TUNE IN: Spotify | Apple Podcasts | Stitcher

Looking for closed captioning or a transcript? Watch the episode on YouTube!

A Sneak Peek at the Episode

[03:11]  You have to like writing, because lemme tell you, there’s a lot of writing in a copywriting career. It’s not all writing, there’s a lot of editing as well, a lot of thinking and brainstorming.

[09:34] Being willing to roll with things, being open to other points of view, as a copywriter you’ll come in and you’ll make recommendations.

[10:18]  The more you’re able to be flexible in dealing with people and how you deal with people, the more success you will have.

[13:00] I would imagine if you’re not hustling, there’s someone else that is more than willing to hustle and do the work. You have to get the job done no matter what. You cannot miss a deadline.

[22:15] Clients don’t automatically know how to evaluate copy. They don’t know how you as a copywriter know that you have structured things in a certain way to affect the target audience in a certain way.

[30:07] The concept of patience and persistence. It’s gonna be rare that you get your first draft and it’s perfect. Even just as you’re writing, it’s gonna take some time to come up with the right words and there is a lot of editing involved in copywriting.

Must-Hear Takeaways

“In order to be a copywriter, you need to get the training to add on to that natural ability to write because there are techniques and skills that you will add on to that natural ability. But that natural affinity for writing is a really important place to start” – Nicki

“My next favorite trait is resilience. Because you might love to write, you might then love some of what you’re writing. When you are facing that feedback that feels like it could be personal or it was just not. But you have that kind of ability to say, it’s gonna improve me as a writer, and it’s gonna improve the final product.” – Kate

“You’re the copywriting expert in the room, but you’re not the copywriting expert in the world. So there’s an element of needing to own the fact that you know what you’re doing and you have a lot of value to provide, but at the same time, being open to the fact that you don’t know everything.” – Nicki

” When you’re sitting down with a group of people in the office. You are all working together. You are collaborating to create the best piece possible. It’s at least 50% editing. You write your copy, you look at it from your target audience viewpoint, and you make your change, you make your tweaks. It’s not an instant process.” – Nicki

Mentioned on this Episode

• 11 Traits of the Most Successful Copywriters

Related Links

• What Does it Take to Become a Copywriter?
• Confused About Where to Start Your Copywriting Career? This One’s For You

Tell us what you love about the podcast and what you hope to hear next! When you do, you can get access to an exclusive bonus recording featuring five wildly successful entrepreneurs who share what they do (and don’t!) look for when hiring copywriters. You do not want to miss it! 

Get all the details on how to get your recording here »

About the Build Your Business Podcast

Ready to turn your love of writing into a successful copywriting career?

Join professional copywriters Nicki Krawczyk and Kate Sitarz to get the tips, tools, and training to help you become a copywriter and build a thriving business of your own. Nicki and Kate have 20+ and 10+ years of experience, respectively, writing copy for multi-billion-dollar companies, solopreneurs, and every size business in between.

Whether you want to land an on-staff job, freelance full-time and work from wherever you want, or make extra money with a side hustle, the best place to start learning is right here.

Previous Episode

The post Summer Rewind: Ep 15. Traits of the Most Successful Copywriters appeared first on Filthy Rich Writer.

TUNE IN: Spotify | Apple Podcasts | Stitcher

Looking for closed captioning or a transcript? Watch the episode on YouTube!

A Sneak Peek at the Episode

[2:39] Amanda has worked for the last five years as a content strategist, and has recently been promoted to SEO management. She has experience of writing for a range of industries including travel insurance, home services, and education.

[4:10] Nicki reminds us how to tell the difference between copy and content writing.

[5:24] Content strategy is about understanding the goals of your client and the goals of the user, and being able to effectively marry both of those goals together. As a strategist, your work is much more data driven than if you were just writing the assignment.

[6:12] When putting together a content strategy, content is delivered in a way that ensures your target audience is consuming the messages that you want them to consume, at the time that you want them to. 

