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Content or Copy: Ignore the Difference at Your Own Risk

August 9, 2006 by Liz Leave a Comment

The Pigeons and the Preacher?

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When we were first married, my husband I were walking through a city park. The lawn was filled with pigeons. He voiced the most unusual thought. “Why are pigeons always the same size?” he said. “What if they are all baby pigeons and a great mother pigeon lives up on the roof of one of those buildings?”

Shortly thereafter we passed a young man in scruffy clothes who told us that the world was ending. He asked us to change the way we were living. He offered us the reasons and joys of how living his way would make our lives wonderful and give us peace forever. I wondered whether he’d heard the conversation about the pigeons.

If the two messages had been written as text–one would be content; the other would be copy.

Do know see the difference? I don’t mean to hold you hostage. But ignore the difference at your own risk.

[Note: I’m using the most traditional definitions of writer and copywriter for this article.]

Content and Copy

In the olden days, it was easy. It still is in print world silos. Product folks live in one end of a bulding far from marketing, sales, and advertising, who live in the distant reaches of the other end. The two are allowed to talk every third Thursday in a visitor’s room with a guard watching over them. That way content and copy don’t get crossed or cover the same subject in anywhere near the same way.

Now we have the blogosphere. The publisher is writer and marketer of the same business. We refer to all text as content, but really it’s not, not in the traditional sense — much of it is copy. The rules for writing content and copy are different. The major difference is purpose. It shows itself in subtle nuances. What it comes down to is this.

Content — Writing to Tell

    1. Technically speaking, content is text written to inform, argue, or entertain about lasting topics. A writer knows how to present a topic in ways that readers understand it.
    2. Traditionally content was meant to last and made in the form of books, journals, magazines, and white papers.
    3. Content takes itself seriously, even when it’s being funny.
    4. In content personality, authenticity, and credibility count. The writing is about the writer’s voice and a relationship with the audience. Words such as I, me, and we are used artfully to establish the audience as positive and equal. Bad examples are stated with I, and great examples are stated with you or we.
    5. Content is a presentation of thoughts and ideas that might illicitit opinions or further information via discussion. That is the purpose.
    6. Effective content connects with readers, gets them thinking, or leaves them with a satisfying feeling of having read something that affects or affirms their world view.

Copy — Writing that Sells

    1. Using the same technical viewpoint, copy is text written to sell, market, promote, raise awareness, or advertise. A copywriter knows how to position and sell the benefits of a product or service.
    2. Copy is meant to last in the mind of the audience.
    3. Copy takes the product and the brand seriously even when it presents it as adding fun to the life or lifestyle of the user.
    4. In copywriting credibility and authenticity count. Personality of the writer is distracting. Copywriting is about the relationship between the customer and the benefits of the product and the company that provides it. When a copywriter is persuading an audience to buy, you is the only pronoun necessary. I, me, and we don’t belong. Customers don’t care about the writer. They care about benefits — what the product does for them. Therefore, because becomes implicitly necessary if not outright explicit.
    5. Copy is intended to move an audience to do or buy something. That is its purpose. Therefore, a call to action — a buy now, do this, click here — needs to be there.
    6. Effective copy entices readers, points out their needs and desires, or leaves them wanting to improve their lives with a help from where the writer sends them.

Knowing the difference between the content and copy is critical for today’s online business writer. To be considered a thought leader, we need to understand how to present solid, informative content without an offputting sales pitch. We need to weave in well-written benefits of doing business without selling so hard as to “buy it back.”

The Risk of Not Knowing

Readers can tell whether we’re flexible in writing both content and copy. Disregard the difference and they find it confusing. Too many “yous” in the middle of a discussion makes them feel us looking down at them, when using “we” would tell them that we share the same problems.

When we can switch from a content to a soft copy voice, readers are happy to go along with us. When we speak, we change voice and approach without thinking, based on the purpose of our conversation. That’s really what changing from content writing to copywriting is. The key is knowing when you are doing it.

The pigeon conversation was imaginative content. The preacher was offering sales copy. Knowing is understanding the relationship of the conversation that is happening.

Copy or content. Two ways to talk or write clearly. Capisce?

