Watch Your Language, Content Writers! We’re Not Advertisers by Holland Webb

Content Marketing (noun) def: marketing that tries to attract customers by distributing informational content potentially useful to the target audience, rather than by advertising products and services in the traditional way: content marketing through blogs and email newsletters.

If you want to be a copywriter, don’t mistake content marketing for advertising. The two fields overlap, but they aren’t the same thing. Advertising is a sponsored media production overtly intended to convince viewers to buy a product or service. Content marketing, by contrast, informs the reader about something useful, setting up the company as a knowledgeable asset to the potential buyer. When purchase time rolls around, the potential buyer turns to the vendor who has best earned their trust and friendship.

Advertising has been around since the ancient Egyptians used papyrus to paper their walls. Content marketing is a newer concept.

The first content marketer was Benjamin Franklin. In 1732, Mr. Franklin published Poor Richard’s Almanack to promote his printing business. The concept grew from there. John Deere launched a farming magazine in 1895. Michelin put out its famous red guide in 1900. And Jello favored the public with a free cookbook in 1904.

Despite these successes, content marketing took a backseat to advertising throughout the 19th and 20th centuries.

Until television appeared in our homes, newspaper ads, pamphlets, flyers, and songs promoted everything from motel stays to presidential candidates with a heavy-handed advertiser’s approach. Later, small businesses relied on locally produced commercials aired on linear television to bring in buyers. These commercials were often so cringe-worthy that YouTube megastars Rhett & Link built their initial platform by making parody videos of local advertising. National brands, however, produced classier television advertisements leading to a near eradication of small businesses as buyers favored branded products and retailers over local outlets.

Content marketing, meanwhile, played on the sidelines of sales.

And then along came something that changed all our lives: the internet.

With it, emerged a whole new way that sellers could talk to buyers. In 2001, Penton Custom Media in Ohio began using the term content marketing to describe what select businesses had done since Ben Franklin’s days – inform and entertain potential buyers. Less than 20 years later, content marketing is leading the charge for commerce. Why? Mainly because content marketing costs 62% less than outbound marketing such as traditional advertising, but it generates three times more leads.

If you have read this far and you ever find yourself on Jeopardy facing a list of questions from the “history of advertising” category, you are good to go.

You are also a more informed copywriter.

How? You ask.

Because you now know that you aren’t writing those weird commercials from yesteryear. Instead, you’re writing to help your reader make an informed decision while positioning your employer as the wise counselor the buyer can turn to when choosing what to purchase.

In other words, drop the marketing speak. Focus on helping the reader.

When I worked with a team to write websites for an economy hotel chain, I fell prey to the advertising temptation. It was easy to write phrases that sounded sales-y such as:

• We guarantee a great night’s sleep. (You can’t guarantee that. No one can.)
• Our pool will relax you after a hard day of business. (Unless, of course, said pool is filled with screaming kids. Again, it’s not helpful to the reader.)
• We have the most attractive motel rooms in the area. (That’s a judgement call and unlikely.)

As my editor at the time, put it, “There is only one unparalleled hotel experience. It’s called Burj Al Arab Jumeirah. It’s located in Dubai. Guests there can enjoy an indoor waterpark, a helipad, a private beach, and a chauffeur-driven Rolls Royce.”

Sounds like a fantastic setting for a novel, I thought.

“Your little chain motel with a coin-operated laundry and free internet,” Emily the Editor said, “isn’t in the same league. So don’t say it is.”

When you sit down to write copy, don’t try to emulate the used-car salesman style schtick of yesterday’s copywriter. Leave guarantees, overwrought emotional phrases, and sparkling prose aside. Go with relevant, helpful information shared in a positive and friendly tone that bolsters your reader’s knowledge and elevates your client’s industry position.

If you do that, your client will grow in perceived wisdom, in industry stature, and in favor with their target audience. Plus, your own portfolio will grow, too. Good luck!

Holland Webb is a full-time freelance copywriter and digital marketing strategist living near Greenville, SC. His clients are leaders in the online retail, higher education, and faith-based sectors. Holland has written for brands such as U.S. News & World Report, iLendX, Radisson, Country Inn & Suites, MediaFusion, Modkat, Great Bay Home, IMPACT Water, and BioNetwork. He is a featured writer on Compose.ly, and his monthly copywriting column appears on Almost An Author. You can reach him at www.hollandwebb.com or at hollandlylewebb@gmail.com.