[7:13] Reverse engineering your goals can help you create an effective content strategy by working backwards to understand the content that helped customers convert.

[9:02] As a writer and an editor, you’re using language as your most powerful tool. As a strategist, you’re using data. 

[10:30] It takes the same amount of time to do the strategy as it does to do the writing. So if you think that you need to be doing both, then make sure you accommodate for that time, don’t overschedule yourself, and charge enough to make it worthwhile.

[11:37] Newer copywriters often think they have to learn it all but search engine optimization (SEO) and content strategy are specialties in their own right.

[13:30] Amanda has always used SEO to help her understand the user and communicate with them in ways that make sense to them. 

[15:18] Using SEO tools like Semrush or Moz can help you get a little bit deeper into the heads of the target audience you’re writing for. Amanda advises advocating for yourself and asking clients for the tools that you need so your work really shines.

[18:33] If you want to dig deeper into SEO or content strategy, there are many free courses available online to help you. Once you start educating yourself on SEO through the eyes of a writer, you’re going to naturally start strategizing your content differently.

[19:58] If you’re ever working with a strategist as a writer, ask them the “why” behind everything that they’re doing–it’ll help you write your assignment a lot better!

[21:08] Nicki warns us about ‘shiny object syndrome’ derailing our progress. Remember that if your primary goal is to build up your copywriting career, dedicating too much time to learning other skills will slow down your success in all of them. 

[23:14] Asking the right questions of the strategist or whoever prepared your assignment can help to strengthen your skills as a copywriter and make sure that you become an expert before adding on more services.

[26:38] SEO involves putting yourself in the user’s shoes to make sure content is valuable for the target audience. Technical SEO ensures visibility and functionality for the right audience. Finally, the writer’s role is to engage and convert visitors by offering relevant and inspiring content.

[33:54] Sometimes clients will want to focus on keyword density, but this is not more important than your user. Educating clients on the ins and outs of what you do and showing them successful examples can help them let go of a bit of control and trust you as the expert.

Must-Hear Takeaways

As a writer and an editor, you’re using language as your most powerful tool. As a strategist, you’re using data. So I think that that is the biggest differentiation.”  – Amanda

“From the strategist perspective, if I’m strategizing for this, it’s the same amount of time to do the strategy as it is to do the writing. So if you are thinking that you need to be doing both, then you need to really accommodate for that time and make sure that you don’t overschedule yourself and that you charge enough to make it worthwhile.” – Amanda

“You have to be your best advocate to enable yourself and empower yourself to do your work. And your clients do not know what you have, what you don’t have, what you know, what you don’t know and it’s okay to ask and to advocate for yourself to get the tools that you need so your work really shines.” – Amanda

Mentioned on this Episode

• What’s the Difference Between Copy and Content?
• #1 Secret for Copywriting Success
• LinkedIn SEO Keyword strategy course – a basic introduction to SEO keywords
• Here’s a basic course Amanda asks writers to take on her team. It’s less than 2 hours and it helps them think about keywords and how to use them to help understand the user when writing.
• Find out more about Amanda’s SEO agency 

Related Links

• What is Content Strategy? And How Is It Different from Copywriting?
• What You Need to Know About Being an “SEO Copywriter”

Tell us what you love about the podcast and what you hope to hear next! When you do, you can get access to an exclusive bonus recording featuring five wildly successful entrepreneurs who share what they do (and don’t!) look for when hiring copywriters. You do not want to miss it! 

Get all the details on how to get your recording here »

About the Build Your Business Podcast

Ready to turn your love of writing into a successful copywriting career?

Join professional copywriters Nicki Krawczyk and Kate Sitarz to get the tips, tools, and training to help you become a copywriter and build a thriving business of your own. Nicki and Kate have 20+ and 10+ years of experience, respectively, writing copy for multi-billion-dollar companies, solopreneurs, and every size business in between.

Whether you want to land an on-staff job, freelance full-time and work from wherever you want, or make extra money with a side hustle, the best place to start learning is right here.

