Content Writer or Copywriter: What Do Your Goals Really Require?

With the storm-like proliferation of content marketing and the speeding bullet-like acceleration with which IT SMBs have jumped on this bogus "content" bandwagon, it's no surprise that many IT SMB owners don't know the difference between content writers and copywriters.

I know, I know. How dare I to call content marketing bogus?

Simple.

It's an old concept that had been regurgitated, given a new and impressive-sounding name and presented to the world as a brand spanking new invention that will magically have businesses' bank accounts burst at the seams.

Oh, one more thing happened: The experts have removed the teeth from content. The teeth that spur readers into action.

The Real Content Marketing

Content marketing is not new. Not at all.

Just look at copywriting legend, David Ogilvy's famous "Man in the Hathaway shirt" commercial.

Source: Marketing Society

A great picture wrapped in a great story.

And when people tell you that article marketing is a new thing, show them another of Ogilvy's articles from the 1950s and 60s.

But let's go back in time a tad more...

John Deere's "newsletter", The Furrow started in 1885.

In 1900, when there were only about 2000 cars in France, Michelin's published 35,000 copies of its 400-page Michelin Guide, offering information on car maintenance, restaurants, hotels and travel.

The Ladies' Home Journal started in 1883 as a supplement in the Tribune and Farmer, but by 1903 the demand was so high that it became an independent publication. It was America's very first magazine with million+ subscribers.

These pieces prove that content marketing is not a new thing but has been around for a while.

But there was huge difference between classical content marketing and today's new-fangled nonsense.

In classical content marketing, the goal was to make a sale, to generate revenue. Classical content marketing used the elements of influence to make sales.

In today's content marketing, the goal is to share information regardless of whether or not the company sells anything.

But the old times are gone, so let's focus on the new times and the new type of content marketing.

Let's See The Differences

So, in classical content marketing, using a fishing analogy, you go to the river with a bucket of fish bait and your fishing gear. These are the business owners who know they either catch their own fish or die of starvation.

You feed the fish in order to catch some. But feeding the fish is the means to an end... a nice slap-up fish dinner.

But this new-fangled content marketing bullshit is the equivalent of going to the river with a bucket of fish bait and dumping it into the river to feed the fish. Then repeat it every day forever until you die.

And these are the business owners who generate content with no end in sight while living on investors' money.

Feeding the fish has become an end by itself. After all, if you want to eat fish, you hop in to the supermarket and buy some low-grade, mercury-overdosed, genetically modified farmed salmon.

So, when money runs out, you can go to other investors and beg for more money that you can burn on "content marketing".

And what do we see in firms that practise this modern content marketing? They flood the Internet with tonnes of low quality content and use call-centres to cold call thousands of people to find new business.

Why do you think major proponents of content marketing, who also happen to be content marketing software purveyors, employ multiple call centres in third-world countries? They know they peddle a concept that can't generate revenue, so they have to do lots of cold calling.... because investor's money has a limit.

But there is one element that you can put into your content, and it can become your fishing gear, so then you'll be able to catch fish and lay the table for a nice dinner.

Modern 21st century IT SMBs need both content writers and copywriters. But business owners have to know the difference and recruit accordingly.

Content writers are important members of your team who craft messages that inform, educate and entertains readers.

While in an indirect way, those messages can, their primary purpose is NOT to sell. They are used when you don't really care about what action readers take after reading your messages.

You're happy because people read those content pieces and give you Twitter followers, Facebook likes and LinkedIn connections.

People with degrees in English, creative writing, communications or journalism degrees make good content writers.

Copywriters on the other hand, craft messages that require specific actions, thus gently nudging readers towards making purchases. They can be opt-ins, seminar registrations, newsletter subscription or purchase of products and services.

Unlike content writers, copywriters write to sell. That's why copywriting is called salesmanship in print.

It combines writing, marketing, sales, and psychology under one roof. And since copywriters actively work on generating revenue, they are much more expensive than content writers.

While content writers are usually full-time employees, since content development is an ongoing initiative, copywriters are almost always self-employed professionals. No company in the world needs full-time copywriters.

Oh, and copywriters who are worth hiring, because they are good at their craft, don't need "safe and secure" jobs and regular paycheques.

They know how to get clients at will. That's why smart clients hire them. And that's why they don't take full-time employment.

So, if you're looking for a full-time copywriter to work out of your office Monday to Friday 9 to 5, you're more doomed than a mouse at a cat convention just before lunchtime.

Writing content and writing copy are two different beasts and confuse them at your own peril.

It reminds me of NBC's mightily magnificent TV series, Blacklist (Season 3, Episode 1), when fugitive Raymond Reddington tells the arrogant and obnoxious FBI special agent, Donald Ressler shortly after his self-promotion to FBI director...

"You know, just because you've been bumped up to first chair in the orchestra doesn't mean you can compose a symphony."