Ashley Faus

Kogan Page Publishing

My book, "Human-Centered Marketing: How to Connect with Audiences in the Age of AI" features three frameworks to help marketers build trust and attract, convert, and retain customers.

Key messages:

-	Trust is the key: People buy from people they trust, and people trust people like themselves. As marketers, we need to build trust with our audience to win and re-win their hearts, minds, and wallets.

-	The human connection becomes more important in the age of AI, because more technology makes it harder to find people you can trust and make authentic connections.

-	The Playground mindset shift: Marketing needs to evolve to match the modern journey. It’s no longer about rushing people to a purchase, it’s about building trust and rapport for long-term value exchange.

-	The Social Media Spectrum (communication, conversation, community): Social media continues to evolve, but too many brands are still focused on driving and participating in conversation about the brand, instead of meeting the audience where they are and fostering community.

-	4 Pillars of Thought Leadership (credibility, profile, prolific, depth of ideas): Thought leadership helps build trust, but it’s not the only type of content or creator that you need in the marketing mix.

Author, "Human-Centered Marketing: How to Connect with Audiences in the Age of AI"

Atlassian

Head of Lifecycle Marketing, Portfolio

Director of Integrated Product Marketing

Product Marketing Lead, Software Teams Content 

Sr. Manager, Integrated Media

Sr. Corporate Communications Manager

Skyport Systems

Skyport Systems, acquired by Cisco, provides secure, hyperconverged infrastructure to modernize the DMZ, protect Active Directory, and secure legacy applications and remote branch operations.

Sr. Product Marketing Manager and Content Strategist

Palerra

Palerra, acquired by Oracle, pioneered the API-based Cloud Access Security Broker (CASB).

Sr. Manager, Content Strategy and Marketing Communications

Duarte, Inc.

Strategy and execution for all things marketing.

In addition to previous duties, manage budget, forecast, and annual planning for marketing strategy.

Sr. Marketing Manager

Manage a team of creative experts
Marketo integration, strategy, and execution
Analytics/KPI reporting and analysis
IP launches - Resonate multimedia, Slidedocs, Persuasive Presentations eCourse
Email campaigns, social media, and ad campaigns
Website branding and content updates
Editorial content strategy and execution
Executive presentations

Marketing Manager

Killick Aerospace

Killick Aerospace encompasses several companies that provide engine maintenance, accessory maintenance, airframe support, and parts and engine sales to the aviation industry. I oversaw the marketing activities for all companies in the Killick Aerospace portfolio. My duties include, but are not limited to:

Work with management and IT department for requirements gathering, implementation and documentation of CRM strategy 

Manage 3rd party programmer to update company websites, content manager for company websites

Manage relationships with outside vendors including designers and promotional representatives 

Coordinate all aspects of trade show exhibits, including marketing collateral, shipments, promotional items, and travel logistics

Co-creator and co-manager for print advertising budget

Track and measure success of marketing activities, including website traffic/SEO, referral lead source, and email campaigns

Marketing Coordinator

UserTesting.com

I helped research and implement a social media strategy, including Twitter and reaching out to bloggers. I also helped with customer service.

Independent Contractor

Solar Designs, Inc

Account manager for the company’s largest project, a commercial solar installation, worth $150,000

Improved profit margin by 5% through bulk-price negotiations with supplier

Grew affiliate partnerships from 2 to over 50 within 8 months, used direct Marketing to offer qualified leads and guaranteed revenue to new partners

Increased revenue opportunity by creating a training package for installers

Strategic analysis of customer and installer needs, led to over-hauling information-gathering form and presentation of final customer proposal

Wrote proposals with details about solar system design, environmental impact, and financial implications including up-front costs, rebates, ROI, and payback

OpenTech Media, Inc.

Research, layout, and copy for corporate brochure and website to present a more cohesive message to customers

Virion Interactive Agency

Competitive analysis, post-project analysis, client invoicing and work order processing

Account Management Intern

Director of Integrated Product Marketing, Atlassian

Marketer, writer, speaker by day... singer, actor, fitness fiend by night!

I've handled all aspects of marketing strategy and execution, from product marketing, to demand-gen, to content and events. I love telling the high-level stories that resonate with an audience and connecting the dots between types of assets and distribution channels.

My writing has been published on TIME, Forbes, The Journal of Brand Strategy, and The Muse, and I've spoken on various marketing topics for INBOUND, Harvard Business Review, and MarketingProfs.

Visit https://ashleyfaus.com/ for more information about my book, "Human-Centered Marketing: How to Connect with Audiences in the Age of AI".

(Views are my own)

When you're friends with smart marketers, you feature each other as an example when you write a book 😀

Devin Bramhall released her book recently, and she featured my Playground framework.

I released my book in May, and I featured her community work from her time at Help Scout.

Per usual, there's a blooper pic if you swipe through 😂

Buy "Human-Centered Marketing": https://amzn.to/480QQLI

Buy "B2B Content Marketing Strategy": https://amzn.to/4i3SLne

(Thanks to MarketingProfs B2B Forum for the cozy background and in-person photo opp 😊)

Head of Lifecycle Marketing, Portfolio at Atlassian

I don't have many rituals before I step onstage to speak.

