bethwrites

Content writing vs copywriting: what’s the difference?

Thu, 30 Oct 2025 14:58:47 GMT

W hether you’re looking to become a writer or you’re searching to hire someone, you’re probably wondering…

What is the difference between content writing and copywriting?

Do you need both for your business? As the writer, should you learn to master both skills? As a content and copywriter, I’m here to break it down for you.

Hi, I’m Beth – I’m a freelance writer based in Scotland . I started freelancing in 2014 and have written content and copy for brands across the world.

What is content writing ?

Let’s start with content writing. Some people define it differently, but here’s how I summarise it: content writing is creating longer-form pieces that help the reader understand the brand better. The content should be valuable, original, educational, entertaining, and/or informational.

Written content includes blog posts, articles, video scripts, landing pages, e-books, white papers, listicles, guides, social media captions, infographics, case studies , and offline publications. This content aims to boost brand awareness and increase engagement. It's crafted to attract potential customers and appeal to them, building credibility between the brand and the viewer.

For instance, this article is a piece of content writing. The aim is to answer the query: ‘What’s the difference between content writing and copywriting?’ If you’ve stumbled across it, it should give you a bit of insight into my brand. It’s a free resource to help you out and, if you find it valuable, it puts me on your radar for any future queries about hiring a freelance content writer.

Content writing is like a magnet, pulling your ideal customer closer to your brand.

What is copywriting ?

Copywriting is using words to persuade the reader to take an action. This might be buying a product, signing up for a newsletter, or tuning into a podcast. Typically, copy is more concise and to the point. It might be a line for an advert, a slogan, or a tagline. Take Nike’s ‘ Just do it ’ for example. That’s great, memorable copy.

Copywriters will work on ad campaigns, website copy, email marketing, social media posts, brand messaging, product descriptions, funnels, and print marketing material.

Copywriting aims to convert leads, especially for people who already understand the brand and are considering taking action. For example, if you’re watching live TV and an advert comes on for a local restaurant, the content of the advert might tell a story and give you an insight into what to expect if you dine there. At the end of the ad, there will be persuasive copy that encourages you to make a reservation.

Copywriting is sales-focused, using the power of language and clear wording to encourage the reader to buy something.

Are content writing and copywriting the same ?

No, they are not the same, but many people use the term interchangeably. Content writing is longer written content designed to attract, educate, and inspire your audience. Copywriting is clear, concise, and persuasive writing intended to drive conversions.

If you hear someone say they’re a copywriter, it’s worth asking what they mean – and vice versa. Oftentimes, they might be using either term to indicate a mixture of writing services. With that in mind, there are many writers (like me!) who do both content writing and copywriting .

Similarly, if you’re applying for a copywriting job, be sure to read the job description carefully, as it may also include writing blog posts, articles, and case studies, which is more content writing.

Do I need a content writer and a copywriter for my business ?

Brands need words to connect with their audience. If you want to attract a following and drive sales, then yes, you need both a content writer and a copywriter.

You can hire two people separately, or you can find someone who can do both. Many established freelance writers have skills in both content writing and copywriting. Get in touch with me and let's talk about your brand and goals.

If you’re a freelance writer, you can choose to specialise in just one avenue or hone your skills in both. As a writer, I think it’s important to have skills in both areas, as this opens up more opportunities.

The journey of content writing and copywriting .

To summarise, content writing is the attraction. Copywriting is the ride.

Content writing looks like awareness. People know about your fairground.

Then it looks like interest . People might come along to see what’s on offer.

Copywriting, then, is about helping the customer make a decision . Which ride should they go on?

Then, finally, there’s action . This is when the customer chooses the ride.

In realistic terms, awareness is a blog post. Interest is following your social media accounts. Decision-making is looking through your products. Action is purchase.

Freelance content writing and copywriting services .

Do you want to make more people aware of your brand? Do you want to use stronger language to persuade customers? I’m a freelance writer based in Scotland with 11 years of experience. Contact me and tell me about your brand and goals. We can schedule a discovery call or meet for a coffee if you’re local.

Driving Force

Wed, 29 Oct 2025 12:00:56 GMT

Andrew Dodds Autocare is a car garage in Ayr – their expert mechanics utilise advanced technology to perform MOTs, services, repairs, fit new tyres, and much more.

In October 2023, I joined as their freelance copywriter, tasked with writing all their website copy – including home pages, service pages, and the contact page – as well as writing new blog posts to improve their SEO rankings.

Copywriting and SEO strategy .

After carefully updating the website copy to ensure it was on brand – authoritative, knowledgeable, and quality-driven while still being approachable – and aligned with our overall SEO strategy, we quickly saw huge results.

