#ContentChat

#ContentChat: The Unsexy Side of Content — Why Taxonomy and Data Standardization Matter Good content decisions require good data. But what happens when inconsistent tagging, unclear content classifications, and disconnected systems make it impossible to tell what's actually working? In this edition of #ContentChat, Erika Heald is joined by Aimee Rodriguez, Senior Director of Intelligent Conte...

How do you make your brand voice stand out when every competitor claims to be innovative, trusted, and customer-centric? A competitive brand voice audit can help you identify what makes your organization distinctive—and turn those insights into practical brand voice guidelines. In this episode of #ContentChat, Erika Heald shares a five-step process for conducting a competitive brand voice audit, i...

A brand voice guide, style guide, personas, and content templates give your team a strong foundation for using AI. But how do you make sure people actually use those resources consistently when they sit down with ChatGPT, Claude, Copilot, or other AI tools? In this episode of #ContentChat, Erika Heald walks through her AI Instruction System—a repeatable framework for turning your content foundatio...

What happens when everyone in your organization thinks they’re aligned on the brand—but they use the same words to mean very different things? In this episode of #ContentChat, Erika Heald talks with brand strategist Jennifer Cronin about why you need brand alignment before you invest in a new website, campaign, content strategy, or AI-powered marketing workflow. Drawing on more than 20 years of br...

Should your company start a B2B podcast? Before you buy the microphones and design the logo, there are a few questions your team needs to answer. In this episode of #ContentChat, Erika Heald talks with B2B podcast host and producer Rachel Moore about what it really takes to create a podcast that supports your marketing goals—and how to know when starting one isn't the right move. Because “our...

Learn how to assess your content operations maturity, uncover the friction holding your team back, and prioritize the foundational improvements that will make the biggest difference. -------- In this episode of #ContentChat, Erika Heald explains why content operations maturity isn’t about achieving a perfect score or implementing the most sophisticated processes. It’s about having the right founda...

Content Foundations: What I’ve Learned Since Publishing the Book What happens after you publish a framework—and people start putting it to work? In this special edition of #ContentChat, Erika Heald shares what she’s learned since publishing Content Foundations: Scale Your Content With AI Without Losing Your Voice . After months of talking with readers, leading workshops, and seeing teams apply the...

Learn how to turn your content foundations into a system that drives sustainable growth. In this final chapter of the Content Foundations series, Erika Heald brings together the frameworks from the past 11 weeks and explores what comes next: earning buy-in for content governance, making new processes stick, and using strong content foundations to scale with greater clarity, consistency, and confid...

Learn how to grow your content team without scaling chaos. In this episode of Content Chat, Erika Heald shares practical frameworks for recognizing when your content operation truly needs more people, deciding what kind of support will have the biggest impact, and building the governance systems that help every contributor succeed. ——————— If your content team feels overwhelmed, your first instinc...

Learn how to integrate AI into your content operations without sacrificing your brand voice.   In this episode of Content Chat, Erika Heald shares practical frameworks for identifying the right AI use cases, deciding what belongs in human hands, and building the governance systems that help AI strengthen—not undermine—your content strategy. -------------------------------------------- If you'...

Learn how to keep your content documentation useful long after it's created. In this episode of Content Chat, Erika Heald shares practical frameworks for treating documentation as living infrastructure, building review cadences, and creating governance systems that evolve alongside your team, your business, and AI. -------------------- When was the last time anyone updated your style guide, w...

Learn how to build a content review process that improves quality without creating bottlenecks. In this episode of Content Chat, Erika Heald shares practical frameworks for defining quality, creating repeatable review workflows, and using AI to support editing without sacrificing your brand voice. ------------------------------------------------------------------------------------- What does &quot...

In this episode of #ContentChat, Erika continues her journey through her book, Content Foundations, with Chapter 6: Collaborating with External and Internal Talent . You’ll learn how to move beyond the “unicorn creator” myth and build content operations that scale by empowering freelancers, agencies, internal SMEs, and AI tools to do their best work—without everything hinging on you. In this episo...

