Copywriting vs Creative Writing: What’s the Difference?

By Aulia R. Sungkar

The writer is director of ALVEO 

What distinguishes copywriting and creative writing? It’s the rhetoric that most people seem to have; even writers are sometimes confused about the differences between those two.

Copywriter and creative writer are two different professions with different goals and target markets. To put it, copywriting deals with advertising and marketing like writing brochures, websites and press releases.

Creative writing, on the other hand, is broader; this profession also includes the work of copywriter as well as other types of writing such as scriptwriting, article writing, poems and writing non-fiction or fiction books.

Another difference is copywriters mostly deal with clients and sometimes these clients dictate the kind of content they want and things they want to promote. The goal is to convince readers to buy a specific product or service through their writing. Creative writers tend to be more independent, they can write whatever they want, and their main focus is to engage with the readers and make them interested in their writing.

There are plenty of job opportunities available for both professions, people with these skills can either work as a freelancer, promoting their works on social media or via freelancer websites; or they can work for a creative agency. Creative agencies are currently on the rise, especially those that offer digital services such as web development and social media marketing. Most often than not, these firms are looking for skilled writers who can do both. They can write great articles as well as writing a catchy ad copy.