See Previous Episode

Ep. 165: Terrible Advice New Copywriters Get All the Time

The post Episode 166: How Copywriters Can Add Content Strategy as a Service – with Amanda Hand appeared first on Filthy Rich Writer.

TUNE IN: Spotify | Apple Podcasts | Stitcher

Looking for closed captioning or a transcript? Watch the episode on YouTube!

A Sneak Peek at the Episode

[3:19] There is NO benefit in hand-copying ads when you’re trying to learn copywriting. Instead, Nicki and Kate encourage students to analyze copy out in the wild, as that focuses on the principles and strategies that went into creating that copy.

[10:16] Many so-called copywriting gurus will tell you that “the riches are in the niches.” But choosing a niche when you’re just getting started unnecessarily limits yourself and is not the smartest move when you don’t yet know what you’re going to like or not like.

[15:22] Clients, by and large, are looking for a depth and breadth of experience across different industries and different types of copy. Copywriting itself is your niche.

[18:20] The perception is that you can charge more when you have a niche. In reality, if you only have very narrow experience, you are not providing more value and it could be a red flag for clients. Breadth is valuable and makes your work more varied too!

[23:28] Copywriting and content writing are not the same. Using blog writing as a way to break into copywriting is bad advice because they are very different skill sets–plus, content writing is not paid anywhere near as well as copywriting. If your goal is to be a copywriter, then you should focus on writing copy and getting experience writing copy.

[29:41] Using job bidding sites like Fiverr and Upwork is not the best way to start landing work. Pitching and following up is a much more effective strategy for getting clients, and gives you more control over who you work with and what you charge.

[35:57] New copywriters tend to worry about bothering people who don’t need their services. But when you send a pitch that is based on providing value, clients are much more likely to hang onto it and call you when they do have a project.

[38:57] Don’t undermine your own copywriting skills by leaning on templates and formulas. The challenge that you’re going to be solving is going to be very specific to that company, that target audience, and that tone of voice. By all means use them for inspiration but remember it is your own creativity that will create great work.

[42:00] When you volunteer to work for free, you are essentially saying that your skills are worth nothing. Even if you don’t have any clients yet, you have experience, which means that you have skill, which means that you should be paid for it (even if it’s friends and family!).

[49:33] The internet has created an echo chamber of bad advice, so be discerning about where you get information. Taking advice from people who are successful and have been successful for a while will prevent you from veering off the path to success.

Must-Hear Takeaways

“Our brains want things to move really fast, we want that instant gratification, we want that instant yes. The analogy I like to use is it’s like planting a garden, each pitch is a seed that you’re planting, and the follow-ups are like watering it and eventually it will sprout into a big, beautiful, and wonderful garden. It’s a long-term strategy, it doesn’t have to take tons of time, it’s just not necessarily going to happen overnight. And so I think people do that, get discouraged, go to Upwork because they think, ‘well I can just go to this platform and tomorrow I’ll have a client’ and then they spend hours on Upwork and realize ‘Oh I’ve just wasted weeks and weeks of time on Upwork because I thought it was going to be easier, I thought it was going to be faster’ and then they came back to pitching and realize that that is actually the most effective way.” – Kate

“You may not have clients yet, but that doesn’t mean that you don’t have experience. Again, our CCA students know, you’re going through the action sheets, you’re getting feedback, you are honing your skills, we have a lot of action sheets in there, we have a lot of opportunities for you to practice and to get feedback and make changes on that feedback and improve. So yes, you might be at the moment that you do not have any clients yet but you have experience, which means that you have skill, which means that you should be paid for it.” – Nicki

“One of the things that I’ve learned in my career and just in my life–and I’m glad that I did–only take advice from people who are successful and have been successful for a while at what it is you want to do.” – Nicki

Mentioned on this Episode

• 5 Ways to Improve Your Copywriting
• Why Choosing a Copywriting Niche is Terrible Advice
• What’s the Difference Between Copy and Content?
• Artificial Intelligence Copywriting: Do You Need to Worry?
• 1 Copywriting Tactic You Should Avoid at All Costs
• What is a Copywriting Test and Should You Do One?

