UX Writing vs Copywriting: Which One Is Best?14 min read

UX Writing vs Copywriting is a topic that is getting increasingly popular amongst writers for businesses. Both are needed, but which is best?

Copywriting vs UX writing is a much debated topic in modern times.

There is no denying that you essentially need both, as one encourages direct sales, and the other retains and inspires customer satisfaction.

Copywriting is a most familiar term.

However, UX writing is getting increasingly popular every day.

While copywriting focuses on product sales, UX writing guides users to a more user-friendly service.

A satisfied customer is a regular customer.

So the job of a UX writer is to simplify product usage through better instructions, directions, and words.

On the other hand, copywriters have the task to market the products better, and they work directly with the marketing team most of the time. 

As a result, we can understand that copywriters focus on promotion, and UX writers focus on customer ease and satisfaction.

People are becoming more aware of how user experience is essential to engage your clients.

So copywriters are still essential, but the demand for UX writers and awareness of UX is increasing more than ever.

With that in mind, you are free to focus on which type of writing you choose for yourself.

However, it is really necessary that you understand UX writing fundamentals and copywriting fundamentals very clearly.

Here in this article, we will try to give you a better idea about both so that you can be decisive yourself about which is best.

First, let us understand the fundamental meanings of both in depth.

What is UX?

UX simply means user experience. Your users expect to have your products or services in the best way they can.

With the rise of NFTs and ecommerce, many of your products could even be digital products.

In that case, your sales page must also feel digitally interactive and updated. 

UX writing helps the user easily navigate through a website, webpage, or multiple pages. It makes the experience seamless, which is why it is a big part of modern product design.

So improving the users’ comfort and ease would mean improving the user experience.

Focusing on UX can make the interface of your website more interactive. 

What does UX writer do?

UX writers help users to complete a task more easily.

They navigate the existing customer or user to purchase their desired service or search for a particular subject seamlessly.

So they mostly work with a website’s marketing and design teams.

UX writers need to write more conversationally than copywriters.

They are like guides sitting beside the user and directing them to their desired place as easily as possible.

So, a UX writer possesses a friendly approach while writing and makes their words more interactive and suggestive. It is the core part of their job description.

Let’s talk about the types of UX writing the UX writers undertake.

Types of UX Writing

UX writing has many sectors. The terms mentioned below will help you better understand what types of UX writings there are.

UX Copy

A major form of UX writing is writing UX Copy.

It means writing any part of the text to improve the user experience.

UI Copy

There is also Interface Copy.

The common message prompts like terms and conditions, error messages, tabs, button labels, and all interface materials are included in this.

UI Content

Additionally, UI Content, meaning user interface content is also important.

Your company’s or website’s user interface holds the key to the content that would help your user navigate your product or service with ease.

So focusing on the interface should not be forgotten.

Microcopy

Moreover, Microcopy is another key element here.

It is a small bit of copy on applications, products, or websites. Knowingly or unknowingly, we write microcopy everywhere.

From the call to action button on a website to a placeholder text to let the user know the system is working, microcopies are everywhere.

When we press “send” and our work shows “sending”, that reassures us that the system is working for us.

Small texts which let us know our work is “done”, or our task is “completed” are so satisfactory.

So writing microcopy thoughtfully is definitely great for improving user experience.

All of these are real-life examples of UX Writing. 

It might seem that writing these are small tasks. However, you need to have great empathy towards your users and a proper survey.

In the end, these will give you ideas about proper UX writing which would not come to you otherwise.

While the term UX is not brand new, it is being explored more and more.

People are being more aware of UX writing and its different dimensions.

To get yourself more familiar with UX design and UX writing, it is better to get familiar with some of the best practices in UX writing.

UX Writing Best Practices

There are key things to keep in mind while you write for improving UX.

Regularly practicing to integrate these within writing will greatly increase your website’s or page’s user-friendliness.

Focus on navigation

Users should be able to navigate your website naturally.

Consumers should not be confused about where to click next or where to go next.

Broken links can hurt your user experience. So fix them while you can.

Make proper use of images

Without visual content, your sight might feel stale.

Add images where you can to boost the viewership experience.

