As Singaporeans, we find it hard to understand or appreciate the concept of seasons. After all, our island is simply hot, humid, and rainy all year round.
I wonder if this is the reason for our renowned (infamous?) work ethic. There will never be any snow blocking our driveway, or floods holding up traffic, to hinder our work. There are no natural, insurmountable reasons to rest. After a while, the internal voice screaming for us to take a break gets softer and softer. There is only the overwhelming call to work — everything else is secondary.
2024 marks the seventh year since I founded With Content. It began with an overwhelming call to raise the bar for content marketing in Southeast Asia, which continues to be our vision today. Yet, as I’ve taken time to slow down and reflect on my journey this year, I was surprised to find that the call was becoming much softer than before.
This season of my life is coming to a close, and the next one beckons.
But With Content is far from done. The call to raise the bar of content marketing in Southeast Asia continues to intensify within our team, resonating in particular with two of our capable and talented leaders and directors, Samantha (Director of Client Services) and Katrina (Director of Business Development). They have taken on the responsibility of bringing our business to new heights in the coming years, further and deeper than we’ve ever gone before. Of this I have no doubt.
How can I be so sure of this? At our annual Thanksgiving gathering in December, several of our team members shared that they were grateful that, despite going through a challenging year, we were nonetheless able to protect and practice our human-first and human-centered values consistently. Sam and Kat were the solid foundation upholding those values, and I believe that they certainly will keep on doing so going forward.
In our eighth year of operations, With Content enters into a new season. Here’s what we’re bringing to the table in 2025.
A more strategic approach to sales & marketing, account management, and production
Ever since we started With Content, content strategy has been a mainstay of our menu of services. We have always eschewed the commonly employed tactic of “spraying and praying”, and instead believe in targeted, goal-oriented content marketing.
This year, we began bringing this strategic lens into our sales conversations as well. We realized that the needs of our clients were becoming more and more varied, and so instead of sharing our typical menu of services, we took a more consultative approach, curating services based on the clients’ context and our vast experience. This will continue into 2025 and beyond.
Our marketing efforts — from our newsletter Rise to our blog and LinkedIn posts — will reflect this as well. We will keep covering real and relevant topics in our bid to make every Southeast Asian marketer’s job easier and more fruitful.
We’ve also conducted more intentional training and upskilling efforts for our account managers in the area of content strategy. Since Katrina returned to With Content to be our Head of Strategy in 2023, we’ve developed a library of content strategy frameworks that our account managers have become well-versed in. In the year ahead, we want to be even more proactive in offering tailored analyses and proposals during regular client meetings.
A principled way to test and use AI
No area tested our vision more in 2024 than the advancement of generative AI. Our team had different (and evolving) views.
What part of our work can generative AI help with? What new opportunities can it open up? Just because we can use it, does it mean we should? These were some debates we had, and we’ll likely keep asking these questions as we test and learn.
But at the end of the day, we’re serving our clients. And while generative AI can benefit them, it can pose risks too — false claims, audience backlash, Google penalties are just a few. That’s why we published With Content’s Responsible AI Manifesto — as a commitment to our (current and future) clients that we’ll use the technology for selected purposes and without compromising the quality, human-centered, and trustworthy work they’ve come to expect from us.
In fact, we’ve collaborated with some clients to try out new ways to implement AI in content marketing. And we’re open to doing more of that.
🙋♂️ Do you have an AI content marketing use case you’d like to test, or are you wondering if an AI-assisted process can address your problem? Reach out to us and let’s try to work it out together.
Game on for 2025
2024 was a tough year for marketers, marked by uncertainty about the economy and the role AI will play in our industries and professions. 2025 will be no less challenging. We’re here for it.
And we’re here for you, our fellow content marketers across Southeast Asia. We’ll support you both through strategic thinking and conscientious execution, so you can capture these seemingly incompatible essentials in your content marketing campaigns:
Creativity and original thought. The bar for memorable, helpful, humans-first content is ever higher. That means we’re pouring more effort into each content piece. Our strategy, editorial, and design leads will immerse deeper into each account to provide support in finding compelling content angles, making data meaningful, extracting expert quotes and stories, and visualizing ideas.
Efficiency and scale. This year we’re partnering with other agencies to provide you with services beyond our scope. We’ll also provide more training and mentorship to our part-time community. This means you can enjoy the benefits of a large team without sacrificing the quality and warmth our clients have come to know us for.
Consistency and dynamism. Our tried-and-tested processes enable reliable output and clear communication. But we’ll continue our consultative sales and strategic account management approach so that when you have a challenge that requires a different, tailored solution, we can do it for you. Think custom illustrations, AI-supported content amplification packages, newsletter strategies, and more.
Helping marketers succeed in connecting brands with their audiences — in the end, that’s what we strive to do. The world may be changing fast, but we hope you find comfort and contentment in knowing you have a partner in With Content.
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200+ industry-leading tech companies in Southeast Asia are happy clients of With Content. Join them and start delivering valuable content to your potential customers today.
