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 additional rounds of layoffs. Managers are asking for year-end reporting, and wondering why—after the pivots and layoffs, mind you—content marketing teams didn’t meet the goals they aspired to for the year.

Some marketers I’ve talked with are even asking themselves if it’s time they consider a career change, or at least an industry shift, to recapture the passion they used to have for their work.

With all this in mind, I’ve partnered up with Midlife Fulfilled podcast host and marketer Bernie Borges. Our collaboration comes from our conversations over the past few months about the challenges so many people we know are facing right now, and our shared desire to help.

Register for our free live session, where we will give you everything you need to create a fulfilling professional development plan for 2024.

I’m excited to share the virtual stage as Bernie and I put our heads—and our collective decades of experience navigating our varied career paths—together to give you support and inspiration to make 2024 the most fulfilling year for you yet.

The webinar is capped at 250 participants, so I encourage you to sign up today to hold your spot. I can’t wait to virtually see you there!
P.S. While you may see some reminders from me about the webinar in your LinkedIn feeds, this is the last newsletter for 2023, so take a moment to click through and register.

Coming Up on #ContentChat

Content Chat is my weekly LinkedIn live video chat focused on sharing expertise and ideas amongst the content marketing community. Join the conversation on Mondays at noon Pacific / 3 p.m. Eastern. Be sure to mark your calendar to join the #ContentChat community and me for these upcoming guests:

• Today on #ContentChat, we’ll explore how to use AI for content marketing with Christopher S. Penn. Christopher and the Trust Insights team are some of my go-to experts on all things AI, so I’m thrilled to discuss what’s new, the shiny objects we should stop chasing, and how we can all use AI to improve our marketing.
• Next Monday (Dec. 18) on #ContentChat, we’ll dig into Content Marketing Institute’s latest B2B marketing research with Stephanie Stahl. We’ll discuss everything from strategy and budgets to technology and staffing, helping you gauge if your approach is on par with other B2B companies. This is our last #ContentChat of 2023—so I hope you can join us to wrap up the year!

​Get Involved with #ContentChat

Want #ContentChat on your calendar? Use this link to follow our calendar, so you never miss a chat.

We're booking guests for 2024—send us your pitch!
​Are you a content marketing practitioner, author, or consultant who is interested in being a guest for an upcoming edition of #ContentChat? We’d love to see your topic pitch via our Content Chat guest submission form.

Content Marketing + Related Jobs

​Social Media Marketing Consultant, The Sage Group.
​The Sage Group connects brands with marketing consultants and contractors to support team projects or quickly fill critical positions. (We worked with them a lot in my Financial Services marketing days.) The team is hiring a social media marketing consultant to support its client, which is “the world’s most popular online video platform” (this is likely YouTube), and run their strategy for Instagram and X.

​Content Marketing Manager, Envoy.
​Envoy provides a workplace platform that connects people, spaces, and data. The company is looking for a content marketing manager who can work at least three days a week in San Francisco to shape the brand voice and manage its storytelling endeavors. The role involves creating blog posts, articles, case studies, web and ad copy, and more.

​Senior Content Marketing Manager, Finance, Rippling.
​Rippling offers an HR, IT, and finance solution, empowering companies to manage and automate every part of the employee lifecycle in one system. Its team is seeking a senior content marketing manager to deeply research financial decision-makers at companies with 250-1,000 employees to create content marketing materials that reach, engage, and convert or nurture buyers.

​Director, Content Marketing, Mural.
​Mural provides a visual collaboration tool that helps teams work in a shared and dynamic visual environment. The brand is hiring a director of content marketing to craft and oversee the execution of a comprehensive strategy to drive awareness, engagement, and conversions. The role includes content production, social media management, and team leadership.

​Senior Director, Content Marketing, Demandbase.
​Demandbase is committed to helping B2B companies hit their revenue goals using fewer resources by aligning teams around their data, Demandbase data, and AI. Demandbase is looking for a senior director of content marketing to manage its content strategy and editorial calendar, including partnering with SEO agencies to drive SEO content development.

Are you hiring? We can help!

If you have a content marketing contract position, full-time job, or freelancer opportunity, reply to this email and let us know. We are always happy to share jobs with the community at no cost.

ICYMI

​How to Develop a Brand Sponsorship Strategy for Content Marketing.
​Brand sponsorship has become a pivotal way for content marketing teams to reach new audiences and better engage their existing communities. For those unfamiliar with brand sponsorship, Kanaar Bell explains how you can get started in this guest post for our site. KB has led media and brand sponsorship in past roles and shares all his expert tips and guidance. Let us know if you have any questions!

​End of Year Reporting: The Internal and External Metrics that Matter and How to Present Them.
​Whether you’ve been asked to prepare an end-of-year report or not, it’s smart to review your year, identify your wins, and see how you can improve next year. In this #ContentChat recap, I join Amy Higgins to explain how you should approach your end-of-year reporting, including what data you should gather, where to find it, and how to present it to team members and executives.

​How Content Marketing Fits Into Go To Market Planning.
​The stakes are high when a company prepares to launch a new product or unveil enhancements to an existing audience. Content plays a key role in go-to-market strategies, yet the team is often brought in at the end of the process. In this #ContentChat recap, Pam Didner explains the different types of GTM, who should be involved, and where content fits in the strategy.

​Influencer Pay Equity—5 Key Points for Brands to Consider from New Industry Guide.
​There is a lot of inequity when it comes to influencer marketing. A new 16-page guide from the Association of National Advertisers digs into the latest strategies and pay considerations to help you build a better influencer program. This AdAge article breaks down the key findings, but you must create a free account to read it. Then, access the full report through this page.

​How To Turn ‘Meh’ Ideas Into Marvelous Content.
​Not all content ideas are good. But that doesn’t mean a ‘meh’ idea can’t become something valuable for your community. Our friends Amy Higgins and Monica Norton share takeaways from their CMWorld session in this article, walking you through clear steps to workshop any content idea.

​Email Opens Are Not Dead: What’s Changed and What Hasn’t.
​Apple’s Mail Privacy Protection threw a wrench in how we typically understand email opens—but the metric can still be very helpful. This MarketingProfs article explains how your email service provider reports opens, what has changed in recent years, and four ways the metric is still useful.
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Until next time, stay safe and be well!

Cheers,

Erika

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​Erika Heald, Founder & Lead Consultant​
​Erika Heald Marketing Consulting​
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LinkedIn: www.linkedin.com/in/erikaheald​
Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/misserikasf/
​Threads: @MisserikaSF​