Distinct Purposes Shaped by Shared Goals
Copywriters are tasked with honing in on the immediacy of persuasiveness, and content strategists focus on building long-term relationships between the brand and the audience to help that copy go further.
Zooming in, content strategy involves providing context for the copy. Content strategists accomplish this by curating a mix of media and supporting copy under a shared, living theme, shaped by a different type of relevance that not only has to attract the audience at the moment but must also resonate with them over time.
Copy sells while content builds. A good strategy needs both and understanding the difference changes how you create each one.
Though both copy and content are molded by the same drivers, they serve distinct purposes and require different approaches.
How to Know Which Service You’ll Need
The short answer is: If you’re an organization looking to drive immediate sales, you might need copy. If you’re looking to build long-term relationships and brand loyalty, you need content. If you’re looking to build a comprehensive digital presence, you need both.
| Copy | Content | |
| Goal | Drive immediate action | Build long-term trust |
| Call to action | Single, clear, direct | Soft or implied |
| Measured by | Conversion rate | Return visits & engagement |
| Time horizon | Immediate | Over time |
| Earns the… | Click | Attention |
Not sure whether you need copy, content, or both?
The Future of Content
Copywriters are necessary. To skip out on their expertise entirely and reassign their value to artificial agents is a mistake that I’m seeing plenty more brands making these days. It’s not just copywriters they’re slashing; it’s also any one of the slew of marketing roles that rely on their expertise.
When that happens, the entire content stategy suffers, as well.
There is both a present and a future where AI serves as a powerful extension of these roles and allows the minds, hands, and hearts implementing them more resources to focus on the creative, strategic, and empathetic aspects of their work. It’s imperative that the minds, hands, and hearts hiring for or managing these roles always center the the resonance between one human experience and the next.
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