Are you a copywriter or content writer?

What is the difference between these professions and why we shouldn't mix them up

Content disciplines have a wide scope. There is one well-established term on the market. Namely, copywriter. If you want sales arguments from a person who writes articles (and vice versa), you might all face an unpleasant disappointment.

copywriting & content creation

26. 3. 2023 | 1 min read | Tomáš Kostkan

It happens to me that when someone asks me what my profession is, I say "copywriter." In the subsequent conversation, the following questions and answers then appear:

Q: » Are you a copywriter? So you write articles, right? «
A: » Minimally. A copywriter writes those too, but I write something a little different... «

A or:

Q: » Copywriter? And how many standard pages do you have to write per day? «
A: » I don't write by standard pages. I need my texts to be short. Sometimes I fuss over a single sentence for half a day. And then I even test it on people. «

I learned the word copywriter at a time when it designated a person who in agencies mainly devised campaign concepts and wrote advertising "copy." Today in our country, it designates all sorts of writers. I thought to myself that I would need another word for my work.

Only quite recently did I discover that there is a category called "Content writer." And that abroad it is starting to be separated quite clearly. See links at the end of the article. In our country, this distinction has not caught on yet (according to my observations).

So how is it according to those sources:

Content writer

🖋 Generally writes longer forms. Articles, blog posts, educational materials, product descriptions. With the goal to inform, educate, advise readers.

🖋 Needs to know the craft (from stylistics, tone, spelling, etc...) + do research.

Copywriter

🎯 Generally writes short forms: Websites, advertising, mailings. With the goal to motivate the reader to take action. To sell the brand.

🎯 Must know a large part of what a content writer does. Plus strategic marketing thinking.

🎯 It doesn't matter if a proofreader has to step in after him on the piece 😉

According to my observations, quite a few writers don't realize this difference. For example, when you write a blog post one day and a landing page the next day, that you need to dramatically change your approach. But about the approach another time and place. (For instance, at the "Strategic Copywriting" course.)