Content Strategy Insights

Crystal Taggart Crystal Taggart helps small- to medium-sized businesses improve their business results with artificial intelligence. AI is rapidly emerging as a viable technology that even small businesses can use to optimize their marketing efforts. Crystal and I talked about: her company, Atlas AI, and its mission to empower SMBs to use artificial intelligence to better promote their businesses...

Neal Sofian Neal Sofian leads a company that builds conversation bots for the health-care industry. Using algorithms, machine learning, and contextual storytelling, they create complex, customized content on the fly to help people change their health behavior. Neal and I talked about: conversational AI and how conversation bots can create conversations and build relationships how technology that p...

Jennifer Bourn Jennifer Bourn helps small businesses create systems to plan and create their content. She also helps other small-agency owners streamline and systematize their operations. Jennifer and I talked about: the importance of systems and processes in both her business and personal lives her ability to identify and implement a systematic approach to any business activity - both hers and he...

Kronda Adair Kronda Adair helps mission-driven businesses succeed online. Helping her clients authentically share their expertise as digital content is a key part of this mission. Kronda and I talked about: her evolution from web developer to a full-service, results-oriented marketing agency her stealthy approach to eliciting content from her clients her new "Content Bootcamp" product how she help...

Jenn Marie Jenn Marie helps small businesses share their authentic selves online. She focuses on personality-driven content marketing that helps her clients start conversations with their customers and prospects. Jenn and I talked about: how her diverse business background prepared her for internet marketing work how her work in experiential marketing informs her branding expertise the confluence...

John Sechrest John Sechrest helps startups tell their stories. By managing the narrative around their startup idea, founders can improve their odds of raising money, attracting the right talent, and - most importantly - connecting with the right customers. John and I talked about: the importance in of startup founders telling an effective story and living it how content strategy is the art of mana...

Andrea Zoellner Andrea Zoellner is passionate about making the web more accessible and usable. With clear UX copywriting and a single-minded focus on the user, she helps people succeed online. Andrea and I talked about: her passion for making the web more accessible her path to UX copywriting via communications and journalism her definition of UX copywriting: tiny bits of copy that help people com...

Heather Lloyd-Martin When the field of SEO emerged in the late 1990s, Heather Lloyd-Martin was one of the first writers to focus on search engines. She's still at it 20 years later - writing, coaching, training, and consulting on SEO copywriting. Heather and I talked about: her background in SEO, dating back to before the introduction of Google how much she enjoys testing SEO content ideas the imp...

Kate Saul Kate Saul and Andre Francisco work at 18F, an internal government agency that helps other federal agencies improve their digital services, including web content. Soon after the agency's founding they discovered that they would benefit from having a reference guide - the 18F Content Guide - for both their organization and their clients. Andre Francisco We talked about: Andre and Kate's ba...

Shelley Keith Shelley Keith is a digital strategist with Modern Tribe. Her pragmatic approach to content governance aligns stakeholders on the "why" behind content decisions and uses techniques like "guerrilla governance" to get the content outcomes that executives demand. Shelley and I talked about: her work on the web since 1994 and her role at Modern Tribe her definition of content governance h...

Simon Thompson Simon Thompson runs an agency in Melbourne, Australia, that focuses on helping B2B businesses add podcasts to their content marketing mix. Simon and I talked about: his transition from print media to digital his work doing content marketing for big brands in an agency setting his transition to running his own agency why he focuses on podcasting as the core of his content-marketing s...

Malaika Carpenter Malaika Carpenter is a solo content strategist in Philadelphia. Working on her own with non-content-focused clients has shown her the importance of having a clearly articulated, replicable content-strategy process. Malaika and I talked about: her work at SayCred Media Group helping clients get clear on their "why" her background as a pharmaceutical sales representative and how it...

Jamie Schmid Jamie Schmid is a content enthusiast. She has been building websites since the late 1990s. Over that time, she has honed processes that result in websites that give both internal and external users rich, intuitive content experiences. Jamie and I talked about: her evolution from illustrator to website developer how Karen McGrane inspired her at DrupalCon 2013 her subsequent growth as...

