Online copywriting. copy and content: any difference?

People generally consider content and copy as two different entities. Well, it is true: they do have two different purposes. The intent of content is to provide information of some topic. Content can be cyclopedia articles, long descriptive text, tutorials or even image and media (as non-textual content). The intent of copy, nevertheless, is more inducement in nature. Although in some cases copy can resemble content; its primary election objective is engaging people to take action. Making a purchase, signing up for a newssheet, following a link or adding a page to bookmarker - whatever you want your visitant to do. So, while content informs, copy motivates.

But if you take a look at content and copy in terms of transition, the differences start attenuation away. No substance what you are going to create - a sales missive or a long article, all the words must contribute to the persuasive process. That is, in the eyes of a visitant all content is a copy and all copy is content.

In case your aim is devising a visitant simply click an AdSense or an affiliate link - an inducement copy is sufficiency. But if you are serious about merchandising your own merchandise or service, or even more important, making further sales to the same individual (creating a repeated customer) - you have to find a proper balance betwixt short motivation copy and informative content.

Consider an illustration of an online mortgage application service. When first arriving to the site your prospect customer is in the hunt for reply to the key inquiry in his mind: 'Am I in the right place? What should I do?' Here the frontpage copy has to do its job by engaging the visitant to go profoundly. And the status of eligibility, which are the informative content, have to be at least equally incentive in order to capture the visitor's attention and eventually motivate him to submit an application. Therefore, even such content as loan eligibility has to be written observing the core rules of copywriting which concern the usability, performance and motivation.

Copy and content must complement each other. There is no much use in a brilliant copy if it is accompanied by poor content which disappoints visitors. Same is right the other way around - a juicy, magical content will not do its job half as well if it is presented by a meaningless and vague copy.

Thus, so far there have been historical and organizational differences between the creation of copy and content. But these differences simply reflect the flaws in the persuasive and conversion processes. It is high time that you should break the barriers for the sake of the improved user experience and the success of your online business.