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Copywriting vs SEO Writing

Copywriting vs SEO Writing: What’s the Difference?

Copywriting, Marketing / By / June 1, 2021

It’s no secret that copywriting and SEO writing is becoming increasingly critical to marketing strategies. The digital landscape is cluttered with both valuable content and junk. A keyword a year ago might have had a few million results but now has hundreds of millions of results. That makes life as a digital marketer and entrepreneur both terrifying and exhilarating. So let’s take a look at which you should invest in: copywriting vs SEO writing.

What’s the Difference Between Copywriting vs SEO Writing?

First, let’s analyze the difference between copywriting vs SEO writing. Although they are both technically writing and can be intertwined, they serve two different purposes. 

What is Copywriting?

Copywriting is the act of writing text to persuade the reader to take a requested action – usually found in advertising and promotions. The product sold by copywriters is called copy. It’s only purpose is to convert the reader to opt-in, buy, or schedule a call. 

What is SEO Writing?

In comparison,  SEO writing is the act of writing content that ranks well on search engines (i.e. Google, Yahoo, Bing). The content is usually informative and/or expressive, rather than persuasive. SEO writing contains keywords that ranks the page on search engines. SEO writing can be in the form of web pages or blogs. 

Good SEO writing should be fluid, easy to read without noticing the interspersing of keywords. Remember, people do business with people, NOT keywords or robotic sounding content. It’s better to write like a human than to meet all SEO requirements. 

When Copywriting & SEO Writing Fuse Together

One thing I – among many other copywriters – love is when you can fuse copywriting and SEO writing together. What do I mean by this? 

Good content is searchable, easy-to-read, and informative in some capacity. More than that, good content will include persuasive call to actions to some next step in the customer journey. For example, a blog post can offer a lead magnet or a trial offer to a premium offer.

Here are some examples of how you can infuse copywriting into your search optimized piece of content.

DigitalMarketer is really good at this… They break up their blogs with timely call to actions about free lead magnets, such as their 15-Point Landing Page Audit. In addition to the written copy with a hyperlink to a landing page, they also include an image with copy embedded. 

Copywriting vs SEO Writing

This next example is from GoLive. One thing that I really appreciate about their blog is the subtle call the action. If you don’t know what you’re looking for, you may even miss it… And that’s a good thing for content marketing and SEO writing! If your content is always sell, sell, sell, you are not adding value to your customer before they give you their credit card. It’s important to offer value up-front.

 Notice when you click on the “Squarespace Website Template” link, it sends you straight to their shop. 

Copywriting vs SEO Writing

Moz is great at producing blogs about SEO; however, they do not actively present their product until the very end after the conclusion and after popular posts. This is another way to fuse SEO writing and copywriting together.

Copywriting vs SEO Writing

Reasons to Invest in Both

To create a sound digital marketing strategy, you need both copywriting and SEO writing. Here are some reasons why you need to invest in both.

Your Prospects Need To Find You

You could have the greatest product, innovative technology, or coaching program that changes lives… BUT if your prospect cannot find you, you will unfortunately never make it. While there are many ways to reach your customers, every decision maker in a company has a smartphone, a tablet, and/or a computer in their hand. As a business owner, if I need to know something and I can’t think of a person to call to answer my question… COMMAND+T. I’m googling it. 

(You’re welcome for my favorite Apple keyboard shortcut!)

That’s why SEO copywriting should be a critical part of your marketing strategy.

Creating a sound SEO writing and content marketing strategy doesn’t always come easy. It can be time-consuming and draining as you learn the nuances. That’s where we come in! Contact us today to explore what opportunities are in your business.

Your Prospects Need To Feel Confident In Buying From You

Another reason to invest in your copywriting and SEO writing strategy is to make your prospects feel confident in their buying decision. 

SEO writing makes you an authority; it helps you gain respect because you have displayed that you know what you’re talking about. 

But copywriting takes you to a deeper level with your prospect with emotional persuasion. Once the prospect believes that they buying decision is logical and truly believes that they need that product or service to solve x, y, and z, then they are highly likely to buy. In addition, copy that creates an emotional connection creates loyal followers, lifers, repeat customers.

Again, there are thousands of options customers may pick from other than your company! We think you’re still special though. 

So how are you going to set yourself apart from the competition and make your prospect feel confident in choosing you?

