Why owned channels drive B2B trust

For years, the B2B startup playbook treated "brand" as a fuzzy concept and "content" as just SEO fodder. In the age of AI, this mindset is not just outdated - it’s a huge missed opportunity. Across our portfolio, the B2B companies breaking out aren't always the ones with the most product features or the most aggressive sales reps. They are the ones who realized they aren't just a software company, they are also a media company. In a world where products are getting commoditized overnight, brand is actually an important moat. Here are a few tactics that I've seen work well when building a B2B brand that matters: ✔️ Own a "conversation," not just a "keyword." Instead of just trying to rank for a specific keyword, aim to become the most trusted voice on a single, important conversation in the industry. As my co-founder Scott Hartley always points out, a team that does this brilliantly is our portfolio company Stitch. Based in South Africa, they're not just selling a payments API, they are relentlessly educating the market on the complexities of African fintech, making them the go-to resource long before a sales conversation ever happens. ✔️ Turn internal expertise into public content. Your company is a goldmine of expertise. Your engineers solve complex problems, your sales team has unique market insights, and your customer support team understands user pain points better than anyone. Build a system to mine this internal knowledge and share it generously with the world. ✔️ Treat content with the same rigor as product. Don't just "do content" - have a content roadmap, test different formats, obsess over quality and distribution, and measure the results. Understand that a great piece of content can be a more valuable, long-lasting asset than any single feature of the software (gasp!) Product and sales are still critical, don't get me wrong, but the playbook is changing for B2B. Successful founders are learning to build trust at scale by investing in their brand from day one 🔥 🔥 🔥

No one is buying a six-figure B2B SaaS solution after seeing one ad or getting one cold email. I’m tired of hearing marketing and revenue leaders preach the “7-touch rule” like it’s gospel. As if ticking off seven interactions magically closes deals. It doesn’t. It’s not entirely their fault, we’re still teaching business and marketing students 70-year-old theories like they’re cutting-edge strategies. The flywheel has changed. Most just haven’t caught up. The “7-touchpoint” rule, the idea that it takes seven interactions before a prospect will make a buying decision, is outdated. LITERALLY outdated, this was coined in the 1930s. Nearly 100 fricking years ago. Today? It’s more like 20+ touchpoints. (Gartner, Forrester, and McKinsey etc have completed studies this side of the century to prove this) Why 20+ touchpoints? Because B2B buyers are savvier, overloaded with information, and frankly, skeptical. Your ICP isn’t sitting around waiting for your SDR’s next email. They’re: 1. Checking your CEO’s LinkedIn posts, 2. Lurking on your webinars, 3. Listening to podcasts featuring your leadership, 4. Reading third-party reviews, 5. Watching how you show up at events, 6. Talking to their network, 7. Researching YOU before you ever get the meeting. And remember: You don’t control the sequence anymore. They do. The traditional 7-touch model assumes: - You can “nurture” prospects in a straight line. - Buyers move predictably through your funnel. - A sales deck and a follow-up call will seal the deal. NO. STOP. & Remember: 👉 The modern B2B buyer charts their own path. 👉 They engage when they want, where they want, and how they want. So what now? You need to embed trust into every part of your brand: ✔️ Turn your founders and execs into visible thought leaders. ✔️ Build a content engine that educates and resonates, before the first sales call. ✔️ Be present across multiple channels, consistently, with a point of view that adds value. Rob (the CEO) won’t convert on touchpoint #3. Tara (his EA) won’t give you airtime after just a slick outbound sequence. Lee (the marketer) won’t advocate for you internally after a single webinar. But show up 20+ times in the right places, with the right message? Now you’re in the conversation. 2025 belongs to brands who get this. Forget the “spray and pray” playbook. Focus on being everywhere your buyers already are: consistently, credibly, and with actual value. Longer cycles. More touchpoints. Bigger trust = Bigger deals. ____________________ I am James Farnfield, I am building Shake Content, a LinkedIn content agency that creates posts, videos, webinars and podcasts. All wrapped in a beautiful marketing strategy perfect for time-poor, resource strained B2B high-growth leaders and their teams.

LinkedIn generates 80% of B2B social media leads, yet most fintech companies still treat it like a press release channel. While you invest millions in product development, your LinkedIn presence looks like a ghost town.  The trust gap in fintech communication is costing you deals: → Technical buyers consume 13 content pieces before making purchasing decisions - yet only 15% of fintech blogs provide substantial educational content → 88% of B2B marketers report case studies as the most effective content for converting technical buyers - but they're nearly absent from fintech LinkedIn strategies → 89% of decision-makers say thought leadership enhances their perception of companies - yet only a third of fintech CEOs maintain active profiles Fintech buyers don't wake up wanting a "blockchain-enabled payment optimization system" - they wake up worried about payment reconciliation errors, cross-border transaction costs, or compliance risks. Create content that addresses these actual problems rather than showcasing your features. Companies building comprehensive content ecosystems that establish authority consistently outperform those merely promoting their platform. Trust is the currency of financial services... without it, even the most innovative tech falls flat

