Marisa Lather (00:02)
people don't connect with brands. They connect with people or hardwired to respond to our own likeness.
Benjamin Ard (00:33)
Welcome back to another episode of Content Amplified. Today I'm joined by Marisa. Marisa, welcome to the show.
Marisa Lather (00:33)
Thank you for having me.
Benjamin Ard (00:40)
Yeah, Marisa, I'm excited to have you on. This is going to be a ton of fun. It's a subject a lot of people care about right now. It's super relevant. But before we dive in Marisa let's get to know you. Tell us about your background, work history, all that fun stuff.
Marisa Lather (00:54)
Yeah, so I'm a content marketer, I guess you could say by trade. But right now, my work is centered around a mix of marketing and communications, data and business strategy. So I work to build awareness, credibility, influence and trust. And I try to do that not just externally, but then also internally, because we've got all types of different constituencies. So one thing that I care most about is how content can be informed by data. And when it's shaped by audience insight, you can position it so that it resonates with all of your audiences, and now including algorithms. So that's why I'm really excited to talk to you today.
Benjamin Ard (01:33)
Yeah, this is gonna be incredible. I love that. Well, Marisa, what we're gonna focus on today and for everyone listening, we're gonna talk about humanizing content. Now that touches on a couple of things. You have the creator economy, you have personal branding, all sorts of things, but there's this trend that I wanna start off with and ask you about, Marisa. There's these brands and they're big brands, small brands, brands of all shapes and sizes that are starting to really get the idea of having like this unpolished content, things of that nature. And it feels like it's because us as consumers don't want the polish. We don't want like the corporate speak. Are you seeing that? Are people really tuning that out? Is it a trend? Do you think it's valid? What are your thoughts on that right there?
Marisa Lather (02:20)
Well, I mean, the pendulum always swings, right? I connected directly back to AI because AI has really democratized the ability to create pretty highly produced content, shall we say. Might not always be great, but it can look really nice. And so when everybody is able to do that, it can start to dull the sparkle and it stops making it special. And so that's where it's kind of the anti AI aesthetic where you want to see a product that's half used or a messy bathroom sink. That's the type of authentic product photography that we're starting to see more and more of. So I think what you want though is you have to understand what channel is it going to be on? What audience is going to consume it? You know, because you have to have a healthy mix. It's like a balanced diet. You need to have highly produced pieces for things like a hero asset or website, things like that. But then social media, you have a little bit more room to play. And so that's where I think we're starting to see that aesthetic play out more.
Benjamin Ard (03:27)
And do you think it's purely, I mean, you mentioned AI. Do you think it's purely because it feels more authentic? Is it a trust factor? Like what are brands trying to overcome as they're kind of doing some of this more behind the scenes? And I don't want to say raw but maybe that's kind of a correct term. Is that why brands are doing it? Why do you see the motivation behind it?
Marisa Lather (03:49)
I mean, big word of the year, of last year, of this year. We're entering into a stage, and myself included, you really have to ask yourself, is what I am seeing real? And you have to consider the source, there are physical aspects you have to identify, and that's putting a lot more onus on people to understand where and how and from whom they're consuming their information. So media literacy is a huge passion of mine. And when brands are trying to connect to their audience in an authentic way, doing that transparently with trust, that's the best way to do that. So that means disclosing when you are using AI, co-creating content with your audience or your various stakeholders. You're really trying to create what I would call opportunities for validation, for human validation, so that people can say, yes, what I'm seeing is real. This is a real person, a real brand, a real campaign. I think even with AI influencers, that's another fascinating topic. Whenever brands are trying to create that trust, you have to go into what do you know? And so that's where creators, user generated content, employer branding, those are all wonderful ways to start to supplement and fill that gap.
Benjamin Ard (05:14)
Okay, so I love this. So we're talking about the trust gap, how to fill the gap, and you're talking about these creators, personal brands, things like that. How do we leverage those? Like obviously there's opportunities to work with that kind of material, but what does it do to fill in the trust gap? What is it doing specifically to help people feel more comfortable with a brand in general?
Marisa Lather (05:34)
So many things. I mean, people don't connect with brands. They connect with people or hardwired to respond to our own likeness. So that's one really important reason to introduce humans into your content. Another thing, if you're trying to work with a creator, you want to make sure you have a mutually beneficial relationship. So this needs to be something that is good for the brand, but then also for the creator. And you identify that by finding shared values, a shared audience, but somebody who has an authentic connection to the brand. So then when you're able to make that matchmaking, that's when you start to see really quality campaigns coming through.
