Copywriting Vs. Blogging — What’s The Difference?
Wait — Is there a difference between copywriting and blogging? If you're wondering about this, you're not the only one. And while both require exceptional communication skills, there is a subtle difference between the two types of writing.
Does this difference matter?
It does if you're planning to hire a writer for your content marketing strategy or need landing pages to convert visitors on your website.
Here’s the main difference…
Copywriting primarily focuses on directing a specific action from the readers with a sense of urgency. Blogging, on the other hand, is a long game strategy. Its purpose is to build a brand's credibility in their area of expertise with rich, long-form content.
Copywriting and blogging aim to get on Google's good side and deliver value to your audience. We'll dive into the differences in these writing styles, show examples of each, and highlight the skills needed for each to make the best use of copywriting and blogging strategies.
Here’s the gist of the article:
What Exactly Is Copywriting?
The best way to understand copywriting is to point out examples of it — Here's a quick hint: it's everywhere.
Whether you realize it or not, we're exposed to copywriting virtually everywhere we look. It's the instructions on your shampoo bottle, the catchphrase from your popular fast-food restaurant, the emails from your favourite brands in your inbox, and the product description on that Amazon product in your cart.
What you're reading in copy is essentially the brand's voice.
Good copywriters tell the brand's story without you realizing it's selling something to you. It's usually selling a lifestyle or offering a solution to your problems.
Let’s take a look at this copy from Apple.
“iPad Pro — Your next computer is not a computer.”
What does this snippet tell us?
The iPad pro revolutionizes what we think tablets are capable of
The versatility of an entertainment machine and power of a computer all in one
Focuses more on productivity capabilities rather than the entertainment aspect of a tablet
All of that conveyed in six words.
Good copy speaks directly to your needs and makes you feel like you’re part of something while offering a convenient solution to your problem.
The goal of copywriting is to activate the reader to take action.
In this example, the call to action is to either buy the product or learn more about the iPad Pro’s capabilities (which will further entice you to buy).
4 Skills Every Copywriter Should Have
1. Detailed & Organized Researcher
Research is the foundation of compelling copy.
Before sitting down to write, you need to consider:
Who is this for?
What is being offered?
What makes our offer stand out amongst the competition?
You only have a limited amount of time to draw your audience's attention. Skilled copywriters understand who their audience is and what to say to grab their attention.
What does the research look like?
Customer profiles
Conducting customer surveys/interviews
Analytics from previous ads, emails, social media posts
What competitors are offering and what language they use
Product/Service specs and features
Frequently asked questions collected from emails, Tweets, direct messages, webinars, comments.
2.Understand The Art Of Sales
Copywriters are skilled in the art of emotional persuasion, prompting the reader to take direct action. Understanding how people think is critical to selling any product or service.
We’ve all encountered a pushy salesperson, and how uncomfortable that interaction was. What exactly was it that turned us off of their pitch?
While we might not be able to put our finger on it at the time, but it was likely the lack of genuine connection or any real interest in our problem.
The art of sales is about nurturing a relationship, establishing trust, and offering solutions to the potential buyer’s anxieties or problems without coming across too strong.
What does this look like in copywriting?
It’s using a voice that’s friendly, trustworthy, and genuine.
3. They're Compelling Storytellers
The human mind naturally gravitates to stories. From the earliest records of written language, we find epics of heroes, cautionary folklore, and magical fairy tales.
What does this tell us about our affinity for stories?
Dr. Uri Hasson, a psychology researcher at Princeton University, led an experiment observing brain activities in subjects listening and telling stories. The researchers found that the storyteller’s active neuron patterns were mirrored in the listener’s mind in a phenomenon called neural coupling [1].
In other words, storytelling effectively synchronizes the listener and the speaker’s brains.
What can we learn from this study?
Good storytelling commands our mind’s attention and emotionally connects us to the speaker. This bond to stories builds trust, compassion, and strengthens our relationship with the storyteller.
4.Write Succinctly & Clearly
It’s safe to say that any writer should have an excellent command of their language. However, there is a certain Je ne sais quois that makes an exceptional writer stand out.
Shakespeare summed up this point with these five words, “Brevity is the soul of wit.” The essence of a brilliant statement lies in concise wording and delivery.
You’ll notice that most copywriting is short, yet delivers quite a punch. Every word is carefully selected. Copywriters write clear and compact messages, making the best use of their audience’s short attention span.
How Can A Copywriter Help You With Your Business?
Entrepreneurs are used to wearing many hats in their business, and unless you're a copywriter yourself, I don't recommend writing your own copy.
You don't want to miss out on money on the table because of a lack of persuasive communication skills. That being said, copywriters are expensive because their work directly affects the number of sales you make online.
Copywriting is an essential component of your business because it helps you achieve your business goals by selling your product or service without you having to pick up a phone and directly make a sales call. Unlike an hourly paid salesperson in your store, compelling pieces of copy yields a much higher investment return.
