the audience may have.
- Make that problem even more emotional.
- Provide a solution (hint: it’s your product or service.)
What does this look like in practice? Here’s an example Anyword’s AI Copywriting Platform generated for a coffee brand:
FAB (Features, Advantages, Benefits)
The Features, Advantages, Benefits formula (or FAB) does exactly what you would expect. With this tactic, copywriters lay out the features, advantages, and benefits of a specific product or service, and describe how those three work together to beat out the competition. For example, here’s a bulleted product description that could fall under the FAB formula:
AIDA (Attention, Interest, Desire, Action)
Using the AIDA copywriting formula requires the following tactics:
- Attention – Attract the attention of the user or customer. (Put simply: stand out!)
- Interest – Pique their interest by describing features and benefits.
- Desire – Make the customer believe the product will satisfy their needs / make their life easier.
- Action – Give the customer a strong CTA or action for them to take.
What Are Some Call-To-Action Best Practices?
Now that we know what a copywriter does and how important CTAs are, it’s time to cover some key CTA rules of thumb to keep in mind before putting pen to paper (or fingers to keys.) Here are some important CTA best practices to follow:
- Keep it short and sweet
- Create urgency and FOMO
- Personalize it
- Focus on one CTA, not several
- Always keep design in mind
If you need a more in-depth information check these best call to action examples.
How Can Copywriting Boost Sales and Conversion?
So we know what copywriting is and how to do it properly. But what effect does it actually have on marketers? With strong action verbs, concise messaging, and effective CTAs, copywriting can be the main driving force behind your audience completing whatever action you wish them to take. Quality copywriting strategies are built for quick-turnaround conversions. It should be compelling, action-inspiring, and emotionally-charged — all things that are big drivers of more sales and higher conversions.