But I DO love my glitter face mask tradition 😀

Excited to speak about building trust in the buyer's journey MarketingProfs B2B Forum this morning, 10:20am EST!

Grateful for another award for my book, "Human-Centered Marketing: How to Connect with Audiences in the Age of AI" 🎉

Need a gift for yourself or a marketer you love? Get 40% through December 1st!

Grab a copy: https://lnkd.in/eJWZHRF8

Need some light reading en route to allllll the Thanksgiving dinners?

Free sneak peeks:

Thought leadership: https://lnkd.in/eXCZ2qPf

Buyer's journey playground: https://lnkd.in/esQDz9EK

Congrats to all the winners: https://lnkd.in/emxkNFZ2

When I was VERY early in my career, I had to make an expensive decision on behalf of the business.

I was SO worried about it!

Tons of money.
Literally minutes to make the choice.
No time to call my boss for approval.

I decided to spend the money, and trusted that my boss would be ok with it once I finally talked with her.

Y'all... It was paying $50 for valet parking.

But at that time in my life, $50 for parking seemed absurd.

At that time in my career, I wasn't well-versed in how businesses expenses and vendor agreements worked.

And I was genuinely worried about confirming with a vendor that they could pay $50 for valet parking because they were running late to film a customer testimonial during a big conference.

My boss was thrilled that I made the decision to spend the $50 on faster parking vs. potentially losing the filming slot with the customer.

Now as a seasoned marketer, I cringe at my younger self, thinking how silly it was for me to even worry about $50 valet parking. 

OF COURSE that is a no-brainer call!

But... does your team know when it's a no-brainer decision? 

Do they trust that their leaders will back them up when they need to make real-time "expensive" choices?

Do they have a framework for when to escalate?

If you're rolling your eyes at folks making bad calls, it's worth taking a step back to understand whether they have context and trust to make good calls.

Because it's ACTUALLY expensive to do things cheap.

"Which bakery did this come from?"

"Wait, YOU made these!?!"

"You should open a bakery..."

People say this to me frequently when I bring treats to the office, the theater, birthdays, etc.

There's some AMAZING commercial-scale bakeries out there, AMAZING home bakers out there, and everything in between (including my amateur baker status).

After baking treats and buying treats over the years, I've started applying my marketing nerdery to the questions of perception, compliments, trust, etc. in this space.

And so, I'm curious...

In the comparison below, which option would you pay more for?

How much would you pay for a dozen of the cupcakes shown in the picture?

Assume that each option has comparable cost of goods sold, etc. to not bias the results too much, and you can make whatever assumptions you want about where the cupcakes came from, who took the pictures, if they're AI-generated vs. human, etc.

Please nerd out with me about the intersection of my baking hobby and my marketing brain 😋

"When a measure becomes a target, it ceases to be a good measure." - Goodhart's Law

I've been on a bit of a metrics and attribution kick lately, and I talked a bit about Goodhart's Law in my conversation with 🍁 Glenn Schmelzle on the Funnel Reboot podcast.

The heart of it is something that marketers continually struggle with...

We know we gotta measure.
But we know we can't measure everything.
And without everything, it kinda feels like we have nothing.

The problem is that we're so focused on capturing every. little. detail. in a way that we can easily show in a dashboard, but we miss the big opportunities that actually help people move through a buying process.

We talked about the core frameworks in my book that help you do just that: create a journey that helps the HUMANS make decisions, take action, and solve their problems (and yep, drive revenue for your business)!

Hear the full episode: https://lnkd.in/emxHSDgk

Grab a copy of the book: https://amzn.to/480QQLI

Devin Bramhall

DEVIN

I will help you overcome obstacles and achieve your goals faster - devinbramhall.com
- Scale your agency and increase profitability
- Increase marketing ROI
- Improve output from your own leadership

I’m not a talking head. I’ve executed at every level from IC to manager to VP and CEO and use my hands-on experience to identify opportunities for your company and set up a foundation that you can easily maintain and build on.

For over 15 years, I’ve helped startups, agencies and enterprise companies grow by building repeatable, scalable frameworks in marketing and agency operations that expedite progress toward their growth targets. 

Cisco, Google, Wistia, Saasworks, Help Scout, Animalz

Services include:
- Growth strategy 
- Building your first marketing function
- Hiring
- Team structure & KPIs
- Reporting

Growth Advisor

Don't Say Content

A podcast for marketing leaders and business executives. We use our combined 20+ years of experience to explore the challenges and opportunities behind industry hype to bring listeners fresh perspective, strategy & insights. Our goal: Increase the business impact of marketing by creating shared understanding of its purpose and outcomes among marketing leaders, founders/CEOs & others in the C-suite. From business and marketing strategy to hiring and talent, weekly episodes inspire and reinvigorate hundreds of leaders who tune in & engage every week.