David Dylan Thomas David Dylan Thomas studies human behavior to develop better content strategies. His cognitive-bias hacks help you tame counter-productive thought processes to create less biased content experiences. David and I talked about: his evolution from filmmaker to content strategist the introduction of content strategy as a discipline at Think Company how awareness and knowledge of cogn...

Joe Welinske Joe Welinske creates content strategies and other crafted communication as a UX practitioner, teacher, and event organizer. Joe is super-thoughtful about the role of content in helping people use technology. We had a great conversation about his journey from old-school technical communicator to leading-edge UX practitioner. We talked about: Joe's journey from industrial engineering to...

Jared Spool For nearly 40 years, Jared Spool has been helping publishers and software developers create better experiences for their users. Along the way, he has also helped companies apply UX design principles to the process of creating content for their customers. Jared is one of the best-known and most widely cited practitioners and educators in the UX field. We had a wide-ranging conversation...

Jason Preston & Steve Broback Jason Preston & Steve Broback co-founded the Dent Conference, an annual gathering and a year-round community of innovators looking to make a dent in the universe. Jason and Steve launched the event with focus on content and programming. But they quickly realized that the event was really the centerpiece of an ongoing, year-round community they had created. We talked a...

Gerry McGovernGerry McGovern helps customers complete their most important tasks when they arrive at a website. His proven process routinely results in the removal of as much as 90% of the content on a website. This requires content managers to shift their mindset from a simple production model to an ongoing customer-centric "eternal beta." Gerry and I talked about: the shift in power away from or...

Sarah Richards Sarah Richards created the field of content design as she revamped GOV.UK's web presence. From a messy amalgam of hundreds of government websites, she created a user-focused "storefront" where UK citizens could get their most common questions answered. Always focused on her users' needs, Sarah developed an approach and methodologies that can help anyone design, create, and manage be...

Todd Bishop Todd Bishop and his colleagues at GeekWire have strategically blended business journalism with leading-edge media business practices to create a regional tech publication with worldwide readership. Todd is convinced that content marketers and other content strategists could benefit from bringing a journalistic approach to their content. With a research-based, journalistic approach "you...

Laura Porto Stockwell Laura Porto Stockwell has developed a strategy process that connects the dots between business goals, brand aspirations, market opportunities, and user needs. The intersection of those elements, she says, "Is where the magic happens." Laura applies her strategic approach to both top-level digital strategies and to content strategies for her clients as the CEO of Big Thinkers...

Anika Anand Anika Anand loves engaging with her readers, not just giving them "fly-by content." She constantly asks, "What do we want people to do with what we're making?" Anika and her colleagues at The Evergrey and Whereby.us are pioneering a new kind of interactive journalism, always aiming to engage with their readers, and to encourage them to engage with their community. Their motto: "Live Li...

Andrew Himes He didn't use the term then, but Andrew Himes was one of the web's first content strategists. Years before Bill Gates' famous "Internet Tidal Wave" memo, Andrew and his co-founders at the Microsoft Developer Network (MSDN) were working on a proprietary hypertext document system, code-named Blackbird. Then along came the web. Andrew and his colleagues at MSDN were uniquely positioned t...

David Fried David Fried integrates content strategy throughout his branding work at the digital agency EFM. Whether he's crafting a branding strategy from the ground up or executing a campaign for an existing brand, content is always a key element. David's Bio David Fried is a strategist and creative director at EFM Agency in San Diego with over a decade of experience developing platforms, names,...

Russell SparkmanRussell Sparkman has been doing content marketing for almost 20 years. We talked about purpose-driven content marketing, how not to commit "random acts of content," and the neuroscience of storytelling. Russell's Bio Since 2000, Russell Sparkman has been a practitioner and proponent of story-based, purpose-focused content marketing. Starting with the launch of One World Journeys as...