What does authenticity really mean in B2B marketing and thought leadership?

There is usually a moment in every thought leadership project when someone will remind the team that their messaging and content needs to be “authentic”. Cue lots of nodding around the room.

Authenticity has become something of a mantra in marketing, and particularly thought leadership. Sure, it sounds good and who could argue with the idea that companies should be authentic as opposed to, well, inauthentic and fake? It seems like an obvious goal for which to aim.

Obvious, but not easy. The audiences we are trying to reach with our content will often set a higher bar for authenticity than companies might expect. A few years ago, research from a company called Stackla found that 92% of marketers believe most or all of their content is authentic, but 51% of consumers say less than half of brands create content that meets this definition.

Part of the problem is that, like many tropes in B2B marketing (see also trust, story-telling, authority and others), the concept of authenticity can feel somewhat remote and nebulous. To state the obvious, it may not be in a company’s best interests to be 100% authentic. They may prefer to paint a picture of themselves which is, frankly, a little rosier than the messy reality of their internal dynamics. To be genuinely authentic may require them to expose elements of themselves that the audience may not always admire.

So if authenticity is not about being 100% unvarnished and truthful, then what is it? It has often ended up being shorthand for the idea of communicating consistently, in a way that engages the audience as people, and that speaks to a broader set of values or purpose to guide behaviour. It means being open, (largely) honest and willing to have a dialogue with the audience.

An authentic brand is one that is humble and willing to admit its mistakes and gaps in knowledge. In a thought leadership context, where the emphasis is always on presenting your company as an expert and authority, that sounds like heresy. But there are valid reasons for taking this approach. In a series of experiments, psychologists have shown that we tend to like people more if they are fallible. For example, in job interviews we will often perceive people who admit mistakes more favourably than those who do not. This is known as the pratfall effect.

The implication for marketing is that, far from presenting themselves as infallible, companies would do well to be honest about their shortcomings. Admitting weaknesses ensures that they come across as honest and, yes, authentic.

Humility and authenticity

In a thought leadership context, when companies are often tackling difficult topics such as energy transition, digital transformation and the adoption of AI, it pays to admit that you do not have all the answers. Suggesting that you do comes across as untrustworthy because everyone knows that these are hugely complex issues that require years of hard graft. Humility comes across as authentic, and ultimately increases trust in your brand.

Empathy is another key part of authenticity. Just as no one wants to get stuck with someone at a party who only talks about themselves and shows no interest in anyone else, audiences do not want content or thought leadership that primarily focuses on a firm’s achievements. They want to feel like someone is listening to them and cares. That means starting from an audience-first, outside-in perspective and focusing on what the audience needs to know, not what you want to tell them. That is a key part of building a relationship with a buyer, but it is something that many companies overlook in their haste to talk about products and services.

Of course, buyers are not stupid, and they know that any form of branded content is ultimately designed to part them with their money. Thought leadership may be a more oblique, less direct form of marketing but it is still designed to sell. The point then becomes about helping the buyer to make sense of their situation, and to provide the right information at the right time to help them through a buying decision.

The power of reciprocity

In his book Influence, the author Robert Cialdini outlines seven principles of persuasion and the first of these is Reciprocity. In essence, his argument is that people are more likely to give back when they have received something first. This is an important reason why thought leadership works as a marketing tool, because it is all about value exchange, and building a dialogue. Helping audiences solve their business problems creates trust and also positions your brand as an authority because you have been able to present a solution.

Adherence to a set of values or purpose is often seen as a key ingredient of authenticity, but there are risks with this, as many companies have discovered from their attempts to latch onto social issues. It often does not bring them the halo effect they expected, in part because while they think they are being authentic, their position is incongruent with their real behaviour. Making claims about caring for the environment is a common mistake. It usually does not take long for activists to pick apart these claims and, rather than being perceived as authentic, the company instead ends up being accused of greenwashing.

Simplicity and consistency are key

To be authentic, a company needs to take a position that the audiences can understand and remember. In a thought leadership context, this means picking a handful of core messages that truly reflect your brand and capabilities, and ensuring that these remain at the heart of your positioning. Many companies forget this and think that thought leadership is all about latching onto the latest topic and constantly being on the hunt for the latest trend. Rather than presenting your brand as authentic, all this does is sow confusion and make it difficult for audiences to understand what you stand for. Simplicity and consistency are key ingredients of being authentic.

So the next time you are in a meeting about thought leadership and someone reminds you that it needs to be authentic, what they are really saying is this: be honest, empathetic, consistent, helpful and, above all, convey a simple message that will be remembered.