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

Juliana Casale

Balloon Seltzer

Balloon is a line of non alc, fruit forward sparkling waters with a pop of flavour. 

Unlike zero sugar seltzers, it has a few grams of the real stuff so it tastes amazing (but doesn’t have nearly as much as a soda or even a banana).

And we don’t use alternative sweeteners so there’s no aftertaste :).

Balloon is perfect for people who find water boring but want to stay hydrated, or crave the taste of a soda but know they should drink something a bit healthier.

Founder

Quick Wins Department

I offer B2B and DTC brands a wide range of freelance copywriting services, from emails, landing pages and ads to case studies and blog posts.

I enjoy rolling up my sleeves and doing the work, but I can also help you with strategy (ex: building a content marketing calendar or a rollout plan for a new product or feature).

Freelance Copywriter

7shifts: Team Management for Restaurants

As the Senior Brand Strategy Manager, I was in charge of website content, AB test copy, trade show booth/activations and video marketing campaigns.

———

7shifts is the all-in-one app for restaurant teams. We help managers and operators spend less time and effort scheduling their staff, reduce their monthly labor costs and improve team communication. The result is simplified team management, one shift at a time.

Senior Brand Strategy Manager

DTC Newsletter

Freelance Writer 

Wonderment

Fun fact: Loop acquired Wonderment in 2024!

While I was there, I:

- Ran a Jobs to be Done interview series w/best-fit customers & presented product positioning analysis to the team, applying insights to wonderment.com homepage

- Created 4 case studies showcasing CX-driven brand success stories w/Wonderment

- Published 3 guides to help merchants build delightful post-purchase experiences for their customers (one of which required coordination w/9 of our tech partners)

- Launched exclusive 49-member customer community, providing ecom founders, operators, CX leaders & growth marketers with monthly virtual programming and access to resources

- Ran content calendar/writing/editing/publishing, social media (TW, LI, IG), customer email, site updates and A/B tests

- Supported sales & agency partnership leads w/enablement materials (examples, decks, one-pagers, testimonials)

- Led public town hall initiative to share product updates/use cases via webinars w/prospects, customers & agency partners

- Helped launch “Thank You, Come Again," Wonderment's customer retention podcast by sourcing guests, guiding topics & social amplification

- Contributed guest content to Repeat & Tydo’s blogs, appeared on 2 e-com podcasts, gave a GeekHub preso & got several mentions in prominent DTC newsletters

Head of Brand & Community 

Wave HQ

While at Wave I ran a series of A/B tests across our highest-traffic website pages to optimize for signups, resulting in increases of 5-12%.

I also piloted a blog optimization project to refresh posts with strategically important keywords. After a couple months, 5/7 of the optimized posts were once again ranking on page 1 of Google’s search results.

Other key projects:

- Running a review collection project that boosted Wave’s Google business rating from 2.7 to 4.3

- Re-writing email onboarding sequences to increase open and click through rates

- Writing landing page copy for a website redesign (using insights from the A/B tests)

- Assisting with customer testimonial production

- Putting together a cohesive content strategy based on pillar pages and topic clusters

Content Strategist

Cleo Capital

Chrysalis Fellow

Clearbanc

While at Clearbanc, I led a team that:

- Re-launched the blog
- Redesigned the website
- Published 18 case studies 
- Produced a commercial, an on-location customer feature (Magic Spoon), and four founder spotlights

I also:

- Launched a customer Slack group that had 270 members active across 20 channels in two months
- Got CB’s TrustPilot rating up from 3.2 to 4.5
- Released a BFCM ebook 
- Re-launched CB’s customer referral program

Head Of Marketing Services

Crazy Egg

In charge of the all-remote Growth Team (product marketing manager + social media/website designer/full-stack developer + a couple agencies). 

