Copy Vs. Content

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Okay my copywriting geniuses, I have a question: am I wrong to think of the text on a business's website that is used to sell the business's service as copy instead of content?

More and more often I'm having clients try to hire me at my content writing rates whose "articles" and "blogs" turn out to not really be articles or blog posts at all but text on how to sell their products and services. The "articles" turn into "an article about why my company should be hired that I can use as my landing page" and "simple website content" turns into "biographies of my staff that will entice the causal viewer to contact each of these people directly."

To me? That's copy. Am I wrong? Have I been keeping my head down and focused on work for too long and missed a shift in the definition?

I can understand how it could be confusing. The text of a website is, technically, the content of that website. When it's used to sell or promote isn't it copy?

Thoughts?
#copywriting #content #copy
  • Most people are going to be unfamiliar with the definitions of "copy" and "content" as we use them, and what the differences are. I would think any text that goes on a company's website should be considered "copy," no matter what they call it, since if it's not pushing the company forward in some way it shouldn't be there.

    "Content" is a horrible word for writing anyway -- it implicitly devalues the text on a page to another commodity that needs to be purchased, which is perhaps one reason prices are so low -- most people just want you to churn out some words to fill the space.
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  • ALL life is copy, seducing us into its illusion of reality.
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    • I helped a friend write his dating profile. It did not go well. I am not sure to this day how to take that.

      Gary Halbert did OK, though I'm not sure the quality of the experience from his little job of selling himself.
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  • This is why I find myself not quite agreeing with one of the stickies in this section... about article writing versus copywriting.

    A lot of articles are written with the same copywriting principles in mind - get their attention with a good headline, hold their interest enought that they reach the end of the article, build their desire to take action by clicking on the signature link.

    Sounds suspiciously like copy to me

    Anyway, if something doesn't quite fit into one category, create a new category.

    You have CONTENT.

    You have COPY.

    Then you have a new category of CONTENT THAT SELLS.

    Offer your service from this new frame of reference.

    Bottom line, it's all words... but it's how you MARKET it that matters.
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  • Thanks for all of the thoughts and input you guys!
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    Copy Vs. Content

    Okay my copywriting geniuses, I have a question: am I wrong to think of the text on a business's website that is used to sell the business's service as copy instead of content? More and more often I'm having clients try to hire me at my content writing rates whose "articles" and "blogs" turn out to not really be articles or blog posts at all but text on how to sell their products and services. The "articles" turn into "an article about why my company should be hired that I can use as my landing page" and "simple website content" turns into "biographies of my staff that will entice the causal viewer to contact each of these people directly."