Erin Balsa

Content Marketing Consultant and Writer 

Navattic

Marketing Advisor

Haus of Bold

I help sales-led B2B SaaS startups in four key areas:

1. People: Hire and train full-time content marketers
2. Process: Build and optimize content marketing processes
3. Strategy: Develop a narrative-led content strategy
4. Execution: Create bold content 

Happy clients include Showpad, Intellum, SurveyCTO, monday.com and more. 

hausofbold.com

Fractional Director of Content Marketing 

The Predictive Index

The Predictive Index is an Inc. 5000 B2B SaaS startup in the HR tech/human capital management space. 

I led a 12-person team made up of editorial, graphic design, media production, and digital learning professionals. 

In 2021, PI added 2,400+ new clients and 500 new PI partners—with content playing a central role in acquisition, onboarding, activation, and retention. We also increased our high-intent hand raiser leads by 102% in 2021.

Marketing Director — Content Marketing & Brand

I grew the content team from 1 to 8 full-time employees and built an iterative, narrative-led content strategy that helped us hit our aggressive marketing goals month over month. 

Our creative content campaigns drove millions in revenue during this time period. One research report, The 2020 Remote Work Report, helped us close 114 opportunities and drove $680k in revenue.

Head of Content Marketing 

As a content team of one, I built PI's content marketing engine from the ground up. 

During this time, I worked with the executive team to write the 50-page Ultimate Guide to Talent Optimization and talent optimization market map. We used these assets to launch a new discipline (talent optimization), and rebrand our product (talent optimization platform), helping us grow from seed to Series A ($50M).

Content Marketing Manager

Erin Balsa Content Marketing

Occasional freelance writer, editor, and content strategist for B2B, B2C, and D2C brands in various industries including Software & Services, Fashion, Food & Drink, and Media. 

Clients include Shinesty, Kindred Bravely, Mightier, Accord, Rhode Island Monthly, Boston Magazine, Parents Magazine, VONA (and many more).

erinbalsa.com

Editor, Writer & Content Strategist

Brafton Inc.

Brafton is the largest content marketing agency in the United States.

I was promoted to lead the Boston editorial department, overseeing all content managers, editors, and writers. In addition to managing writer resources (to the 30-minute unit), I sourced and screened talent, trained all new employees on content marketing best practices, and traveled to meet with clients. I also wrote for the Brafton blog and edited copy to build our authority as trusted a content marketing partner.

Managing Editor, Content Marketing

I managed a team of 15 full-time content marketing writers. In addition to coaching my team and assigning work, I edited copy for 100+ clients including SMBs, early-stage startups, and Fortune 500s.

Section Editor, Content Marketing

Providence Media

Providence Media publishes four monthly lifestyle magazines. 

I edited four print magazines per month, which entailed: 

- Community-based listening to understand trending topics
- Planning issues and coming up with good stories to tell
- Managing the editorial calendar
- Assigning work to freelance writers
- Writing cover lines, headlines, and articles
- Editing copy (I did all first round edits)
- Proofing copy

Assistant Editor

Collaborative for Educational Services

I led IEP meetings for incarcerated students ages 18-22 and advocated for out-of-district students in DYS and DMH placements. In summer, I taught at DYS facilities.

Educational Team Liaison

Girls of Gold

I co-founded a scrap gold buying business. We purchased broken, unwanted gold jewelry at gold buying parties and re-sold it to a smelter.

Co-Founder

Kennedy-Donovan Center

I supervised individual home share placements.

Case Manager

Justice Resource Institute

I managed direct care workers at Meadowridge Academy, a residential school for students with behavioral difficulties and complex trauma histories.

Assistant Manager

I build and execute content marketing strategies for sales-led B2B SaaS startups that sell complex, enterprise-ready solutions.

Hey! You landed on my profile, which means one of three things:

1. You want to sell me something 
2. You know me in real life
3. You want to create better content

If you’re a two or three, make yourself comfortable — I'm happy you're here!

Looking for a director-level content pro who can help your B2B SaaS startup create content that builds loyal fans and drives business results?

I'm a builder, strategist, and doer. And I'm obsessed with metrics that matter, like: 

- Pipeline generation: I helped increase high-intent request demo leads by 102% in a year. 
- Revenue creation: One of my research report campaigns drove $680K in closed won revenue.
- Happiness quotient: I assume positive intent, lead with empathy, and try to be a joy to work with.

My 13+ year professional content marketing journey took me from writing a personal blog to leading a 12-person content marketing engine at The Predictive Index (an Inc. 5000 HR Tech startup). In January of 2022 I took a leap of faith and went out on my own as a Fractional Director of Content Marketing. 

