In the marketing world the words ‘copy’ and ‘content’ are often interchanged and thought of as synonyms. Well, if you are wondering how these two are different, hold on for your world is about to change.
Copy and Content are as different as cheese and chalk but they go together as wine & cheese, blackboard & chalk! Think of them as siblings. Different yet together!
Team Content– Content is more old school, believes in being truthful, loves to bond with the consumers, likes to work on building trust, faith and solid buyer-seller relationship. Content prides itself on being informative, composed, well structured, and educational. Content tells a brand’s story and speaks straight from the brand’s heart. Examples of content writing: Blogs, press releases, publications, about us section of websites, how-to articles. The main purpose of content is to present ideas, state facts, and ideas. Personality, authenticity, and credibility are essential to good content. Content is essentially your elder sibling, prim & proper, big on values, and rules.
Team Copy– Copy is from the ‘YOLO’ generation that truly believes in the theory that ‘you live only once’ and hence makes the most of it. Copy is the dazzling red lipstick on an otherwise pale face. It adds that extra zing and jazzes things up! Copy’s main aim is to persuade, entice, and sell. It can be pushy; it will make tall claims and sometimes cleverly worded tricky promises. Copy isn’t for the weak hearted. It is like the candy basket placed strategically at the billing counter, tempting you to buy even if you don’t really eat candy! Copy is glamorous, witty, funny, and more importantly competitive. Examples of copy writing: Marketing campaigns, Social Media posts, one liner, captions, product descriptions, website landing pages, etc. Copy is adventurous, bold, and is a go getter.
Team Work-Don’t pick a winner yet! Here’s the catch. One cannot exist without the other. Touching isn’t it. But it is also true. A well-crafted and worded blog will grab no eyeballs (or only the writer’s friends’ & family’s’ eyeballs) if it has a lame headline. Good content without a smashing copy is like promising a customer a great main course after a disastrous starter. Dicey situation, they might not stay. Similarly, a killer headline followed by a badly written blog post is like showing the customer a very promising trailer and then serving them 3 hours’ worth of pure garbage! Therefore, good copy needs great copy and vice-a-versa.
