Erika Heald is the host of the weekly #ContentChat LinkedIn Live video podcast for content marketers, held Mondays at noon Pacific. As a B2B marketing consultant, she helps organizations define and execute content marketing strategies that drive business and professional growth. As a creator, and gluten-free blogger helping people discover gut-friendly farm-to-table food. She frequently speaks at B2B marketing industry events on employee brand advocacy, content strategy, customer experience, AI readiness, and social media topics. You can find her on her blogs erikaheald.com and erikasglutenfreekitchen.com.
The #ContentChat Bulletin: Why You Should be Sharing Your Content Marketing's Mission
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Why do you create content? What do you want content to do for your brand? For its fans? And for the community it serves? I've been thinking about this a lot since my #ContentChat conversation last week with Alexandre Gravel. You see, as part of my usual business development, I am always looking at content marketing job listings, looking for companies with remote, part-time roles that I could be a good fit for in a fractional leadership capacity. These job listings include all sorts of details about the company, the laundry list of responsibilities the role will have, and an even bigger list of nice-to-have skills. But these job listings almost never share the why behind content's role in the organization. That's a huge miss! Why? Because it will help you attract the right person to the role. It will also ensure that even if you have a nontraditional reporting structure—such as having the content leader report to Finance, Sales, or Product— you make it clear what kind of content marketing it is that you plan for this person to be doing. For me, it's a big red flag with shimmering LED lights when the Content function reports to one of these roles. It says to me that it's most likely a role that facilitates creating the content requested by the team the job reports into, not content marketing in the way that the Content Marketing Institute defines it. Which is also how I define it, and the type of roles I seek to fill. Content marketing is all about creating interesting and relevant content that helps people solve problems and reach their goals in their work or personal lives. Product content, on the other hand, is all about your company's product and what makes it stand out from the competition. It's all about you—and that's OK, it's just not content marketing. With all this in mind, I suggest you take the time to watch last week's #COntentChat replay, then draft a mission statement for your content team, following this format: We create [type of content] for [target audience] to help them [achieve goal/solve problem] by [unique value]. I know this isn't always a simple process, so I'm drafting a post that goes into hwo I approach defining a content marketing mission statement. I'll share it in the next edition of the newsletter...barring any additional household disasters! (see below). P.S. I am on the lookout for my next fractional content role or content strategy project—get in touch if you'd like to explore working together! Coming Up on #ContentChatContent 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.
Content Marketing + Related Jobs
ICYMIIs AI the missing piece in your content strategy? For those of you new to the newsletter, we usually have a lot more cool stuff to share in this section. But my past two weeks have included two big plumbing emergencies involving no hot water for a week and an ER visit for our English Bulldog (he's fine, huge vet bill later). So trust me when I say you really don't want to read or watch most of the media I've consumed since I last visited your inbox. Seriously. Until next time, stay safe and be well! Cheers, Erika |
The #ContentChat Bulletin
Erika Heald is the host of the weekly #ContentChat LinkedIn Live video podcast for content marketers, held Mondays at noon Pacific. As a B2B marketing consultant, she helps organizations define and execute content marketing strategies that drive business and professional growth. As a creator, and gluten-free blogger helping people discover gut-friendly farm-to-table food. She frequently speaks at B2B marketing industry events on employee brand advocacy, content strategy, customer experience, AI readiness, and social media topics. You can find her on her blogs erikaheald.com and erikasglutenfreekitchen.com.
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