For the most part, content writing isn’t a high-paying job. But there’s one area of it that both pays well…and is growing. And it’s not content strategy (despite its name, content strategy is really about how copy is organized on a site). I’m talking about content marketing, and it can be a great opportunity for someone with a background in copywriting.
What Is Content Writing?
Content marketing, on the other hand, actually is about content. It’s the planning and strategy that goes into how content (and content only) is created and distributed to help support a company’s goals.
Even though content writing doesn’t directly sell the way that copy is designed to, content can be important to a company. Why? Because it can attract people to a company’s website, encourage them to engage with the brand, build brand loyalty, create opportunities for people to share it (and, thereby, introduce new people to the brand), build trust in the brand, and, through all of these, maybe even help to encourage a sale.
What Does a Content Marketer Do?
As a content marketer, your job is all about figuring out what you want your content to do by identifying your content’s goals, what content you need to create to do that, how to go about creating that content (staffing, scheduling, etc.), how to serve it up (how often and via which media), and which group(s) to serve it to. If this sounds simple…it’s not. A great content marketing plan takes a lot of thought, evaluation, testing, and re-thinking, re-evaluating and re-testing.
Content marketing can be a great career for someone with a copywriting background; an understanding of strategy, brand voice, target audiences, and benefits to consumer are fantastic building blocks for this career.
However, just like copywriting, it’s a career that requires training—you won’t be able to just hop into it without knowing how to do it. (We’ve created a content marketing course as part of our Comprehensive Copywriting Academy to train our students.)
Content marketing is a fantastic field to get into. Companies are beginning to appreciate the importance of content more than ever. And, even if many aren’t yet willing to pay very much to get it written, many will invest in a top-notch content marketer to manage it all for them.
Want to Learn More About Content Copywriting?
Writing content is one example of B2B copywriting. In our article B2B vs. B2C Copywriting: What to Know, we discuss the differences between these two types of copywriting.
Interested in writing more content? Check out these useful links!
- How Copywriters Can Successfully Add Content as a Service
- Content or Copy: How to Tell the Difference and What Should You Charge
- What’s the Difference Between Copy and Content?
Your Turn!
Have you worked with a content marketing manager? What was the experience like? Let us know in the comments below!
Last Updated on March 26, 2024
Hello Nicki, great article! I look forward to getting to that part of the course as it is something I find very interesting. I bet it’ll be something important to understand, even if you are simply working with/under a Content Marketing Manager.
With how important content is becoming I have also been hearing about something called ‘SEO Copywriting’. Do you have any thoughts to share on that niche? It seems like a way to further separate a Copywriter writing a website’s copy from a Content Writer doing so.
Hi Catherine,
I’m glad you found it helpful! And I think that deep dive course will definitely be useful for you.
SEO stands for “Search Engine Optimization” and it’s the practice of using different tools and techniques to help various pages on websites end up higher on a search engine’s results page. For example, if you sell sweaters made of llama wool, you’d want to use these techniques in the hopes that when people search for terms that are relevant to you (terms like “llama wool,” “men’s llama sweaters” and things like that), pages of your site would rank high on the results page that Google displays to people who search those terms. Here’s the thing though—and I go into it a bit deeper in this article if you’d like more insight https://filthyrichwriter.com/copywriting-qa-the-truth-about-seo-copywriting/ — “SEO copywriting” is really kind of a false niche. Any copywriter worth their salt should already be using those “SEO tactics” to write their copy. What I mean is that they should *naturally* be incorporating terms that people are searching for, just because those terms are a natural part of writing about a topic. (Definitely check out that article if this isn’t quite clear—I fear I’m talking a little too high-level due to the space constraint. 🙂 ) The full discussion is a bit more broad than that, but suffice it to say that, sure, people still advertise that they are “SEO copywriters” and sometimes people even still look specifically for SEO copywriters, but it’s really just part and parcel of being a good copywriter. Does that make sense?
Thanks for commenting!
Nicki
I am so glad I asked. There isn’t really a special song and dance to do to make it magically SEO friendly. If you are doing the SEO, or working with someone who is, decide on the specific SEO Keywords and implement them into the copy naturally. The right keywords should relate to the content in a way that you’d use them naturally when writing it anyway.
AH! Thanks! I almost bought into this whole ‘SEO Copywriting Course’. I’m glad I went with your comprehensive course instead. I almost did the other one until I got the invite to yours. Dodged that bullet. 🙂
Hi Catherine,
Yep, that’s it’s to a T! And I’m glad you’re happy with our training—we most certainly aim to please! 🙂
Thanks!
Nicki