Break Free B2B Marketing: Nicole Brady of SAHM Reviews on the Importance of Empathy in Reaching Your Niche

For over a decade our team at TopRank Marketing has fostered a strong community of leading influencers, developing close relationships with subject matter experts in a wide variety of industries. When it comes to B2B influencer marketing, it's natural to wonder just what an industry influencer actually looks like? In our third season of Break Free B2B Marketing video interviews, we’re continuing in-depth conversations with a selection of top B2B influencers, and taking a close look at the issues that each expert is influential about in their own industry. Each successful B2B influencer has a rare mix of the 5 Ps — proficiency, personality, publishing, promotion, and popularity — as our CEO Lee Odden has outlined in “5 Key Traits of the Best B2B Influencers.” Featuring all of these qualities and many more is Nicole Brady, publisher at SAHM Reviews, who we’re delighted to be profiling today. According to a study done by G2, 92% of B2B buyers are more likely to purchase after reading a trusted review. A different study tells us that 91% of customers between the ages of 18 and 34 trust online reviews just as much as they would a personal recommendation. Long story short: buyers care about reviews, whether they're a business or an individual consumer. Some people understand this more than others. One of those people is Nicole Brady. Nicole Brady is the founder and force behind SAHMReviews.com, a successful site known for it’s engaging story-based reviews of products and services. Knowing how to tap into stories and find your own niche storytelling techniques are skills integral to any B2B marketer, which is why we invited Nicole to speak with us for today’s episode of our Break Free B2B marketing video series.

Break Free B2B Interview with Nicole Brady

If you’re interested in checking out a particular portion of the discussion, you can find a quick general outline below, as well as a few excerpts that stood out to us.

1:15 - Introduction to Nicole
2:38 - Building empathy and trust with an audience
4:12 - What are story-based reviews and why are they important?
7:15 - Signs of progress in Nicole's space - and where things are going
12:12 - Why are individual reviews more impactful than brand content?
15:22 - How important is technology and thinking outside the box to consumers?
19:16 - You create board games?! Tell us more!
25:43 - What do you see as the key qualities that make something fun?
28:08 - How did Nicole find her niche and what advice does she have for others on a similar journey?
30:40 - Any tips for working with brands as an influencer? Tips for brands working with influencers?
34:02 - What advice would you give to B2B marketers looking to break free?
36:04 - How to get in touch with Nicole

Nick: If you try to look ahead one year, how do you envision the space where you're working? What do you think is going to change? And what do you think is sort of the main trend line that's going to carry it forward? Nicole: I think moving forward from here, people are realizing the importance of not only technology and the integration of that technology, whether it's companies being able to do curbside pickup, people not being able to come into their businesses, but they're still being able to function in eCommerce, in digital learning, and you have so much distance learning and telecommuting. I think companies are going to have to embrace all of those things over the next year, that it's caused them to have setbacks this year. I think, had we been more prepared with telecommuting, with distance learning, and had we been more prepared for those things? I think this entire quarantine that we've had would not have been such a problem to our economy. I think moving forward in the next year, that's really what people are going to have to adapt to — finding ways to think outside the box, and different ways to engage with their consumers, whether it's on social media, allowing them to purchase through social media, allowing them to use curbside pickup or whatever it is, and finding ways to do things without having people walk in the door, or even traditionally, the way they've been doing it, I think we just have to really look outside the box and find new ways. [bctt tweet="“I think companies are going to have to embrace all of the things over the next year that have caused them to have setbacks this year.” — Nicole Brady @SahmReviews" username="toprank"] Nick: What do you think makes the content from that third party individual, an influencer, or even just a consumer giving a product review? What makes that so much more powerful than brand content? Nicole: Because it's real. It's someone who is sharing their opinions. It's not scripted. It's not a commercial. And I guess that's one of the things that if you are hiring content creators or influencers: do not pin them down and say you can or cannot say something, you need to just give them free reign. They are creative, they're creative individuals. That's why they have a fantastic audience. Usually, that's why you know about them, you know. Just say, "Do your thing." If a company comes in and says, "Hey, here's these ingredients, create a recipe," and you're going to somebody who is good at creating recipes, you don't want to say oh, by the way, we want it to be this, this this, and this. You don't want to say that, you want to give them the information. [bctt tweet="“If you are hiring content creators or influencers, do not pin them down and say you can or cannot say something. You need to just give them free reign.” — Nicole Brady @SahmReviews" username="toprank"] Keep your eye on the TopRank Marketing Blog and subscribe to our YouTube channel for more Break Free B2B interviews. Also check out episodes from season 1 and season 2. Take your B2B marketing to new heights by checking out out previous season 3 episodes of Break Free B2B Marketing:

Episode 1: Kevin L. Jackson, GC GlobalNet — The Future of Cloud Computing
Episode 2: Tim Crawford, AVOA — The New Normal
Episode 3: Oliver Christie, PertexaHealthTech — The Future of Artificial Intelligence
Episode 4: Liam McIvor Martin, Time Doctor — Trends in Remote Work
Episode 5: Sarah Barnes-Humphrey, SHIPZ — The Future of Supply Chain
Episode 6: Eric Vanberburg, TCDI — The Changing Cybersecurity Landscape