Human-Centered Marketing

Highlights

• people trust people like themselves… and executives are only a small segment of potential customers, job candidates, partnerships, or investor base.

• Sonder shows understanding that audience members have their own hopes, users have their own dreams, customers have their own fears, and I, as a marketer, build the bridge.

• marketers have to make the audience feel that the humans behind the brand are humans like themselves.

• We must uncover the problem our audience actually faces. Not the problem we want to tell them about. Not the problem we solve. Not the problem we wish they had, so that we could swoop in with a solution.

• we need to think about the journey as a playground: people can go up, down, sideways, and around. They can go in any order. They can enter and exit as they please. And they can use content in the “wrong” way.

• Which topics, keywords, and formats are performing well in search engine results pages (SERPs)?

• Where does the audience spend time? Performance marketers and demand-generation teams focus on the channels where the audience spends time, consumes information, and makes purchases.

• Which channels and assets help us reach our goals? These experts also help us understand which channels are performing well, based on relevant metrics throughout the audience journey. They also bring data to show which assets perform best in each channel, with a focus on paid and owned channels.

• An effective content strategy includes the following foundational elements: Audience: Who is our audience? Market: How are we differentiated in the market? This includes our offering, messaging, and key value propositions. Outcomes: What outcomes are we trying to drive? What are our goals, and how are we measuring progress towards these goals? What are our key performance indicators and metrics to prove that we’re hitting our goals? Content pillars and narratives: What are the core topics, themes, and unique angle addressed in our content to help acquire, convert, retain, and grow our customer base? Channels: Where does our audience spend time? Which channels perform best for each metric and outcome? Which channels are essential as opposed to experimental? What is the channel mix for the year?

• Narratives should have enough depth to fuel content across multiple angles, asset types, distribution channels, and audience intents.

• Conceptual: These are the overarching themes, and should be limited to three to five core ideas. These are theoretical and philosophical in nature, with a much more abstract application. These ideas form the foundation on which to build strategic and tactical ideas. When creating content at this level, don’t be too concerned about the “how.” Instead, focus on the “what” and the “why” of the idea. This content helps the audience think about the problem space.

• Strategic: This level focuses on the process, tools, and key knowledge components that must be included to make the conceptual ideas a reality. This level should enable tangible outcomes that can be measured in the long run and help the audience think about the solution space. The content equips the audience to conduct their own research, gives them frameworks and criteria for success, and helps them envision the impact that conceptual ideas can have in their organization. Tactical: This is the nitty-gritty “how” level, where the rubber meets the road. If you want to achieve the high-level outcomes of the conceptual level, and you’ve put in place the processes and tools at the strategic level, what are the daily tasks, habits, and conversations that need to happen? This content should be prescriptive in nature, and offer step-by-step instructions, links to specific exercises, and detailed templates or worksheets to help the audience implement the conceptual and strategic ideas.

• In general, we should focus on no more than five conceptual ideas, though three is better to ensure the content is connected.

• Keyword-driven content is rarely beneficial for mature companies, and simply focusing on high-MSV keywords is a losing strategy, particularly as more AI-created content floods the internet.

• Keyword-aligned content takes into account the audience needs and the business needs, including converting buy-intent searches into pipeline or revenue. In order to move the conversation forward, we need to be in the existing conversation. Keyword alignment helps us find those conversations, and helps people searching for information around those conversations find us.

• we want to think about modular content. How can we share the information in multiple ways by strategically separating or combining the content in an asset, tailored to the new format and the distribution channel?

• We can no longer focus solely on the easiest-to-measure touchpoints in the audience journey, forcing people to log in, click, or register, simply because it’s easier for us to track.

• In the playground we define an MQL as someone who has taken an explicit, buy-intent action. So, for example: Book a demo = MQL Contact sales = MQL Start a trial = MQL.

• If we continue our party analogy, what role does a host play? They don’t turn the evening into a monologue about themselves. Instead, they think about who to invite, ensuring that a nice mix of fun, interesting people join the party. They put out snacks and refill drinks throughout the evening. They move from group to group, joining conversations, making introductions, and ensuring everyone has a good time.

• True thought leadership content changes minds and enables action in a new direction. It balances lofty ideas with actionable insights.

• Credibility can be positional, such as a title, a practitioner with repeatable results or extensive experience in the field, or through formal credentials like education and licenses. You can accelerate growth in the credibility pillar by pairing with a strong brand or another prominent thought leader in your field, and acting as a spokesperson on behalf of the company, even if you’re not sharing new research, ideas, or insights.