A former boss and current colleague of mine recently asked how I came up with ideas for this newsletter. The answer is simple: it’s what is top of mind for me. So, he asked, “OK, what is top of mind?” And then, he encouraged me to write about that exact thing.
It’s a bit of a vulnerable topic, but I bet all of you feel it, too. It’s this: writing this newsletter sometimes feels disingenuous. When I first started, content marketing was a very different discipline, and I knew how to get results across SEO and campaigns first hand.
These days, a lot has changed and I don’t think anyone out there is much of an expert yet. LLMs have further fragmented the buyer’s journey. Zero-click platforms are on the rise everywhere. Third-party sites (Reddit, YouTube, etc) are just as important, if not more so, than what you publish on your own website.
Meanwhile, content teams and their web and campaign counterparts are held to ever-increasing traffic and lead numbers. Influencing those numbers used to be relatively easy for me and my teams. These days, it’s harder. Attribution is blurrier. Knowing which channels and types to invest limited resources and budget in feels like a game of roulette.
But working in marketing and tech was never supposed to be about certainty. Creativity and testing your way to success is the name of the game. And we are seeing a ton of success across SEO, AEO and campaigns.
We’re creating more integrated programs with stronger global narratives and higher-fidelity assets. We’ve carved out space for quick turn needs so we can address potential chances to drive traffic without disrupting our larger creative programs. We are investing in a multi-media and multi-platform content strategy that is seeing immediate success, even though it will be measured by its long-term brand impact (i.e. unaided awareness).
These are all things early-career Tracey would have been so excited to think about, solve and get to work on. And it is one of the biggest benefits of AI that I see so far. Without increasing our team headcount, and without pulling all nighters, we are producing more content, at a higher quality, across more formats and platforms, more accurately tied back to our product, and most of it laddering back up to the proper narrative. All across 7 regions, to boot!
And still, even I don’t feel like an expert. The rules seem to change every day. A new platform, a new ad type, a new tool, a new way of working. So, this is a newsletter to say that you are probably doing great, even if you, too, don’t feel like an expert. Even if the ground under your career feels unsteady.
This is a time of intense learning and growth for every marketer out there. I am learning every single day. And will continue to share what I find.
