“The Work is Relational” – thoughts on the future of marketing
Marketing is changing. Again. But this time it’s deeper than another shift in platforms or algorithms. This time, the change is about what it means to be human and what it means to connect.
Everywhere we look, old certainties are fraying. Search is transforming. Social media feels noisy, performative, and tech bro tired. AI can generate content at dazzling speed, but it can’t build trust.
And trust, it turns out, is the thing we’ve been losing. We find ourselves in a world awash with information but aching for real connection. For people who care about what they do and want to make a success of it, whether in business, charity, or creative work, that’s both a challenge and an invitation.
It’s time to reimagine what marketing is for.
How our research led me here
Our recent research revealed a deep weariness in the world of marketing and communications. People are exhausted: overwhelmed by noise, constant change, and the pressure to keep up. Many spoke of burnout and disconnection: from their audiences, their colleagues, even from the purpose that first drew them to this work. Marketing, once a craft of creativity and connection, too often feels mechanical, extractive, empty.
And yet, underneath the fatigue, we heard something hopeful. People still care deeply. They want their work to feel good again, to mean something, to build trust, to make a difference. Those who are thriving today are doing it through craft and care: knowing who and what they’re for, by listening, communicating with honesty, and nurturing genuine relationships. Their success comes not from the biggest budgets, but from approaching marketing as a means to relationship, not transaction.
This is the shift our research points to: from performance to presence, from output to outcome, from manipulation to meaning. People are looking for a new story about what good marketing can be.
That’s why I say the work is relational. I truly believe that the future of marketing lies in building trust and human connection, one relationship at a time. When we put care, empathy and listening back at the centre, the work not only feels better, it does good and works better too.
The future of marketing lies in building trust and human connection, one relationship at a time.
“The work is relational”
Moments of clarity often arrive when worlds collide. My work right now is multi-faceted and fascinating, a patchwork of strategic and hands-on, across sectors and scales: I’m advising small local charities and conducting audience research for a national service provider; I’m editing a wonderful book by a long-standing US author on trust and relationship-building; I’ve even forged an unexpected alliance with businesses in the UK blinds and shutters industry, getting leadership teams excited about how they market what they do.
I’m learning so much. And everywhere I look, the message gets louder: we win by showing our humanity. Signs of Life, Buckets of Love – it’s the small, personal gestures that cut through.
In another corner of my freelance life, I’m comms lead for the Humanity Project, working with local communities to build a joyful new kind of democracy where they live, based on listening. This delicate, community engagement work that has brought the truths of connection back home.
The lightbulb came to me during a Humanity Project gathering, a weekend filled with amazing organisers, activists, and community builders from across the country. At one point, Clare Farrell, one of the project’s conveners, said something that stopped me in my tracks:
“The work is relational.”
Somewhere along the line, we forgot that. We automated. We optimised. We chased numbers instead of nurturing connection. We focused our efforts on attracting the anonymous masses “out there in the internet ether” rather than on the people right in front of us, the people we’re here to serve. We started seeing them as “targets” and data points, and marketing became something done to an audience rather than done with and for them.
The relational work got lost. In marketing and communications, as in all areas of life, it’s time to bring it back.
A new story for marketing
When Sharon and I began revisiting the Valuable Content principles, we found ourselves asking: What does good marketing look like now, in 2025 and beyond? What does it mean to share your work, your ideas, your business, in a way that feels both effective and ethical?
The answer kept circling back to one thing: trust.
Miroboard musings on trust from me and Sharon. Who and what do you trust?
People no longer trust advertising or mass mailouts. They don’t trust social media platforms or faceless brands. What they do trust are the people they know, their friends and peers, their colleagues, communities and creators who show up consistently, who listen, who care.
In our recent research, the single biggest factor in marketing success was word of mouth.
At first, we almost skimmed over it. Word of mouth didn’t feel like a tactic but it is the outcome of something deeper: a pattern of human connection.
People talk about work that moves them, businesses that treat them well, organisations that make them feel seen. That’s what marketing is, at its best: it’s trust made visible.
The Trust Equation
Trust = (Credibility + Reliability + Intimacy) ÷ Self-Orientation
This simple formula, first described by Maister, Green and Galford in their book, The Trusted Advisor, captures perfectly what we’ve seen in practice.
For marketing, it looks like this:
Credibility: You know your stuff, and you share knowledge generously.
Reliability: You keep your promises and show up consistently.
Intimacy: You’re human. You show up with warmth, empathy, and honesty.
Low self-orientation: You focus on helping your audience, not on looking clever.
[Read my article about the Trust Equation in practice here.]
This is how trust is built, not through louder messaging or shinier tools, but through consistent, caring, human behaviour.
Every Valuable Content principle rests on this equation. It’s the architecture of trust, the foundation that makes all other marketing work.
Influence through compassion, not power - 2025 Edelman Trust Barometer
Technology can help, but it can’t replace our humanity
AI, automation, and analytics all have their place. They can save us time, reveal patterns, and amplify our reach. But they can’t listen. They can’t empathise. They don’t care.
They can simulate connection, but not create it. That’s still human work.
What technology can do, if we use it well, is support us to do the relational work better:
freeing up time for real conversations, supporting our writing and creation process, amplifying valuable content that builds relationships rather than replacing them.
Marketing as an act of care
If the work is relational, it’s also emotional. It’s about care.
Call me a business hippy, but marketing isn’t manipulation, it’s a form of service. It’s how we help the right people find what they need, when they need it. It’s how we celebrate our audience’s successes. It’s a way to make the world a little easier, kinder, more connected.
That’s why the Valuable Content principles matter now more than ever. They’re not just good business sense; they’re a way to work that restores meaning and humanity to the act of promoting anything good.
This kind of marketing is for the people who still care – for those who want promoting what they do to feel good as well as do good. For anyone who believes that how we share our work is as important as the work itself.
Because the work of marketing, all of it, is relational.
What comes next?
Sharon and I are rewriting the Valuable Content Principles for this new era, re-grounding them in what our research revealed and in what we’ve both learned through practice. We’ll share our thinking as it evolves.
If you care about putting trust, humanity and connection back at the heart of your work, we hope you’ll come with us.