[MUSIC] Well, hello there, fellow content marketer. My name is Sonia Simone and welcome to this introductory content marketing strategy course, designed in partnership with UC Davis Extension. I want to let you know what to expect as we move forward. So if you're not familiar with me and what I do, I'm the Chief Content Officer for Rainmaker Digital, which is the new name of the company that used to be called Copyblogger Media and you might know that name from the Copyblogger blog. That was founded about ten years ago by a man named Brian Clark who wanted to explore the intersection between copywriting. In other words, professional writing with an intention to persuade and blogging. Which today, we would describe as the social web, including all the social network platforms as well as all those types of audience engaging content that have become more and more prevalent. Brian Clark is going to present many of these lessons with me. Others, I'm going to present to you solo or with another guest. This course is going to present a lot of ideas and a lot of concepts to you, and you're not going to be able to fully benefit from these ideas and concepts until you actually start to put them into practice. And that's why my very first recommendation to you is to get a site of your own started if you haven't started one already. As a content professional, a website that you own and you control is one of the most important assets you will ever develop. It's a place where you can show off your skills and it's a place where you can practice your strategic thinking and your implementation. As you go through the different lessons in the course, listen to the lesson or read the transcript if you prefer to do that. And look over the optional materials, then put the ideas in place on your own site. That's how you're going to make them meaningfully your own. That's how you're going to benefit from using them in the context of a professional environment. This is just a fancy way of saying you should have a blog, yes and no. Yes, I'm talking about a blog, but it's more than that and that's really what this course is all about. It’s a strategic content marketing asset that's designed to show off what you have to offer and make it easier to, quote unquote, do business with you. Now that might mean bringing you on as a full-time employee, it also might mean bringing you on as a contract freelancer. Although this is designed as an introductory course, we're going to be going pretty deep on content strategy, because content marketing, just like your favorite sport, is all about executing the fundamentals at the very highest level. So the better you get at the so-called introductory aspects, things like crafting strong shareable headlines or highlighting the benefits of a product or service. The better you get at those things, the better content marketer you're going to be. I just want to thank you so much for starting out on this journey with us. If I can borrow a quote from the movie Repo Man, the life of a content marketer is always intense. This is actually an incredibly dynamic and growing field, and there are some fantastic opportunities for a self-starter, like you, who wants to learn more and grow as a professional. So without further ado, let's get it started. Thank you so much for joining us. I'm really, really glad to have you in this course. [MUSIC]