Sustainability of Written Content in 2020

Video is showing no signs of slowing down in 2020. In fact, it is estimated that 80 % of content consumed just by the end of this year will be video content. But for those of us marketers who prefer using written content — the question we should be are asking is — how sustainable is written content going forward?

*In terms of sustainability, we’re talking in the context of the content succeeding in a broad sense — whether that means page clicks, dwell time, social shares, sales, whatever.

Only 300 content creators were making video content on LinkedIn back in 2018. A platform that’s designed, potentially more than any other, for networking and finding new opportunities/ contacts to work with. As Hootsuite reports, LinkedIn enjoys a 50 % increase in engagement year after year. With the clear preference for video content amongst consumers (and no sign of that slowing down) will that force content creators across every platform to pivot into video content?

The answer is probably a little complicated.

Insivia reports that viewers retain 95 % of a video’s information, compared to 10 % if they’re reading text. That’s a staggering statistic and should be enough to make any business reconsider their marketing strategy if they’re currently utilizing more text than videos. (Did you read all of this?)

I do wonder whether the demographics affect the popularity of videos. SmartInsights found that 66 % of US teens (13–19) and 56 % of tweens (8–12) watch online videos every day. The general opinion I have is that younger people prefer video content, as they have grown up with social media and all of this technology, different platforms focusing on short videos (Vine, now TikTok for instance) which has led to a shorter attention span. Older people, particularly the over 65s age group who as we’ve seen are usually behind the younger consumers in digital consumer habits, may still be more receptive to written communication. They will have read books moreso than Gen Z en masse, more long-form content in general and thus won’t find reading articles as tedious. That’s a theory of mine, however, as I wasn’t able to find studies delving into the specific age ranges and which content they typically prefer to consume (if you know of one — please do link it in the comments!).

Could the answer lie in that?

Based on the stats, written content is already barely as effective as video content is and that’s set to continue being the case as video dominates the macro of digital content well into the 2020s. If it is the case that the older you get, the more likely you are to prefer written content, then it may mean that marketers looking to target the 40–60 and over 65s age range should put more emphasis on their written content and simply supplement with video content. For businesses targeting the younger demographics, the reverse should be applied…for success.

But — with the decrease in attention span as mentioned above, maybe this shouldn’t be applied. Hear me out. There may be likes, shares, views given by the consumers and offered to marketers to see how text or video content is performing, and those consumers may even be transforming into customers through the ad. Does that necessarily mean that they’re a loyal customer, however? Maybe using written content, in a more targeted fashion than your video, could actually create more of a relationship to the customer? If they’re not skimming, and they’re actually paying attention to what you’re offering them (problem-solving marketing) that may result in a more loyal consumer compared to them watching a really well-put-together video and making one sale.

As Donna James outlines in her article covering the pros and cons of both video and written content, here are the benefits of written content and why I think it’s unwise to completely disregard it even in light of the statistics.

• It’s inexpensive and easier to produce
• It’s reusable and more evergreen
• It’s skimmable
• It’s searchable (though this may change as Web 3.0 continues to evolve and the crawling technology gets smarter)
• Less editing time
• Distribution is much more affordable

Just adding onto her points — I think industries where evergreen content is important should have a clear focus on written, with video content supplementing it.

All in all, it’s pretty clear to me and most people that video content is taking over and for the next few years at least it’s only going to continue. Gary Vee has in the past said that he believes the trends and scope of digital content is cyclical in many senses, and that he believes written content will one day return to its dominance. Don’t ask me to find the video in question, the man’s a beast and produces an insane amount of content, it’d be a needle in the haystack. I do agree with him, however.

Written content may not be the priority right now but there’s nothing to say it won’t one day return to being so. I believe it’s still sustainable if marketers see time-sensitive content = videos and evergreen/ more targeted content = written. There are a huge amount of benefits for live content specifically that written just obviously doesn’t cater to, as well as the connection and more intimate feeling that comes from video content between influencer and consumer.

If you have experiences to share on how the effectiveness of written content throughout your career has been, please share in the comments!