Content writing trends for 2025

More so than many other fields, marketing communications is driven by trends. What’s best practice at one time could fall out of favour as audience preferences, especially as they relate to technology, shift and evolve.

These are the top three content writing trends we’ve noticed in 2025.

1. (Long) content is king

Much has been said about the drop in attention spans over the last decade or so. The endless streams of bite-sized content served up on our mobile devices are a likely culprit. But there’s also the fact that people have more to do than ever before, leaving less time to dedicate to any one task.

In response, content marketers have typically strived to keep content brief. The fewer words, the better, because not many people have time to read through an article that’s a thousand words or more. The trouble with this approach is that longer content tends to rank higher in search engine results. In fact, the average length of pages that rank in the top 10 on search engines is in the 2,000- to 2,450-word range.

Of course, wordcount is just one factor among many that determines where your page appears in the search engine results. But based on these findings, experts in search engine optimization (SEO) are increasingly recommending bulkier blogs, webpages and other online content when the goal is to rank highly for a target keyword. This could be why more and more product and service pages that used to be copy-light now feature in-depth FAQ sections. These not only have the benefit of adding wordcount to pages for SEO purposes; they also offer opportunities to include questions people are actually typing into search engines, helping you rank in the results for those queries, too.

To be clear, plain-language principles still apply when writing longer content. Use smaller words instead of big ones, opt for shorter sentences with simpler structures, and so on. And all that has been said about people’s attention spans and priorities holds true, which means there’s still a need for content formatted in a way that’s easy to scan and respects readers’ time. But when a high search engine ranking is the goal, look for opportunities to add extra value to pages. In that sense, an FAQ section is a good compromise.

2. AI is making it tougher to stand out

The use of generative AI like ChatGPT and Gemini to help develop or even outright produce blogs, articles, webpages and other content has been the subject of much discussion over the last couple years. We did our own experimenting as part of a three-part series that explored the question, Can AI write good marketing copy? We found that while chatbots show potential as a tool for brainstorming, outlining and other pre-writing tasks, they aren’t the replacement for professional writers that some might think.

Still, plenty of organizations are using the outputs of generative AI on their blogs and websites with apparently no or minimal editing. This is especially true of those that once relied on freelancer hiring platforms like Fiverr and Upwork to find writers who charge fractions of a penny per word. Because they’re now all using generative AI as their low-cost (or no-cost) freelancer, the content they post sounds identical to everyone else in terms of style and sentence construction, and even in grammar and punctuation choices. Companies that rely on AI for their content lack a unique and consistent brand voice, which is needed to help build trust and familiarity with their audiences.

AI also has a trust problem. AI “hallucinations” — that is, when generative AI confidently provides an incorrect answer— are a well-documented issue that AI researchers can’t figure out. AI-generated answers at the very top of Google search results have advised users to add glue to their pizza sauce and that running with scissors is good exercise. Another issue is overexposure. AI helpers are now baked into productivity suites like Office 365 and operating systems like Windows 11 and iOS. Even Notepad, Windows’ deliberately lightweight text editor, now has an option to generate AI summaries of text.

Resulting from all this is a growing weariness toward AI. As people consume more and more AI writing, they develop an eye for it. Lists of AI “tells” have already been compiled. Words that AI tends to favour, like “delve,” “leverage” and “meticulously” — and even punctuation like the trusty em dash — are being looked on as signs of AI-written content. Whether any of this is justified or not is beside the point; it’s evidence of building skepticism toward AI-generated material. And when skeptical users suspect what they’re reading came from an AI, they’ll move on, possibly with a poor impression of the business that put its name on that content.

What’s the takeaway for marketers? High-quality writing with a unique brand voice are essential across all of your marketing content.

3. Storytelling holds more sway in marketing

This is less of a new trend and more of an intensification of a longstanding one. At Ascribe, we’ve always stated that storytelling is the best way to reach audiences. And now in the age of generative AI, storytelling has another purpose: to put the unmistakable human imprint on your content.

We expect that suspicion toward AI and fatigue over AI-generated content will continue to grow. As that happens, readers will be looking for signs of humanity in what they read so they can decide if they should read further. Elements like anecdotes from experts, concrete examples, supporting testimonials and photographs of real people in the business will all play a role in this.

Stand out with professional writing and editing services

Looking for marketing content that will truly serve your strategic goals and help you connect with your audience, rather than simply being words on a page? Ascribe can help. Our expert team of professional writers and editors can produce the full range of marketing communications content: blogs, articles, web pages, brochures, white papers and more. All written in your brand’s unique voice. (And if your brand doesn’t have one yet, we can help with that, too.)

To learn more about how we can help meet your strategic content marketing needs in 2025 and beyond, contact us today.