What Is Copywriting
Writing takes many forms, from fiction to non-fiction, yet all forms have a specific purpose. Fiction entertains, while non-fiction informs, persuades, … or promotes.
Generally speaking, copywriting promotes a person, opportunity, opinion, or idea. Regarding websites, it’s considered search engine optimization copy. Other mediums also use copywriting and copywriters: radio commercials, television ads, billboards, bus ads, magazine ads, newspaper ads etc. You get the picture. Some writers specialize in writing copy. So, what’s it all about?
Copywriting is an element of marketing, specifically designed to entice, persuade, or motivate a listener or reader to take action. This ‘action’ takes different forms: purchasing a product, subscribing to a newsletter, trying a product sample, or simply participating in a poll or survey. Interestingly, copywriting is also used to convince a listener/reader not to do (or believe) something.
Copywriters apply their skill to body copy, slogans, headlines, direct mail inserts, taglines, jingle lyrics, slug lines, captions, websites, news releases, and similar content. Other materials include: print ads, mail order catalogues, brochures, postcards, greeting cards etc.
The World Wide Web
On websites, copywriting means the style or method of writing and wording content slanted to achieve higher rankings with the search engines. This form of content writing places the proper placement and repetition of keywords and keyword phrases throughout a website. At one time, writing content for websites meant getting better rankings because the writing geared solely to the search engine algorithms. However, content writing for websites focuses more on human visitors first, and then with an eye toward search engine optimization. Either way, the key with this type of writing is producing fluent, readable copy/content written.
The purpose of copywriting is straightforward, but there is an art and science to it. There are courses on the subject, and it is a skill that takes years to master. If you have the talent for it, copywriting is a promising line of work with plenty opportunity to expand a career in it.
