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.

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:

1. Appropriate content teaches you something new. And who doesn’t want to learn something useful or interesting?
2. Content, done well, makes you feel like the creator really gets your world – not just your industry but your organisation, team and even you, on a role/career basis.
3. Unlike person-to-person experiences, content isn’t dependent on its creator being with you. It can be passed around – like a video shown to your boss or buying guide forwarded to the procurement team.

 

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.