Related Links

• How to Avoid the Copywriting Niche Trap
• What’s a Copy Test?
• Content or Copy: How to Tell the Difference and What Should You Charge
• The Real Math on Job Bidding Site “Success”
• Should I use job bidding sites like Upwork?

Tell us what you love about the podcast and what you hope to hear next! When you do, you can get access to an exclusive bonus recording featuring five wildly successful entrepreneurs who share what they do (and don’t!) look for when hiring copywriters. You do not want to miss it! 

Get all the details on how to get your recording here »

About the Build Your Business Podcast

Ready to turn your love of writing into a successful copywriting career?

Join professional copywriters Nicki Krawczyk and Kate Sitarz to get the tips, tools, and training to help you become a copywriter and build a thriving business of your own. Nicki and Kate have 20+ and 10+ years of experience, respectively, writing copy for multi-billion-dollar companies, solopreneurs, and every size business in between.

Whether you want to land an on-staff job, freelance full-time and work from wherever you want, or make extra money with a side hustle, the best place to start learning is right here.

See Previous Episode

Ep. 164: Changing Roles Within Your Current Company – Joseph’s Story

The post Episode 165: Terrible Advice New Copywriters Get All the Time appeared first on Filthy Rich Writer.

TUNE IN: Spotify | Apple Podcasts | Stitcher

Looking for closed captioning or a transcript? Check out the episode on YouTube!

A Sneak Peek at the Episode

Student Win: Ginger shares that her website is done! Way to go, Ginger!

[1:20] Nicki and Kate jump into today’s episode with a brief summary of the difference between writing copy and writing content. Writng copy is writing designed to sell or persuade the reader whereas writing content is writing to entertain, inspire or educate.

[4:30] Our hosts take a minute to discuss how to balance writing content as a copywriter and vice versa. The skills you learn in one area will only help make you better in the other!

[9:30] When including copywriting and content writing samples in your portfolio be sure to label clearly and show that you, the writer, knows the difference. Clients will quickly label you as an amatuer if you don’t make that distinction.

[11:30] Nicki and Kate take a minute to chat about how important it is to be aware of the structure of your website and portfolio, keep the reader on your page.

[14:00] As you amass a larger portfolio you don’t need to post everything on your website, but be sure to stay organized and keep those samples easily accessible for potential clients.

Two Important Terms Every Copywriter Should Know

There are two types of clients you’ll work with as a copywriter whether you’re a full-time employee at an ad agency or internal agency or a part-time freelancer: B2B (business-to-business) and B2C (business-to-consumer). Both offer many opportunities for copywriters, and both involve different types of work.

When you’re looking for a copywriter job or pitching new clients, you’ll want to understand these terms and how the writing differs. Check out our post B2B vs. B2C Copywriting: What to Know to learn more.

Related Links

• • What’s the Difference Between Content and Copy?
  • How To Reign Supreme With Content
  • Where Content Belongs on Your Copywriting Portfolio Site

See Previous Episode

Ep. 33: Build a Copywriting Business While Working 9 to 5 (with Grace Nelson)

The post Ep. 34: How Copywriters Can Successfully Add Content as a Service appeared first on Filthy Rich Writer.

First, let’s define the difference between content writing and copywriting so we’re on the same page: Copywriting is advertising and marketing writing; words that are designed to sell or persuade. Websites, emails, banner ads, brochures, magazine ads, billboards, etc. Content is writing that’s designed to educate, entertain, or inspire. Think: blog posts and articles.

They’re both forms of writing, but copywriting requires more training, more skills, and more mastery and, thus, it pays much better. I’m not saying that content writing is easy, only that it’s easier. They’re both climbing mountains, but one mountain is steeper.

Professional copywriters know the difference between copy and content. But they also know that, as copywriters, it’s likely that their clients will want them to write content at one point or another.

