Are you new to the marketing game or brushing up on your knowledge? Then you’re in the right place – but what is copywriting for marketing specifically and how can we use it to achieve our goals?
Essentially, it’s a dynamic multi-tool in your marketing utility belt. And when applied correctly, a clever piece of copy can encourage your reader to think, feel and even respond how you need. In this blog post, we cover all the basics of copywriting for marketing, who needs it and ways to produce your best copy yet.
So, what is copywriting for marketing?
According to Oxford Languages, copywriting is the “activity or occupation of writing the text of advertisements or publicity material”.
To explain it a bit more thoroughly, it’s the process of writing material to persuade a person or audience through unique, researched and targeted language. More or less, copywriters are the true OG influencers, of social media and beyond.
Sometimes, copywriting for marketing can be confused with content writing, but the two have their distinctions. Content writing and copywriting differ primarily in their purpose. Content writing aims to educate or entertain the audience – while copywriting aims to persuade. Text ads typically utilise copywriting as they intend to compel readers to take specific actions.
Copywriting
- Focuses on sales
- Driven by psychology
- Spurs conversation
- Creates urgency and action
- Quick, concise and attention-grabbing words, phrases and content
Content writing
- Informs and educates
- Solves problems
- Shares brand story through engagement
- Driven by content strategy and data
- Lengthier, in-depth explanatory content
And as you guessed it, the two forms of writing do go hand in hand. They work together to achieve great things, for many different purposes and desired results.
Who needs copywriting for marketing?
The short answer – anybody. If you have a goal, copywriting intends to create a call to action to have it met. Now, you could want to focus on sales, an overall goal for any scale of business. But you could wish to establish a brand’s voice and tone, which could be for marketing, a charitable organisation, or as an individual. Or, you want to encourage more engagement or brand recognition. Much of this is achieved by writing for specific (or all) platforms and formats.
What are the types of copywriting?
There are so many forms of copywriting! Each has a particular style and way to ace its specific content format. Some of the types include the spheres of:
Branding
Think brand experience rather than a straightforward sales pitch. This is based on studying what your audience wants, creating a way to relate on a human level and responding in a fusion of logic and emotion.
Social media
This content is written with the angle of getting engagement on your platforms. Examples can be the professional, native content favoured by LinkedIn or the buzzy atmosphere on TikTok. Here, you can tell a story, create a community and motivate sales. People will follow, share content and interact by way of liking and commenting or answering questions in polls. To polish your social media approach, be sure to check out our social media tips.
SEO and blog posts
If another acronym frightens you, it simply stands for Search Engine Optimisation. This uses keywords selected to highlight the content. These words make content more discoverable by readers intent on finding a specific search result. It’s applicable for everything from attracting curious readers to blog posts or potential customers for product solutions.
Are you still a little confused about industry search terms? Navigate the differences between hashtags and keywords, tags and categories with a helpful Linkedin article.
This type focuses on getting the reader to follow through on a certain action. This could be anything from signing up for a webinar, ordering a product or answering a survey. The trick is to hook readers with a subject line and then compel them to act with a convincing body text. Do you want to achieve better results with your email campaigns? Explore our tips on email marketing strategies.
Insightful
More than garnering roaring sales success, many brands and individuals strive to be an expert or resource in their field. To do this, they utilise insight copywriting to set themselves apart. This is where the inner circle of industry leaders curate top thought authority by publishing unique and valuable educational content. Examples of this range from magazines to blog posts, interviews or personal stories.
Further forms
These include product pages/descriptions, script writing, direct response, brochures, B2B and more.
Top tips, tools and tricks of the trade
Once you mastered the content of your copy, edit and optimise it with these fast-developing resources.
Editing Tools
- Grammarly
A spelling, grammar and tone editor app and browser extension, available in basic and paid versions. - Hemingway App
Highlights areas for improvement (like reducing adverbs, changing the voice from passive to active, and simplifying and condensing text). Available both as an online editor and a desktop app.
Content Checkers, Generators and AI Tools
- CopyAI
Create copy by filling out various fields from the type of project and providing some context. You receive a few results to choose from and then edit the content for immediate upload and publishing.
- Wordtune
This AI tool generates text, rewrites content for tone, translates and rephrases content, as well as summarises videos and produces key points without having to watch the content. - ChatGPT
Give a prompt in the chatbot’s input field and you’ll receive a detailed response, whether it’s a conversation, a research task, or a fully-fledged written text. - Anyword
Reviews and analyses text with comparative scores and optimises copy.
Keyword Research Tools
- Ubersuggest
An SEO analysing tool that assists with providing organic keywords, as well as reviewing SEO pages, and generating content ideas. Also a great resource for improving backlink data. - Google Trends
See what specific countries are searching for on Google and explore top keywords, a great way to stay relevant and on the pulse in your industry and beyond.
Copywriting for marketing, the right way
Are you ready to reshape and refresh your copy? Or want the professionals to weigh in on your content? Learn more about Something Social’s copywriting for marketing services and book a consult.