At the start of our project, the garage was ranking organically for 29 keywords. By May 2025, this had increased to 342 , with a steady incline over the previous months.

In the top position and ‘People Also Ask’ section, the website has ranked for dozens of keywords, including high volume and local ones like:

‘full service car’ (2.4k searches)
‘what does a service on a car include’ (1.3k searches)
‘how often car maintenance’ (1k searches)
‘partworn tyres’ (880 searches)
‘automobile service’ (590 searches)
‘how much full service car’ (320 searches)
‘car service ayr’ (110 searches)
‘car repairs ayr’ (90 searches)

The client wanted to rank well for important local keywords, such as ‘car servicing Ayr’ and ‘car repairs Ayr’. These are the results:

‘Car servicing Ayr’ – increased from position 100+ to position 4
‘Car repairs Ayr’ – increased from position 100+ to position 4
‘Mechanic Ayr’ – increased from position 100+ to position 5
‘MOT Ayr’ – increased from position 100+ to position 7

Increasing visibility .

The client wanted to increase their visibility on Google so more people could find them when searching for an MOT or a service. At the start of the project, the Google visibility was 5.82%. In just two months, our SEO strategy increased this to 22% . This trend continues to improve, and as of October 2025, it was at 32% .

This was achieved significantly through increasing the average position. For the keywords we were tracking, the client went from an average position of 71 to 6.6 – an overall increase of about 90% .

Social media presence .

As part of the project, I worked closely with the Creative Director to strategise how to be more active on the client’s social media accounts, ensuring a friendly but clear brand voice. The garage wanted to be positioned as a warm, non-jargon establishment that specialises in all kinds of cars, from everyday small vehicles to high-end classic models.

We approached this with a mix of engaging content, including helpful car care tips, company updates, behind-the-scenes from the garage – including what the team worked on each day – as well as sharing customer reviews to showcase the garage’s reputation and reliability.

In the first three months of managing Facebook, content interactions and visits increased by 100% . Link clicks increased by 200% and follows rose by 71% compared to the three months prior. On Instagram, the reach, link clicks, and visits all increased by 100% .

I worked on the accounts for nearly two years. In the last 90 days of managing the accounts, compared to the 90 days prior, the Facebook growth looked like:

Views increased by 91%
Content interactions increased by 90.5%
Link clicks increased by 11,600%
Visits increased by 8.4%
75 new followers were gained

Instagram growth looked like this:

Views increased by 316%
Reach increased by 197%
Content interactions increased by 124%
Visits increased by 20.3%
20 new followers were gained

As the social media manager, I continued to explore new ways to increase engagement, interaction, and followers over the two-year project period. It was a pleasure to work with Andrew Dodds Autocare and improve their visibility on Google and social media, and see them fully booked over a month in advance, all year round.

– CLIENT TESTIMONIAL –

"Anyone looking for a social media manger, look no further than Beth. She worked closely with us, always keeping us in the loop, while increasing engagement massively."

- Andrew Dodds, Owner

Styling Spaces

Thu, 02 Oct 2025 10:42:08 GMT

Saxen is a commercial interiors company, specialising in innovative, contemporary, and sustainable solutions for spaces that range from welcoming to meeting, learning, eating, and working.

They offer both new and preloved furniture, with a showroom and refurbishment facility located in East Ayrshire, Scotland. In 2023, Saxen hired me on a retainer basis to write articles, manage their social media, make their case studies site-friendly, and proofread any new media.

An insight into Saxen .

During the 24 months we worked together, I wrote several articles to enhance their site's authority and improve SEO. One of the first articles published was ‘ The power of biophilic office design ’, which, in 2024, was the top source of organic traffic for Saxen, apart from their home page. It was responsible for 15% of all page views .

' Product showcase: from fleece to furniture ’ was published in July 2024 after Saxen became the Scottish distributor for the award-winning Solidwool range. This performed excellently, and the product remains a talking point in the showroom to this day. For this piece, I also took some photographs of the product in the showroom for Saxen’s social media.

In September 2024, we published ‘ Diversity and inclusivity in the workplace ’ to ensure that Saxen was positioned at the forefront of awareness around creating inclusive spaces. In December 2024, we published ‘ Mocha Mousse: Pantone Colour of the Year 2025 ’, which ranked on the first page of Google with both an image pack and in the ‘People also ask…’ section.

You can view more of the ‘insight’ pieces I wrote for Saxen here .

Newsworthy stories .

As Saxen is such a busy company, I was also instructed to write various news pieces for their website, social media, and local magazines, including the Ayrshire Chamber of Commerce’s ‘ Your Business ’. The first news piece we published was to announce the new programme for reusing, recycling, and reworking office furniture: Regener8 .

