Ashley Faus

Overview of Human-Centered Marketing

Trust has been declining among traditional authorities, like journalists, government officials, and business leaders for nearly two decades. But, it’s steady in one place: people trust people like themselves. And with the rise of AI, proliferation of distribution channels, and relentless focus on tracking every touch-point in order to drive revenue, it’s harder than ever for people to find people they can trust.

This means that brands need to focus on connecting with the humans behind the screen, creating journeys that are delightful, seamless, and impactful.

To do this, we’ll discuss three frameworks to help build trust between humans:

• The funnel is dead, use a playground instead: Focus on mapping an audience journey that behaves more like a playground, allowing people to enter and exit as they please, consume content in any order, and use content the “wrong” way. By meeting the audience in the right place with the right message, in the way they like to consume content, brands can create a journey that converts and builds long-term growth.
• The Social Media Spectrum and the new rules of social media: Many companies have figured out that they can’t just spam social media with broadcast-style content, but many are still stuck trying to drive conversations for and about the brand. Instead, brands need to focus on facilitating and engaging with the community, with tactics that acknowledge and prioritize the human behind the screen. By building relationships, brands build trust on social media.
• The four pillars of thought leadership: In order to build trust, brands need to elevate individuals who are strong across 4 key areas: credibility, profile, prolific, and depth of ideas. They need to go beyond simply sharing content that sells, and instead focus on content that helps their audience think and take action in a new direction. True thought leadership moves the audience into the future and builds long-term affinity and trust.

Each chapter includes practical frameworks to help seasoned marketers shift their strategy, and offers tactical recommendations to implement the recommendations noted in the frameworks. All chapters include real-world examples and case studies, with proof that this shift from the standard playbook actually works.