WORKWEEK

The #1 thing I hear from folks about this newsletter is that they’ve used something from within it in a deck, in a conversation with a boss, in something that just plain and simple helps them do a better job in their role. 

That was always the goal for this newsletter. It is here to help you feel seen (because this discipline is hard, and getting harder with all the change––but change is good!), to help get you the tools and resources you need to up your game, inspire your strategy, etc. 

In the coming weeks, I’ll be doing interviews with other content marketers and VPs and distilling their insights to you. Because I am certainly not the only one who does this work––or that you deserve to hear and learn from. Also, because when things are changing, it is often helpful to hear from a lot of people on how they are navigating that change so you can learn how you might best navigate it, too. 

That said, if you have a favorite content marketer or VP fo marketing that you’d love to hear from, please send their name my way over email. 

For today, though, a bit of a look back into the vault of content that gets me that #1 comment.

Let’s dive in! 

1. Content should drive leads: Why and how to turn sessions to your content into revenue for your company.
2. The stages of content marketing: Not all types of content are right for every business, nor for every stage of content marketing at your organization. This breaks that down so you can focus on the stage at hand. 
3. The perils of poor project management: The case for why project management in your content lead’s job, and why it must be done incredibly well for proper go-to-market (i.e. content distribution). 
4. Let’s talk about case studies: I love case studies––and this breaks down how I think about them, repurpose them, and use them as a core part of any content marketing strategy. 
5. The skills content marketers need: In here, get access to a content marketing career pathing doc to see where you are, where your team is, and to use for building out job descriptions.
6. Yet another Google algorithm update: What the latest update means for you, plus why and how to create great content that ranks, despite algorithm changes.  
7. Embrace the chaos: Content marketing is chaos, and that’s OK. Sometimes we all need to hear it, take a deep breath, and prepare for the daily creative problem solving that is this job. 
8. 6 [free!] content templates for briefs, one-pagers, and more: Dive on it. Make copies. Use them as they make sense for your org. 
9. How to repurpose content and stave off burn out: Repurposing is the lifeblood of sanity in content marketing. Use it wisely, and often. Here’s how. 
10. Content and design team collaboration: You have two seconds to convince readers to read your content. Great design will convince them faster than words. Don’t overlook it. Here’s how to work well with your design team. 
11. Content design > content writing: Design and UX also drive conversion on your blog, and conversion is what gets your work closer to driving revenue for the company. The more revenue you drive, the more resources you get. Design and UX matter––a lot. 
12. Defining content responsibilities, packages and timelines: To avoid scope creep and guard your team’s time, you need to work with your boss and team to define what you are responsible for, how you produce, and in what amount of time––and share that out with the larger team ASAP. Here’s how. 
13. A strategic content compass to fight thought leadership woes: A content compass defines how your team creates content, and more importantly, why. This is a mission statement. It is aspirational. It is who your content strives to be––and it will help you produce better quality content than your competition, every single time. 
14. Thought leadership isn’t a content type. It’s a content goal. How to educate your team, your bosses, and reframe your own thinking about what “thought leadership” actually means. 
15. Your blog publishing checklist: Make a copy of this for your own brand, and follow it to the T every single time. Great organic ranking is about consistency. This builds it in now, so you don’t have to redo it later. 
16. These things take time, a content marketing mantra: Success is never overnight, especially not when it comes to building an audience. These things take time, and that’s ok. 

All right folks –– let me know which of these you like best, and what other topics you’d like me to cover.