What does a digital copywriter do?

When most people think about the term ‘copywriter’, they imagine someone in an ad agency who writes those long-form sales letters and eye-catching captions for online and print ads. And for some copywriters that’s true.

A digital copywriter might specialise in one form of copywriting, or work across several different types, but basically, what they do is write words that sell something, whether it’s a product or a service.

A digital copywriter differs from a digital content writer simply by the fact that copywriters write to sell, and content writers write to educate.

While they use many of the same skills as copywriters who write offline materials, such as printed brochures, posters, catalogues and leaflets, and while there may be some crossover in their job, digital copywriters concentrate only on online content, such as website landing page copy, blog and article writing, crafting compelling social media posts, and writing emails.

You might be a technical copywriter, a marketing copywriter, an advertising copywriter, a medical copywriter…

There are so many options to choose from that, whatever your background and experience, chances are there’s a copywriting job that will suit you.

To illustrate the difference between content writing and copywriting, let’s look at the role of the technical copywriter:

Technical writers put together user guides and technical manuals for products, often writing manuals that engineers will use when maintaining or repairing an item.

Technical copywriters, on the other hand, have expertise in a particular technology, science or engineering field, but their copy is written to sell an item rather than to teach how to use it or repair it.

Their knowledge is needed to put across the highly technical benefits in a clear and appealing manner so that potential buyers understand why they should purchase.