Three-and-a-half years later, and I have codified my expertise into a repeatable system I use with clients:

🔮 The Bland to Bold Framework helps B2B marketers create content that stands out and builds trust — so they make it onto their ideal buyers’ Day One Lists. It breaks bold content down into four key elements: originality, novelty, proof, and depth. Each element is represented by its own spectrum. 

🔮 The Bland to Bold Content Assessment™ is a 27-question survey that allows me to measure a brand’s content for originality, novelty, proof, and depth. Each question represents one content marketing competency, and the output is a list of strengths and gaps. 

🔮 The Bland to Bold Blueprint is a customized action plan that outlines a path forward, based on your assessment results. (Lots of people think they need to create more content when really they need to take a step back and build a stronger foundation.)

🔮 Execution is where I roll up my sleeves and get shit done! Because an action plan is just words on a page.

If you've made it this far, why not say hello? 

To avoid any generic banana "I see we both work in advertising services" messages, let's play two truths and a lie. One of these statements is false:

- I've been held up at gunpoint.
- I've traveled to 10 countries this year.
- I've taken roadkill to the taxidermist. 

Have a great day (or have the day you deserve, depending on the circumstances)!

Content Marketing Consultant

I build and execute content marketing strategies for sales-led B2B SaaS startups that sell complex, enterprise-ready solutions. 

Unlike some strategists and agencies, I don't hand you a content strategy and say, "Best of luck!" I ensure your success by helping across four buckets:

▶ People 
▶ Process 
▶ Strategy
▶ Execution 

Learn more and read client testimonials at: hausofbold.com

Content Marketing & Strategy by Dan Fogarty

I provide thought leadership and LinkedIn ghostwriting services for founders, VCs, and executives — without sapping their time.

My process is simple: I interview them and turn their streams of consciousness into premium content that generates leads, revenue, and goodwill.

It's like talking into a microphone and out comes premium thought leadership.

I also support B2B marketing teams and create full content engines.

Content Marketer + Thought Leadership Ghostwriter

The Bridge Corporation (Bridge Marketing)

I was accountable for all content marketing initiatives to drive traffic, engagement, and leads that delivered sales and retained customers.

Collaborated across functions to deliver an effective content marketing strategy and editorial plan to meet business objectives.

Met challenges with a brand publisher mindset. Created the content the BRIDGE audience was looking for and then optimized their path to conversion.

Work with the data and marketing teams to create original research/content that used BRIDGE’s vast database of information and positioned BRIDGE as a thought leader in the industry.

Developed editorial governance structures so content was consistent with the BRIDGE brand voice, style, and tone.

Developed editorial calendars and workflows to manage and drive leads, customers, and awareness.

Managed digital content hubs and all supporting social channels, including email/newsletter distribution. 

Managed creative resources, including designers, writers, and other personnel.

Partnered with sales and marketing teams to develop custom research projects.

Director of Content

Boston Globe Media

Managed local lifestyle coverage at Boston.com.

Guided overall digital strategy, brought in new talent, and was in the trenches, editing and guiding our writers.

Guided our coverage strategy, which focused on restaurant openings, things to do, viral local moments, sports and culture crossovers, concerts, movie premieres, and more.

Managed a team of writers, freelancers, photographers, and another editor.

Embedded video producers into our team, shaping their content for the platforms that suit them best (like Facebook Live and Snapchat) and guiding our social strategy.

Assigned new stories, line edited existing ones, and identified areas for growth for our writers.

Evangelized edit strategy to our Sales team and used data testing to identify new coverage opportunities.

Senior Editor, Boston.com

USA TODAY Sports Media Group

Oversaw content initiatives across USA TODAY Sports' network of owned-and-operated and affiliate publishers, including The Big Lead, HoopsHype, MMAjunkie, and Big Lead Sports affiliates. Specific emphasis was placed on growing the Sports Digital Properties' audience and increasing efficiency between it and the USA TODAY Sports national site.

Appeared on camera for USA TODAY Sports and For the Win, directed our Fantasy Sports content strategy, and worked closely with Editorial and Sales in developing sponsored content and video properties. As part of our Digital Innovation team, I also worked closely on developing new products. 

Drove editorial strategy and audience development for the Sports Digital Properties (traffic increased 56% year-over-year).

Directed branded video and editorial content strategy for the Sports Digital Properties and For The Win.

Worked closely with the Product team on site redesigns, improvements, and app concepts.

Directed longer editorial features and one-offs for the Sports Digital Properties.