Your Prospects Want a Company They Can Trust and Believe In

Where do you buy groceries – HEB or Kroger? Which social media platform do you like better – Instagram or Snapchat? Do you buy directly from a company’s site or go straight to Amazon? Ultimately, every person has their preferences. Because there are so many options to choose from, your prospects subconsciously want to buy from a company they can trust to do the job right, delivering above and beyond AND believe in because they just get you. 

For example, we at FocusCopy have made it our mission to be our client’s strategic partner in all their business communications. We truly believe that. We cheer on our clients and celebrate their victories, even if it had nothing to do with us! Additionally, we connect them with resources and potential customers. Being a strategic partner goes beyond just copywriting services. At the end of the day, we believe in our clients. It’s our hope that our prospective clients see our internal guiding beliefs in everything we write… And ultimately trust and believe in us.

Let’s take another angle! Think about romantic relationships. When a couple first meets, what do they look at? Their eyes and maybe lips (while they’re talking). Attraction. Then they listen to what they have to say, leaning in a little more to make that first impression judgement. Are they intelligent, genuine, and kind? Or Are they clueless, rude, and lack depth? Because who doesn’t like a good story, let’s say this couple makes the first judgement – we’re good to go! They then start to build an emotional connection with that other person as time goes on. Eventually, a meet-cute turns into a date, which becomes a relationship and then engagement, and finally marriage. 

The same is true of B2B copywriting. People form connections with people. So a business must understand and communicate like humans. This is why influencers on social media have become so big. People feel a connection with the person behind the screen because those influencers have opened their lives up to them.

The Final Decision: Copywriting vs SEO Writing

If you have a limited budget and had to make a decision on what to invest in first, we always suggest doing what will make money first… In that case, it’s always copywriting. You can drive more traffic all day. BUT if your copy does not convert, then that traffic is going to go elsewhere to find what they are looking for. 

Good SEO simply makes it easier to find your great copy, and hopefully convince them to buy from you.

In conclusion, it’s more important than ever before to evaluate your website’s SEO and copywriting. The competitive landscape is ever changing as algorithms change, prospects demand more free content, and the cost to acquire a customer is increasing. Contact us to explore how FocusCopy can build a competitive content and copywriting strategy and ultimately reduce the cost of customer acquisition.

Why Companies Need to Focus on Their Copy in 2020

Why Companies Need to Focus on Their Copy in 2020

Copywriting / By / June 1, 2021

Business communication is now more important than ever. Scandals, success, missed opportunities, synergy… How you shape the story is critical to business success. It’s becoming more important for companies to focus on their communication pieces by the second – not minutes or hours.

Information Collection Taken To The Next Level

We are living in a world of information collectors and hoarders. It is estimated that data created next year will be greater than all material generated since people started recording information thousands of years ago. (Check out some cool big data facts here.)

Many people shy away from using libraries and dictionaries. Instead, they use Google or other search engines as their main source of information. Why? We created a world that craves instant gratification for everything we could possibly want to learn.

Greater than our external need for information, organizations use online storage tools, intranets, wikis, and other real-time internal search engines to locate information related to their employer, industry, and numerous other topics. It’s quicker than flipping through a dated binder of SOPs.

In 2020, companies must focus on their copy in all areas of their business – sales copy, content strategy, and internal communications. Your prospective customer can subconsciously spot good copy from bad and will immediately click to another page that is better. It’s critical to fight for the top spots on the results page.

Why Companies Need to Focus on Their Copy in 2020

In this world of overwhelming information, your customers want to get what they want, now. As a result, companies need to accelerate their copy production and improvement to meet demands. 

So, what does this mean for business to business communication? And how should we create and publish copy in a prioritized manner?

Copy Needs To Be Fresh

First, your copy must be fresh, original, crisp, focused, and contain only essential information. More detailed voluminous materials should be included in a referenced document that the user can open by clicking “for more information”.

One tip that we give our clients is to strip out all the fluff or embellishment. Sure, those extra words may paint a picture more delicately, but are those extra words getting in the way of the big picture? Quite simply, more words take more time to read and the value from these extra words often provide little or no extra value to the reader.

Keep it fresh.

Copy Needs To Be Focused

Second, the copy must focus on what impact it will have on your prospect. What’s the Big Benefit? People, in general, have become very self-focused. If the copy they read doesn’t impact them directly or require their action, they start to question why they are reading it in the first place.

Click.

They’ve moved on. That is why it’s so important to evaluate if your company’s existing copy is focused.

Even worse… Your prospect may subconsciously record the sender’s identity (i.e. your company’s brand) and skip future communications from you.

