How many times have you heard the phrase “content is king”? Read just about any article about Internet marketing including some that I’ve written myself, and you’ll see some variation of the idea that “good content increases search engine rankings.” While I’m not here to deny that or tell you that your website doesn’t need good content, there is more to the content story.
See, all online copy is content but not all content is copy. What is the difference, if any, between writing copy for the web versus writing content? If you ask copy writers and content developers that question, you will get two different answers.
Dictionary definitions of copy and content are fairly interchangeable: matter to be printed; the subject matter of books or magazines; written material. There’s no mention of the Internet in these definitions. By their nature these are passive definitions, involving nothing more from the audience than that they view words on a page. But with all of the links, videos, audio, and interactive user-generated content, the Internet demands much more from—and offers much more to—its audience. An Internet audience is an audience of participants, not simply passive viewers.
Both content and copy can be interactive but let me put it this way . . . copy is what sells your prospects and content is what gets them to link to you or keeps them coming back (that’s why it’s called “sticky content”). Again, copy is sales oriented (hence “salescopy”) and content is just about everything else. Problems can arise when you have too much copy and not enough content.
For us at Limelight Department, we have mostly content on our main site and not much copy. We rely on our branding, portfolio, testimonials, and account executives to do our selling. For online sales we have satellite sites that speak to niche audiences and drive leads. The content have on our main site is articles, web tools, and tutorials—all the things that help people find the information they seek. This content encourages people to link to us and makes them want to come back for more. This approach is perfectly aligned with our philosophy of empowering and educating our clients so they can see the real value in the services we provide. But like all marketing, it’s not a one-size-fits-all solution. Your marketing, your content and copy needs to be customized not just in print but throughout your marketing strategy. This might mean you need much more copy than us, or it may need to be organized in a different fashion.
Also, combinations of content and copy are highly successful. I might have copy at the end of this article saying: “If you’d like more articles like this delivered direct to your inbox, please subscribe to our newsletter.” That call to action would be a great copy addition to increase the effectiveness of this content.
Sites that are merely informative with no copy may wonder why they’re not getting any sales, or why people are leaving their site so quickly. So on the other side of things it’s easy to see how you might have too much content and not enough copy.
Reading something on the Internet should not be like reading a newspaper article or a book. With those mediums, there’s no content, no interaction. No links to follow, no music, no instructional video or tools. It is dynamic and interactive. It is personal in a way that newspapers can’t be because in most cases an Internet user chooses to be looking at exactly the page they’re looking at, whereas a newspaper plunks a whole bunch of things into one compact form and hopes that people pick it up. A person reading a newspaper is unlikely to continue buying newspaper after newspaper if they don’t find exactly the information they’re looking for, but a person on the Internet has one thing with the power to help them do exactly that: their mouse. And it’s free.
Readers may be excited to begin a book, but once they turn the last page, that’s it, it’s done. But if looking at your page is actively engaging and leads to another action or further engaging information, then it’s sticky content and sales copy. . . It’s successful! And that should be the goal.
When you’re trying to engage a web audience, your page shouldn’t be a one-dimensional experience. Your copy should be active and compelling, and like the intention of an advertisement, should lead to an action: buy, subscribe, join, download, call, email, contact, click. Have your content be informative, but also inviting. Create a compelling call to action. Learn to incorporate active language, verbs, and clear directives: buy now, join today, try this, download, click here. Leave them not simply informed, but wanting more.