Senior Editor, Sports Digital Properties

Abrams Media

Founding editor of Abrams Media’s sports blog. Duties included writing, editing, content direction, social media, building audience, recruiting, product fixes, on-camera work. Some great things I learned:

*How to launch a website

*How to build a team of hungry digital journalists

*How to work in tandem with Product, Sales, and Creative

*How to write a good headline

*How to build a social media strategy

*The value of data

*Good, consistent content builds an audience.

Editor-in-Chief, SportsGrid

Perseus Books Group

Intern

𝐈 𝐮𝐬𝐞𝐝 𝐭𝐨 𝐛𝐞 𝐚𝐧 𝐞𝐝𝐢𝐭𝐨𝐫 𝐚𝐭 𝐭𝐰𝐨 𝐟𝐚𝐦𝐨𝐮𝐬 𝐦𝐞𝐝𝐢𝐚 𝐜𝐨𝐦𝐩𝐚𝐧𝐢𝐞𝐬. Now I’m a ghostwriter and coach who turns your expertise into content that drives inbound leads, improves deal flow, and generates goodwill.

𝐌𝐚𝐣𝐨𝐫 𝐰𝐢𝐧𝐬:

→ Helped a health tech startup secure strategic funding from VC on Forbes' Midas List (world's top 100 venture capitalists). Four other VCs from the list contacted the startup as a direct result of my work.

→ Created a full content engine for an enterprise SaaS platform that generated 10x leads compared to previous content ahead of their Series A.

→ Created a thought leadership program that helped get clients on stage at the World Economic Forum.

→ Improved deal flow, inbound interest, and brand awareness for VC and PE firms.

→ Helped grow traffic for USA TODAY's Sports Digital Properties 56% year-over-year.

→ Helped establish digital best practices and train a young newsroom at Boston Globe Media's Boston.com.

→ Clients like Tend, Monday.com, Fortune Magazine, and Inclusively come to me for content marketing tied to real business KPIs. 

→ I also ghostwrite thought leadership for founders, VCs, and executives.

𝐖𝐡𝐨 𝐈 𝐡𝐞𝐥𝐩:

→ Startups at any stage that are seeking funding and need to hit home runs.

→ Overwhelmed director and VP-level marketing and comms folks who need to build out high-quality, low-cost content.

→ VC and PE firms that want to turn the brains of their partners into scalable content.

→ Corporations whose marketing assets are bland and know they need content from their smartest people.

→ Companies that have been burned by large agencies (paying thousands of dollars for little content that delivers no results).

→ Brands and individuals that need to tell their story but are too “in the weeds.”

→ Compared to working with an agency, my process is cost-effective, seamless, and generates 10x value. It’s built on sound journalism practices — I'm a former senior editor at Boston Globe Media and USA TODAY Digital.

→ I offer LinkedIn ghostwriting, thought leadership content, full B2B content engines, one-on-one coaching, and AI training for teams.

Dan Fogarty

Talkbox update:

- V2 of Talkbox Live, our editorial collaboration platform, is now complete 
- Journalists can upload context (style guides, client info, anything)
- Can turn clients' spoken words into LinkedIn posts live on calls
- Clients see a slick new animation as content updates
- Talkbox is producing 8/10 or 9/10 first drafts (better than most DIY attempts due to our prompt engineering)
- Journalists and clients then perform "minor surgery" to further humanize and improve posts
- The entire process is already collaborative, precise, and fast, and there's more room for improvement
- We've now got a second journalist on board
- Our first client is already seeing major traction (attention + pipeline) in the first month. 

For $1200/mo, you get 3 conversations with a journalist, a month's worth of content created with them, and strategy support from me. I think it's a good deal: https://lnkd.in/g8GmpJij 

The plan for 2026: 

More clients, more journalists, and more product updates that stay laser-focused on creating the best editorial collaboration software possible.

Founder, Talkbox. Ex-Boston Globe Media + USA TODAY. Using newsroom instincts to tell stories about today’s business players.

Web content from consulting firms has gotten really bad.

Dunking on consulting firms is cliche. I know this. So many smart people work at these places and I could never do what they do.

But the writing cuts corners.

“Beyond Deliverables: Delving Into The Complexity Imperative” type stuff. 

I think this is due, in part, to the fact that stereotypical consulting-speak does in fact sound like AI, and consultants have been “navigating landscapes” since time immemorial. But I don’t think having a language of common origin explains everything.

I’m seeing closers like this in a lot of articles:

“The question isn’t whether your vendor relationships need to change—it’s whether you’re willing to rethink them from scratch.”

These firms sell valuable expertise. But they’re wrapping said expertise in bad writing. This is poor branding that degrades a luxury product, like selling Dior in plastic bags that were once used for deli meat. 

We’re also entering a period where OpenAI wants to do consulting. The bots are coming for your jobs, people! Don’t sound like them.

