What is the Difference between a Healthcare Copywriter and a Medical Writer?
Although the two roles are very different, people often confuse medical writers with healthcare copywriters.
Before we dive into their differences, let’s first address two major points of confusion:
“Medical Writer” is the title most frequently used to describe a technical writer with a specialization in the medical field, although it is also sometimes incorrectly used to describe a healthcare copywriter or healthcare content writer.
“Healthcare Copywriter” is often inaccurately applied as a blanket term for both healthcare content writers and healthcare copywriters.
The question we shall address, then, is this: What is the difference between a Healthcare Copywriter, a Healthcare Content Writer, and a Medical Technical Writer?
Healthcare Copywriter vs Healthcare Content Writer vs Medical Writer
The primary difference between these three roles is the purpose of their writing.
Copywriter
A copywriter writes to persuade a consumer to purchase a product or service. A copywriter’s goal is to influence a reader to take action, so their content always includes a call-to-action.
Copywriting tends to consist of short-form content, usually referred to as “copy,” such as advertising copy. A healthcare copywriter is a copywriter who specializes in the healthcare or medical industries.
Content Writer
A content writer writes to educate, entertain, or inform an audience and does not directly sell a product or service. A content writer’s goal is to build trust or credibility with a reader, and their content does not include a call-to-action. Content writing often functions adjacent to copywriting within a marketing plan.
Content writers tend to produce longer-form products, generally referred to as “content” or “organic content,” such as blog posts or e-books. A healthcare content writer is a content writer who specializes in the healthcare or medical industries.
Medical Writer
A medical writer gathers and interprets industry-specific data and delivers it in a digestible format to a target audience (usually a specific group of people within the scientific, medical, or healthcare communities). Medical writers write with the goal of furthering an organization’s internal mission as it relates to medical or scientific information (such as clinical research).
Medical writers frequently have a professional and/or educational background in biological sciences or healthcare. They tend to focus on regulatory, clinical, or other data-heavy information and rarely work with consumer-facing content or as part of a marketing plan or team.
Medical writers are a type of technical writer. Technical writing generally has a practical application within an organization, as opposed to a marketing or sales application. A medical writer is a technical writer who specializes in the healthcare or medical industries.
What do Copywriters, Content Writers, and Medical Writers actually write?
Here are examples of the materials each type of writer might produce:
A healthcare copywriter writes a services page for a medical practice’s website, in order to sell their services.
A healthcare content writer writes a blog post for a medical practice’s website, in order to educate and build trust with patients.
A medical writer writes protocols and study reports for clinical trials or regulatory documents for health authorities, in order to facilitate research into a given topic.
Healthcare Writers vs Medical Writers
Within each of these three titles, words like “healthcare” or “medical” simply serve as industry identifiers. “Health,” “healthcare,” and “medical” are often used interchangeably when describing copywriters, content writers, or technical writers who specialize in these industries.
However, “medical” tends to imply an application of highly technical or scientific information, whereas “healthcare” implies a focus on industry topics with a broader, less-technical scope.
This is why medical writers only refer to themselves as “medical writers.” Medical writers very rarely refer to themselves as “health writers,” although many healthcare copywriters may misleadingly call themselves “medical copywriters.”
Copywriters vs Content Writers
Copywriting and content writing both function as tactics within a broader marketing strategy.
Today, much of the written content that exists in the physical and digital worlds is not easily categorized as only content writing or only copywriting. For instance, you might read an informative article (content writing) that concludes with a call-to-action (copywriting).
To further complicate matters, the title of “copywriter” is often inaccurately applied as a blanket term for the two different roles. Some content writers intentionally mislabel themselves when speaking with people unfamiliar with the communications world in order to limit confusion and streamline industry lingo.
Also, many copywriters do indeed work as content writers, and vice versa. There are many opportunities for crossover between the two roles, especially as the nature of marketing evolves at a rapid pace.
In general, however:
Content writers tend to focus on entertaining or educating an audience through long-form content. Content writing aims to establish credibility, build trust, and foster relationships with target audiences; it does not directly sell. Read more about what a health content writer is and does, here.
Copywriters focus on selling a product or service through persuasive, short-form content. Copywriting aims to influence a reader to take action; it directly sells.
