To produce high-quality written content, you need both copywriting and editing. These services are often sold together or separately. When asked just for editing, we often see questions asking why editing isn’t always cheaper than copywriting from scratch.
Well, copywriting and editing call for different skill sets. A single copywriter can definitely have both skills, but they aren’t one and the same. Here’s why:
Skill and expertise
Copywriting and editing are two different skills. Copywriters craft original, engaging, and persuasive content for a specific audience and goal. For this to happen, copywriters need to be creative and do research to better understand the subject they’re writing about.
Editing is about refining and improving content that’s already written. Besides clarity, coherence, grammar, and style consistency, anyone who does editing should have a keen eye for detail and be able to offer practical feedback on text quality.
Time and effort
Sometimes, editing can take longer than copywriting. Copywriters begin with a blank canvas and create content from zero, but editing involves reviewing and revising content that already exists.
It could be that sentences need to be restructured, entire paragraphs need to be rewritten, and even a complete revamp of particular sections of text. It’s complex and demands meticulousness, time, and effort.
Specialized knowledge
This depends on the content type, but both copywriting and editing may demand specialized knowledge in a specific domain. For example, materials like technical documents, legal contracts, medical papers, and industry-specific content sometimes require niche knowledge.
Copywriting and editing these types of material is considered a high-value skill, and not everyone will be able to do it correctly. Sometimes, this can also include having knowledge about specific required formatting and writing styles.
Quality assurance
Most copywriters can do copywriting, but not all of them can edit. Editing makes sure that the final draft of content is of the highest quality. Aside from looking out for grammatical and spelling errors, the content should have high readability.
What’s more important, though, is that the content needs to make sense to the target audience and be in line with your content strategy. The message you’re trying to deliver has to be accurate, and that’s how you’ll know that the service you’re paying for is worth its weight in gold.
More than just fine-tuning
It’s a common assumption that editing will be cheaper than copywriting from scratch, but that’s not always the case. Editing can be equally complex and holds just as much value. Yes, most copywriters can do both, but those actually skilled in editing have a lot more to offer.
Editing is more than just fine-tuning text, and the investment you’re making as a business for this service can be worthwhile if you’re working with the right copywriter.