Mobile Optimization

It is really necessary for websites to be mobile-friendly.

Many people visit sites from the comfort of their handset, and not keeping up would be a mistake.

Update your content

Watching out-of-date content on your website can be a big turn-off for your target audience.

So keep your content and blog posts up to date.

Structured and Conversational Writing

A well-sectioned text is always pleasing to see on your webpage or social media.

Simplify your writing as much as possible.

In addition, think about how you can make your words more friendly.

How you would interact with a friendly customer is how you should interact in your UX writing too.

When you are writing headlines, tweets, or UI copy, the conversational language keeps the content short and sweet.

Additionally, when all your other writings are grammatically correct, conversational UX writing gives the impression that you are a capable writer.

You are just avoiding common verbs and ending on prepositions to make your UX writing impactful.

What is Copywriting?

Copywriting means writing about your product or service to gain the best amount of sales.

It is directly connected with promoting a brand, business, company, products, or services.

So we can say it is a form of marketing through your writing. It can be also called sales writing.

Professional copywriters directly work with marketing teams or product teams most of the time.

Any advertisements you see where a product, brand, or service is being promoted through you through texts is a form of copywriting.

For example, if you open any social media platform page and notice an ad promoting a discount on a product or service, it is a form of copywriting.

Copywriting helps you get to your target audience more impactfully.

It is a highly traditional marketing practice.

So now that you have a better understanding, let us go through various types of copywriting which are most used.

1. Direct Response Copywriting: This focuses on urgency so that the reader immediately takes action after reading your promotional text.
2. SEO Copywriting: The content written on your website with keyword optimization that helps you rank higher in search engines is SEO copywriting.
3. Website Copywriting: The copywriting done on your website’s homepage, landing page, or other subsections is called website copywriting. It prompts your viewer to complete a certain action to lead them to their desired product or service.
4. Social Media Copywriting: Social media nowadays drives a massive portion of e-commerce through non-paid posts. So the good copywriting done on the posts is also a great reason for sales.
5. Video copywriting: The copywriting done for video scripts are also responsible for a lot of sales. 
6. Ad Copywriting: Advertisements deliver your content directly to your customers for increasing sales.
7. Blog Copywriting: Blog posts enrich your site’s or platform’s credibility.
8. Email Copywriting: It can lead your current or potential customers to read your blog, make a reply, sign up for a trial, or subscribe to your newsletter. Thus, it is a major focus on email marketing.
9. Sales Page Copywriting: Focusing on how your product or service benefits and or solves a customer’s particular problems is a great conversion point. This is what sales page copywriting does.
10. UX Copywriting: This is where UX and copywriting merge. It can also be denoted as technical writing focused on short pieces of copy or microcopy. Regardless, we do in UX copywriting what we do in regular copywriting; just in a technical manner in a shorter form.

So now that you have some great copywriting examples, let us look over the duties, responsibilities, and workings of a copywriter. 

What Does A Copywriter do?

Copywriter focuses on what type of writing will generate immediate intrigue and interest in a consumer through various mediums.

Whether they are writing for blog posts, social media, or webpages, copywriters inform and interest clients through good copywriting.

Copywriting Best Practices

These practices are sure to help you make your copywriting neat, clean, and effective.

1. Identify and listen to your target audience
2. Make your headlines compelling
3. Use several sections and subheadings
4. List your content properly
5. Make the paragraphs short
6. Make your writing relatable
7. Add facts and figures
8. Have internal and external links
9. Focus on SEO
10. Add clear Call to Action prompts

 With effective implementations of these practices, you can surely become an effective copywriter.

We will talk about the importance of copywriting even more.

Now let us look at the question you have been pondering.

UX Writing vs Copywriting: Which One Is Best?

To know which one is best “for you”, you need to have a clear understanding of both.

Why copywriting is important?

What is the importance of UX writing?

What are the processes and best practices in UX writing vs copywriting?

Knowing these will help you grasp the idea which is best suited to your goals and purposes.

Let us look over and analyze the importance of UX writing vs copywriting.

Why UX writing is important?

UX writing is a very important part of your marketing and design process.