But what too many copywriters don’t know (even the pros!) is that they shouldn’t be charging content rates for copywriting work.

Why Content Writers Aren’t Paid As Well as Copywriters

You’ll find that, in general, content works pays a lot less than copywriting. There are plenty of jobs offering content work at $0.05 a word—as if that’s actually a reasonable price.

Part of the problem is that people don’t think content writing requires any expertise and, as such, there’s a glut of writers in the market. On top of that, companies want (and even expect) to get content writing services cheaply. These companies also don’t even know how to screen for a certain skill level and so, the market is flooded.

But just because there are a lot of unskilled writers out there writing content, and there are some people (those writers included) who don’t think content benefits from expertise…well, doesn’t mean that it doesn’t benefit from expertise!

Are there content writers who are paid well per article? Absolutely. (Many of them are also copywriters charging their copywriting rates for content writing.) However, too often content writers charge by the word. As a copywriter, you know this makes absolutely 0 sense. You’d be penalized for doing your job well. Even content writers know that writing more for the sake of writing more doesn’t produce a quality product.

Why Copywriters Are Paid Well

Copywriting, on the other hand, pays well because it requires a higher level of skill and often directly translates to helping a client increase revenue. Of course, there will ALWAYS be some clients that try to get great copywriters for cheap, just as there are always people trying to get anything for cheap. But in the professional world, clients are generally willing to pay well for good copywriting.

So, all of this is why I teach copywriting: it’s more challenging, more interesting, more versatile and it pays better. If you want to make six figures as a copywriter? It’s absolutely possible. If you want to make six figures as a content writer? Unfortunately, good luck.

Copywriters Can Charge Copy Rates for Content Writing

But here’s the thing: Just because we’re copywriters doesn’t mean we don’t write content sometimes. In fact, I have a couple of clients who ask me to write a few blog posts periodically in addition to their copywriting projects.

Content writing can and should be strategic, and your training as a copywriter helps to make it more so. You know how to focus on benefits, speak to your target audience, and inspire action and content that is built with that kind of backbone is more effective.

Skilled writers produce more effective content than unskilled writers and, as such, should command higher rates.

So what does a copywriter charge for content work? Do we charge the 10¢ a word (or less!) that many content writers have to settle for? In three words:

Oh HECK no.

When I (and my students and other professional copywriters) write content for our clients, we charge our copywriting rates. Why? Because our clients are still getting the extra level of strategy and insight that our copywriting training has given us, now infused into their content and content strategy.

Sure, some clients may want to find content elsewhere for cheaper (and best of luck to them!) but most of them respect my skill, what I have to offer, and are willing to pay for it.

I would strongly suggest you structure your rates similarly. You deserve to work with clients who are willing to pay according to your level of skill, and you bring so much more to the table than your average writer.

Becoming a copywriter doesn’t mean that you’ll never write blog posts again if that’s what you like to do. It means that you’ll write them better and you’ll command higher rates for your services—which is a win for both you and your client.

How to Add Content Writing to Your Copywriting Services

If you’re a copywriter looking to add content writing to the services you offer clients, watch this video before getting started. (And, make sure you’re charging your copywriter rates!)

Your turn! What appeals to you about copywriting versus content writing? Or vice versa? Let me know in the comments below.

The post What Should Your Content Rates Be As a Copywriter? appeared first on Filthy Rich Writer.

Content writing is different from copywriting. (For more on that, check out this article.) But it’s very likely that, at some point, a copy client is going to ask you to write content for them. Great—but where do those content samples belong on your portfolio site?

Your portfolio site is for featuring your very best work, so it makes sense to put great samples up there.

But remember that the primary purpose of your copywriting portfolio site is to highlight your copywriting samples.

A lot of new copywriters make the mistake of mixing their content and copywriting samples together. The message that sends to creative directors and marketing directors is that the copywriter doesn’t know the difference between the two.

And, obviously, that’s a terrible message to send.

