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The #ContentChat Bulletin

Erika Heald

Erika Heald is the host of the weekly #ContentChat LinkedIn Live video podcast for content marketers, held Mondays at noon Pacific. As a B2B marketing consultant, she helps organizations define and execute content marketing strategies that drive business and professional growth. As a creator, and gluten-free blogger helping people discover gut-friendly farm-to-table food. She frequently speaks at B2B marketing industry events on employee brand advocacy, content strategy, customer experience, AI readiness, and social media topics. You can find her on her blogs erikaheald.com and erikasglutenfreekitchen.com.

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Featured Post

The #ContentChat Bulletin: Are You a Content Entrepreneur?

Hi there! Last week was a big milestone for me—I finally got to check “Become a published book author” off my list with the launch of The Content Entrepreneur. This CEX community-authored book is one of the first books from the new Tilt imprint from the self-publishing company Lulu.com. It consists of chapters written by 30+ content pros covering everything a content entrepreneur needs to know to grow their business. In a few weeks, I’ll be in Cleveland for this year’s CEX conference. There,...

11 days ago • 7 min read

Hi there, I’m hoping your day is blissfully April Fool’s Joke free. Or that if you receive some pranks in your inbox they are actually funny. Too often, brand April Fool’s Day pranks are anything but funny. And don’t get me started on what it’s like to be on the creative end of a mandatory April Fool’s Day piece of joke content. For every brand that gets it right (or even gets a new product that everyone loves out of it), there are thousands of really bad, not at all funny “jokes” sent out...

25 days ago • 5 min read

I love case studies. As a journalist, I loved interviewing people and helping them share their stories. So, I naturally take that same approach when crafting engaging customer stories, too. You'd think that everyone would take that approach. But, unfortunately, you'd be wrong. Instead, it appears that even amongst people who say they want to write truly innovative and compelling case studies, there are a few really silly hurdles getting in the way: An SME expects the case study to regurgitate...

about 1 month ago • 7 min read

When asked if I thought Ai would replace content marketers during a Q&A last Summer, I laughed and said "no way!" Then, earlier this year, that essentially happened—to me. But here's why that's OK: the AI didn't replace me as an experienced content strategist and exceptional writer. It replaced my former client's ugly first drafts of all sorts of copy that a human used to write. In most use cases, AI isn't replacing polished, finessed, engaging content. Instead, it's allowing a small team to...

about 2 months ago • 9 min read

Hi there. This past week was a big milestone for me—I launched the first significant overhaul of our consultancy’s website since our 2016 launch! It was a much-needed update since our services have evolved, and so has the way people find information online, thanks to AI. Our old site was brief, with little detail about our services. We put our content creation energy into the blog posts. Our Twitter community was front and center. In contrast, I wrote our new site’s copy with an understanding...

3 months ago • 7 min read

Hi there. What do you want 2024 to be YOUR year of? That’s the question I posed to the attendees in last week’s career development webinar, “2024 Career Planning for a More Fulfilling Life” which I co-hosted with Bernie Borges. While our live attendees were a chatty bunch, this was one question that gave everyone a pause. Why? Because many of us aren’t accustomed to being intentional ijn our career planning and development. But just as you wouldn’t get in your car and drive around aimlessly...

3 months ago • 5 min read

Hi there. You know it’s the holiday season in San Francisco when the Fairmont’s statue of Tony Bennet is decked out with all the holiday trimmings. I was visiting last weekend to see Depeche Mode play (as part of their Momento Mori tour) to kick off birthday week festivities for my friend (and content marketing colleague) Amy Higgins. While many of us have decked the halls and lit our windows to celebrate the holiday season, it’s not a festive time for everyone. Companies are squeezing in...

5 months ago • 5 min read

Like many other Americans, my partner Lewis and our furry family members got in the car last Thursday to spend Thanksgiving with the family. In addition to the food and wine and silly bulldog antics, there was also the inevitable challenge of answering the “How’s work?” question in a way that non-marketers understand (and care about!) I’m not always very good at it. I realized that the year one of Lewis’ step-uncles asked me how my “shopping” was going this year. At first, I thought he meant...

5 months ago • 5 min read

Hi there. In the past week, I saw dozens of former colleagues laid off from what they thought would be the jobs they’d retire from. I also saw several other friends laid off from organizations that are taking a slow trickle approach to restructuring and layoffs. Then I reviewed another three laid-off friends’ resumes and gave them thoughts on how to make their accomplishments stand out. While none of these layoffs affected me, personally, like all of us, being adjacent to this turmoil—and...

6 months ago • 5 min read

I'm working on some juicy research for a client right now, and I can't wait to get the survey into the market. We've made sure to identify some of the key statistics we wished we had for our content marketing (and product marketing) efforts, and are asking them alongside others that provide valuable context. But, unfortunately, we're going it alone with the research despite having reached out to a few content marketers with overlapping, but non-competing focus areas. While one of the...

6 months ago • 6 min read
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