In today’s day and age, you can not keep your users engaged without thinking about user experience.

Your clients look forward to being more engaged if they see your page or website talking to them and treating them like real human beings.

For example, in terms of hotel booking, a study on Google showed that the term “Check Availability” worked far better than the term “Book a room”.

This is easily because while clicking “book a room”, users might have feared that they are already making a commitment and buying a room booking before checking everything out as they wish.

On the other hand, “Check Availability” assured them that they are just checking if the room is available, and if they are confirmed, then they can move towards the call to action or CTA.

According to Technical Writer HQ, this is a very simple but unique case where UX writing and simply thinking from your user’s perspective increased the click-through rate and conversion rate to a significant amount, nearly 17%.

Even words like “Please give us a minute”, or “Wait, we are getting back to you”, these types of short interactive messages can reassure your clients.

Whether they are waiting in your website’s loading screen or waiting in your inbox to get in touch with you, slight tweaks to your message can boost their user experience.

Without an optimized sales page, your web content might be filled with disjointed “lorem ipsum” sections and subsections.

This can kill your user’s initial impression.

If you are careful enough, you must be filling these up with proper UX writing.

 In conclusion, you can clearly see why UX writing is important for your product design in today’s day and age.

Now let us talk about the importance of copywriting for any business in existence.

Importance of Copywriting

There are lots of reasons to explain why copywriting is important in any marketing campaign.

Copywriting focuses on direct sales.

Without proper copywriting, your service’s or product’s detailed descriptions and plus points may not reach the customer.

So you can guess the importance of copywriting.

Copywriting gives you a direct pitch to your clients.

It may be the oldest form of selling your brand, but it is there because it is still effective and well-known.

Not only that, copywriting can protect your professional image.

It helps your brand have its own voice.

Additionally, there is great importance of copywriting in advertising.

Copywriting ensures you have a good proofreading system to make your marketing materials consistent.

It can really be a turn-off for customers if they notice major grammatical or spelling mistakes.

So, copywriting helps you to eliminate that too. 

All things considered, the importance of copywriting can not be ignored.

However, it is a hardcore truth that the world has changed.

Without increasing user experience, your modern customers might feel that you are not smart enough to be interactive.

It does not leave a good impression on your business if your site or page is not contemporary.

In addition, it might seem like you are lagging behind in ideas.

So although you might have a great product and service at your hand, not improving UX will be a great mistake.

Copywriting vs UX Writing: Wrapping up

Now that you have a proper understanding of the importance of copywriting and UX writing, which is best for you to pursue?

Let’s recap and discuss to help you be conclusively decisive in the topic UX writing vs Copywriting.

There is no denying the importance of copywriting.

It is one of the most used writing formats in business and promotion.

On the other hand, UX writing makes your users more satisfied which leads to more recommendations and loyal consumers.

With that in mind, if you are a business person, there is no doubt that both copyrighting and UX writing will be very necessary for you.

While copywriting directly informs your target audience about your product and converts it to sales, user experience satisfies a customer even further.

Copywriting informs your customer about your brand or product directly.

On the other hand, UX betterment makes a consumer hold on to your brand and business and appreciate it even more.

So if you are a business person, you should definitely focus on both copywriting and UX writing/ UX design.

However, as most brands and businesses already have a focus on copywriting and content marketing, we are hoping you do too.

In the case of UX writing though, brands are becoming increasingly aware.

So if you want to capitalize and have major staying power, it is time to strongly focus on that too.

There is no way around improving UX writing as many businesses are moving forward with UX in mind.

You would not want to be outdated for lack of effort here.

If you are a writer, copywriting might be already familiar to you.

Words are powerful, and so the importance of copywriting is undeniable.

You must already have ideas about marketing a product, brand, or service properly.

Correctly informing and reaching out to your customer is core in professional copywriting.

On the other hand, what you can capitalize on is definitely UX writing, as it will give you more chances to know and grow.

UX writing is fairly easy if you understand it. You just need to have ideas, research, and empathy.

With these by your side, your small ideas can take you a long way!

So now that you know about both copywriting and UX writing, you can decide for yourself.

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