In 2025, trust isn’t a soft brand metric – It is a core performance indicator that determines whether a B2B marketing strategy succeeds or fails.
And trust is best built through
Video + credible creator voices or digital sources
Not ads or static content.
Now Why do I say this?
As per the “2025 LinkedIn B2B Marketing Benchmark” report, Trust is the new Key Performance Metric.
~94% of B2B marketers surveyed agree trust — not clicks, conversions, impressions, or reach — is the most important driver of B2B brand success. For decades, B2B performance was defined by measurable conversion metrics (leads, cost-per-lead, ROI). Now LinkedIn’s data says even if you drive traffic or leads, you can’t win if buyers don’t trust your brand first.
The Failure of the “Polished” Strategy
Static content and traditional ads have hit a ceiling. Why? Because they represent the “Corporate We.”
• The Problem: Buyers know that a PDF can be hallucinated by an LLM and a commercial can be scripted by a committee.
• The Reality: 80% of B2B buying cycles are completed before a customer ever talks to sales. If they don’t trust your digital footprint, you are eliminated before you even know they were looking.
In 2025, AI-generated SEO filler and polished corporate “brochure-ware” have reached a saturation point. Buyers have developed a “filter” for traditional marketing.
- The Problem: High-production ads feel like “selling.” Static whitepapers feel like “homework.”
- The Pivot: Trust is now a performance indicator. If the buyer doesn’t trust the face behind the message, the MQL (Marketing Qualified Lead) never happens, regardless of how good the product is.
Big Question: How do you build trust?
- Using Video as the medium of Truth and
- Giving a credible voice to your brand or doing a solid SEO or getting suggested on AI search gives a credible voice to your brand.
Most of the manufacturing and Industrial companies are doing LinkedIn posts, blogs which are mostly AI-generated with very little to none contextual information, Festival posts, Exhibition and SEO in the name of industry listings. Very little B2B manufacturing companies are focusing on YouTube as a channel, Instagram reels as a channel, or doing consistent Search Engine Marketing.
Other factors like having a functional website, technical documents listed, and Digital presence. Over time, doing videos and executing Search Engine Optimization to a certain degree will definitely generate a minimum 2x ROI over a certain period of time.
Why Video is the Medium of Truth
Unlike text, video conveys nuance, micro-expressions, and tone—elements that the human brain uses to “vibe check” a vendor.
- Raw > Refined: Mention that high-fidelity, overly scripted videos are being outperformed by “lo-fi,” authentic “behind-the-scenes” or “expert-talk” formats.
“Go Full On Video mode.” - The Proof: Video allows for live demonstrations and “over-the-shoulder” workflows that static screenshots can’t replicate.
For Instance, let’s consider the example of “Senator We Run Ads,” who is a Content Creator on YouTube and a Digital Marketing agency owner. Most of his videos are sponsored by “Hubspot”. A company like HubSpot is using this strategy to promote its products through “Micro Influencers.” like Owais.
As a B2B company, you can also identify niche channels which are relevant to your business and try to collaborate on an ongoing basis.
If you think that as a small company, its not possible for you to do “Influencer marketing” or it might be due to budget constraints. I will suggest you one thing.
The other formidable thing you can do to your brand is“Execute SEO” of your website and other content channels. If you do your SEO right, you will eventually get ranked on Google and AI might pick your content and show it to users. So the voice of your brand is propagated through Google and AI, eventually helping build trust.
How we are doing this for A Chemicals manufacturing company in Navi Mumbai?
We had done quite a lot of work on just doing the right set of keywords along with content that AI understands and feel that is valuable. AI will definitely suggest your page.
Like in the case of our client – Narsipur Chemicals.
Moving Trust from “Soft” to “Hard” Metrics
Moving from a “static-first” to a “creator-video-first” strategy requires a cultural shift:
- Empower Internal Creators: Identify 3-4 people in your company who are actually doing the work. Give them a camera and a prompt. Don’t over-edit them.
- Prioritize “Education over Promotion”: 80% of your video content should solve a problem without mentioning your product. The remaining 20% should show how your product makes that solution easier.
- Distribute Where the Trust Lives: Don’t just bury videos on a “Resources” page. Native video on LinkedIn, YouTube, and even specialized industry newsletters is where the “Verification Age” happens.
Key Closing Thought
“In B2B, people don’t buy from brands; they buy from people who have the answers to their specific nightmares. Video is the window, and creators are the guides.”
In 2025, the most expensive marketing you can do is the marketing nobody believes. By the time a buyer reaches out to your sales team, they should already feel like they know your experts.
Trust isn’t a soft metric. It’s the only thing keeping your CAC (Customer Acquisition Cost) from exploding.