Well, now that you understand the value of copywriting, you may be wondering, "do I really need a blog too?"
Maybe — but it entirely depends on your business goals and what you hope to gain from blogging.
What Are The Benefits Of Blogging For Your Business?
I’m not going to get too deep into what blogging is, because, in 2020, nearly everyone and every brand on the internet has a blog.
It’s essentially a series of long-form written articles intended to educate an audience on a specific niche. What you are reading right now is a blog post.
Let’s jump into some of the highlights blogging can bring to your business.
1. Get Organic Traffic To Your Website
While having a blog isn't itself enough to get your website on Google's number one page, blogging can be an excellent search engine optimization strategy.
Search engine crawlers are always scanning webpages to determine its relevance to what people are searching for. It's what makes Google such a powerful tool for sales and marketing.
These crawlers are scanning for several things on your webpages, including:
How regularly your site is updated
Specific keywords relevant to user searches
Structure of the webpage (accessibility)
The length of time visitors stay on your page (value of your content)
Other websites linking back to your website (known as back-linking)
These factors play into how search engines categorize your webpage and deem it as valuable to users. If you lack a blog, you may be missing out on opportunities to get found organically (without ads) by your audience.
2. Blogging Can Increase Your Domain's Monetary Value
When you first set up your website, buying a domain name, have you ever considered why a specific domain costs more than others?
www.carinsurance.com is the most expensive domain publicly reported, and it’s worth $47.9 million.
Part of it is in the name itself — branding and memorability are essential. Still, other factors that add value to a domain can include the popularity of a niche, the age of the domain, and the visitor traffic (SEO).
How much visitor traffic your website can garner organically as a result of your blogging (and other SEO) efforts will be a more desirable aspect of your domain value over the paid ad traffic it brings in.
Building and selling a blog is no easy feat — but when done successfully, the return on investment may be quite high.
3. Opens Up Another Potential Stream Of Income
When you’ve built an established blog, the world of affiliate marketing opens up to you.
This is where you can recommend another product or service your audience (who now trusts your advice), and you will receive a kick-back if your reader uses a link on your website to purchase your recommendation.
Affiliate sales are tracked with a unique link and web cookies. If your audience is introduced to the product/service from your blog and proceeds to buy from your recommendation, you can passively earn income for as long as your blog post and partnership remains.
4. Establishes Authority In Your Niche
Regularly publishing quality content to your blog turns casual readers into a loyal audience. You’ll become top-of-mind when it comes to serving your customers, and they’ll be willing to buy into your products/services and recommendations because you continue to build your reputation and nurture your relationship with your reader.
Your blog is the opportunity to establish your authority in your field on the web — the type of content you produce and how often you produce it can be a determining factor in converting readers into buyers for your future products and or services.
Skills Every Content Writer Should Have
Here's another subtle difference between copywriting and blogging — the skillset.
Because blogging tends to be more specialized in the niche you work in, you won't find many conversion copywriters who also write blog posts.
For example, a copywriter may not be fully equipped to write a 2000-word article on CBD oil's benefits, as it requires a different set of research and background knowledge.
However, you'll find many bloggers also make excellent copywriters because many of the principles in storytelling, brevity, and research skills can apply to conversion copy.
Here are a few other things to consider when hiring a writer for your blog:
Knowledgable in your niche (ask for a writing portfolio)
Ability to adapt or develop a brand voice
Have basic SEO knowledge
Deliver polished (edited) articles before submitting content to the editor
They should be able to produce references that have informed the article
Understand your product and service
You're the expert when it comes to your brand, product, or service. And when you're bootstrapping a business, it may make sense to start your blog on your own if you enjoy writing and can manage to produce content consistently.
However, like many entrepreneurs, writing is another 'hat' to juggle that you may not be willing to take on.
Whether you DIY your blog or hire a writer, it's worth the investment to hire a professional SEO editor to optimize your written content to make the most out of your hard work.
To Sum Up: What’s The Difference Between Copywriting And Blogging?
Both copywriting and blogging are your brand voice throughout your online presence. They deliver your story, ideals, and offers solutions directly to your audience.
The biggest difference between the two is the type of content produced and the goal of the writing.
Copywriting tends to be shorter and directs immediate action. It’s usually in the form of email sequences, social media captions, product descriptions, landing pages, and ads.
Content writing or blogging tends to be long-form articles that educates or entertains the reader. The goal of content writing is to provide free valuable information/entertainment to build trust and establish authority in the niche.
We've outlined the skills you may be looking for in both copywriters and content writers. Learning this difference matters to both writers looking to establish themselves in the online space and entrepreneurs looking to hire writers for their business.
If you need someone to lend a hand with content writing or you want an extra set of eyes before you hit publish on your post, ping me an email and let’s have a chat.