What’s The Difference Between Your Message, Messaging, Content, And Copywriting? (And Why It Matters)
If you’re anything like my clients (most of whom are B2C experts), you’ve likely invested time and money learning about “messaging” or “copywriting” or “content creation”.
But if you’re still not getting the kinds of conversions you desire, chances are, it’s not your fault. You likely took a course or worked with a business coach who didn’t teach the “bigger picture” that I’m going to show you here.
And that “bigger picture” is … that there is a significant difference between four key terms that are often conflated in the coaching industry: Message, Messaging, Content, and Copy (Copywriting).
This post is about that bigger picture. Message, Messaging, Content, and Copywriting are four distinct things, frequently treated as synonyms in the coaching industry — and conflating them is one of the most common reasons capable experts struggle to be understood.
Once you can tell them apart, you'll know which part of your business actually needs attention — and you'll be able to tell whether a strategist or coach you're considering understands the distinction too.
Your Message
Your Message (or Brand Message) is the foundation upon which your entire business is built. It is a unique stance that you take in your industry — whether that is a paradigm shift you wish to introduce, or a particular view on a problem and how to solve it.
Your offers, your brand, and all of your subsequent messaging, content, and copy are built upon your Message.
And when you can present your Message with uniqueness … you stop competing inside a crowded category and become, in effect, a market of one.
Your Message becomes the beacon — the “signal”, if you will — that your exquisite-fit clients recognize. It’s what intrigues them, draws them closer, and brings them into contact with your Content & Copy.
Your Messaging
If your Message is the foundation, your Messaging is the blueprint for bringing it to market.
When you have your messaging solidified, you’ll have a plan for what to say (topics of your Content), how to say it (types of Content), and to whom (your “client avatar” – or, as I like to call it, your Exquisite-Fit Clientele).
What are often referred to as “content pillars” (I call them “Content Cornerstones” in my programs) are a major piece of Messaging. Content pillars are key authority, affinity, and thought leadership factors that would most resonate with your Exquisite-Fit Clientele.
Messaging also includes something subtler: knowing how to talk about what you do so that the right person immediately understands why it is for them, and what that work entails.
And it includes precision language — the actual words your exquisite-fit client uses to describe their problem and everything they have already tried to solve it.
Content and Copy are often confused with each other, and with Messaging. They are not the same.
Let’s look at each in turn.
Your Content
It’s only after you’ve articulated your Brand Message, clarified your Messaging (and, by doing so, established how you’ll position yourself in the market) … that you begin creating Content.
The purpose of Content is fourfold:
First, your Content establishes brand association via repetition – so that your audience remembers your name, and associates it with “what you do”.
Second, your Content creates affinity with your Exquisite-Fit Clientele, moving the right people to feel a genuine resonance with your values and the way you think and work.
Third, your Content establishes your thought leadership in your area of expertise.
And, most importantly, it educates — it gives your readers the paradigm shifts that change how they see their situation.
One thing your Content does not need to do is to “solve problems” (contrary to what many of us have been taught).
Instead, you want to give your clients ‘lightbulb moments’ around their problem and/or how to solve it.
That distinction is extremely liberating once you fully understand it.
Your Copywriting
Copywriting — copy, for short — is writing designed to inspire action.
A sales page is Copy. So is an invitation to work with you, or an offer to opt in to a free training.
Effective pieces of Copy present a pressing problem your Exquisite-Fit Client is facing, and then skillfully position your offer (whether free or paid) as something they need.
Copy carries a clear call to action. When a reader takes that action, you have a conversion. That is the whole purpose of Copy, and it is a narrower purpose than that of Content.
Before Your Invest In Another Coach Or Program...
The takeaway from this article is that your Brand Message is the North Star of your business.
It’s the overarching core concept that ties all of your Content together — and informs all of your Copywriting.
It’s the rallying cry that draws your Exquisite-Fit Clients to you.
Without a singularly unique, resonant Brand Message, it doesn’t matter how much you post content … how gorgeous your visual branding … how often you make offers … how cleverly A.I. crafted your sales page …
It will all fall flat.
A business without a strong Brand Message is like a balloon filled with hot air instead of helium … it just won’t go anywhere.
That’s why I always say that your Brand Message is “marketing helium”!
So before you hire a “content coach” … or buy another course that promises “high-converting copy” … or enroll in another 5-day challenge or free workshop to learn “magnetic messaging” … or take another “train A.I. to write like you” workshop …
Be absolutely sure that you’re working with someone who will help you fill your “balloon” with marketing helium.
When I work with my 1:1 mentoring clients, we do three things before we ever even start working on “Content” or “Copywriting”:
We achieve crystal clarity around their unique Brand Message
We flesh out their Unique Transformative Methodology (their unique solution, framework, modality)
We lay out their Content Cornerstones (and use my proprietary Personal Brand Cloverleaf™ and Anchor Angles process) so that they have infinite content ideas that build brand association through repetition.
Once we tackle these three foundational aspects, Content and Copywriting flows …
And conversions follow.
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If reading this has helped you locate which layer actually needs your attention, the next step is simply to start there.
You'll find all of my resources for doing exactly that — clarifying your message, building your messaging, and writing content and copy that finally have a foundation beneath them — on the Academy’s Offerings page.
—Jenny Oby
Dean of The Academy Of Natural, Relaxed & Mannerly Marketing
View my bio
HUMAN PLEDGE: This content was lovingly created by a human, for humans. Em dashes & rhetorical flourishes are my own.