Benjamin Ard (06:20)
I love that. That's cool. So I'm a brand and I've decided, okay, we need to have some trust fixed. We're gonna go and work on our content, build some trust, show some authenticity, and even gone through the process of finding an individual or a creator and say, you know what, let's work with this group. Let's work together. Let's figure this out. It's mutually beneficial. And then they start working together. What can you do from that point to make sure that you're successful from how you structure the relationship to even how you measure success? Because sometimes when you're working with these outside groups or personal brands, it's difficult because it's not always like dollar in, dollar out. How do you look at that? How do you make the relationship healthy? And how do you measure success when you are working with groups like this?
Marisa Lather (07:11)
You said a couple of important things. In order to work with an influencer or a creator, you don't necessarily have to tap outside your business. The first voices that you should be telling should be the voices of your people, of the executives that your employees see, because your brand really starts with the people who represent it. So I definitely say start there. Whenever you are working with any outside vendor or any media source, the more enablement you can provide is going to help fast track a quality product. And so that looks like maybe a creator hub where you have core messaging. You could have examples of other campaigns, any type of requirements such as length or output or, include this link here, hashtags, all of that stuff, make it very easy for people to plug in. And then it's kind of funny. It seems the brands that have the biggest budgets understand this — let the creator create, trust them. It's the brands that really try to force a very specific message or an inauthentic relationship to the product where things go wrong. Whenever you are thinking about working with any type of creator, they have to be somebody who has some type of awareness and connection with your brand. Now, how do you measure it? It's a little different whenever you're measuring a personality based brand versus a product led brand. Products and features are more performance based and so you're going to have finite metrics. But personality brands are a little more intangible. Some ways that you would measure it would be engagement with your core audience, sentiment, loyalty. And another core way that brands use creators outside of a conversion play is just to create content and IP and to help tell a brand story.
Benjamin Ard (10:19)
I love that. So when you're working with a creator, both in and outside of your own organization — when it comes to publishing the content, how do you know which channel, either from the creator or from the brand itself?
Marisa Lather (10:51)
You want to always be wherever your core audiences, wherever your target audiences. So ideally you would have a presence on those channels. One of the benefits of using influencers is a brand can only have one point of view. But when you tap into personal brands and creators, you're able to leverage all of these different perspectives under the umbrella of your brand. So you get to tap into and almost like borrow some of their credibility in that particular domain. You might have one creator that has a podcast, one with a strong newsletter, one that is macro or micro — and depending on your budget, what is going to resonate most with your audience, you mirror that back with what are you trying to promote. If you have a strong value proposition between those two, then you just kind of let the magic happen.
Benjamin Ard (12:14)
Love that. That's amazing. Well, Marisa, we're almost out of time. If they're trying to humanize their content, what can people actually start doing today?
Marisa Lather (12:46)
Customer centricity — speaking in the voice of your customer. In real life application: your website copy. Go through your website copy and instead of telling somebody what you do, position it as this is what they will experience when they work with you. And as you're creating new content, think about how can you bring people along with you? If you're doing a case study, how about introducing a couple of quotes from the employees that worked on it and share what it was like working on that particular project. Real life human photo shoots and video shoots — that's another investment. And make sure that you have an in-person activation to your content plan. Make sure your author profiles are built up. Create employee campaigns. Spotlight an employee. Have a commitment to transparency and disclosure. I think the more human we can make it, we'll probably be better off in the long run.
Benjamin Ard (14:44)
I love that. And everything that I'm hearing today is the kind of content I want to interact with. I wanna see the people inside the business. I wanna see the mistakes. I wanna see the thought process. I want the behind the scenes and I wanna really know if they actually care about what I care about. And if they do, that's the kind of business that I want to work with.
Marisa Lather (15:22)
Nobody's perfect and we shouldn't pretend to be. That's how we learn and grow and what connects us are those lessons. I appreciate the chance to share today.
Benjamin Ard (15:34)
That's so incredible. Marisa, for anyone listening who wants to reach out and connect with you online, how and where can they find you?
Marisa Lather (15:42)
Just look up Marketer Marisa on any platform or visit my website at MarketerMarisa.net.
Benjamin Ard (15:48)
Love it. And for anyone listening, we will have all of those links in the show notes. Marisa, thank you so much for the time and insights today.
Marisa Lather (16:00)
Thank you and you're doing great work out here. I'm so privileged to be a part of this.
