Marketing with a Pulse with Nicole Warshauer, Marketing Expert

In this episode of Straight to Voicemail, host Amanda Smith taps Nicole Warshauer, a marketing expert, about what it takes to create smarter content that builds trust, especially in complex industries like healthcare, finance, and ed-tech. 

Nicole highlights her approach to content, emphasizing the importance of authenticity and simplicity. She shares her insights on how to truly understand and connect with your community, and why it's essential to create content that resonates and fosters trust at scale.

In this conversation, you’ll learn about:

• The power of community-first content 
• How to simplify complex messaging while staying authentic
• The critical role of building trust through evidence-based, human-centered content
• Why patience is key in content creation and community-building

Jump into the conversation:
 (00:00) Meet Nicole Warshauer
 (00:10) What "smart content" really means
 (01:20) The importance of understanding your community
 (02:45) Simplifying content without losing authenticity
 (03:11) Building trust with evidence-based, human content
 (04:18) The key to patience in content creation

What is Straight To Voicemail?

What are the best brands doing to stay relevant, build trust, and create content smarter?

At Share Your Genius, we have the same questions, so we're tapping the best in the space for their answers—one voicemail at a time.

Join us each week for quick hits of insights from b2b marketers and leaders.

Amanda Smith (00:01):
Amanda Smith. When I hear the phrase smart content, I keep thinking of being clever, witty, but in reality, that's not actually what it is. It's about being clear, consistent, and really connected to your audience and making it work in multiple different ways. So as I was turning this concept over of smarter Content, I wanted to talk to Nicole Warshauer. She is a community first brand leader, and what I really love about her approach to marketing is she is very cognizant about building trust in some of the most complex industries out there, like healthcare, finance, EdTech. She really has a way of cutting through with content that is rooted in empathy and backed by a strategy to make it feel really cohesive and for the audience she's trying to reach. Content can be really powerful when you switch from creating messages to building movements, having something that resonates, that people want to rally behind. So I asked her how she has helped create content smarter with organizations and how community and that approach has really helped her do that. Here's what she had to say.

Nicole Warshauer (01:35):
Your call has been forwarded to an automatic voice message system. At the tone, please record your message. Amanda, great question. I want to make sure you understand how to deliver this brilliant content that you have in a smart way considering community first. And so first up, you need to know what is your community. That means you need to start finding the places where people are talking about the problem that your brand or product or service is even solving. So are you on Reddit? Are you on forums? Are you looking through different comments on social? You need to make very clear what's going on in your community and how you can authentically show up. Don't just fly in there like a mom popping into a teenage party. Really sit back and listen and take notes, and then share those notes with your teams that are most appropriate.

(02:23):
So things like product marketing or content or comms or design. So get yourself a little community crew at work to make sure that everybody is aware of what the community is actually saying about you and your products and your service and their main problem. Okay, so you got your community. Next thing you're going to do is make sure that the content you're creating is appropriate and simplify. So you're going to simplify the complex. It's your job to make sure that your content is clear and compelling and meets people where they are. So I want you to cut the corporate speak, whether you're talking to B2B or B2B, B two B2C or B2C, all the Bs, all the Cs. Make sure that what you're saying sounds like you, and it sounds authentic and it makes sense and matches all the great stuff that you've heard in the community.

(03:11):
So you're matching one to the next. And then this should really lead you again over time and would help you build trust at scale. The best content is trusted content, evidence-based and AI is rad and all that good stuff that's good to have in your back pocket, but you need a human to make sure that one and two are covered in your content to build that trust. So trust is hard to come by. It's easy to lose, especially if you're in these high stakes industries like healthcare or finance. Trust better be the basis of your brand. You're going to be spending a lot of time optimizing that content to build trust and anything you can do to measure that trust and you get to decide. You get to decide what those trust measurements are. You put those together, you get that educational evidence-based content and empower your folks, and you're going to be in a really great spot. I think just the last thing I'll say is be patient. You can't just build community a day. You can't build brilliant content in a day. So be patient, listen to what your folks are saying on both sides, internal and external, and then rinse and repeat and move it along. You'll be in a great spot.

Amanda Smith (04:27):
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