Contentoo

Proud moment incoming! Penny Warnock is speaking at Spotlight by Semrush on Tuesday. Big stage. Big deal. Big nerves. A little over 2 years ago when Penny came in, she was so scared she couldn't even look me in the eye ( 😜 ). Now there's going to be hundreds of people looking at her while she speaks about the quality of content! And this is what I admire most about Penny: how hard she fights for the quality of the work. She asks the awkward questions. She pushes for the better idea. And she never forgets there’s a real person reading the thing at the end. She’s also never been short of opinions on 'good' marketing. And never been short on the urge of sharing those opinions. So giving her a whole stage feels like a very sensible call. Her talk is called Proof of Care. It’s about protecting human judgement and creativity when you’re producing content at scale (spoiler alert: with AI). If you work anywhere near content right now, that’s the question. Can’t think of anyone better to take it on. If you’re at Spotlight, go and watch her do her thing!!

me? on a stage? offering insights? in this economy? anyway, I’m speaking at Spotlight next week in front of real people and will be making it my whole personality tysm for your patience xx Semrush

Two years ago it felt like we were 'defending our own play' by explaining human experts would stay relevant even if AI created more and more content. For those of us who've worked in content for many years, it felt pretty logical. By now, AI companies are making the case for us. Human experts are not just relevant; they are extremely necessary. Read Anthropic's own job posting for Head of Copy & Content, the role that owns voice, tone, and creative across the Anthropic and Claude brands: "We care about craft, making things by hand and using AI when it makes sense." That's the company that builds Claude, in a public job posting, telling the world that handmade creative work matters. AI is one tool inside the process, not the process itself. Happy to see our AI friends have seen the light. No more defending. Just making sure our clients get access to the amazing, creative human experts in our network, all across the globe.

— so wait, what actually makes content good? — depends who you ask. go read the full report for a deep dive into the wonderfully messy world of content marketing ❤️🔥

when we made our dream guest list for Permission to Rant, Stefan Manojlović was right at the top. so when he agreed to come on, we were over the moon, and i asked him to prepare his ten commandments for content marketers. a little while later, he messaged me: “i fear i’ve cooked with these commandments.” welllllll he was definitely right about that. we finally got into the studio, and he asked if i wanted to read the commandments before we record. i said no. better to be suprised. thank god, because what followed was the purest possible footage of me watching what can only be compared to michelangelo paint the sistine chapel, if michelangelo worked in b2b saas and had strong opinions about mql targets. i had LITERAL chills. i lost my mind. he was right, stefan absolutely f-cking cooked. and underneath the hilarity and wit was something i’ve been blue in the face saying: content isn’t dead. writing isn’t dead. having something to say isn’t dead. this episode is for the marketers who still give a shit. who have opinions. who want to make something worth reading. and who need confirmation that there are still other people out there who feel the same way. stefan is a king. we agree on everything. that is all. do yourself a favour and watch the biggest mic drop of the century on youtube or spotify or wherever you like to listen and nod aggressively and read the full commandments in the state of content teams 2026 report! https://lnkd.in/ePedAJSz https://lnkd.in/eXFMsZGn

The teams winning at content aren't producing more. They're making better decisions about what to produce, what to fix, and what to stop.