ABOUT THE PRESENTATION

Writing and Designing for Trust

In today’s economy, businesses need a new strategy to earn trust and help consumers and citizens make confident decisions. Undermining confidence is cynicism: it erodes trust in the media, government, public institutions, and consumer brands. To regain trust, we talk about empathy, transparency, and authenticity. But how do we get beyond those buzzwords in copy—and what is the responsibility and opportunity for content developers and content strategists to lead the way? The secret is in how we use content to empower our audiences: when we give more control to users, they put more trust in us.

Examining what works among teams of all stripes and sizes, Margot Bloomstein will share examples from retail, publishing, government, software, and other industries to detail what you can do to meet new challenges in information consumption. Learn how voice, volume, and vulnerability can inform your work to regain trust and lead your audience and organization from cynicism toward something far more productive: action and hope.

ABOUT THE PRESENTER

Margot Bloomstein is one of the most prominent voices in the content strategy industry. She is the author of Trustworthy: How the Smartest Brands Beat Cynicism and Bridge the Trust Gap and Content Strategy at Work: Real-World Stories to Strengthen Every Interactive Project and is the principal of Appropriate, Inc., a brand and content strategy consultancy based in Boston. As a speaker and strategic adviser, she has worked with marketing teams in a range of organizations over the past two decades, including the American Montessori Society, Fidelity, Harvard University, Lovehoney, Mailchimp, and Sallie Mae. The creator of BrandSort, she developed the popular message architecture-driven approach to content strategy. Margot advises Women Talk Design and teaches in the content strategy graduate program at FH Joanneum University in Graz, Austria. She also lectures around the world about brand-driven content strategy and designing for trust. Find her on Twitter at @mbloomstein.