Introducing Strategic Content Marketer, Lyssa Test

When I graduated college, I accepted an unpaid marketing internship for a 20-person tech start-up in New York City. For four months, I lived out of a suitcase and stayed with whichever friend or family member would let me crash on their couch on a given night. Even without a place to call my own, I quickly fell in love with both the city and the world of tech.

Sure, the office snacks were great, but what made me fall in love with working at a tech company was that even as an intern, my voice mattered. I was able to participate in brainstorms, interact with clients, lead user tests, and help shape the future of the product. I was impressed by how quickly we could come up with a concept, build it, test it, launch it, and measure its performance. We were scrappy, innovative, and – most importantly – we were building something, together. The team felt like a family. When they asked me to join the team full-time, it was a no-brainer.

Aside from helping out here and there on different projects, I wanted to find my own way to help the company succeed. That’s when I discovered the old, neglected corner of the internet that was the company’s blog. I quickly became obsessed with writing blog posts to answer the most frequently asked questions from our prospects and customers. I was over the moon as I witnessed the blog’s monthly views slowly tick upwards.

I eventually branched out into creating guides, eBooks, pricing calculators, and more elaborate content to help educate and inspire our customers. There was something so satisfying about immersing myself in a topic I previously knew nothing about and creating a clear, concise, and educational post aimed to save someone else the hours of research I had just undertaken. To me, there’s something so oddly satisfying about starting with an empty Word doc and ending (many hours later) with a 10, 20, or 60-page report.

Building new beginnings

Like any dream, my first job had to come to an end. One afternoon, the company decided to downsize and all but three employees were let go. At the time, it felt like the end of the world, but now, with years between me and the emotional state of that day, I can appreciate everything that first job taught me. It introduced me to my love for tech, content creation, and working with a close-knit team.

Like any good millennial, I job hopped for a few years, joining the content marketing teams at a few other larger tech start-ups. I used that time to learn even more about writing, content creation, marketing strategy, and SEO. I even learned how to write for new audiences in the HR, e-learning, experience analytics, and home renovation spaces.

All of the teams weren’t created equally in size. As a one-person content team, I was forced to ruthlessly prioritize my time and be strategic about what projects I worked on. When I had the opportunity to be on large content teams, churning out content felt like I was almost in a newsroom-esque environment. But, regardless of the size of my team, I still always found the thrill of hitting “publish” on a new piece of content and seeing the number of views increase.

Building a future

I like to remind myself that content marketing didn’t exist 15 years ago. That’s hard to imagine as almost every company has some form of blog, resource center, or even a YouTube channel on their site today. What started off as just static text on a website has evolved into colorful PDFs, interactive landing pages, eye-catching videos, and so much more.

Today, content marketers can’t just be good writers, they need to be innovative thinkers. There’s so much stuff on the internet today that you have to be creative to stand out. You have to give people a reason to care or help make their lives easier in some way or another, and Twilio does both seamlessly.

When I found Twilio, I realized that this opportunity had everything I looked for in past roles: An overwhelming obsession with tech and an insatiable appetite to push businesses – and the world – forward. An authentic desire to give back to the global community. The ability for me to build something with an amazing team of writers and developers. And, an amazing library of informative and engaging content.

I am so excited to be a part of the Twilio Developer Network team and to start contributing to Twilio’s amazing legacy of content. I can’t wait to see what we can build together!

Lyssa is a Strategic Content Marketer on Twilio’s Developer Voices team. She loves dogs, exploring NYC’s restaurant scene, and biking.