During my tenure I have:

- Increased our free trial signups by 75% in six months
- Helped Crazy Egg hit its highest revenue month in over two years
- Scripted and released two explainer videos
- Ramped up and redesigned the Crazy Egg blog (particularly the "CRO Heroes" series) and guest author program
- Activated/optimized Drift playbooks and HelloBar on the marketing site
- Formed strategic blog and webinar co-marketing partnerships 
- Created a handful of customer case studies
- Streamlined communications/strategy amongst our product and success teams 
- Attended three marketing conferences
- Gotten two ebooks out the door
- Produced videos for Drift's Unconference and the Product-Led Growth Summit

Head Of Marketing

Placester, Inc.

In my role as Content Marketing Director, I hired and trained a team of three content associates, steered the editorial calendar for Placester Academy, set the strategy for sales and customer success enablement activities, and maximized affiliate marketing opportunities. 

Results:

• 5K+ signups for Placester's first online marketing conference, Nurture Con
• 300 leads responded to a sales promo (vs. 30 before I joined the team)
• 58.24% open rate on the first email of a new nurture campaign

Director of Content Marketing

Building a Beverage Brand

Hi! I’m the founder of Balloon, a Toronto-based sparkling water brand that I launched in October of 2023.

I’m having a blast figuring out how the CPG space works. Even if the brand flops, I am learning so much along the way.

One day I would love to work on the fizz biz full time, but I have a ways to go before I can give myself a paycheck so I’m a copywriter/content marketer by day 😁.

Okay, back to the career stuff:

Once upon a time in Arlington, Massachusetts, a little girl dreamed of becoming a marketing thought leader.

Hahaha. Can you imagine? No, I wanted to be a bridal shop owner.

Like many people, I stumbled into marketing early in my career. It’s a hard gig for many reasons, but I keep doing it because it’s about people - who they are, what they think, what they need and how to give it to them. 

Marketing is also about words, and as an English major I am really into those. 

If you’re looking for someone who can growth hack, eat spreadsheets for breakfast and gain your business thousands of followers in a month, you are reading the wrong profile. 

I have 13+ years of experience working across a variety of marketing platforms with a focus on boosting site traffic organically, leading visitors down the sales funnel in a thoughtful way, creating optimized (but human-friendly) content, and maximizing retention opportunities through product marketing. 

I'm laser focused on the customer experience, dedicated to building mutually beneficial relationships between sales, product, partnerships and customer success - and I know how to get shit done. 

Skills: 

- Marketing strategy
- Copywriting (case studies, newsletters, blog posts, interviews)
- Content promotion (social media, email)
- Sales enablement (acquisition and retention/upselling)
- Co-marketing + business development
- Building customer communities
- Event management
- Social media
- Video production
- Creative direction
- Website design 
- CRO

Public speaking:

- Guest speaker at Woodbury University's Coms 360 Media Professions class, September 2021 

- Member of Shine Speaker Bootcamp class of September 2019; see attached video

- “Customer-Centric Marketing Campaign Design” MBA guest speaker at Babson and social media/content marketing at Fisher College, both in October 2018

- Guest speaker on digital media at Emerson, April 2018 

- Guest speaker on adtech at Northeastern, October 2016

Freelance Writer

I love a good “shoot your shot” story, so after you read this, please tell me yours!

When I spotted Aaron Spivak by one of the stages at Ecom North, I knew I had to figure out a way to introduce myself, but I felt socially awkward about it.  

(If you’re not familiar, Aaron sold his company Hush Blankets for $48M, has a killer podcast called Founder2Founder and runs The Founders Club. NBD).

I waited for a while as he talked to other conference attendees and was considering a Homer Simpson-esque fade back into the shrubbery when he mentioned his throat was hoarse from speaking at multiple events.

So I whipped out a can of Lychee Balloon and handed it over. He cracked it open on the spot and loved it.

Then he introduced me to Larysa Nakonecznyj, who as it turns out lives in my neighborhood. It was all kind of magical. 

As cumbersome as it can be to wear a backback full of sparkling water cans to events, they function as pretty awesome business cards - and sometimes as the perfect conversation starter 😁.

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The Battle

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Juliana Casale

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taplio

The Battle

Ashley Faus

Juliana Casale

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);}Ashley Faus's LinkedIn Performance

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Performance ScoreAshley Faus's LinkedIn Performance