Setting Your Intentions for the New Year

Happy New Year!

Tatiana Howard , my late friend and mentor, got me started on an end-of-the-year/start-of-the-new-year tradition. Each year, I now ask myself (and sometimes the #ContentChat community) this short list of questions:

• What are you most proud to have accomplished in the past year (can be personal or professional)?
• What was your biggest failure?
• What is the top lesson you learned from the past year?
• What were you most excited about in the past year?
• What would you like to have in 2024 that you lacked in 2023?
• What do you wish you’d done less of?
• What do you wish you’d done more of?
• What did you do in 2023 that you’d never done before?
• What was your favorite new place that you visited?

I built upon this habit by incorporating it into using a beautiful hard copy weekly/monthly PassionPlanner so I can keep my goals—and what I need to reach them—top of mind even when life gets busy.

For many years, before I started my content marketing consultancy, my answers to this set of questions frequently pointed to needing to find a different fit for work. Because none of us want to have "Had the Sunday Scaries" as something we wish we'd done less of!

As part of this annual process, I also give myself a plan for what I want to accomplish over the year ahead, in the form of a professional development plan. While I don't have to turn it in to a manager to check the box on mandatory performance reviews, it does keep me accountable for taking my year in review and putting my intentions into action.

Having managed dozens of content marketers and communicators over the past two decades, I know how hard it can be to get motivated to make a change when it comes to your job and career. That's why I’ve partnered up with Midlife Fulfilled podcast host and marketer Bernie Borges for a special career development live session later this month.

Register for our free live session , where we will give you everything you need to create a fulfilling professional development plan for 2024. We'll also make time to answer your questions (given live or anonymously if you reply to this email). I hope you take us up on letting us share our complementary approaches to uncovering what you want for 2024 and putting a plan into action to make it happen.

I hope to see you there!

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. Be sure to mark your calendar to join the #ContentChat community and me for these upcoming guests:

• Yesterday on #ContentChat, we explored how to transform a potentially ‘meh’ content idea into something your community will love with Amy Higgins and Monica Norton . Watch the replay to learn how to uncover the core idea and intent of a content request and hold a brainstorming session to inspire new ideas.
• There is no #ContentChat next Monday (Jan. 15) given the Martin Luther King Jr. Day holiday.

Get Involved with #ContentChat

Want #ContentChat on your calendar? Use this link to follow our calendar, so you never miss a chat.

We're booking guests for February and beyond—send us your pitch! Are you a content marketing practitioner, author, or consultant who is interested in being a guest for an upcoming edition of #ContentChat? We’d love to see your topic pitch via our Content Chat guest submission form.

Content Marketing + Related Jobs

Technical Content Writer, Generative AI Specialist, Writer . Writer is a popular generative AI tool that helps create and improve any written content. If you’ve attended CMworld or MarketingProfs B2B forum, you’ve likely met their team (Hi Alaura Weaver ???? !) The company is hiring a technical content writer to educate and inspire its audience about the potential of generative AI.

Manager, Content Strategy, Email Copywriting, Freshworks . Freshworks offers a cloud-based customer service, IT, and CRM software used by 60,000+ businesses. Its team is hiring a manager based in Bellevue, WA, for email content strategy to write emails spanning the buying journey for the entire product portfolio and audience segments–including free plan users, trial users, trial expired, and customers.

Head of Content Marketing, Asana . Asana is a work management platform that is used by thousands of teams (including ours!). The brand is hiring a head of content marketing based in San Francisco to develop and execute a visionary content marketing strategy and lead a team of content planners, writers, and social media marketers.

Content Marketing Manager, Vivi . Vivi is the only wireless screen mirroring and digital signage tool designed for education, helping teachers enhance collaboration, control, and creativity. Its team is looking for a content marketing manager to tell a compelling narrative about Vivi at every point of the buyer’s owned, earned, and paid media journey. This includes social media, blog, email, video, and website content.

