What are the different types of copywriting?

Copywriting is the process of writing content which will make consumers interested in a product or service. It is an element of marketing or advertising which can be done in many different media, including ads, billboards, emails and other printed media. There are many different types of copywriting with the following being the most common.

SEO copywriting

SEO – or search engine optimisation – copywriting is about writing copy that is keyword-optimised for SEO. What this means is that when you’re performing SEO copywriting, you’ll take the list of keywords that the company has identified that people – who are searching for their company – are including in their searches and you’ll include these in the copy that you create.  The key is to add these keywords into the copy naturally so that it reads well

Direct response copywriting

Direct response copywriter, Glenn Fisher, defines ‘direct response copywriting’ as copy which is designed in order to lead the reader to a buying decision there and then, in that very moment. This type of copywriting doesn’t necessarily have to prompt people to actually buy something. Direct response copywriting can prompt people to, for example, sign up for your newsletter. The point is that this copywriting genre makes people take action as soon as they read the copy that you’ve written

Radio and television copywriting

As radio is solely an auditory medium and television is an auditory plus a visual medium, the methods of copywriting that you employ with these two channels will be different:

• With radio, you don’t have the advantage of seeing people’s body language and the way that they move, your copy will have to give the listener the full picture of what you’re trying to communicate. For example, if you’re writing a radio advertisement for a chocolate bar, and you want to convey the message that it’s absolutely delicious, you can’t rely on the person’s facial expressions while eating the chocolate to convey pleasure. You’ll have to convey this in your copy.

• However, with television, your copy can be less descriptive because you can rely on the person’s – featured on the television spot – body language, facial expressions, etc., – to convey messages. Thus, to carry on with the chocolate example, as you have the benefit of being able to see the people’s pleasure in eating the chocolate, you can use the copy for the television script to convey other messages.

Business to business copywriting

Businesses fall into two categories:

• Business to business (B2B), and
• Business to consumer (B2C).

B2B sells to businesses and B2C sells to consumers. As the target markets for these two business types differ, the way in which you would market to them will be fundamentally different as well. Thus the way in which copywriters construct copy for these two business marketing activities will be different as well.

A fundamental that copywriters, who specialise in B2B copywriting, need to master is that sales cycles in the B2B space are longer than in the B2C space. Take, for example, the purchasing of a laptop. In the B2C space, if a single consumer decides that he or she needs a new laptop they will go into a computer shop and purchase one. The time between them deciding that they need to make the purchase and actually buying the PC will be very short.

However, in the case of a company who needs to buy 100 laptops for their staff members, they will take a lot longer with researching and comparing prices in order to find one that suits their company’s budget.

Different writing projects need different skills, and writers evolve different skillsets, whether intentionally or simply as the natural consequence of their working experience. So the terms ‘copywriting’ and ‘copywriter’, although simple-sounding, actually encompass a range of specialisations as well as capabilities.

Get in touch with the Digital School of Marketing

If you would like to become a copywriter then you should do our National Diploma of Copywriting. For more information, please follow this link.