I think a lot of B2B marketers are still trying to solve the wrong problem on LinkedIn.
They think the issue is reach, more impressions, more followers and more people seeing their content. But what if B2B buyers already see you, and still don’t trust you enough to act? That’s the real problem.
Because B2B buying has changed. The buying committee is bigger, the sales cycle is longer, and more deals are stalling before they ever reach a decision.
Get this – research showed that around 40% of deals stall altogether.
They don’t go to a competitor. They literally go nowhere.
That’s not a reach problem – it’s a credibility gap.
This article is inspired by the recent episode of the Social Media for B2B Growth Podcast hosted by Michelle J Raymond, with guest Vita Molis from The B2B Institute , which discusses this topic in more detail.
The Buying Committee Is Bigger Than Your ICP
I get that B2B Marketers love an ICP, and there are times, like during paid campaigns, that they are super useful. But sometimes I think that idea is taken too far, and we act like there’s only one person inside the business who matters.
The problem is, B2B buying rarely works like that anymore, and it hasn’t for a long time.
Back when I worked in B2B sales, I didn’t just know the one person who signed the purchase order. I made it my business to build a relationship with as many people in the business as I could. I knew the warehouse person. The receptionist. The buyer. The CEO. The research and development team. All of those relationships mattered.
It taught me valuable lessons –
- The person who influences the deal may not be the person your campaign is targeting.
- The person who raises the concern may not be on your sales list.
- The person who trusts your brand may be the one who gives the green light in a meeting you will never be invited to.
👉 If your content only helps your champion, you’re making their job harder. Your marketing should give them the language, proof and confidence to bring others along.
Trust Is Built Through a Credibility Stack
One good ad, one viral post or one polished campaign won’t fix a trust problem.
Vita talked about the need for coherence in B2B marketing. Not one phenomenal ad that everyone loves, but consistent trust signals across the whole credibility stack.
That stack includes the brand setting a clear point of view, employees talking about the brand, customers sharing their lived experience, and creators or trusted voices carrying the message into their networks.
It’s also why Company Pages and personal profiles need to work together. Not as separate activities or competing channels, but as part of the same trust-building system.
Your Company Page gives the brand credibility. Your people give it reach, context and human proof. Customers bring lived experience. Creators and subject matter experts help make the message easier to believe.
That’s the bit too many B2B brands miss. They expect the brand to carry all the trust on its own, but buyers don’t believe a business simply because it says, “Trust us.” They trust people, peers and subject matter experts, especially the person who can say, “I’ve used this, and it works.”
If a peer recommends a brand, buyers are three times more likely to go with that brand over one that is cheaper or has a higher quality product. Vita Molis – The B2B Institute
That’s the power of lived experience, and no amount of polished corporate messaging can fake that.
Employees Don’t Need Scripts. They Need Storylines.
Here’s where employee advocacy often goes wrong.
The marketing team writes a post, asks employees to copy and paste it, and then everyone pretends it’s authentic. Buyers aren’t stupid. They can smell scripted advocacy a mile away.
If you want employees to help build trust, don’t hand them robotic content and expect magic. Vita says give them storylines instead.
- Give them the main idea,
- The customer problem,
- The point of view and the context can be adapted in their own words.
That’s how you get content that still aligns with the brand, without sounding like it came from the same corporate content machine.
The opportunity is huge.
Vita shared that employees can have five to ten times the connections of a Company Page, yet only around 3% of employees are posting company-relevant content.
That’s not a small gap. That’s a missed growth lever.
But employee advocacy only works when employees have something useful to say. Not just “proud to share”. Not just “excited to announce”. Not just another brand-approved message with no personality.
Give people the confidence to speak with their own expertise. That’s where the trust is.
Stop Saying “We Tried That Once”
This one might sting, but trying one video two years ago isn’t a strategy. Trying one employee post and deciding it “didn’t work” isn’t a test. Trying one creator partnership and judging it only on impressions isn’t enough evidence to write the idea off.
I see this all the time in Company Page audits. A brand tries one format once, it doesn’t land, and suddenly that whole approach is off the table forever.
“We tried that.” Did you? Or did you post it once, look at the impressions and decide it wasn’t worth doing again?
Brand building takes time. Trust takes time. Sales cycles take time. If the buying journey is 272 days, why are we expecting one post to prove everything in 48 hours?
This is where B2B marketers need to stop judging every piece of content as if it should create an immediate click, lead, or sale. Yes, impressions matter. Yes, engagement can tell us something. But they’re not the whole story.
The better question is this: Are we making it easier for buyers to understand us, trust us and choose us when the time comes?
That’s the job. And if your content is helping the buying committee feel more confident, it may be working long before it shows up in the numbers you normally report.
Final Thoughts
B2B marketers don’t need another hack for reach. They need to get serious about credibility.
Because the buying committee is bigger than your campaign plan, the sales cycle is longer than your reporting window, and the people influencing the deal may not be the people you’re obsessively targeting.
The brands that win will be those that make buyers feel confident enough to act. That means clear positioning, real expertise, employees who can speak with confidence, customers who share lived experience, and content that does more than fill the calendar.
So before you ask, “How do we get more reach?” ask this instead, “Are we giving buyers enough reasons to trust us?”
If the answer is no, more reach won’t fix the problem.
Cheers
Michelle J Raymond