Senior Marketing Strategist, Cultivate & Engage . Cultivate & Engage (formerly Holdsworth Communications) is a strategic communications firm that helps purpose-driven organizations craft authentic stories that drive engagement. Its team is seeking a senior marketing strategist to help lead client marketing efforts and develop integrated communications plans. This includes creating dynamic content to achieve client goals.

Content and SEO Director, Accelo . Accelo provides a client work management platform that simplifies project, retainer, sales, and service management. The company is looking for a content and SEO director based in Denver to build and execute its overall content and SEO strategy to drive inbound traffic, engagement, and brand awareness.

Senior Content Marketing Manager, HR or Finance, Rippling . Rippling provides workforce systems to run HR, IT, and finance needs, enabling customers to automate every part of the employee lifecycle. The brand is seeking a senior content marketing manager for both its HR and finance audiences, which includes developing a deep understanding of each audience and devising content marketing tactics to reach execs across a variety of mediums.

Content Marketing Lead, Madhive . Madhive provides a TV advertising solution for advertisers to seamlessly customize and automate the over-the-top buying process. The company is hiring an NYC-based content marketing lead to build its content marketing plan from the ground up and develop written and visual content to elevate brand visibility.

Marketing & Communications Manager, Pet Partners . Pet Partners is a not-for-profit organization that is a national leader in preparing and registering therapy animal teams. It is hiring a marketing and communications manager to create compelling, audience-targeted, and SEO-focused content that expands its reach and strengthens its reputation.

Are you hiring? We can help!

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.

And if you need a fractional content marketing team to fill the gap while you're hiring, hit reply, and let's talk!

NEXT WEEK: 2024 Career Planning for a More Fulfilling Life [FREE Webinar]

Are you in need of a career reset? So many marketers I know are burnt out and questioning what they need to do to feel fulfilled. The great news is—there is so much potential for what you can do.

To help you take control of your career and build a more fulfilling future, Bernie Borges and I are hosting a free event on Jan. 17 at 3 p.m. Pacific/6 p.m. Eastern to teach you how to set your personal brand foundation, define the ideal audience you want to target for your career and build a mindmap to fuel your content creation.

Spots are limited, so register to attend ASAP .

ICYMI

2024 B2B Marketing Research. We don’t yet know what 2024 has in store for marketing teams, however, we have plenty of learnings from last year that we should apply. CMI’s annual B2B content marketing research keeps a pulse on the latest benchmarks, budgets, and trends. We had general manager Stephanie Stahl join #ContentChat before the winter break to discuss the key takeaways—check it out!

Google Ranking Factors (New Research) . What does it take for content to rank on Google? Semrush analyzed 300,000 results to find out! A few takeaways: Content quality beats length, authority is key, and relevance is crucial for ranking. Get the full report here. What stands out most to you?

Video Viewing Sites and What the Data Tells Us . Video content is rapidly gaining popularity, and marketers have options like YouTube, Twitch, and TikTok to choose from. To help inform which channel(s) to prioritize, Christopher Penn and the Trust Insights team dug into the data to see what earns the most views (spoiler alert: it’s YouTube).

Looking Past Pitchcraft: How to Find the Best B2B Marketing Agency for You . Marketing agencies are really good at selling themselves, which makes it difficult to find the right support for your team. This MarketingProfs article from Jason Ball breaks down how to search for a B2B marketing agency, including the red flags to look for and strategies for finding a team that will deliver on your needs.

Encore of Ep. 62 - Content That Moves Your Business Forward . Thought leadership is a must-include component of successful branding, but many teams are often challenged in creating meaningful thought leadership content. In this episode of The Business That Story Built, I chatted with Christie Bilbrey to provide practical tips and tricks for building a solid content strategy and optimizing your content creation processes.

Revitalize Your Brand: The Essential 90-Day Marketing Strategy Overhaul for Business Growth . The new year means new opportunities. Are you ready to revitalize your brand? Pam Didner explains her 90-day marketing sprint in this blog post, explaining how to retool your messaging and rebuild your marketing campaigns to drive growth in just three months.

Until next time, stay safe and be well!

Cheers,

Erika