For brands today: Reach is easy. Trust is hard.
In a B2B landscape flooded with AI-generated content, getting eyeballs on your brand isn’t enough anymore. The biggest hurdle marketers face today isn’t just getting noticed, it’s getting believed.
According to a recent LinkedIn study, 94% of marketers believe that trust is the ultimate key to success. Aboard the SS VaynerX at Miami POSSIBLE week, Pedr Howard, Ryan Barthelmes, Vita Molis, and Kaylen McNamara sat down for a panel that explores this stat, and what it takes to turn passive awareness into real, authentic connection with your audiences.
If you’re anywhere in the world of B2B marketing, check out the full recap here. 👇
Bridging The Gap: Awareness vs Actual Belief
Today’s B2B marketers are tasked with bridging the gap between awareness and actual belief in the brand, and that starts with:
- Relevance ➡️ For brands stuck in today’s mid funnel, organic social creative can help brands break through the noise. The algorithms in place make sure that your content is finding the people who it will actually resonate with, making it a huge unlock for consideration and validation.
- Confidence ➡️ With various stakeholders at play, it can take up to 9 months for a campaign decision to be made. The best way forward through a lengthy process? Building trust throughout it. It starts with consistency in your messaging, and can combat any of the hesitations that might build along the way.
The Three C’s of B2B
Elevating and evolving your B2B marketing for today starts with the three C’s: credibility, creators, and creativity.
1. Credibility
Credibility is rooted in your messaging. A brand has to have a thorough understanding of their own vision and mission, but it doesn’t stop there. If its employees and executives can also weigh in on this opportunity, offering more reach and connection, it helps build what Vita Molis calls the “credibility stack.” From there, it can only grow, reaching customer advocates and peers until you have a network built out.
2. Creators
Creators have completely changed the way we market. In a world where followers matter less and less, and organic content can amass hundreds of thousands of impressions, brands need to prioritize creator-led content. Culture fits are important, and you have to find the right person for your brand, but it’s certainly important for those looking to take things to the next level.
3. Creativity
Creators bring a fresh POV and sense of creativity that can bring in new audiences, and they’re doing it with organic content. The quality needs to be there, but when it is, your messaging can scale across channels and across demographics.
The Age of Authenticity
Today, authenticity is the true cheat sheet, and ultimate shortcut for gaining relevance, connection, and community. Opportunities to connect with your audience, and show them how you’re maintaining brand identity and vision, offers a glimpse into your own authenticity.
Something that’s becoming more and more important, is hearing from the people behind the brand. Executives who can offer their insights, and are honest about what they’re seeing and hearing from their industries, are growing online. That inside POV, of someone on the ground at their company, can really break through to an audience.
TLDR? Here’s the Closing Thoughts from Our Panelists
For those wondering what tangible steps they can take next, or what the best way forward is, we closed our panel out with the following question:
“What is the most important shift that brands should be making in their creator and content strategies going forward?”
🤳 Just try it. Take that step, produce content, and let the process take hold, without aiming for perfection.
🤑 Dollars follow attention. Brands need to understand the investment behind true production and realize that producing relevance at scale is the most important thing they can do.
📈 Relevance is key, but so is a measurement framework that understands what is driving the brand. Knowing where engagement comes from is the only way to feed the areas that are having the most success.