In this #ContentChat session, Erika Heald kicks off Part 2 of her book Content Foundations —moving from documentation to execution. Instead of chasing endless ideas, Erika shows how to build systems, templates, and workflows that protect your time, reduce burnout, and keep your content aligned with strategy. You’ll learn: Why most content teams don’t have an ideation problem—they have a prioritiza...

Unlock scalable, AI-ready content operations by fixing one unglamorous but essential system: taxonomy . In this episode of Content Chat , Erika Heald walks through Chapter 4 of Content Foundations: “Taming the Chaos with Taxonomy” and explains how a well-documented, well-maintained taxonomy turns content chaos into content clarity—for both humans and AI. You’ll learn what taxonomy really is (beyon...

Learn how to create meaningful audience personas that actually guide your content, not sit in a folder. In this episode of Content Chat, Erika Heald shares practical frameworks and common mistakes to avoid when building B2B personas for humans and AI. --------------- Are your audience personas driving better content decisions—or sitting in a forgotten folder? In this episode of Content Chat , host...

If your team keeps blaming “content problems,” you probably have a documentation problem —starting with your style guide. In this episode of Content Chat , host Erika Heald walks through how to create a modern, practical style guide that people (and AI tools) will actually use. You’ll learn how to move beyond dusty PDFs and rigid rules to build a living, operational document that reduces rewrites,...

Defining your brand voice is no longer optional—especially if you’re using AI to create or scale your content. In this episode of #ContentChat , host Erika Heald walks through Chapter 1 of her book, Content Foundations : Defining Your Brand Voice. You’ll learn how to move beyond vague brand traits like “innovative” and “professional” and create a documented, scalable brand voice that works across...

Are you creating tons of content—but not seeing the strategic impact you want? The problem isn’t your ideas or your AI tools. It’s your content foundation. In this kickoff episode of a 12-week #ContentChat series, host Erika Heald breaks down the core ideas from her book Content Foundations and explains why content governance is the missing link between strategy and execution. Think of this series...

Content strategy often looks great in the deck—but falls apart in execution. In this #ContentChat conversation, host Erika Heald talks with Maliha Khan, founder & CEO of Khanect the Dots and Khancepts Studio, about how to bridge the “messy middle” between strategy and execution and bring AI into the mix without creating generic, soulless content. You’ll learn how to operationalize content stra...

AI can supercharge your content… or quietly blow up your copyright and compliance. In this episode of #ContentChat, host Erika Heald sits down with Kerry O’Shea Gorgone—a recovering attorney turned marketer and AI power user—to unpack the real risks content marketers face when using AI tools. You’ll learn what you can’t copyright, how AI training data and “plagiarizing the internet” can land you i...

Looking to get more business (not just impressions) from LinkedIn in 2026? In this episode of #ContentChat, host Erika Heald sits down with LinkedIn expert, author, and fractional CMO Neal Schaffer to unpack what’s actually working on LinkedIn right now for B2B marketers, founders, and thought leaders. You’ll learn: Why LinkedIn is still the #1 platform for B2B despite TikTok, Instagram, and every...

Feeling burned out by content creation—or overwhelmed by your own endless scrolling?  In this episode of #ContentChat, host Erika Heald talks with Sarah Parker, Editorial Director at Manychat and creator of the Chronically Online magazine, about fresh insights from Manychat’s new Creator Report on content fatigue, burnout, AI, and community. You’ll hear what 51% of creators are saying about burnou...

How can B2B marketers stay discoverable in an AI‑first world?  In this episode of #ContentChat, host Erika Heald talks with Lee Odden, CEO of TopRank Marketing, about how Best Answer Marketing helps brands win visibility and trust across fragmented channels. You’ll hear how Lee’s team uses original research, influencer collaboration, and experiential content to create “best answer” resources that...

In this episode of #ContentChat, host Erika Heald sits down with marketing consultant and fractional CMO Robert Rose to unpack how content strategy is changing in the age of AI—and what that really means for content marketers, strategists, and brand leaders. They explore why the old playbook of pumping out SEO‑optimized content is failing, and what it looks like to build a strategy around outcomes...