About 18 months later, Regener8 was rebranded as the RefurbHub , and Saxen merged with the furniture refurbishment company, The Office Crowd. To announce this merger, I wrote a news piece and a script for an accompanying video.

SEO results .

Through just a few SEO-friendly tweaks and ensuring all new content was optimised for ranking on Google, in the first 12 months of working with Saxen, the organic keyword ranking increased by 400% . In the next 12 months, this increased by a further 131% .

Visibility increased by 680% and the average position on Google increased by 19 places . The top landing pages – besides the home page – were four blog pieces:

Social media management .

As part of my role, I was responsible for Saxen’s social media accounts, including LinkedIn , Facebook , and Instagram . This included strategising the content, sourcing and creating content, writing the copy, and engaging with followers. Working closely with the client and the creative director, we maintained steady growth for Saxen.

In the 90 days, up to September 30, 2024, the growth has looked like:

5% follower increase on LinkedIn
17.7% engagement rate growth on LinkedIn
90% increase in impressions on LinkedIn
75% increase in reach on LinkedIn
202% increase in clicks on LinkedIn
56% increase in reactions on LinkedIn
188% increase in comments on LinkedIn
155% increase in shares on LinkedIn
291% increase in views on Instagram
141% increase in engagement on Instagram
54% increase in views on Facebook
27% increase in interactions on Facebook
28% increase in link clicks on Facebook
70% increase in visits on Facebook

– CLIENT TESTIMONIAL –

"Our online visibility has increased considerably since working with Beth. She creates quality content, is an excellent communicator, and comes up with original ideas for connecting with our audience. I highly recommend working with Beth for copywriting and social media management."

- Shirley Wallace, Co-Owner

Case studies and proofreading .

In addition to my work as a copywriter and social media manager for Saxen, I also proofread all new media, including brochures, exhibition stands, and newsletters, making any necessary adjustments to grammar, tone, and clarity. This also included proofreading case studies and adapting them for the website. You can view case studies here , including for Savills, Culzean Castle Home Farm Kitchen, Ashurst, Abertay Uni, and William Duncan, among others.

Looking for a copywriter and social media manager for your local business in Glasgow or Ayrshire? Let’s meet for a coffee and talk about your project.

In Good Taste

Sat, 20 Sep 2025 21:09:47 GMT

La Dragon is a fine-dining Chinese restaurant and champagne lounge located in Kilmarnock.

It opened in 2018, but in 2023, they needed a social media manager to post updates, photograph dishes and cocktails, and refresh the website content.

The first three months of social media marketing .

In October 2023, La Dragon hired me to manage their Instagram and Facebook. They already had an established following of about 13,000 people, but they didn’t have a strategic or consistent approach in place.

In the first three months of managing the Facebook account...

Reach increased by 747% to over 79,000 people
Content interactions rose 68,000%
Page visits increased by 1100%
They gained 115 followers

A consistent social media marketing strategy .

I remained consistent with our social media strategy, and in 2024, they reached 163,000 people – more than 11 times their follower count. Compared to the previous year, content interactions increased by 32% , link clicks rose by 280% , and page visits increased by 135% .

Statistics today .

After two years of managing the account, analytics show steady improvement. In the most recent 90-day period (22 June – 19 September 2025) compared to the 90 days before,

Views increased by 28.9%
Content interactions increased by 13.3%
Link clicks increased by 12.4%
Page visits increased by 6.5%

Improvements remain steady through tracking what types of content perform well, seasonal launches (such as summer cocktails), and engagement tactics like encouraging followers to tag friends, expanding reach and driving reservations.

Instagram marketing strategy .

On Instagram, I had to adapt the strategy slightly, since people are less likely to tag friends, and the demographic is slightly younger. After analysing the data, the strategy included using reels, tapping into relevant trends, and ensuring the Instagram grid reflected the brand, emphasising the black and gold colour palette through graphics designed by our creative director. I also made use of Instagram stories stickers, including polls and question boxes.

From January 1 to September 19, 2025 – compared to the previous 9.5-month period – reach increased by 461% , content interactions and link clicks increased by 100% , page visits increased by 15% , and follows rose by 6,000% .

It is important that the strategies are tailored for each social media platform to ensure the best possible reach and customer conversion.

Strategic and luxurious website copy .

In addition to managing La Dragon’s social media, I was also asked to rewrite the website copy, with the brief advising that it should feel luxurious, clever, and enticing, while also boosting SEO.