The simple solution is to just have a separate section or page for your content work. You may even want to introduce it by saying your specialty is copywriting, but you do periodic content writing work for your clients.

Be sure, too, that all of the copy in the images you upload is legible. There’s no point in having samples up there if people can’t read your writing! It’s likely that you’ll need to use small thumbnail pictures that expand to full (readable) size when people click on them.

It’s not sufficient, either, to simply provide links to the URLs where your content lives. Your previous clients may move around their content or get rid of it completely, and then you’re left with unprofessional-looking broken links—not to mention no content samples.

Set your content apart and, since it’s your copywriting portfolio, be sure that you have more copywriting samples than content ones! You’ll feature your best work, and show potential clients the breadth of your skills.

Your turn! How have you added your content samples to your portfolio site? Let us know in the comments below!

The post Where Content Belongs on Your Copywriting Portfolio Site appeared first on Filthy Rich Writer.

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!

The post What Is Content Marketing? appeared first on Filthy Rich Writer.

“Content strategy” is one of those occasions in which the general business world confuses content and copy. Copy, as you know, is wording that sells or persuades someone to take action. Content, on the other hand, is wording that entertains, inspires or educates. To give a more concrete example, copy is the wording on a company’s homepage, content is the wording in their blog posts.

Content strategy, despite its name, actually has much more to do with copy than with content. In a nutshell, content strategy is the organization of copy around and across a site. This is the planning of where and how to use copy to best guide a visitor through a site (or through any online experience), as well as how to use that copy and the different interactions with it to help educate them and, eventually, persuade them to buy.

Now, could content strategy involve content, as well? Sure—a site needs to plan where and how its content will be used to accomplish the above goals, too. By and large, though, content strategy is concerned with the copy on a website, micro site, or online interaction.

How is Content Strategy Different from Copywriting?

A good copywriter (which you are, of course) should already be thinking about how his or her copy on a single page or in a single email (or in any place) is part of the complete experience a user has. In other words, you should always look at your copy projects holistically.

Even if you aren’t writing an entire email series, for example, you should know what emails come before and after the one you’re writing. You should also know where the call to action is sending someone. Is it a landing page? What’s on that landing page? Understanding the user journey will inform what you do (and don’t!) include in your copy.

Using a webpage as another example, a good copywriter should already be considering the possible places a user could have come from to get to this page and the possible places they may go after this page. That’s a piece of content strategy right there.

A content strategist, though, is thinking of the big picture and actually planning what the messaging will be across the entire interaction. Depending on this person’s role and the size of the company, they may or may not be doing the copywriting, as well. Often, they’ll also be responsible for editing work as well as publishing it, too.

And, of course, they’re not deciding on copy and content projects willy nilly. They’re digging into data to understand what messages are resonating, what holes can be filled, and refining existing copy to perform even better.

Whereas the copywriter is considering one piece of the puzzle, the content strategist is considering and assembling the entire puzzle.

How Do You Become a Content Strategist?

Content strategists are usually people who have a strong and extensive background in copywriting, paired with a solid grasp of user experience design and an understanding of technical possibilities and limitations.

If you’re just starting out as a copywriter, jumping into a content strategist role isn’t impossible, but it makes sense to get a couple of years under your belt first.

Try working as a copywriter as part of a team that has a content strategist. You can gain a lot of experience simply by watching what they do on a day-to-day basis. Offer to buy that person a coffee and talk about what it is they do and how they got into that role. It may provide insight into additional steps you can take. Depending on the company, you may even be able to take on some content strategist tasks to grow your skill set.

Content Marketing vs. Content Strategy

Now, to add another layer—and, hopefully, clear up a bit more confusion—let’s add to this the term “content  marketing.” Content marketing actually is related to content; in very broad terms, it’s the technique of creating and distributing relevant content to engage a target audience with a brand, hoping that this engagement will eventually lead to purchase.

Content marketing is really the planning and, yes, strategy that goes into how content (and content only) is created and distributed to help support a company’s goals.