Podcast Co Host

Animalz

Highlights
- Achieved +3x revenue growth in 2 years at 19% profit margin
- Built C-suite team 
- Grew team from 18 to 130 people
- Diversified product line
- Attracted biggest names in tech including Google, Amazon, Slack, Spotify, Facebook & more

Chief Executive Officer

• Grew revenue: 33% 2018 • 57% 2019
• Grew team from 18-50, evolved org structure & roles to improve content marketing function
• Advised on customer content strategy including Google, GoDaddy, Wistia 
• Updated Animalz brand across messaging, look/feel, and product positioning

VP of Marketing

Self-employed marketing and communications consultant

Freelance Marketing Consultant

Help Scout

Developed strategy to grow traffic and customer acquisition. Managed a team of content marketers and collaborated with design and development teams on campaigns, website, and brand initiatives. Accomplishments included:

- Grew website traffic from ~300k to 430k monthly unique visitors
- Created goals-driven content strategy focused on traffic and subscriber acquisition.
- Managed content partnerships and led strategic partnerships with Support Driven, the largest community for customer support pros.
- Managed brand awareness including PR, conferences, and community management 
- Launched customer service education platform, HelpU (https://www.helpscout.net/helpu/), to increase customer acquisition and grow brand awareness.

Director of Content

Boston Content

Boston Content is the largest community group and career development resource for content marketers in Boston, founded in 2011 by Jay Acunzo and Arestia Rosenberg. 

As Executive Director:

- Led 6-person executive committee in charge of events, membership, and sponsorship  
- Oversaw development of first volunteer program
- Grew membership 100%
- Launched "Content Marketer to Watch" award
- Created Boston Content’s blog posting 2x/week
- Developed marketing “Jobs” page and weekly jobs email to our 1,200+ members
- Doubled event programming, attendance and sponsorship program

Executive Director

The Master Slam

The Master Slam is a story slam-style debate that turns the traditional panel discussion into an exciting evening of live performance. Held four times a year and covering a variety of topics from Startups, Tech, Marketing/Advertising, Education  and more, the Master Slam is the new way for anyone passionate about their industry to flex their intellectual muscles in a fun, creative environment. http://www.themasterslam.com/

Founder

Alignable

Lead community engagement strategy through ongoing research, relationship building, testing and analysis to discover what small businesses need and how to incorporate that into our marketing strategy and product.

Shareaholic, Inc.

Product Marketing Manager

Springpad

Increased engagement among Springpad's 5M users through unique content marketing campaigns, including a live Google Hangouts series focusing on creative ways to use our app for organization and project management. Developed strategic partnerships with influential bloggers and brands to drive brand awareness and user acquisition.

Content Marketing Manager

Managed community of over 5 million users, providing technical support and content for all support/help pages as well as in-app to improve user comprehension of the Springpad's robust features on all platforms.

Streamlined customer support using new CRM tools. Curated engaged community of users to help evangelize and promote Springpad. Executed large and small scale beta testing and user feedback sessions of new features.

Happiness Specialist

Co-host: Don't Say Content. Marketing Advisor. Agency Growth Strategist. Former CEO of Animalz.

As a growth advisor, I bring over 15 years of marketing & leadership expertise at startups, agencies, and large corporations. 

I am the former CEO of Animalz, the leading content marketing agency for B2B SaaS companies, where I successfully grew revenue 3x in two years to nearly $12M.

I am also a fervent community builder and previously served as the Executive Director of Boston Content, the largest community group and career development resource for content marketers in Boston. During my 2-year tenure, I more than doubled membership and revenue from sponsorships and programming. 

Storytelling is at the root of my passion for marketing. I founded The Master Slam, a poetry slam-style debate about startups and tech. I am also a TEDx organizer and speaker trainer and have competed in several storytelling competitions. Additionally, I created an incredibly popular General Assembly workshop called "How to Use Storytelling to Get What You Want," which is still taught today.

Your CEO doesn’t hate marketing. They hate that you can't prove that it works.

I’ve sat on both sides of this table.
As the marketer who lost the room pitching “brand.”
As the CEO who had to choose what to fund.

Here’s the pattern. Execs don’t fund activities. They fund de-risked outcomes.
And when you speak marketing, you sound risky.

Here's what I mean: Two leaders pitch the same plan.

Leader A: “We need thought leadership content to build trust.”
Leader B: “We are losing deals in month seven because trust shows up too late. This content builds trust in month two. That cuts our close time nearly in half.”

Leader A got a nod and a freeze.
Leader B got the budget and two hires.

Same plan. Different frame.

Here’s the translation guide.

“Brand awareness” → “We are invisible to in-market buyers.”
“Thought leadership” → “We cut months out of the sales cycle.”
“Community building” → “Customers close deals for us.”
“Content strategy” → “Prospects show up already convinced.”

The work doesn’t change. The way you sell it does.

When I missed, it wasn’t because the strategy was wrong. It was because I made my CEO choose between understanding my plan and trusting me with their budget. They picked what they understood.

So ask the uncomfortable question. If your CEO doesn’t get it, is that their problem or yours?

Stop defending your strategy. 
Start translating their risk into your outcomes.

If you are done with tactics and incremental progress and want systems that compound, follow along. I wrote a book about that. Link in profile.

Chief Growth Officer [Fractional]. Author: “B2B Content Marketing Strategy” out now on Amazon

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