How honest brand messaging builds trust and conversions

Nobody knows your business better than you. Sometimes that can be a blessing; other times it’s an incredibly frustrating curse. Trusting someone to deliver your messaging, informing people about your brand, its values, and its mission is a big commitment and not one to be taken lightly.

Now more than ever, customers want to know the retailers and businesses they shop with share their sentiments and have their best interests at heart. Ipsos data from 2025 shows 69% of consumers are more likely to shop with brands that align with their personal values, up 16% from 2015.

As part of our SEO service at Visualsoft, we amplify client voices so they can share their deep passion and knowledge of their business and trust us to effectively distribute across their website and social media platforms.

Achieving authority through communication

We believe that the link between clear, collaborative communication with clients and topical authority is an underutilised strategy in the wider SEO content sphere. By translating direct and authentic insights into an optimised content strategy, we are feeding search engines and GEO algorithms rich anecdotal data built from verifiable human experiences.

“Search algorithms reward context, and a conversation with our clients is one of the greatest tools we have. At Visualsoft, we take your industry knowledge, the nuances of your business and translate it into content that connects, informs and performs.”
- Billy Kelly, Content Lead

The AI conflict

A very contemporary challenge users and businesses are facing is that of AI and the impact it can have on search, consumer sentiment, and trust. While our service heavily involves strategies that prioritise LLM citations for your business, we are also conscious of creating an authentic, unique tone of voice that represents your brand and helps it stand out from an AI-influenced crowd in online content. Here’s why that is an important distinction:

1. Trust matters

A recent Gartner survey found that 43% of consumers rely more heavily on real people for shopping information and recommendations due to the prevalence of AI-generated content. The same survey revealed that 65% of consumers believe brands are producing too much AI content in marketing materials, 57% also said this made them less trusting of brand messaging. As a result, Gartner concluded that “credibility, transparency, and demonstrated expertise matter more than ever”.

2. EEAT

As we look to define our clients’ topical authority within their given industry, we must assess their Experience, Expertise, Authoritativeness, and Trust (EEAT) standings. Many factors are involved in determining how effective a client’s content portfolio is at demonstrating this, but it can often boil down to a simple question: “Does the content clearly show comprehensive knowledge gained from direct experience?” The only way to answer this question is via organic, authentic content that cuts through the clutter of auto-generated information. Sharing specific anecdotes, learning curves, and real-world scenarios is the key to establishing that trust that so many consumers are searching for. They want something real.

3. Beating AI on AI

The paradox we find ourselves in is: how do we outperform AI in AI search? Despite the deluge of AI-written content now on the web, 2025 analysis from Graphite shows 86% of articles ranking on Google’s first page are human-written. In addition, AI engines such as ChatGPT and Perplexity are seemingly prioritising authentic content with roughly 82% of cited content written by us mere mortals rather than omniscient machines.

 This isn’t to say AI is the enemy; it can be an incredibly effective tool in reporting, ideation, and identifying potential content gaps. What it can’t yet quite replicate is the authenticity so many people crave in an online climate where trust seems to be dwindling.

Getting to the core of your story

We can talk for hundreds of more words on why we believe we’re capable of harnessing your stories and experience into valuable, high-performing content, but we believe it’s better to let our existing clients share their thoughts on how we’ve implemented this strategy so far.

CurrencyFair

In our first year with Dublin-based online currency exchange platform, CurrencyFair, we’ve had the opportunity to speak to several members of their wonderful team as well as affiliate partners who all shared their expertise candidly with us. Head of Digital Marketing, Grace Coughlan, talked about the benefit these conversations provided.

“Working with the team on the staff interviews has been so easy. They handled everything, from preparing the questions and running the interviews to editing the videos, so it took very little time from our side or from the colleagues involved. They've been incredibly willing and helpful throughout, and quick to adapt whenever we had feedback. 

“It's saved us a huge amount of time and budget on content creation, and we now have a library of authentic, expert-led videos we can use across our blog and social channels."

“Everyone has loved them. Internally they've become known as 'Humans of CurrencyFair', and senior members of the team have been sharing them on Slack and talking about how great they are. It's been brilliant to see colleagues' expertise recognised right across the business.”
- Grace Caughlan, Head of Digital Marketing, CurrencyFair

Peter Tyson

Another great joy has been collaborating with hi-fi audio retailers, Peter Tyson. Founded in Carlisle in 1966, Peter Tyson is a family business steeped in personal history and pride. We were lucky enough to work with the grandson of the owner, Luke Tyson.

Luke spoke earnestly about the power of music and quality systems in our interview. He touched on how our lives are soundtracked by our favourite songs, and that seeing a customer experience a track they love on a system that plays it to its full potential can be incredibly moving. These core pieces of storytelling are vital to delivering the right message for a brand, and we prioritise them to ensure your most authentic self is visible, cited, and seen by users.

On the interview experience, Luke said:

"Conveying your brand values and ethos isn't always easy, especially through email and written briefs alone. Taking the time to chat with Visualsoft meant they gained a good understanding of who we are as a business, and the content and work that followed captured our message and tone of voice exactly as we'd hoped. 

“Realistically, there were some great points that Visualsoft was able to pick up on through natural conversation that I probably wouldn't have thought to mention otherwise."
- Luke Tyson, Peter Tyson

Learn how we can help shape your story by reaching out to our SEO experts today.