If you don’t believe me, take a look at your email inbox. If you’re like most, you have many unread emails from people that are sending you content, sales pitches, promotions, and more. The thing is… Internet Service Providers (ISP) and email service providers (like Gmail) will start to learn your habits and stick the emails your to dreaded spam filter. That means more than just your prospects not opening emails… It will also hurt your deliverability for future prospects that actually want to receive your emails. 

SEO Best Practices May Have Changed

Finally, Google reputedly makes over 500 adjustments to their SEO algorithm every year. That means within 2-3 years, SEO is completely different. That’s also one of the reasons why I fell in love with digital marketing… It will always be a new day with new challenges. How does that impact you? What your company did for SEO a year ago may not work as effectively in 2020. It’s important that as we enter Q4 of 2019, you need to reassess your weak points in SEO and to improve your SEO. 

So how does your website copy rank in terms of search-ability and ease of finding information? Does the information about your new product, service, update, or landing pages rank as #1 of 230,000 hits or #250? Guess which site your potential customers will look at? It’s the #1 result… Maybe if you’re lucky, they will go down to result #5. 

Here’s the kicker… A decade ago, users were okay with spending 15, maybe 30 seconds searching for relevant content. Now, they spend only 5-8 seconds searching! That means your information must rank in the top 5 hits when they search your keyword. Assuming they find your page, they want the core information in no more than 10 seconds! 

Some areas to look at include: 

  • How your content is categorized and organized
  • Your inbound and outbound links
  • Readability scores
  • Keywords (might want to check how many results your best keywords have; competition is tight)
Why Companies Need to Focus on Their Copy in 2020

Up Your Business Game By Focusing On Your Copy in 2020

So, how should a business ”up its game” and provide copy that its target audience wants to and needs to read? There are formulas for this, but these formulas only work if you know exactly what you want to write, who will read it, and what you want them to get out of it.

There are two things that you can do… Reassess how your existing copy is being used and apply our CFE Framework to future copywriting and content creation.

Reassess How You Use Your Copy

If the copy doesn’t support anything your prospect needs to do their job and support their buying decision – what VALUE is it to you? It’s wasting valuable real estate on your website, email campaigns, etc. 

It’s important to understand and audit how your copy is working for you and against you. Junk? Delete it. It may be tempting to fill that blank space with other content, but if it’s not valuable, do not add it. 

CFE Framework

Our CFE Framework shows you exactly how to get clarity and focus around your copy before you execute the creation and publication of the copy. If your business takes the time and effort to clarify exactly what they need and focus on its creation, publication, distribution, and search-ability, then your business will definitely benefit… Your prospects will read your copy more frequently and better understand your offer… Thus, increasing the likelihood that that prospect will convert into a buy.

Need help preparing for 2020? We are standing by. Click here to explore how to you can surpass your competition with copy improvements.

Difference Between Copywriting and Content Marketing

Difference Between Copywriting and Content Marketing

Copywriting, Marketing / By / June 1, 2021

English is an incredibly powerful and often complex language. It’s estimated that the average number of English words a person knows is 10,000-20,000. To put that into perspective, there’s over 470,000 English words. That means most English speakers only use and/or know only 5% of the English language.

Then beyond just the numbers, there are different dialects of English. While I grew up in Texas, I also grew up as a European. You see, my parents are British and raised us up with the British dialect. You can imagine mixing the Queen’s English, American English, and a Texan twang. One thing that I learned growing up is that words – when strung together strategically – can be incredibly effective at convincing someone to do something.

Whether it’s convincing someone to click the button to buy or creating an emotional connection…

WORDS HAVE POWER.

One thing that many people mistakenly use interchangeably is copy and content. So… I’d like to share the difference between copywriting and content marketing AND why your company needs to have two separate strategies.

Difference Between Copywriting and Content Marketing

Difference Between Copywriting and Content Marketing

The main difference between copywriting and content marketing is the answer to this question… 

“Is my purpose to sell?” 

If the answer is “yes”, then it’s copywriting. 

If the answer is “no”, then its content marketing. 

Ideally, all content marketing would also be copywriting. 

Not all copywriting is content marketing though.

Definition of Copywriting

The definition of copywriting is… “the act of writing material (copy) to persuade the intended audience to take a requested action”. In other words, copywriting is persuasive writing. Typically, its goal is to sell something or to take a specific transactional step; however, it could also be to convince (i.e. pitch and sell to) your employees to buy-in to your vision and brand.

Copywriting is unique in that is does not always have to be presented in a written text. It could be behind a video sales letter, a webinar, commercial, or an image.

