I had a 1 to 1 meeting over a coffee last week with a new contact I’d made through networking. She told me how much she’d struggled with the content on her website.
When I dug into it with her, the thing she’d struggled with was the copy.
It’s hard talking about yourself in your business. I can certainly relate to this, having just completed the copy for my own new Learn To Love Your Words website!
The purpose of our copy is to sell ourselves.
Copy is a sales driven form of content.
We need to say what we do in a way that engages with our prospective customers, so we can generate leads.
It’s a tough skill to master. I admit, not one I’m accomplished at myself, which is why I’m not a copywriter.
Content contains the nutrients the Googlebot relies on to keep the internet alive.
Blogging, on the other hand, is a different type of content to copy.
Content is everything you create to tell the story of your business, and each type uses different skills, for example:
Content can be…
Videos and Audio
You need equipment and the skills to edit the material you record.
Images
You need graphic design skills, or illustration skills to create your own images or the knowhow to take, and edit, great photos (plus the equipment).
Blogging
Writing is something we can all do, but doing it well is another skill again.
Recognising that you don’t have one skill, shouldn’t put you off using other skills. Just because writing sales copy was a challenge, does not mean that blogging will be too.
Blogging and copywriting are distinct disciplines, with their own ‘rules’ and techniques.
Blogging, however, is much more forgiving for an inexperienced writer than copywriting. Because, blogging is something you do frequently and, let’s be honest, when you first start blogging, the chances are, not many people will see your efforts. You’re not yet established as an authority, through your blogs, and the lack of volume of content will make your blog less appetizing for the Googlebot.
Your copy, however, is the first thing people read when they land on your homepage and want to understand the products or services you provide.
The ‘calls to action’ (where they go next) on your blogs will link back to your copy.
“The blog might bring people into your world, but your copy will convert them into paying customers!”
Blogging is a far more creative process. You can explore ideas, experiment, be a bit controversial, tell a story, be informal, be funny… be whatever helps your audience get to know you over time, get to like you, then get to trust you enough to follow the links that take them to your copy, to hand over their hard earned cash!
Educate, Entertain and Inform
I really struggled to write the copy for my website, agonised over it.
I get it.
But when it comes to content, in other words, sharing knowledge, expertise, passion and stories – especially through blogging, I’m never short of ideas!
Copy is sales driven content. Copy is where you explain what something is and move people further down the path to a sale. It’s static. It focusses on ‘what’ you do.
Content, generally, serves the purpose of educating, entertaining and informing people and a blog is a powerful and consistent way to share a chapter in the story of your business, week by week, month by month, year by year.
It focuses on ‘why’ you do what you do. On the benefits. The story. Your passion and your creativity. It’s fluid, constantly updating and changing through a linear narrative (on your blogs – the most recent article is first).
You can ‘edu-tain’ your audience with a blog and have a call to action that gives them something to do next, leading them to your copy.
‘Copy’ is a ‘type of content’ but is distinctive in its own right and takes a very different skillset – more of a marketeers’ skillset – to write than a blog.
I’m a storyteller, a weaver of words, with a background in training and empowering others. I don’t consider myself to be a ‘marketeer’, that’s why my work is about mentoring businesses to write content (blogs and books in particular) and not ‘copy’.
In essence the difference between ‘copy’ and ‘content’ is:
“To sell products and convince people to convert. Why write a blog post? Often, to educate an audience.”
I took this quote from this blog…
https://www.skyword.com/contentstandard/storytelling/copy-vs-content-writing-whats-the-difference/
So, what are you waiting for?
Don’t be put off by the challenge of copywriting. Learn to love your words and embrace the joy and creativity of blogging. Grow your confidence and writing skills. Tell your story.
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