–ME “Liz” Strauss

Related Article
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Flow: Zen and the Art of Having Fun Writing
6+1 Traits: Conventions –The 6+1 Secret Rules of Online Writing

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Filed Under: Content, Personal Branding, Successful Blog, Writing Tagged With: bc, blog-promotion, copywriting, personal-branding, Power-Writing-for-Everyone, quality_content, relevant-content

Comments

  1. Brian Clark says

    August 9, 2006 at 9:13 AM

    Looks like we’re running on parallel tracks on this topic. 🙂

    Reply
  2. Jason Manheim says

    August 9, 2006 at 9:42 AM

    So basically as bloggers we need to focus on “Contepy”. Geez, just when I thought I had content down. 🙂

    *after-thought *
    Contepy sounds like a foreigner trying to express his/her urinary problems…doesn’t it?

    Reply
  3. ME Strauss says

    August 9, 2006 at 9:53 AM

    Hi Brian,
    Yeah, I was just over to see what you were saying about content. I think were all bored with the lack of quality content on some sites we’re seeing. 🙂

    Reply
  4. ME Strauss says

    August 9, 2006 at 9:54 AM

    Hi Jason,
    Oh I’m betting you’re doing fine if you know put the two words together. I like that. 🙂

    Reply
  5. Chris Cree says

    August 9, 2006 at 10:36 AM

    I guess I’m more of a content man than a copy guy then. Although I have had some fun with a couple off recent topic headline experiments.

    It amazes me that they are by far the most viewed posts. Even several days later.

    Maybe I should start another blog with a more copywriting focus…

    Reply
  6. ME Strauss says

    August 9, 2006 at 10:40 AM

    Hi Chris,
    Or maybe you should just use your copywriting skills to write the headlines for your content pieces. 🙂

    Reply
  7. Chris Cree says

    August 9, 2006 at 10:44 AM

    I’ve been working on improving in that department. However I seem to attract far fewer folks when I stay focused in my niche (regardless of headline quality) than when I drift of into other arenas, like say tech (again regardless of headline quality).

    I think I still have to learn a bunch. But in the mean time it is frustrating.

    Reply
  8. Advice Librarian says

    August 9, 2006 at 11:02 AM

    Yeah. Like, you’re in the wrong niche. Identify which “off-topic” posts get you the most attention, and start a second blog about that.

    Most of the big earners, the middleweights, and even us featherweight amateurs have more than one project on the theory that “you never know until you try”, and “well, this doesn’t fit in with my current niche, but from the attention it’s getting I think there’s something there to work with”.

    So take a flier on a wordpress-hosted free blog or two with a different niche topic than your main one, and see what happens?

    Reply
  9. Chris Cree says

    August 9, 2006 at 11:15 AM

    AdLib, I’m going to think through my time commitments first. My current stint helping out with Where is Basil? seems to indicate that two’s my limit, so to speak. At least from a time perspective.

    Of course you seem to not need any sleep. No wonder you can keep up with all your projects! 😉

    The purpose behind my blog has never been to make money but to learn the discipline of writing regularly and the ins and outs of blogging. It is my training ground before I branch out. (Of course some might wonder how much training a fella needs…)

    I’ve got some ideas kicking around, but I’m not ready to launch any of them yet. And having just made the switch from Blogger to my own domain recently, I’m not wanting to get myself into a place where I have to switch domains again one day.

    Reply
  10. Advice Librarian says

    August 9, 2006 at 11:28 AM

    Well, yes – being mildly insomniac helps a lot since it frees up a lot of otherwise “wasted” time, but in some respects there are also tiers of projects – as in “this is the main one, office hours are from 8:30-16:00, lunch is catch-as-catch-can”, “This is what I fiddle with in my lunch break”, “this is what I do when my creativity on the main thing has hit a wall”, and “well, guy’s got to have a hobby, right?”

    Right now I’m working my way through some old Stephen Brust books for my “Older SF&Fantasy that you might like” side project on account of needing to read some popcorn literature with the depressing state of the world affairs. Though Lieberman losing to Lamont was a bright spot in my day, I don’t mind telling you 🙂

    I’m not a big fan of Joe “I don’t like fun music, movies, books or video games – I’m anti-fun” Lieberman…

    Reply
  11. ME Strauss says

    August 9, 2006 at 12:27 PM

    HI sorry,
    My son is home.
    It always takes awhile to build to your true readership, and those false spikes happen to everyone. They even hold over for two or three days and make it even more irritating, . . . or tempting to try for another.

    But that’s just one more way to get sucked into your stats, isn’t it?

    Know that having two blogs is two posts and two ideas. One blog always seems to get the good ones and one blog always seems to be second best. Someone told me that and it’s not far from the truth. You have to be truly sure you know what two blogs are about then.

    The first blog still won’t have an identity.

