Marketing and comms puts most of its emphasis on reach when we’d be better served by putting the emphasis on being believed
The lack of trust that’s emerged in American society is pervasive. It’s woven into nearly every institutional pillar, and for business, it comes at a high cost.
People are less likely to buy from a business if they don’t trust you. It takes more convincing, more touches, and more proof to create a customer. That extra effort drives up costs.
Multiple surveys have demonstrated the impact in B2B marketing, as sales cycles have grown longer and required more interactions. Marketing at its core is communication, which is the path to building trust, and why cutting the marketing budget makes sales cycles grow longer.
Step back and consider the following statistics from credible studies (click any image for higher resolution):
Just 23% of Americans trust their government, according to the Partnership for Public Service:
Just 36% of Americans trust the media, according to Gallup:
Trust in science remains at all-time low, post-pandemic, according to Pew:
Business is not immune either
Less than one-third of employees feel trusted by their boss, according to Korn Ferry; and conversely, less than half of business leaders trust their employees:
Customers are more likely to trust other customers (50%), employees (17%) than they are social media influencers (10%), journalists (10%), celebrities (7%) and executives (3%):
Prospects and customers are distrustful of the claims B2B marketing makes in content:
With specific respect to technology, 73% of buyers say “most vendors fall short” of the honesty mark:
Not just seen but believed
Praytell, a US-based marketing and PR firm, tapped YouGov to poll 1,300 Americans along these same lines. One finding, in particular, stood out, when the survey asked about the source of information that informs purchasing decisions”
- 24% of respondents said they prefer traditional media;
- 25% of respondents said they prefer emerging media; and
- 51% of respondents said they prefer a mix of both.”
The point is that marketing and communications puts a lot of emphasis on reach when we’d be better served by putting the emphasis on being believed.
The report by Praytell summed it up aptly this way:
“For brands and advertisers, the question is no longer merely how to be seen, but how to be believed in a world where influence is increasingly diffuse, and trust is harder to earn than ever before.”
There’s a lot of discussion in B2B circles that marketing has to change because what we are doing isn’t working. The ensuing focus zooms in on sales-marketing alignment or the mix of tactics.
All of those things are probably true, but they pale in comparison to the real problem. I don’t think it’s the tactics, but the approach. The truth is the mix doesn’t matter because buyers don’t believe the message.
If we keep going in the same direction, we can test the mix with a thousand A/B tests and never make an inch of progress. Or we can commission a new mandate for marketing and comms and ask these teams instead to focus on building trust.
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Image credits: Google Gemini and respective studies cited
Frank Strong, MA, MBA
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