In addition, copywriting focuses solely on how the product / service / idea is going to benefit them.

Each piece of copy includes a hook or attention grabber. This is something that makes the reader move from the first line to the second line. Then comes the pain the customer is experiencing… This is key because without a pain point, the product isn’t really solving anything. Then the copy moves into the solution – your product or service – and how it benefits the reader. Most copy also includes a guarantee, a sense of urgency (i.e. registration is closing soon), and scarcity (i.e. there’s only 100 seats open).

Difference Between Copywriting and Content Marketing

Definition of Content Marketing

Conversely, content marketing is the publication and promotion of content (blogs, videos, social media, etc.) that attract a target audience but does not explicitly ask for the target audience to take a specified action. Moreover, content marketing creates brand awareness, allows the site to be search-able, and moves the company from just another option to an authority.

Most content teaches, enlightens, or brings awareness to a specific topic. It usually includes an intro (like the hook), the content, and then a conclusion. Good content will also have copy inside of it – call to actions.

When I first started in my marketing journey, I loved content marketing – still do. There are so many ways you can splinter off topics into mini lessons, stories, and ideas. It came very naturally to me. However, effective content needs to have a strategy that includes copywriting.

Content Marketing Strategy

Because there is so much content out on the Internet, it’s critical that you put together a content marketing strategy that differentiates you from the crowd.

For example, there is a consulting firm that offers accounting services. An obvious topic to discuss on a blog is cash flow. BUT there is no way that you can effectively talk about cash flow in 1,000 words. They splinter the topic a little further into cash flow reporting. BUT they could talk about daily cash reports, 13-week cash flow reports, cash flow forecasts, etc.

Steps To Build Your Copywriting Strategy

Building your copywriting strategy starts with…

1. Initial Prep-Work

Before you start writing, you need to start with the prep-work.

What are you trying to accomplish? Lead generation, acquire contact information, sell a $100 product, set up a meeting for a $20,000 contract, etc…. Whatever it is, write down the intended goal for your copy.

Then identify the intended customer. Most likely, you have already done this. BUT this time go into depth about your customer. Give them a name. What are they experiencing? What is their life like? How do they feel? What are their concerns, Why do they want to talk to you?

Finally, answer these questions… 

What are the benefits of the product/service and how will the customer benefit from taking the requested action? 

What are the benefits of the benefits? 

And the benefits of those benefits? 

Another question we ask during our prep-work session is… 

So what? 

Ask that several times to get the real benefits to your customer’s customer (i.e. the people they are trying to sell to).

2. Figure Out How You Are Going to Distribute the Copy

Then you need to figure out how you are going to distribute the copy. You can do it through…

  • Videos
  • Sales letters
  • Long-form social media
  • Voice or audio (think radio or podcast)

All are totally valid and effective forms of copy distribution.

3. Start Writing For The Intended Distribution Method

You get all your information and how you are going to distribute it. Now, it’s time to start writing.

Start with identifying your tone – rebellious, sarcastic, professional, vulnerable, dry… Carry that tone throughout the entire copy.

Depending on your intended distribution method, you may format your copy a little differently. But the general format is…

  1. Hook / Headline
  2. Problem
  3. Solution
  4. Benefits
  5. Benefits
  6. Price
  7. Benefits
  8. Buy Now
  9. Benefits

Have I said benefits enough? That’s the real difference between contenting marketing and copywriting.

4. Proofread

Before you publish, proofread, and then proofread again – use different people and get them to read it out loud. Strangely, reading copy from the last word to the first word also catches a lot of errors too! 

You do not want to have your sales letters riddled with typos or nonsensical language.

5. Test and Retest

Just when you think that you’re done, it’s time to test your copywriting strategy and retest. It’s important for you to track how effective (or ineffective) your copy is. First, you need to drive enough traffic to the piece of copy to be able to test it. Get a baseline conversion rate – conversions / traffic = conversion rate %. Then test different variables like distribution methods, button color, headline copy, etc. Be sure to only test one variable at a given time. Think back to your 6th grade science experiments!

If the conversion rate increases, keep the change and test something else.

If the conversion rate decreases, go back to the original copy and test something else. 

Next Steps…

So, what are your next steps? Evaluate your current copywriting and content marketing strategies. Does your company have a strategy? Is it as effective as you want? If not, contact us. We can help you improve your sales and sales potential by working on your strategy. Reach out to us today to schedule your free consultation.

FocusCopy® caffeinates your brand messaging so it energizes your target audience to take action. 

(281) 916-4949 | info@FocusCopy.com

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