Bernard Meyer

Please, do not use AI. You are cheapening a complex thing such as language -- which AI has not provided a good solution for, yet -- and creating a problem for yourself either now or further down the road. If you do use AI, how are you going to do quality assurance? How does anyone judge the quality of a Japanese translation of an originally English text if they don't know Japanese? The result is low quality, simply by this failure of a good process. Pay for a good translator, because you're investing in a new market and you want to make a good impression. It's far too easy to make a bad one.

One big sign that shows a content marketer is ready for a promotion: the ability to focus on the result of work, rather than the need to do the work directly. Many content creators get stuck in the thinking mode that they need to be the ones that deliver the content pieces, rather than understanding that with enough experience of the industry and the organization's goals, their time might be best spent ensuring that the content is being created. This requires buy-in and resources from the company, but -- if given: The content marketer delivers 10 quality pieces in the time it would've taken them to write just one. You don't need to directly create content to be a great content marketer. Understand where your skills would fit best.

Getting promoted means you're widening your perspective. More directly: you can match your activities (current & future) with your organization's financial goals. You know what works (or what type of content has the potential to work) to bring in more business. Too many new/inexperienced content creators are too focused on the content, and not on the purpose of the content.

One thing that's overemphasized is this idea of the buyer persona. One thing that's underemphasized is actually talking — having a real live conversation — on a regular basis with a real customer. Buyer personas create abstractions that end up aggregating your audience in a vague way. Having real weekly or monthly conversations with customers helps you summarize your customers in specific ways. You'll know exactly who you're talking to, based on who you've talked to. When in doubt, choose a friendly, approachable style. Remember that the type of content you create doesn't have to complicated, even when talking about complex topics. Make it easy to digest, and you'll likely hit the sweet spot. But talk to customers, regularly.