Insights that AI and Google searches won’t spit out
Have questions about my journey, or content design?
How I became a content designer (or UX writer)
I never thought of myself as any kind of designer. If you’d asked me what I wanted to be when I grew up, I would have said “video game journalist.” With a background in history I never expected to work in the tech industry, either. Yet now I’ve worked for two...
What is a UX content strategist?
A “UX content strategist,” more commonly called a “staff content designer,” is a fairly new user experience role, evolving alongside UX writing as a major component of the content design discipline. It can be a role on its own, but most commonly it just represents a...
Content design vs. content strategy: know the difference
Trying to understand content design vs. content strategy after a confusing look through job boards? Good news: I've done both, so I can tell you the key differences between them. Companies often interchange and merge these two phrases, but they are different. You only...
What is a content designer?
Most people I speak with don’t understand what content designers actually are, and it’s no surprise. “Content” has become synonymous with the digital marketing industry, and “design” has become a ubiquitous term for visual work. I was guilty of it, too. I would refer...
Lessons in Building a Website Business (While They’re Still Fresh)
I used to dream about becoming an editor, but I've never really been one to keep my finger on the pulse of pop culture and politics enough to supervise opinion pieces. However, finding several niche topics and connecting them for my own understanding has always been...
This is when it’s time to stop worshipping the brand
We tend to worship brand fidelity above all else, but this can become a detriment to marketing campaigns when success takes a backseat to a mentality of “colouring inside the lines.” The truth is that brands can’t just fit into a box these days. Not online, anyway....
Why clients can’t dictate agency processes
I’ve worked with at least 8 different agencies as an external consultant, both inside the agency and on the client side too. In that time I’ve noticed some things that stuck out as bad ideas. Some pride themselves on tailoring everything to the client’s needs. Others...
Marketing to Generation X: they don’t care, but you should.
Nobody really writes about marketing to Generation X, but they’re actually one of the most important demographics out there at the moment. Comprising 25% of the population, yet responsible for 30% of spending, Gen X has reached the peak of its career arc—but also...
Marketing agency rules that nobody tells you.
People act like running an agency is either the easiest or the hardest thing in the world. The people who think it’s easy have never done it, while those who think it’s insanely difficult usually don’t have processes in place to avoid classic problems. If you’ve...
What non-techie marketers need to know about development agencies.
As a fledgling content writer building a career in the Waterloo Region, I entered the workforce thinking that developers were the cream of the crop (and we all know some lovely programmers out there). But that initial lack of technical knowledge gave me the impression...
How to use Hootsuite’s social media analytics to engineer engagement.
There’s a reason why people don’t flock to your Facebook page even after you’ve posted about everything under the sun: you probably haven’t dug into the social media analytics that Hootsuite has to offer. It should go without saying that you need to analyze which...
Develop a GDPR compliance checklist, even if you’re late to the party.
What would happen to your company if it were audited for data privacy compliance? Do you have privacy policies in place and in practice? Do you have data expiry dates? What happens if a customer wants to be erased from your database? Some large companies didn’t take...
What to do when the Facebook algorithm change slashes your traffic: part 1.
Back in early 2017 I was on the phone with Joe Speiser, the CEO of Little Things—a content company with a Facebook page of 22,000,000 followers. We wanted to explore a partnership with him on a client’s behalf to build the client’s audience laterally. But now his...
Andrew really raised the bar, and not just with SEO. He laid the early groundwork for our PPC campaigns (now 50% more cost-effective than the industry average), and we built a website together with a visual builder. He took organic search from a sliver of traffic to a dominant channel and he’s still excited to implement new SEO strategies over a year later. He just doesn’t stop learning.
I’m involved with a few other projects, too.
Meta
At Meta I’m serving as a Content Designer for 500 people, supporting big redesign projects, supporting engineers launch internal products, and improving internal operations with technical UX writing.
Shopify
I joined Shopify as a content marketer and an aspiring UX writer, taking on the title of Content Designer. Here I occupied the intersection between product, UX, marketing, and customer retention.
Employed Historian
What’s more frustrating than spending 4 years at college just to run into a wall of job rejections? Not much. I’m making a website showing humanities and liberal arts grads how to build their careers from scratch.
Want to work together? Let's chat.
Feel free to send an email if you'd like to chat.
I love talking shop over a cup of coffee, even if you just want a second opinion on something.
Coffee's on me.