Why ordinary is becoming the boldest move in content marketing
We’ve been reading The Courage To Be Ordinary, and it’s got us rethinking a lot of what we do for a living.
The book’s message is simple. Opt out of the race. Stop performing. Be a bit more basic. At first glance, that feels like a strange thing for two content writers to get excited about. Our whole job is helping brands stand out. But the more we sat with it, the more we realised it might be the missing piece in content marketing right now.
For years, brands have been told to shout louder, post more and chase virality. Everyone has the same AI tools. Everyone can generate 20 LinkedIn posts before breakfast. So the shouting has got louder, and somehow, quieter at the same time. Nobody’s really listening any more.
We think the brands who win in 2026 will be the ones who stop trying so hard.
Content marketing trends 2026: the rise of restraint
We’re entering the anti-performance era. Everyone has the same AI tools and can generate 20 LinkedIn posts before breakfast. But they can’t apply restraint. The businesses we’ll remember are the ones that become known for something specific.
Try this. Instead of asking, ‘How can we make this more viral?’ ask ‘would our best customer recognise this as us?’
Opinions will outperform information
AI is brilliant at summarising, but it’s terrible at judgement. Your audience doesn’t need you to explain it to them, they need to know what you think. Opinion is the new SEO. Instead of ‘five trends in skincare’, try ‘after working with dermatologists for five years, here’s the trend we’d ignore.’
The humble fish finger sandwich – basic, but if done well, absolutely banging. Turns out the same goes for content.
Your stories remain your strongest marketing asset
AI doesn’t know about the time your guest cried with gratitude when they left your resort because the chef cared enough to gift them their favourite homemade chilli sauce. Or how your business started from your kitchen table but is now one of the leaders in its field. Or how it feels for your students to run into the sea after your dreamy yoga class. Ask yourself: what story could only your business tell? Start there.
You can’t write something worth reading if you’re not reading yourself. One of the most talked-about pieces this month was The Atlantic’s The End of Reading Is Here, which argued that our appetite for deep reading is fading fast. Not everyone agreed. Marketing writer Ann Handley pushed back, pointing out that she’d read the whole thing – proof, she said, that people aren’t abandoning reading so much as getting choosier about what earns their attention.
We’re with Ann on this one. Build a reading habit. Read outside your industry. Collect ideas. Notice language.
Specific beats spectacular
‘The best luxury hotel.’ ‘The UK’s leading consultant.’ ‘The award-winning…’ Sorry, we just fell asleep into our Negronis because these tired lines are so bloody boring.
Be specific. Instead of ‘we care about sustainability’, write ‘every coral frame on our reef has a name and our marine biologist knows each one.’
We believe in the power of the niche, too. The businesses winning AI search are often the ones answering very specific questions brilliantly. Get clearer, stay in your lane and be so bold as to own that lane.
Slow content marketing wins the long game
One brilliant blog, a thoughtful newsletter or one genuinely useful case study. These little beauties – which you own, remember – will outperform 20 forgettable social posts because they are genuinely useful and tick the SEO/AEO/GEO boxes.
Here’s why slow content wins:
You own it, rather than renting attention on someone else’s platform
It keeps working long after you’ve published it, answering the same question for months or years
It’s the kind of content search engines and AI tools actually pull from, because it answers something properly instead of skimming the surface
Basic is back
This is where The Courage To Be Ordinary really landed for us. People are tired of everyone shouting. Brands that feel reassuring rather than relentless are becoming magnetic. Ask yourself, does your content make people feel clever? Or calm? The second might be the bigger turn-on.
Not every piece of content needs to convert. Some should simply delight, make someone think, slow down or teach them something. Because in an internet full of noise, that’s what people come back for.
Ordinary doesn’t mean boring. It means grounded, recognisable, trustworthy, human. In an age where almost anyone can generate content in seconds, those qualities are becoming surprisingly extraordinary.
Content marketing in H2 2026: FAQs
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Restraint, opinion and specificity. The brands standing out in 2026 are moving away from chasing virality and towards fewer, better pieces of content that sound unmistakably like them, backed by a clear point of view rather than generic information.
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Story-led content marketing means building your website copy, blogs, emails and brand messaging around real, specific stories from your business, rather than generic claims or industry jargon. It’s built on the belief that authentic storytelling builds more trust than traditional marketing language.
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Specific content performs better because it’s harder to fake and easier to remember. Generic phrases like ‘award-winning’ or ‘we care about sustainability’ could belong to any brand. A specific detail – a name, a number, a moment – can only belong to yours.
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AI is useful for research, organisation and speeding up admin tasks, but audiences increasingly notice and disengage from content that reads as generated rather than genuinely written. The brands standing out are keeping the writing and thinking human, and using AI to support rather than replace their voice.
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Slow content marketing is the practice of investing in fewer, higher-quality pieces – such as one strong blog post or newsletter – rather than a high volume of shorter social posts. It tends to perform better over time because it’s owned, evergreen and more likely to be surfaced by search engines and AI tools.