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 without a destination, it’s critical to take time to think about your career goals, and put a plan in action to meet them.

My favorite strategy for career planning is mind-mapping, a technique where you branch out your ideas one off of another, exploring an idea or workflow or any sort of group of related concepts to organize your thoughts.

The best part is you don’t need any fancy technology to build out your career development map—you can just use pen and paper. Though if you’d prefer an app, I’ve used Mindnode and Mindmapper, but you can also use slide software.

Then, once you’ve figured out where you want to go, you can put together an action plan a week, a month, a quarter, or a year at a time.

I’ve already heard back from an attendee who rewatched the webinar and started her plan. So, it inspired me to share the link to my handouts here, too

• A blog post that outlines my career development planning process​
• My Career Development Plan-on-a-Page template [View Only, download or make a copy to edit and use as a template]

As a subscriber to the newsletter, if you want to watch the webinar replay, hit reply to this email and I’ll send you the link. After you watch it, let me know your answer!

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 join Carmen Hill to discuss story mapping for the B2B buyer’s journey. She’ll expand on her CMworld 2023 session and explain how story mapping can help B2B teams streamline their resources and boost their success. We’ll share strategies to identify content gaps and craft the best content for distinct stages of the buyer’s journey.
• Next Monday (Jan. 29) on #ContentChat, Forrester Analyst Lisa Gately will discuss generative AI and content marketing. The chat will cover the benefits of generative AI and how content marketing teams are using it, as well as risks you should be aware of and how to create guidelines for your team.

​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

​Content Marketing Manager, Salesforce.
​The Salesforce Admin Relations team is hiring a content marketing manager, who can be based in a few major cities including Chicago, Denver, and Seattle. The role involves content management and development across the admin blog and YouTube channel, as well as cross-functional collaboration to align efforts and ensure consistency.

​Content Marketing Manager, SambaNova Systems.
​SambaNova provides a full-stack generative AI platform built for enterprise and government organizations. The company is seeking a content marketing manager to engage its prospects and customers throughout their journeys by creating high-quality blog, email, and social media content.

​Director of Content Marketing, Outreach.
​Outreach empowers sales teams with an AI-powered platform that drives productivity and delivers more predictable revenue. Its team is looking for a director of content marketing to develop and deliver a differentiated content marketing strategy with SEO best practices at its core. The role includes mentoring and managing a team of content marketers and working with outside agencies to support content creation and measure its results.

​Content Marketing Manager, Pave.
​Pave’s mission is to make compensation fair by building a compensation platform powered on the largest real-time compensation dataset available. The brand is hiring a content marketing manager to build demand generation content assets and develop thought leadership pieces to generate leads and build the company’s reputation. This includes telling customer stories and developing the company’s first style guide.

Are you hiring?

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 free of charge.

On that note, a colleague is looking for an entry-level marketing production assistant, and I'm helping her find possible candidates. Here's her ask:
​
​Marketing production assistant: seeking an early-career marketer to join the content team within a larger marketing team at a global B2B enterprise.

• 100% remote, full-time contract role. Competitive pay commensurate with experience: negotiable.
• The ideal candidate will have 2+ years of digital content production experience within marketing and an interest in content strategy.
• Responsibilities will include content formatting, creating production tickets for other teams, and coordinating with multiple stakeholders to manage the production and publication of content and campaigns. The ideal candidate will also be able to assist with miscellaneous copywriting tasks.
• Proficient in Microsoft Office tools, Adobe InDesign, content management systems, project management tools, and familiarity with digital marketing tools.

If you know anyone who might be interested, send them my way, and I'll share their cover letter and resume with her.

ICYMI

​How to Transform a ‘Meh’ Content Idea Into Something Your Community Will Love.
​It might seem easiest to say ‘no’ to a misguided content request — or we feel pressured to say ‘yes’ if it comes from an executive. Workshopping a potentially ‘bad’ idea, however, could give you an amazing content idea. In this #ContentChat recap, our friends Amy Higgins and Monica Norton share their content transformation framework to help you improve content ideas (including ways to push back when needed).

​Four Tips to Help You Find Your Optimum Content Marketing Mix.
​Content marketing teams are constantly juggling priorities while trying to protect their content strategy (that is what we’re measured against!). This article on MarketingProfs offers four tips to help you find the best areas to focus on and deliver meaningful results. What tips would you add?

​2024 Predictions: Email Captures Marketers’ Attention.
​Third-party cookies are in the last phase of their slow death. What does this mean for marketing? According to this MarTech article, email marketing will be even more important. Find out why and how AI can improve your email content processes. Have you seen an increase in email marketing success? I’d love to hear your examples and use cases!

​Prompts Aren’t All That: Give Generative AI a Better Role in Creating Great Content.
​Are prompts the key to unlocking generative AI excellence? Yes—but they aren’t a magic bullet. CMI’s Robert Rose argues that prompt creation is similar to knowing how to create HTML codes during the early days of the internet; knowing how to write the best prompt can only go so far. Read through the full article to hear his thoughts, including why we still need writers in the age of AI.

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
​YouTube: @ErikaHeald​