I once had a manager who would send back documents I'd emailed for their review with dozens of revisions in the copy, some of them IN ALL CAPS, others with a yellow highlighter background, and a good number of the words I'd written newly formatted with strikethrough. You know—strikethrough.

For those of you about to close this email because you think I'm being a sensitive artist whose precious about her words—that's not it at all! I like edits. I appreciate comments that help me understand nuance and improve my writing by giving me more context.

What was inappropriate about these edits is they were al made with the formatting tools, not the editing tools. What's the difference, you ask? Up to 30 minutes of my time spent trying to reformat all the text properly after deciphering what they wanted me to do.

You see it's difficult to make sure you find—and both address and remove—all those notes left in the middle of your content.

And when you are using a specially formatted template, such as for a print-on-demand flyer or something whose formatting will reflect its layout when you hand it off, it's even more critical all the formatting is correct.

This is one of those topics I've been meaning to write (and record a video) about for just about as long as I've been a consultant professional writer. It's that important!

EVERYONE needs to know how to use the reviewing tools in their document creation tool of choice. And can we please agree to follow a few simple guidelines:

• If the edit is small, just make it. You don't need to send back a document to tell someone there was a period missing. You can just add it and not waste everyone's time.
• If there's a word you'd prefer I not use, tell me. Just select the word and use the comment function to tell me that, and what you'd like me to do instead, so I know for next time.
• If you agree with my edits, accept them. Just click on the checkmark to accept them, so we have a clean document for our final proofread. You can still tweak a word after doing that, by suggesting and edit or making the edit.
• If you comment, give constructive feedback. Telling a writer to "zhuzh it up", or that you hate it and they need to try again isn't just the opposite of useful, it results in an annoyed writer. And an annoyed writer isn't gong to spend their creative energy giving you magical copy in response to those comments.

These tiny adjustments to the review process can be the difference between a writer who is excited about working with you, and one who is mysteriously booked up whenever you reach out.

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. RSVP for our upcoming conversations by clicking the chat date below to get a reminder and to access the chat.

• Today on #ContentChat I'll be sharing my quick tips on the collaborative editing process, complete with a mini tutorial on how to use the Google Doc's tracked changes for reviewing. If you are already a pro, bookmark the replay and share it with those folks on your team who are still faking their edits with formatting.
• Next Monday (July 21), on #ContentChat, I’ll be joined by my former Anaplan colleague Kristen Hura for Unlocking ABM/ABX Growth: How to Measure, Scale, and Supercharge Personalized Content That Actually Converts. Kristen is an expert i this area, and will share all her secrets for creating a strong bond between sales and marketing to help you get more out of your ABM/ABX programs.

Get Involved with #ContentChat

• Do you have questions you’d like us to answer during #ContentChat?
  ​Reply to this email or join us on Mondays to ask them live!
• #ContentChat is now on Meetup!
  ​Join our community Meetup page to connect, learn, and share best practices in content strategy, management, and marketing with fellow #ContentChat members.
• ​Want #ContentChat on your calendar?
  ​Use this link to follow our calendar so you never miss a chat.
• We're booking guests for Q3 2025—send us your pitch!
  ​Are you a content marketing practitioner, author, or consultant interested in being a guest for an upcoming edition of #ContentChat? We’d love to hear your topic pitch via our Content Chat guest submission form​

Content Marketing + Related Jobs

• ​Senior Director, Content & Communications, Level Access, U.S., Remote
• ​Director of Content Marketing, Degreed, Remote
• ​Senior Writer, Salesforce Newsroom, Salesforce, San Francisco, CA
• ​Content Manager, Perplexity, San Francisco, CA
• ​Senior Staff Brand Writer, Grammarly, San Francisco Bay Area
• ​Regional Content Lead, LATAM, Canva, San Francisco, CA

Send Us Your Content Jobs!

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

​Some real talk about AI and writing​
Sometimes I get riled up. And when I get really riled up, I rile up everyone I know with a ranty post on LInkedIn like this one, which is all about word choice and still using the em dash in the age of AI and people trying to "catch" other people using AI.

​1 delightfully human sentence to help you become a killer writer​
​If you haven't already subscribed to Ann Handley's newsletter, this is a great issue to show you why you should. In this issue she talks about one really amazing sentence, and what makes it so great. Consider it your professional development moment for today.

​Should AI bots have the same posting rights on social media humans?​
I posed this question on LInkedIn after seeing a post from TechCrunch about X allowing AI bots to write community notes—the comments that used to be used by human users of the platform to provide some context around some potentially misleading content.

Until next time, stay safe and be well!

Cheers,

Erika

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​Erika Heald, Founder & Chief Content Officer​
​Erika Heald Marketing Consulting​
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LinkedIn: @erikaheald​
Instagram: @MissErikaSF
​Threads: @MisserikaSF
​Bluesky: @erikaheald.bsky.social​​
​YouTube: @ErikaHeald​