    Reply
  12. Rico says

    August 9, 2006 at 1:26 PM

    OMG, this is even more useful than the your recent entry on why people don’t comment. I’ve honestly never considered the distinction between “content” and “copy.” In fact, even though I’ve already accomplished freelance copywriting projects, I didn’t even know there were differences!

    I guess it is important to know when to use content, copy, or even contepy (nice word Chris). I just hope I haven’t chosen the wrong tool for my previous writings. 🙂

    Reply
  13. Rico says

    August 9, 2006 at 1:28 PM

    Sori Jason, I meant to credit you for contepy. 🙂

    Reply
  14. ME Strauss says

    August 9, 2006 at 1:31 PM

    Hey Rico,
    No worries. I hadn’t thought much about it either until very recently. Usually the two just don’t come together in the same realm and when they do they don’t mix . . . So there’s no need. The product/content folks tell the marketing/copy folks what they need to know and the rest just happens as it should.

    In fact I don’t know what got me thinking about it this couple of weeks. The irony is that Brian Clark wrote something on content too today. That’s synchronicity.

    Reply
  15. Cuileann McKenzie says

    August 9, 2006 at 3:08 PM

    Wow! Great post and great continuing conversation!

    Liz — Your article gives such a great overview of these two different types of writing. When I was doing my writing degree, I took a copywriting course which was very “how to” and didn’t really give a wide perspective of how copy differs from content. To be fair, though, I am thinking back 10 years — perhaps my memory’s faulty (or maybe I was in desperate need of coffee during that lecture)! Regardless, this is a GREAT post, Liz!

    Chris — I sympathize with your frustration. I was grumbling about the same thing to my husband just the other day. I think it’s just a fact that, for now, the blogosphere is inhabited by more tech people. And that’s cool, but the wider we can get the population out here, the better.

    For those of us seeking a more generalized readership, I think we shouldn’t change what we’re writing to chase the current demographic. If we all did that, there’d be less quality content available for a general audience, and the blogosphere would seem even more exclusionary to new, non-tech people. (At least, that’s what I tell myself when I start focusing too much on stats.)

    Reply
  16. ME Strauss says

    August 9, 2006 at 3:11 PM

    Some blogs run on content. Some blogs run on copy. Some blogs run on the strength of the voice of the blogger who writes them. All of those blogs are needed to make the blogosphere.

    We all add to the dialogue with new ideas.

    Reply
  17. Advice Librarian says

    August 9, 2006 at 3:14 PM

    It’s also a question of “write what you know”, and “What do you know that an audience will be interested in?”

    That’s why I don’t write long entries about the various layers of the OSI model for electronic communication and how it works with the current tcp/ip protocol on the advice library blog – I’m not speaking Geek to other Geeks there, so while modelling and how theoretical models compare to what we actually have is insteresting when I’m in Deep Geek mode, it’s something that would bore the pants off a general audience.

    I stick to my semi-regular musings about the various facets of writing from a self-taught amateur, and general off-topic ramblings 🙂

    Reply
  18. ME Strauss says

    August 9, 2006 at 3:15 PM

    Exactly AdLib,
    Write what you know and sell what you have. Those are always the best places to start. 🙂

    Reply
  19. Rico says

    August 9, 2006 at 3:22 PM

    As a self-professed geek myself, I think even we are turned off by overly technical writing. We’d rather read something that easy to understand, instead of gibberish full of abbreviations.

    Using abbreviations is an easy way out; the challenge for a writer deciding not to use them is coming up with new ways to present the same idea differently. Now that he can’t use TCP/IP, perhaps he can write “communication standard” or “how computers talk to each other.”

    My point is good writing will always be more challenging, since producing it pushes anyone’s creativity to the limit. 🙂

    Reply
  20. Cuileann McKenzie says

    August 9, 2006 at 3:48 PM

    Rico,
    I just read your post about Newton’s First Law applying to folks leaving comments. Great analogy!

    I like your comment here about even a “self-professed geek” getting turned off by overly technical writing. My husband’s a “geek” too, and I know sometimes he also feels that enough is enough with all the tech-talk.

    Reply
  21. Advice Librarian says

    August 9, 2006 at 3:56 PM

    Yeh, it depends on the context more than anything. When I’m reading a whitepaper, course materials, an RFC, or a settled standard, I want to read the hard technical stuff and leave off the pop culture explanation because I’m looking for a specific answer to a specific problem.

    When I’m reading for the sheer pleasure of it, to get a sense of the field, or to figure out where I should start looking for answers, I’ll take the math-light and protocol-light version first, please.

