Content isn’t the only way to become trusted. (But I like it.)
Tony Hallett
Content marketing and strategy | Founder and MD at agency Collective Content
Trust. Some would say everything has always been based on trust. From a member of the tribe guarding the cave opening at night while you sleep to… less important but very relevant matters of B2B marketing.
When we ran our ‘Trust through understanding’ worldview by a contact at one of the world’s largest companies last month, he replied: “The focus on trust is something I’m seeing a lot at the moment, and it’s certainly relevant to a behemoth like [COMPANY].”
I don’t think that’s an unusual thing to say.
But while – cards on table – I’m going to talk about why content that makes sense of complex subjects for your audiences, including showing understanding of just who they are, is the most useful thing you can create, it’s not the only game in town.
I wondered: How else do you become trusted?
Just do it
First up, nothing beats knowing someone can do a job for you because they’ve done it for you before.
A close second would be someone who’s done the job in question before for someone you trust. This is more a trusted referral. But it works a lot of the time (badly kept secret: how agencies like us still get most of their work). This is one of the central ideas behind the concept of Nearbound and the Rise of the Who Economy, by Jared Fuller and Jill Rowley, which is worth a read.
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Time well spent
Then there’s familiarity breeding the opposite of contempt. This is the deep time you spend in someone else’s company – say on a trip together or outside of work. You build trust because you work out the other party is a good person, in your eyes. Why do you think people still try to get prospects to spend 4–5 hours playing golf with them? It isn’t the activity, it’s the time together.
Trust through understanding
And then there’s content. Sure, it doesn’t sound as much of a slam dunk as the ex-colleague who always gets the job done or the person who made you laugh all night at that great restaurant, but it has its advantages.
Just a few things:
?
In short, the right content is versatile and both shows understanding of you and helps you understand things. When you are creating it for your customers and prospects, it should lead to trust, through understanding.
We won’t talk down prior experience, a great referral or hours in someone’s company. But content is the most versatile, customisable and ongoing way to become trusted.
?What do you think?
Senior Editor at Collective Content
2 个月Another thought: having a library of good content of any kind (written words, video, audio, infographics, etc.) is itself a way of building trust. People - whether customers, partners or anyone else - are more likely to trust an organisation that's been clearly and consistently delivering the same messages for years. You pave the way for a certain level of comfort when can check on past messages (for example, reading a blog post from four years ago rather than a new one posted yesterday) and don't observe any gaps (i.e., content you removed because it was wrong or embarrassing or negative in some way). That's why I'm a big fan of publicly acknowledging and publicly correcting mistakes, examples of poor judgment, even typos. Yay for the organisations that don't memory-hole their missteps but take steps to correct them out in the open, where everyone can see.
Writer. Collective Content: building trust through understanding. Co-founder: The Human Times. Coffeeable.
2 个月Guarding the cave entrance! Reminded me of something I read years ago, before Twitter/X (so it might even be true). Yawning is contagious, but markedly more so between people who trust each other. It's a form of mirroring that originated when two or more people had to stay awake to literally guard over the tribe. It means "I'm tied but still awake" and the response means "I'm still awake too."