 Welcome back to Writing Wednesdays, where I share content around helping you become a better writer and copywriter online. In today's video, we're going to talk about something pretty important content writing versus copywriting and the three major differences between the two. Now, they're not the same, but it's often mistaken. And if you want to get hired as a writer, or if you want to become better and more effective as a writer, it's important to know the differences between content writing and copywriting. Now, first, before you begin, before I talk about these three major differences, I want to say that each of these are important as part of a longer term strategy. I'm not saying that one is more important than the other. Both are very important as part of an overall marketing and customer acquisition strategy. So with that being said, let's hop into the differences now. So the first major difference comes with the goal or the purpose of copywriting versus content writing. So let's talk first about copywriting. What is the main goal or purpose of copywriting? Well, it's to get a conversion, right? Either to get a conversion or to increase conversion rates. So what is a conversion? It could be an opt-in for a webinar or for a lead magnet. It could be to buy a certain product or sign up for a certain service. It could be to sign up for a free trial. It could be to book a call. Those are all examples of direct actions or conversions. And that is the main goal of copywriting is to get some kind of conversion. So it's very result focused. Now, what about content writing? How is that different from copywriting? What is the goal and purpose of that? Well, the main goal of content writing is to increase engagement and to build trust and brand equity. So when you think of content writing, a lot of it is going to be written and text posts and audio and video posts on social media. A lot of these posts, they don't really have a direct call to action or they don't have a direct action that they're shooting for. But they're posting content consistently to build the bond with the market and to move them closer and closer to a sale. So the goal again, copywriting is more direct action focus. We want them to opt in. We want them to purchase something to sign up for a webinar, to book a call. We want them to do a very specific action when we're doing copywriting with content writing. We are just putting out content to the market where we're sharing value and we're building that bond. We're building that relationship with our potential customers and with the people in our market. So that is the main differences between the goal of copywriting versus content writing. Another way I like to look at it is copywriting is salesmanship multiplied and content writing is trust building multiplied. So with copywriting, we're trying to multiply how many sales we get through our writing and content writing, we're trying to multiply the amount of trust that we can build through content writing. So that's the main goal. That's major difference. Number one is there's a big difference between the goal with copywriting versus content writing. Now the second major difference is the flow. So with copywriting, copywriting is very direct. It's very focused. It's very action driven. So it's punchier. It's shorter. It's to the point and the only goal of the copy is to get someone to take a specific action with us. So the flow is a lot more direct. It's a lot more to the point. Sometimes there are stories in it, but it's more focused on getting that specific action, whether it's an opt-in, whether it's a sale, whether it's to book a call or whatever it is. Now what about content writing? How is the flow different for content writing versus copywriting? Well, it's typically a lot more informative or you're teaching something, you're sharing value. It's more creative and it's a lot more shareable. So when you see a viral post on social media, typically that skews more towards the content writing side. Now, here's the thing. You can have both copywriting and content writing elements in the same writing piece. So let's say that you are sharing a story on social media or you're talking about something that happened to you or a transformation and at the end of that story, you tell someone, by the way, if you want to improve your life and take the same product that helped me, go here and you can buy the product here. So that's an example. You might be sharing a story about a transformation you had in your life. Maybe you lost a bunch of weight and at the end of that, you tell somebody about the supplement that you took or the diet that you went on and you tell them that they can start that diet or get that product by clicking on a link and going over to buy the product. So there are certain writing pieces that can have both copywriting and content writing in it. It's not always one versus the other and you can infuse both of those into one writing piece. Now, my personal take on this is it's always good to have a mix of both. What I like to do, if you guys are on my email list, you've probably seen this all the time, I like to provide content, I like to deliver value and at the end of that, I will ask someone to take a specific action. So for example, I might be talking about why it's so important to learn the skill of writing emails that sell and I talk about the reasons why, talk about how you can learn to do that and at the end of that email, I might say, Hey, by the way, if you want to learn this skill, if you want to learn my formula for writing emails better, check out my product that I have here that helps you do that. So I like to mix it. I like to have 70 80% content where I'm sharing value. And at the end of that, have a link to if someone wants to take the next step with me or they want a product to help them move faster, they can do that. So I'm always making invitations. I'm always mixing both content writing and copywriting into one. Now you don't have to make offers every day like I do. If you don't feel comfortable doing it, no need to do it. But for me personally, I like to lead with content, having 80% content in my emails or social posts. And at the end of that, always having an invitation ready for people who are ready to take that next step for people who want to move faster or get results quicker. There's a product or service waiting for them that I can help them with. So that's my style. You don't have to do that. But as the pros that copy blogger like to say, copywriting without content is a waste of good copy and content without copywriting is a waste of good content. And I think that's put perfectly. So I like to infuse both of those even though the flow is different. I think that it's good to lead with content and then end with copy where you're telling someone to take a specific action after reading your content. Now let's talk about the third major difference. And that is the result, the end result of copywriting versus content writing with copywriting. The end result is it's simple. It's a conversion, right? A sale or opt-in where someone opted in for a lead magnet or a webinar or a book to call. So it's either a sale or it's an opt-in. It's a very specific action and it's conversion focused. So content writing on the other hand, it's a little harder to measure. So you're building up that trust, you're building up rapport with your audience. And the only way to really measure that, it's not always easy to measure that, but engagement, right? So likes, comments, shares, views, impressions, those will tell you how many people are resonating with your message and how many people are agreeing with what you've got to say by liking, commenting, sharing and engaging with your posts. So copywriting, more conversion focused. You're looking at sales, you're looking at how many leads came in, how many opt-ins. With content writing, you're looking more at engagement, how many likes, shares, views, impressions do you have on your specific posts, on your emails or whatever platform or format that you're using. Now, like I keep saying throughout this video, you need both content writing and copywriting. Both are important and both are a part of an overall longer term strategy for marketing, for sales, for customer acquisition. And Travis Ago, a brilliant marketer, he always uses the analogy of golfing. So the way that I want you to think about it is imagine you have a 30 foot putt, a long putt to make if you don't golf, if you don't know what I mean. Content writing is like getting the ball as close to the hole as possible and copywriting is tapping the ball into the hole and finally making that putt. Okay. So content writing gets the ball close to the hole as possible and copywriting is just knocking the ball in. So if you don't do any copywriting or if you don't do any content writing, the ball is far from the hole. It's a lot harder to sink that putt. If you have a good content writing strategy in place, that ball is a lot closer to the hole. It's a lot easier to get the sale or to get the deal closed or get that client or customer. Okay. So both, again, both of these are important. Content writing gets the person closer and closer to a sale and copywriting closes the deal, closes that sale. So if you guys enjoyed this, give me a like, give me a thumbs up or whatever that is. I think it helps the algorithm. I don't really know. Everyone says it does. So please like it if you do. If you enjoy this, got value out of it. And also next week, I'm going to talk about how to escape. If you work a nine to five job, how you can go from working in that job to actually doing freelance writing full time in 2021, either as a content writer or a copywriter, having a full time writing business that replaces your day job. Next week, I'm going to talk about that. And this is geared towards complete beginners. So I'm going to give you step by step, how to go from working in a job to actually using writing to grow your business, start off freelancing and move more into full time entrepreneurship as a writer. So if you're interested in that, make sure you stay tuned and watch next week's writing Wednesdays. It's going to be a longer video, but super valuable. Looking forward to sharing that with you guys real soon. So I'll see you next week. Take care.