If you work in the world of advertising and marketing, it is important to understand the role of copywriting. Often, the words ‘copywriting’ and ‘marketing’ are used interchangeably, which can make the distinction a little confusing.

This article is here to explain to you what the difference between the two actually is and, more importantly, why copywriting is such an essential skill in marketing and advertising.

What’s the difference?

Content marketing means writing pieces that have the purpose of marketing. Copywriting, however, is written with the intent of making the reader take action. It’s used more for direct campaigns and infomercials, or sales pages.

Yes, there is quite a bit of overlap between the two, especially when it comes to marketing. Ideally, you should really be incorporating copywriting (calling readers to purchase, subscribe to mailing lists, or signing up to receive content) into your content marketing.

To summarise, there used to be a wider gap between the two, but now it is essential that you combine both copywriting and content marketing to really maximise your success.

The most important aspects of copy

Writing copy that works is a fairly easy process once you get the hand of it. There are several factors that you should include in your pieces to make sure that its effective copy:

• Headlines that encourage a high click-through rate (CTR)
• Content that offers something to the reader
• Content that builds trust, brand identity, and eventually leads to brand loyalty
• Text that gains positive social attention
• Content with a clear call to action (CTA)

These are the key things to include in your marketing material to ensure that you get a high success rate; these will ensure that your readers take action.

Why copywriting is essential

More specifically, good, copywriting is absolutely essential if you want to run a successful campaign. There are many reasons why it is a very important part of the marketing process; let’s take a look at some below.