The sales team isn't being ignored - they're showing up too late. The B2B world has completely changed. It's here now, and it's unforgiving. By the time your salespeople get involved, buyers have already made up 57% of their minds.   But here's what everyone's missing about this shift:   Buyers are Watching Your next big client is already studying you. They're not just reading your content-   ↳They're studying how your executives think ↳What your customers are saying when you're not in the room ↳Whether your thought leadership demonstrates leadership   People Trust People, Not Ads The more polished your marketing, the less buyers trust it. B2B buyers are 3x more likely to trust individual leaders' insights than branded content. Yet most companies keep pumping out corporate content while their executives remain silent.   Content Sells for You Every thought leadership post and authentic story your team shares-> becomes a silent salesperson working 24/7.   But here's the twist: your best content isn't what you say about your product - it's what you think about your industry's future.   More Decision Makers Than Ever On average, 11 stakeholders now influence every B2B purchase. But here's what's fascinating: each of these stakeholders consumes content differently. While CEOs scan thought leadership, Technical Evaluators dive deep into whitepapers. Are you speaking all these languages?   Post Sales Engagement That moment after making a purchase often brings doubt and worry. Smart companies recognize this common reaction and have found a powerful solution: Their leaders share real success stories that help new customers feel confident and excited about their decisions.   The Big Picture: The B2B buying process hasn't just evolved - it's inverted. Trust is now built before the first handshake, through the digital footprints of your leaders.   How are you humanizing your B2B brand in this new reality? At Flywheelr, we're pioneering this trust-first approach, helping executives become thought leaders who close deals before sales calls even begin. Ready to lead the conversation in your industry?

I’ve watched B2B brands struggle to earn trust from their audience. And 9 times out of 10? It’s because of 1 simple mistake. A lot of brands rely on a single channel (usually their website) to build trust. But trust is a two-way street. You’ve got to show up, consistently, across multiple channels: - Sales conversations your team has with clients. - A newsletter that adds real value, not just updates. - Events where people can meet you and feel the energy. - Sharing your leaders’ insights, so people know you actually get it. Your website is just the start. It’s where you plant the seed. The real work happens when you nurture that seed across every touchpoint your audience interacts with. When they see the same thinking, the same understanding, the same commitment everywhere, that’s when trust takes root. So show up everywhere your audience interacts with you. Add value. Solve real problems. Be consistent. That’s how trust is built. And trust me, it’s worth every bit of effort.

I’ve had my eye on some of the most respected B2B brands, and I have notes. Best of the best companies out there are prioritizing 3 channels. That’s it. #1 They’re doing personal brand content (exec social) Execs sharing real stories and data their peers and juniors can learn from. This is a human building trust with decision-makers. #2 They have an editorial email newsletter Curated, industry insights relevant to their audience delivered straight to their inbox. And a means to share flagship content — which is #3. #3 They produce flagship content (deeply-informed, deeply-niche, long-form assets) A comprehensive customer case study, an expert interview series, a never-before-published playbook—you name it. These are premium assets for these companies. Once these three formats take off, they’re all connected. → Social drives newsletter subscriptions. → Newsletter promotes flagship content. → Flagship content captures qualified leads. → Email nurture turns leads into demos. You in no way have to launch all three formats right away. Start with one, hit your goal metric, and then kick off the next with a few guiding principles to keep in mind along the way: • Treat your content as its own product, NOT as a vehicle to market your product. • Pick topics that make your market-of-one better at their job. • Unique insights + unique voice + unique packaging = unique content Not MORE content ... just MORE CONNECTED content.

Your company's marketing strategy is dead wrong if you're chasing fleeting attention instead of building lasting trust. I've seen this pattern repeatedly: Brands focus exclusively on capturing eyeballs through targeted ads, viral content, and engagement hacks. They get the spike in traffic, then wonder why conversion rates remain abysmal. By contrast, effective marketers understand that trust is built over multiple meaningful touchpoints, and that trust operates on a completely different principle than attention. Trust is owned. Attention is rented. A few years ago, McDonald's tested a new initiative to determine how building trust through multiple ad channels would impact store visits in Los Angeles. They ran out-of-home (OOH) and mobile advertising campaigns for six weeks, and then tracked three customer groups: — those not exposed to either campaign — those exposed only to OOH — those exposed to both OOH and mobile Results showed that customers exposed to both campaigns had a 729% higher visitation rate than unexposed customers (19.81% vs 2.39%), demonstrating the power of combining OOH with mobile retargeting. This isn't a coincidence. It's how our brains process information. Out-of-home advertising isn't primarily an attention medium; it's a trust and legitimacy builder. People aren't consuming your narrative on billboards, but they're subconsciously registering your presence in the physical world with authority and legitimacy. That's why companies like Amazon reportedly allocate 60% of their marketing budget to out-of-home advertising. They understand this fundamental truth: trust-focused advertising primes your audience, making all your attention-grabbing efforts significantly more effective. The most successful marketing strategies balance both: trust-building foundations that you own permanently, supporting attention-capturing tactics that you temporarily rent. Stop throwing money at fleeting attention. Start investing in owned trust. Your conversion rates will follow.

The days of relying solely on paid media are numbered for CMOs. Here’s why CMOs should double down on owned media: 1. Controlling the narrative Owning your media platform means you get to drive the conversation. 2. Controlling distribution When you distribute your own content, you’re not beholden to anyone else. Not Google’s cost-per-click. Not TikTok’s trends Not Twitter’s algorithm changes. It’s just you and your audience. 3. Owning the data New legislation means third-party data will be harder to come by. You drive exponentially higher engagement by owning your data. With an owned media platform, you can choose your channels, analytics, and first-party data collection strategy. 4. Building a community An engaged, active community is a competitive moat. A customer might try and steal your product. But they can never steal your community. 5. Buyers need consistent, repetitive social proof. Gone are the days of landing pages that convert after one touchpoint - buyers don't buy like that anymore. • They view a LinkedIn post • They listen to a podcast • They get distracted and come back to your site 2 days later • They see another LinkedIn post THEN they're bought in.