The Age of Misinformation & Content Saturation

Over the weekend I watched “What The Health” (I made the mistake of starting it whilst eating dinner… not a good idea). Overall it was shocking and made me seriously rethink my diet however, perhaps the most shocking thing was the fact that major health organisations were promoting the very diet that had been proven to cause the diseases that they were created to prevent/cure.

It highlighted the fact that even in the age of AI, misinformation is not a new phenomenon. In the world of B2B GTM, it feels like we have reached an inflection point; evidenced by Trust radius findings that vendor-produced content has declined in how trustworthy and useful it is to buyers… In fact, it’s the least trusted and least useful resource for our buyers throughout they purchasing process.

Content is confusing clients, rather than illuminating the path forward. The content explosion of the last 5, 10, 15 years simply has no bounds.?

The cost of this explosion is now coming to roost. Collectively, we have flooded the zone with content. There’s simply too much for clients to deal with.? ?

The worst part of this is that clients find much of this information to be conflicting. They’re not sure what to believe or what solution to trust.?

So if we know that vendor-produced content?leaves buyers confused and exacerbates their very real instinct to … do nothing, what can we do?

Well, various reports show that content created by the individual has more reach, is more impactful, more trustworthy and has higher conversion rates.?

• Ninety-two percent?of people?trust recommendations from individuals?(even if they don’t know them) over brands

(Nielsen)?

• Content shared by employees receives?8 times the reach & more engagement ?than content shared by brand channels.?

(Forbes & MSL Group)?

• Leads developed through employees' social media activities convert?7 times more frequently ?than other leads.?

(Neil Schaffer)

Creating content doesn’t need to be difficult. The great thing is that because we’re in sales, we are the business's frontline – We can identify trends and key challenges that are being faced.

If you’re an SDR and cold calling most of the day, why not record yourself calling and share some clips, whether the call was good, bad or indifferent??

*Of course, bleep any personally identifiable information.?

If you’re an account manager or CSM – you are dealing with real-life clients on a day-to-day basis, - can you get client testimonials, can you share some of the key challenges that a client was facing and how they overcame them?

If you're an AE – you’re interfacing with potential clients, you hear their problems and challenges first-hand. You’re quite literally getting instant feedback from the market, so talk about it.?

The key thing to remember here is that we’re not trying to make Hollywood blockbusters or best-selling novels. It’s all about connection with your target audience, not perfection.