Trust & Influence in B2B
Trust & Influence in B2B
Podcast Description
Trust is the biggest challenge facing B2B marketers today. Buyers have always been cynical, hard to reach and even harder to convince, and increasingly expect to be self-directed in their research. In other words, they only want to engage with you on their terms. As if that wasn't bad enough, media and content channels are fragmented whilst AI is opening the floodgates to a tidalwave of content of questionable quality and veracity. It all adds up to a crisis of trust in B2B.
In this podcast, I'll be interviewing innovative and inspirational marketers in the front line of addressing this challenge, providing deep insights into the context of this challenge, exploring new insights about its implications and looking at real world solutions and success stories.
We'll focus in particular on the topics of thought leadership and influencer marketing, but inevitably brand, advocacy and demand generation, and much, much more.
Podcast Insights
Content Themes
The podcast explores topics such as thought leadership, influencer marketing, and brand advocacy, with episodes discussing real-world campaigns like Capgemini's 'Building Trust in Data' and Circana's insights on turning data into strategic conversations, as well as the findings of Edelman's Trust Barometer report
I’m Joel Harrison, founder of B2B Marketing.net (formerly B2B Marketing magazine) Propolis and the B2B Marketing Awards. It’s been my mission for the past 21 years to recognise, celebrate and evangelise for the amazing profession that is B2B marketing, which has evolved beyond that recognition in that time.
In this podcast, I’ll be exploring what I believe is the biggest challenge facing B2B marketers today: Trust.
Buyers have always been cynical, hard to reach and even harder to convince, and increasingly expect to be self-directed in their research. In other words, they only want to engage with you on their terms. As if that wasn’t bad enough, media and content channels are fragmented whilst AI is opening the floodgates to a tidalwave of content of questionable quality and veracity. It all adds up to a crisis of trust in B2B.
In this podcast, I’ll be interviewing innovative and inspirational marketers in the front line of addressing this challenge, providing deep insights into the context of this challenge, exploring new insights about its implications and looking at real world solutions and success stories.
I’ll be exploring this topic from every relevant angle and perspective, but I’m going to focus particularly on thought leadership, influencer marketing and advocacy as they have particular relevance to this challenge.
Most B2B marketing leaders aren’t short on expertise — they’re short on the confidence and the practised skill to be visible with it, whether that’s in the room with their own board or out in public. Archana Dhankar, VP Marketing EMEA at Proofpoint, TEDx speaker and LinkedIn Top Voice, joins Joel Harrison to unpack what it actually takes to build that visibility, internally and externally, and turn it into real influence.
➡️ She breaks down the practical mechanics of building influence: a 2:1 ratio for balancing self-promotion against value-added content, a three-stage framework for knowing when visibility has become influence (likes, saves, and inbound interest), and why trust compounds differently on a public platform than it does inside your own organisation. She’s also candid about the cost — the professional accountability, the late nights, the posts that flop despite your best instincts — and closes with practical advice for reluctant leaders and junior marketers on where to start.
What you’ll learn
- Why visibility and influence are not the same thing, and how to tell them apart
- The 2:1 ratio Archana uses to keep self-promotion from tipping into ego
- A three-stage framework for measuring whether your content is building real influence
- Why trust compounds differently on social platforms than it does in daily work
- The personal cost of building a public profile – and why consistency, not confidence, is the hard part
- How to start building influence if you’re a reluctant leader, or a junior marketer just starting out
Chapters
- 00:01 – Introduction and episode setup
- 02:08 – Archana’s journey: two decades in B2B marketing, content roots back to 2008
- 04:20 – Visibility vs. influence: the core distinction
- 06:17 – What prompted Archana to go public, and the “side hustle” advantage
- 09:33 – Three phases of measuring when visibility becomes influence
- 12:51 – Self-promotion vs. ego, and the 2:1 content ratio
- 14:18 – Balancing personal brand with company brand
- 16:47 – Why trust is the foundation of influence
- 18:41 – Winning over skeptical stakeholders: SEMrush and Adobe as B2B influencer examples
- 20:28 – How being an influential leader has shaped Archana’s career
- 23:29 – The personal cost: accountability and consistency
- 26:08 – Where to start if you want influence, not just visibility
- 30:19 – Advice for junior marketers
- 31:14 – The one mindset shift that matters most
LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/archanadhankar/
🌐 Visit Joel Harrison’s website to explore exclusive reports, upcoming events, and join the B2B marketing community: https://www.joelharrisonb2b.com/
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LinkedIn: https://linkedin.com/in/joelharrison/
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