Winning SEO rankings

SEO ranking improvements include:

Chinese Kilmarnock: #1 (up from #6)
Chinese restaurants in Kilmarnock: #1 (up from 100+)
Chinese restaurants in Kilmarnock: #1 (up from 100+)
Chinese food Kilmarnock: #1 (up from #5)
Kilmarnock takeaway: #6 (up from 100+)
Kilmarnock restaurants: #6 (up from #30)
Places to eat Kilmarnock: #7 (up from #36)

Before updating La Dragon’s website copy, the restaurant’s visibility was about 40% on Google. SEO efforts and updated branded copy improved the visibility up to 79% .

The average keyword position was also 50 before website copy updates. After just a month of working on the copy and incorporating the essential keywords onto the site, the average position of our tracked keywords was 5 . This continued to improve to an average position of 2.5 after a year of working on the website and updating it with new information, events, and blogs.

In the last 30 days, site visits and site engagement have both improved by 25% compared to the 30 days prior, highlighting that we continue to make changes to improve visibility and keep our Google rankings.

– CLIENT TESTIMONIAL –

"Thank you, Beth, for sorting out our website and social media."

- Kenny Cheung, Owner

Working with La Dragon has strengthened my expertise in local organic SEO, content strategy for the hospitality industry, and photography/videography.

Ergonomic Excellence

Mon, 08 Sep 2025 12:36:49 GMT

Ergohuman hired me to assist with setting up and launching their official online store to sell ergonomic gaming and office chairs directly to consumers.

My role included writing the website copy across all landing pages, product descriptions for over 45 chair models, articles, alt text, and meta descriptions, while making sure it was optimised for search engines.

Ergohuman’s goal was to attract more online customers and build its B2C market. They needed a website that was easy to read and navigate, reflected their high-end product, and converted visitors into buyers.

What I did for Ergohuman .

I conducted a full brand audit and consultation, which was used to decipher the tone of voice: authoritative, readable, and ever so slightly playful. I wrote landing pages that were in-depth but still scannable, providing a fountain of information to customers so they could make an educated decision about buying an Ergohuman chair.

I created a blogging strategy and wrote articles to boost organic traffic, attracting people who didn’t yet know they needed a high-end ergonomic chair, as well as those who were after something very specific, leading to increased customer numbers. Examples of articles written include: ‘ Student essentials: what you really need for going to university ’, ‘ Office chairs and other gadgets for people with ADHD ’, and ‘ What does lumbar support do on ergonomic chairs? ’.

I developed direct response copy for key landing pages and email campaigns, contributing to a highly successful VIP email marketing campaign during the Black Friday week that contributed to boosting sales by 140% compared to the Back-to-School campaign two months prior.

Alongside the website, I managed the social media strategy and content to increase visitors, leading to over 100,000 site sessions from social media referrals . My social management role included creating a strategy for both organic and paid ads, tracking the analytics, making changes to optimise the campaigns, and building a loyal community of fans and followers.

Results achieved for the Ergohuman online store.

Let’s take a closer look at the results achieved through my time with Ergohuman.

Immediate measurable growth

Over a 16-month collaboration period, I helped Ergohuman achieve measurable growth across its B2C business, generating a significant increase in sales revenue . Between January and September 2025, orders and sales increased by 56% compared to the previous 8-month period. Site sessions increased by 14% , while the conversion rate rose by 27% , indicating that more visitors were converting into customers. Sales of their flagship product increased by 45% , and returns dropped by 6% , reflecting customer confidence and clearer communication about the products. This wasn’t a short-term peak, but a consistent growth throughout the collaboration, with momentum rising in the first couple of months and growing steadily month by month until September 2025, when the partnership was complete.

Winning SEO rankings

As for SEO, we were ranking on the first page of Google, including in the top position, in the ‘People Also Ask’ section, and in the image pack feature for many popular keywords, such as ‘ergonomic study chair’, ‘green office chairs’, and ‘desk chair with headrest’. Our top 10 keywords had a total search volume of 4,740 , capturing customers who were intent on buying our products. These rankings were achieved through a combination of the website’s home page and product pages, with a predominant focus on blogs, highlighting the importance of organic and original long-form content written by humans, rather than AI.

For our chosen and tracked keywords, we secured top organic rankings for the most competitive and commercially valuable terms: Ergohuman; Ergohuman chair; Ergohuman gaming; Ergohuman shop; Ergohuman store; Mirus gaming chair.

In fact, in the first two months of launching the website, we were ranking:

#1 position: Ergohuman gaming; Ergohuman store

#2 position: Mirus gaming chair

#3 position: Ergohuman shop

#4 position: Ergohuman office chair

#5 position: Ergohuman; Ergohuman

Organic search results

Compared to our competitors in the industry, we achieved the highest organic search traffic – 349% more than the subsequent highest website . Even though we had fewer total keywords than this competitor, our site consistently attracted more organic traffic, since our strategy focused on ranking for high-value, commercially relevant terms, rather than overall keyword quantity.

