What Kind of Content Should You Write in 2020 to Increase Your Success?

Reader preferences are shifting in 2020 towards more personal stories in which the writer speaks directly from the heart.

In the beginning of the new decade, to be successful writer’s will need to:

- Spark conversations among their readers - Represent diverse voices - Create content that is customized for readers - Create clear personal, relatable stories, without over the top, flashy tech

One of the hardest things for writers is the ever changing landscape of what type of content is most likely to attract an audience. It seems just as we get used to one set of writing strategies, everything changes and we have to learn new strategies to please readers.

Some of this is determined by what factors search engines like Google prioritize for rankings that determine if a story will show up on the first page of search results. While Google isn’t transparent regarding it’s ranking algorithm, there are always updates that provide some suggestions based on the new algorithm. Staying current by reading articles about these changes makes it possible to know how to shift your writing strategy to remain competitive in terms of rankings.

Then there are other changes that happen based on reader preference. These can be a bit more difficult to ascertain, but if you keep an eye on how your stories perform, you can determine what your most popular stories have in common. This can take some trial and error. The more stories you have to consider, the easier the task will be.

When I first started writing blog style posts, my stories, while not complete failures, weren’t exactly generating much interest from readers. This was due to a big mistake I made based on the rather egotistical belief that I had already put in so much time to earn a Ph.D. which involved a lot of intensive work to improve my writing that I had no need to alter my writing style to create blog posts. It had taken years to hone the ability to write for academia and I believed this style of writing would be recognized for its authority.

While I read all of the articles that talked about tone, writing style, and writing conversationally, I figured authority and formality would continue to meet with success and accolades, as they had in grad school. Despite the months going by with no such results, I remained reluctant to alter the way I wrote. I didn’t want to face the fact that all of those years spent learning to write for an academic audience would not benefit me in this new writing venture.

Looking back on the beginnings of my writing career, I came to realize that it is hard for me to write stories from a personal point of view, which went beyond my time in academia. This was particularly true when the stories involved experiences from my life, in large part because I’m a private person, and I’ve had several people betray me using things I’d shared with them or they’d found out on their own.

It’s easy for me to fall back on academic writing since one of the most important rules is to remove yourself entirely from what you are conveying. This type of writing is meant to be dispassionate, detached, as factual as possible with any opinion offered being strongly based on the research findings and the previous literature in the area, with the writer distancing themselves as much as possible from their writing.

Over the past couple of years, I have found a voice and a style of writing that is more personal though I am still working on becoming comfortable enough that I’m able to access these techniques whenever I desire. However, with reader preference in 2020 I’m going to have to throw caution to the wind and jump into the deep end of the pool.

In 2020 writers need to spark conversations with their stories

In order to be successful writers, we have to get people to notice our writing. We want readers to learn about what we write, talk about us, share our work, ideally with user generated content added, and tell others about us and why they should also read our work. To do these things, we need to spark conversations that increase awareness of our writing and attract attention in the form of readers.

But with so many writers trying to do the same thing, this isn’t easy. It takes something that makes our work stand out, something readers perceive as valuable, exceptional, or possibly even controversial to gain their attention.

There are several ways that you can set your writing apart from the masses.

• Identify a controversial hot topic. If you choose to use this strategy, you need to be careful so it doesn’t have a negative impact on your following. I once wrote an article addressing whether hate speech on the web really has a significant impact on readers. I chose the topic purposely to generate some buzz but I wasn’t prepared for the response. I had over 50 comments in under an hour, many of which involved readers getting into knock down, drag out fights with each other over the topic. I ended up deleting the article because instead of gaining new readers for my writing, the article resulted in an increase in hate speech by my readers! This took on a life of its own which quickly moved away from the point of my article towards an argument about what hate speech is, how it should be handled, and why it should be protected, or not protected, under the Constitution.
• Show both sides of the story. Even if you are presenting your own opinion about something, including the opposite opinion can add depth to your story, and show that you ideas are reasoned and well thought through. It will demonstrate that you have considered other viewpoints and have arrived at your conclusion in a justifiable and rational manner.
• Share data that is related to the topic. If you can find a way to include interesting data that is relevant to your story, this can establish authority. For example, if you want to discuss whether children’s psychological problems are caused by their parents, instead of just giving your opinion, which could result in a lot of negative backlash, report the finding of a recent study or collect your own data to show what your audience believes. It’s harder to dismiss something when there are a lot of people who believe it.

In this new decade, writers need to focus on inclusiveness and diverse voices

When you write diverse and inclusive content, it will resonate with your readers. While in past years this was something that readers thought was a nice addition, in 2020 they’ll be specifically looking for diversity in the posts that they read. This includes the opening photo as well as the content.

Your readers want to see themselves in your stories. This communicates that you understand their needs, thoughts, preferences and difficulties. But readers aren’t always thinking about themselves and so they want to see a diverse representation of people in your posts.

A study conducted by The Female Quotient joined forces with Google and Ipsos found that 64% of participants took some kind of action after viewing content that they considered to be inclusive and diverse. This means that including diverse voices in your content isn’t just important for attracting readers. It can affect whether they agree to be added to your email list, sign up for your newsletter, or buy a product such as a book or class you’re selling.

In 2020 we’ll need to create content that is customized for readers

To be successful in 2020, writers need to focus on writing for individual audiences and different types of reader intent. Publishing stories aimed at a general audience will become less and less successful as readers will be looking for content that meets their specific needs without them needing to wade through information that doesn’t apply. This is changing the way “fluff” is being defined, no longer just referring to padding a story with excess, unnecessary words to boost the word count, but information that might be relevant to the larger topic but not the subtopic the readers are searching for.

During the beginning of the 2020’s, writers will need to create clear, personal, relatable stories, without over the top tech and flashy new trends

2020 is all about the personal. In the coming year, writers will need to have to create more natural stories to gain a readership. This means speaking to our readers from the heart, using the same tone and conversational language we’d use when talking to a friend. This will help us develop deeper, more trusting and more meaningful relationships with our readers.

Take Away

In 2020, in order for our writing to be effective, there are several shifts in reader preference that we’ll need to keep in mind. The main theme underscoring what it takes to have our writing resonate with readers, is personalization.

Readers don’t want to feel as if they are being held at arm’s length. They want to feel like they are at the center of our stories and that we are addressing them personally.

To do this we need to incorporate diverse voices in order to be inclusive and otherwise customize our work. We need to fashion stories that readers can relate to. These approaches will help engage our readers by sparking conversations and making them feel like they are a part of the stories that we create.

Natalie Frank has a Ph.D. in Clinical Psychology and often writes about how to create a more satisfying and successful writing life. She is an editor for The Partnered Pen & One Table, One World and is Editor in Chief for Promposity & Mental Gecko, both of which she created. She is also the Managing Editor for Novellas and Serials at LVP Publications.

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