So much could be cleaned up with a human editor and a simple anti-AI prompt. Interview SMEs, create a draft, remove common AI sentence constructions, and give things a quick human eye. I think this would solve 95% of the problem.

These firms don’t have to win a Pulitzer, but they can do much better than what they’re doing.

90-day action plan for driving business on LinkedIn:

I just spoke to 50 small business owners at the University of Wisconsin-Madison. Here’s a loose version of the playbook I gave them.

- Determine your audience 
- Analyze past customers (contract value, industry, internal champion, how much you liked working with them out of 5)
- Feed this info into a GPT
- Start talking about what you care about, what your audience cares about, and what matters to your business… out loud, to a voice memo 
- Dump the transcripts into an AI of your choosing
- I think Claude is the best writer of the bunch
- Start writing content from these brain dumps. Remove AI-isms. 
- Dump long videos into OpusClip.
- A good place to start is your story, how you got here. 
- Talk about what's happening in the room. No sales brochure stuff.
- Reach a consistent cadence of two times a week. I like posting on Tuesday and Thursday mornings, but if inspiration strikes at 3:00 p.m. on Wednesday, go for it. 
- Send out connection requests to members of your ICP. Don't immediately pitch them. 
- They will see your content for a few weeks, then send them a thoughtful note.
- Rinse and repeat. 

If any of this starts to feel like too much, scale back or stop doing it altogether. 

Keep in mind LinkedIn is still a social media platform and monetizes your attention. You will feel dopamine spikes.

Your first order of business is taking care of your family and your business. Don't let social media get in the way of those things.

Thank you Wisconsin Small Business Development Center (SBDC) at UW-Madison, Heather Ferguson, and Stephanie Achten.

Slow and steady 🫡

I've got a really great lead for anyone in the content marketing world:

For the past few months, Lesley Wirth has been indispensable as I scale my agency.

What she's helped me with:

- Content ops
- Writing + editing (long and short-form)

What she's great at:

- Built an entire publication division herself
- Built workflows, created automations, hired content staff, and managed editorial departments
- Managed content P+Ls
- Wove AI into content ops
- Specializes in mental health content strategy
- She has a Master's in Spiritual Psychology

She'll continue to work with me (and I selfishly hope this continues for a long time), but I'd be remiss if I didn't tell the world about her.

If you need someone to step in immediately and handle chaos -- or build something completely new -- reach out to Lesley.

Your competitor’s entire sales team is posting on LinkedIn, and you’re wondering if you should do the same.

A client asked me this week how to activate more of their people on LinkedIn. This is the third time I’ve been asked this recently: once by a venture-backed startup, once by a legacy Midwest brand, and once by a smaller operator.

My answer for all of them was to start small and pick somebody you think LinkedIn will work for. Go mostly on vibes.

If you send out a company-wide edict saying everybody has to post starting tomorrow, good luck. A much better motivator is pointing to someone in the company who’s doing it well and, dare I say, having fun with it.

So how do you identify your test case?

Some of this is intuition-based; you can just picture the person doing well on LinkedIn. But here are more objective things to look for:

1. Built-in credibility and seniority. If you’ve got a managing partner or C-suite executive who has done panels, written articles, gone out on the road, and is opinionated and likable, that trumps everything else. Even if they think LinkedIn is completely cringe, evangelizing to them will be worth it. The most upside is here.

2. IRL footprint. Real people in real life are cheering for them. I’ve seen that carry over into actual LinkedIn engagement.

3. Somebody you don’t have to spend too much time educating. These are people who understand LinkedIn isn’t just a jobs site anymore but a hub of information.

You’re not looking for a perfect unicorn; you’re looking for a person with one or two of these attributes. 

The key is getting them to show up consistently and convincing them that this isn’t a vanity play or a marketing afterthought. This is an actual driver of pipeline and business.

Ask them what their dream meetings are. Paint a picture for them of how it will have an actual impact on the business. Show them ICPs who are engaging. Then, treat the process with journalistic rigor.

If this person shows up consistently and you’re able to post good content with them, it has a trickle-down effect on the rest of the company. With the right strategy, attention and pipeline follow.

taplio

The Battle

Erin Balsa

Dan Fogarty

Followers

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taplio

The Battle

Erin Balsa

Dan Fogarty

Followers

Posts

Engagements

Likes

Performance Score.css-goub6s{font-size:var(--chakra-fontSizes-md);font-weight:500;color:var(--chakra-colors-gray-600);display:block;margin-top:var(--chakra-space-1);}Dan Fogarty's LinkedIn Performance

Ready to grow your LinkedIn presence?

Performance ScoreDan Fogarty's LinkedIn Performance