It can be fun to break the mold—to try something new and unexpected in your content marketing program. But there is one mold you shouldn’t try to break: your brand’s voice. Yet, it seems to be the one standard that most frequently does get broken.

But why is that?

Unfortunately, there isn’t any one answer to that question. The many reasons why brands have inconsistent voice include:

• No defined brand voice chart for content creation
• Multiple freelancers creating content you haven’t explicitly trained on writing in your voice
• Internal content creators and SMEs who don’t know how to write in a voice other than their own
• Multiple reviewers, all with disparate ideas of what good looks like

Ugh.

I’ve been there.

The old solution was to have one person (me) review all the things and ensure they sounded like our brand.

But the much better solution I currently use is custom GPTs.

I create a custom GPT for every voice I need to write in. I give it the brand voice chart, style guidelines, content that’s performed well that the team considers to be an excellent example of the brand voice, and any pitfalls to be aware of.

Then, whenever I write content for the brand, I input it into that GPT and ask it to score me on how well I did with my content in terms of reflecting the brand voice and the guidelines.

If I score less than an 8/10, I ask it to coach me on how I could potentially update the content to do better, but not to make those edits—explain to me what was off and how to fix it.

Basically, I use those GPTs as my own personal trainer.

No more trying to remember which clients don’t use the serial comma or think the em dash means content was written by AI (even though it’s not).

Just a friendly little robot helping me out.

What’s great is you can share a custom GPT like this with anyone in your organization who is creating content, so they, too, can get feedback on how to align their content with your brand voice.

Easy peasy.

And the best part is you can go on vacation without checking your email to see if anything urgent needs your eyes on it before being published.

I’ll be sharing more on how I do this during the Fall with my friends at MarketingProfs. Stay tuned for more details!

CEX is almost here!

There's nothing sadder than watching from the LinkedIn sidelines while all your favorite people hang out together in Cleveland. Don't believe me? Just go take a look at the #CEX24 hashtag on LInkedIn and come back to me. So, like I said, it's not too late to save yourself from FOMO. Register today to secure your spot at the only conference for people who are serious about the business of content. I hope to see you in Cleveland!

Content Marketing + Related Jobs

• ​Head of Content Marketing, Stripe, United States
• ​Senior Staff Brand Writer, Grammarly, San Francisco
• ​Senior Director, Brand Storytelling & Systems, Circle, San Francisco Bay Area
• ​Senior Content Designer, Go Fund Me, United States
• ​Content Strategy Lead, Valon, New York City or San Francisco
• ​Vice President, Communications & Brand, Syndigo, United States
• ​Content Strategist, SEO & AEO, Chime, San Francisco
• ​Content Marketing Lead, Health Joy, Chicago
• ​Integrated Marketing Communications Lead, Kohler Ventures, Palo Alto

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

​Stop Adding me to Your Email List!​
"We met. We chatted. I gave you my card.
That does not mean I want to be on your mailing list."
— Marketer Anh Nguyen on an all-too-common practice that goes against marketing best practices—and data privacy regulations.

​Workflow and AI: Better together?​
"Spoiler alert: Implementing AI for workflow is about understanding the full capability of your technology, thinking like a human, and finding what works best for YOUR organization." — Ahava Leibtag, CEO, Aha Media Group & Healthcare Content Expert on how her team is using AI in their workflows.

​Boston Public Library aims to increase access to a vast historic archive using AI​
"Boston Public Library, one of the oldest and largest public library systems in the country, is launching a project this summer with OpenAI and Harvard Law School to make its trove of historically significant government documents more accessible to the public." — what a FANTASTIC AI + content use case!

​Here’s how to prove marketing’s pipeline value & revenue impact to your CFO​
This guide will share exactly how to use automated attribution reporting to show finance the metrics they want, bridge the communication gap between departments, and ultimately win the budget you deserve." — for those of you prepping for budget season, this is a must-read.

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​