Trustworthy: How the Smartest Brands Beat Cynicism and Bridge the Trust Gap

Trustworthy: How the Smartest Brands Beat Cynicism and Bridge the Trust Gap

By Margot Bloomstein

Released March 2, 2021

In today’s economy, marketers need a new strategy to earn trust, act with transparency, and help consumers and citizens make confident decisions. But undermining confidence is cynicism: it erodes trust in the media, government, public institutions, and consumer brands. To regain the trust of consumers and citizens, marketers talk about empathy and authenticity. But how do you get beyond those buzzwords? Give more control to your audience—and they’ll put more trust in you. It might be a scary proposition, but trading control for confidence fuels a surprising range of high-performing organizations. Airbnb, Zoom, the FBI, TED, the United Kingdom Government Digital Service, The New York Times, America’s Test Kitchen, local election commissions, and other organizations have all embraced strategies of content and design that transform their audiences into empowered decision-makers. Smart organizations teach their audiences to evaluate product options, engage in continuous self-education, and make more informed choices.

Margot Bloomstein is one of the leading voices in the content strategy industry. She’s the author of Content Strategy at Work: Real-World Stories to Strengthen Every Interactive Project and the principal of Appropriate, Inc., a brand and content strategy consultancy based in Boston.