In September 2025, blogs were responsible for more than 47% of our organic traffic , with the other half being driven by the home page, collection pages, general pages, and product pages, showing the importance of having an SEO strategy, relevant keywords, and strong writing across an entire site.

– CLIENT TESTIMONIAL –

"Beth thinks outside of the box and uses original language to help us rank on Google and build customer trust, coming up with fresh ways to present very technical information."

- Gareth Gillespie, Owner

Results were achieved quickly through a focused SEO strategy that combined using relevant, high-intent keywords and website copy that captured an authoritative but approachable tone of voice. I wrote content for landing pages tailored to the buyer’s search intent, wrote blogs to build authority, and optimised metadata and alt text to further incorporate our chosen keywords.

My role centred on SEO strategy, execution, and web copy. Still, these outcomes were achieved in collaboration with the wider marketing team, who built an excellent website with a strategic flow and produced incredible images and videos to enhance the user experience. Together, this combination led to fast, measurable growth.

The Comfort Zone

Fri, 01 Aug 2025 14:11:13 GMT

Comfort Seating UK is the official distributor of the Ergohuman office chair. Their mission is to provide ergonomic and durable seating solutions that prioritise environmental responsibility.

In 2023, Comfort Seating UK hired me to write and edit website copy and implement SEO strategies for their new website, focusing on their B2B market. The website was already live and gaining traffic, but the copy needed to be proofed and edited for clarity, grammar, correctness, and flow. As well as a full edit, they also needed new landing pages to target high-intent keywords and SEO-friendly articles in order to appear on Google for more search terms.

In the first 12 months, the SEO strategy resulted in increased keyword rankings by over 1,200% to more than 750 keywords. Visibility also rose quickly, growing 160% in the first two months and 600% in the first 12 months .

Improving SEO rankings .

In the first two months, our average position on Google grew by 38 %. One of the client’s main goals was to have the term ‘Ergohuman’ appear on the first page of Google. By early December 2023, the SEO strategy had taken us from the 52 ^nd spot on Google to the third spot , alongside keywords ‘comfort seating’ and ‘ergohuman benefits’.

We took other keywords – ‘fabric vs mesh chairs’, ‘enjoy elite’, ‘enjoy office chair’, ‘mirus elite’, ‘ergohuman gaming chair’, ergohuman elite g2’, ‘musculoskeletal chair’ – from beyond the top 100 into the top five positions . These keywords were carefully chosen and targeted to reach the client’s ideal audience."

– CLIENT TESTIMONIAL –

“We were impressed how Beth helped us implement our SEO strategy and got us ranking in the first position for our chosen keywords so quickly, helping us drive traffic and find our target market.”

- Gareth Gillespie, Owner

Organic search traffic in 12 months .

In the first 12 months of launching our SEO and wider marketing strategy, organic search traffic increased by over 4800% . The second most significant landing page for generating organic traffic was the article about mesh vs. fabric office chairs, garnering 8% of all website traffic , which highlights the importance of writing original and helpful content for potential buyers.

Other articles that generated high traffic include “ Are premium ergonomic office chairs worth it? ” and “ Is the optional legrest on the Ergohuman office chair worth it? ”. Alongside the SEO strategy and articles, I assisted with writing content for brochures, proofreading digital and print media, working on SEO for the client’s YouTube channel , managing the animator’s content, and crafting the content for newsletters.

A Clean Sweep

Mon, 07 Jul 2025 17:16:01 GMT

Oh So Spotless is an online resource that educates readers on the best ways to clean and organise their homes, with an emphasis on sustainable and eco-friendly practices.

The company hired me to write original long-form articles to provide useful information to readers and target more keywords. When I started in February 2020, the website was ranking for over 14,000 keywords already. After writing four to five articles per week, by September 2022, we were ranking for more than 375,000 keywords .

I was assigned weekly articles, and in my four years writing for Oh So Spotless , I never missed a deadline. Beyond writing new pieces, the client hired me to edit and update existing content directly through WordPress, ensuring the site was following the best SEO practices.

I also joined the client’s HARO team, reaching out to journalists with authoritative quotes. This led to features in reputable sites, such as Realtor, New York Magazine, Apartment Therapy, and Hunker.

– CLIENT TESTIMONIAL –

“I want to thank Beth for everything during our time together. She had the best combination of writing skills and industry knowledge, knocking this position out of the park.”

- Robert Botha, Site Founder