Copywriting is different from content strategy, which, in turn, is different from content marketing. But they’re all just a little bit related.

Watch More

On episode 166 of the Build Your Copywriting Business podcast, Nicki and Kate talked with content strategist Amanda Hand about what a content strategist does on a day to day basis and key points to consider if you want to develop this skillset.

Your turn! Have you worked with a content strategist in any of your jobs thus far? What was your experience like? Let us know in the comments below!

The post What is Content Strategy? And How Is It Different from Copywriting? appeared first on Filthy Rich Writer.

Most non-industry people don’t understand the difference between content and copy. And it’s true that, as a copywriter, you’ll probably get paid to write content at least a few times. But it’s also very important that you demonstrate that you know the difference between the two. Here’s why.

A few weeks back, I was randomly website hopping. I found myself on a copywriter’s portfolio website. She had decided to embrace a niche and had deemed herself “The [her niche] Copywriter”—I won’t give you her real info to avoid calling her out. For now, let’s just say she called herself “The Cosmetics Copywriter.”

This is a fine, but I was curious to see what copy pieces she had in her book to support this expertise. (I always like to see good copy so I do a lot of poking around on portfolio sites.)

But in The Cosmetics Copywriter’s portfolio, what I found were blog and social media posts she had done for her cosmetic clients.

Lumping Copy and Content Together Mark You As a Novice

Here’s why this is a problem: What this says to me is that she doesn’t know the difference between copy and content. If I were looking to hire a copywriter to do cosmetics copywriting, I wouldn’t even call her because she’s demonstrated that she doesn’t understand how copy is different from content.

She is implying that she doesn’t get that copy is about selling and that content is not. And, if she writes content instead of copy, she’s not trained to focus on benefits, target audiences, brand voice, CTAs and all of the multitude of other factors that go into successful copy.

In short, “The Cosmetics Copywriter” is probably having a very hard time getting copywriting jobs because she is not a copywriter.

Where to Put Content Within Your Copywriting Portfolio

But wait! As I said above, you’ll probably get some work doing content writing at least a few times in your copywriting career. Does that mean you should leave your content pieces off of your portfolio site?

Absolutely not. Include your content samples on your site, but create different sections for content and copy.

Show potential clients and employers that you can write both copy and content—but show them that you know the difference between the two. Your expertise and understanding of writing principles and techniques are what makes you a desirable hire—so show them right away just what an expert you are.

Your turn! Do you have both content and copy samples? How do you separate them? Let us know in the comments below!

The post Why You Need to Separate Copy and Content on Your Portfolio Site appeared first on Filthy Rich Writer.

When you’re looking at job posts, you may see some that mention content writing. But what’s the difference between copywriting and content writing? Aren’t content and copywriting the same? When it comes to content writing vs. copywriting, is one better than the other? And what should you charge for each?

Many people outside of the writing industry don’t understand the difference (and there are some inside who don’t know either). But it’s important for you to know the difference between copywriting and content writing as you need to show the right samples to your prospective client or employer and discuss your experience with each type.

Differences Between Copywriting and Content Writing

Copywriting is writing designed to sell things to people or persuade them. That may be selling a product or a service, persuading people to take an action, or even convincing people to have a certain perception of a company or person.

Effective copywriting connects people who have a need with the best possible solution to that need. The word choices and ideas are designed to specifically connect and resonate with the target audience. Copywriting is not about being tricky or salesy (in fact, that can seriously backfire!).

Content writing is writing that offers information, inspiration, or entertainment.

Content is articles, blog entries, and social media posts (that is, social media posts that aren’t ads). As a copywriter, you’re bound to find a lot of clients or employers who will offer to pay you to do some content writing. Besides, you’ll see that a lot of what you’ve learned about copywriting will help to make you an even better content writer.

Content gives the reader a reason to visit the website or company’s Instagram feed, YouTube page, etc. again and again. And, of course, the more they interact with the company in these ways, the more likely they are to turn to the company when they would like to purchase something. This builds a relationship between the brand (the client for whom you’re writing) and the reader (the potential buyer).