    The time to get into Deep Geek and High Engineering material is when I’ve figured out what the sensible questions are…

    Reply
  22. Chris Cree says

    August 9, 2006 at 4:21 PM

    I really have it pretty easy since attracting traffic isn’t one of my primary goals (although it is a strong secondary goal!) 🙂

    Because of that I just write what I feel I’m supposed to for that post and let the traffic fall where it may.

    It still is frustrating though when it seems the things that interest me seem to bore others to tears. Ah, well…

    Reply
  23. ME Strauss says

    August 9, 2006 at 5:07 PM

    Sorry, you guys that I’ve not been around. I’ve been grossly under the weather.

    You seem to have this conversation under control. I agree it’s all about choosing the text to match the context.

    Reply
  24. ME Strauss says

    August 9, 2006 at 5:09 PM

    Chris,
    I’m with you 100% to write where you writer’s mind takes you and the traffic will find you eventually, especially if you stay true to that goal.

    Reply
  25. Michael Stelzner says

    August 9, 2006 at 11:26 PM

    Hi ME;

    This simply an incredible article. I would like to reference it back to my blog. This really hits home in my world. White paper writers often do not know how to write copy AND they really should. White papers are really no longer about telling, but rather selling. Keep up the good work. I am glad I found you.

    Mike

    Reply
  26. ME Strauss says

    August 10, 2006 at 6:09 AM

    Hi Mike,
    Welcome!
    White papers are one of the most difficult forms of writing to do well. They need to be part how-to, part information, and part selling. The writer needs to know the subject, the audience, and and what the audience is thinking about the subject on a very deep level.

    It’s a hard combination and one few people can conquer.

    I’m delighted this article can help you out. I’m also glad you found all of us here at Successful Blog. We’re a really great crowd.

    Thank you, Mike, for your lovely words.
    You’re not a stranger anymore. You’re a friend.
    Liz

    Reply
  27. Amber Simmons says

    August 13, 2006 at 8:14 PM

    Hi Liz,

    When I first read this article, my gut response was to disagree with your distinction between content and copy. But upon further reflection, I find that it isn’t that I don’t agree with you, but that I want to kill copy on the web. I don’t want to see copy supported any longer; I want web writers to be encouraged to actually *write*.

    Two things I wanted to comment on. You write, “Copywriting is about the relationship between the customer and the benefits of the product and the company that provides it. . . . Customers don’t care about the writer. They care about benefits — what the product does for them.”

    I see where you’re going with this, but I have to disagree to a point. All writing assumes or creates a relationship between reader and writer. Customers may not care about the writer per se, but they do care about the company. If they didn’t, branding wouldn’t exist. Customers are loyal because they feel they have a relationship with a company or product. That writer is speaking for this entity that I, as a reader, have or want a relationship with. The best copywriters don’t overlook that. They can’t afford to be too sentimental, but they also can’t afford to lose sight of the human element.

    The second thing is the distinction #6. All writing expects something of the reader. It might be something as deliberate as buying a product or it might be something subtle, such as a change in way of thinking. But if I am writing for publication, except perhaps in the most exhibitionist writing, I certainly want something from my reader.

    While I definitely agree with you that there is a difference between content and copy, I think the most crucial difference is this: content reveals something of the writer or his constituent. Copy is soulless.

    Reply
  28. ME Strauss says

    August 13, 2006 at 8:25 PM

    Ah Amber,
    I don’t disagree with a word you say. I think we’re in a world of semantics here. You know the subject well so you’re well into the subtleties that I didn’t dare venture near in a blog post.

    You’re so right about relationship and brand. We’re just coming at the idea from different directions — me from the east, you from the north. My point being the customer is customer centered . . . so the word YOU is appropriate. The brand is determined by the customer’s view. The writer upholds what he or she hopes the customer will agree to as a brand view. But the customer decides. Only the customer’s opinion matters is what I was trying to say and in that way, it’s sort of like the customer’s relationship with the customer with the writer as enabler. 🙂 🙂

    How’s that for an explanation? 🙂 It is what I was trying to say.

    Copy has a place. Being a product person who has had to explain my product in the fewest words. I understand what it is for. I’ve written copy with passion, but then I spent months even years building the product that it was about.

    But I’m with you, the style of copywriting is WAY overused on the web. I’m going to be talking more about how to write this week. If you have more gripes, I’d love you to email them to me.
    Liz

    Reply
  29. Sher Matsen says

    January 31, 2009 at 8:25 PM

    This is the type of informative posts I wish were in more places. It’s an excellent source for my newer clients and I’ll be sure to forward it to them!

    Reply

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