Using your copywriting skills, it will be up to you to create strategic content that furthers the company’s goals and is useful to the reader.

Watch More

Watch this video for more on what makes copywriting different than content writing, why content writing is known as a churn-and-burn industry, and how copywriters can charge their full copywriting rates for content projects.

Why Content Writers Make Less Than Copywriters

Content writing can often pay less than copywriting. There are plenty of jobs offering content work at $0.05 a word. (Stay away from these jobs!) Companies have come to expect to get content writing services cheaply. 

Part of the reason is the proliferation of unskilled “writers” in the market. Many people erroneously think content writing does not require any expertise. On top of that, companies want (and even expect) to get content writing services cheaply. These companies also don’t even know how to screen for a certain skill level and so, the market is flooded.

This is why some low-skilled content writing jobs will be replaced by AI (more on that here).

Content writers benefit from having copywriting expertise.

Content writing can (and should be) strategic, which is where your training as a copywriter comes into play. You know how to focus on benefits, speak to your target audience, and inspire action in your readers—and content that is built with that strategy is more effective.

If you’re going to write content as a copywriter, then you should be charging your copywriting rate.

Why Copywriters Are Paid Well

Copywriting, on the other hand, pays well because it requires a higher level of skill and often directly translates to helping a client increase revenue. Of course, there will ALWAYS be some clients that try to get great copywriters for cheap, just as there are always people trying to get anything for cheap. But in the professional world, clients are generally willing to pay well for good copywriting.

So, all of this is why I teach copywriting: it’s more challenging, more interesting, more versatile and it pays better. If you want to make six figures as a copywriter? It’s absolutely possible.

What Copywriters Charge for Content Writing

Skilled writers produce more effective content than unskilled writers and should command higher rates. So, what does a copywriter charge for content work?

Copywriters writing content should charge their copywriting rates.

Why? Because clients are getting the extra level of strategy and insight that our copywriting training has given us. That insight is now infused into their content and content strategy.

And, just as with your copywriting projects, you should charge for content projects by the project—not by the word.

Professional copywriters do not charge by the word. Why? Because copywriting isn’t 100% about writing: It is one-third concepting, one-third writing, and one-third editing/making revisions. Therefore, charging by the word means you don’t get paid anything for two-thirds of the copywriting work you do!

Just as with copy, writing more for the sake of writing more does not make a piece of content more effective.

Sure, some clients may want to find content from other (read: cheaper) sources. Best of luck to them!. My clients respect my skill and what I have to offer to their company, and they are willing to pay for it. Yours should, too.

You deserve to work with clients who are willing to pay according to your level of skill. Don’t settle for less than you’re worth! 

Again, almost all professional copywriters also write content. It brings a welcome variety to your day—and your portfolio! 

Becoming a copywriter doesn’t mean that you’ll never write blog posts again if that’s what you like to do. It means that you’ll write them better and you’ll command higher rates for your services. And that’s a win for both you and your client.

More Terms to Know: B2B vs. B2C Copywriting

There are also two types of copywriting that you’re sure to encounter during your career: B2B vs. B2C copywriting. We dive into the differences between them and what you need to know as a copywriter in this post >>

Watch More

If you’re a copywriter looking to add content writing to the services you offer clients, watch this video before getting started. (And make sure you’re charging your copywriter rates!)

If you’re someone who loves writing, it is possible to offer both copywriting and content writing to your clients. You’ll just want to make sure you have the copywriting training that will enable you to offer your content clients even more value (and be able to charge accordingly!). One Comprehensive Copywriting student, Dori, was a content writer in the travel space before discovering copywriting. Watch her journey here >>

Your Turn!

Have you tried both copywriting and content writing? Which do you prefer and why? Let us know in the comments below!

The post Content or Copy: How to Tell the Difference and What Should You Charge appeared first on Filthy Rich Writer.