Welcome to What We're Reading, a weekly rundown of news stories, marketing columns, and B2B industry news that caught our eye.

As AI erodes trust, focus on speaking your buyer’s language

Growing distrust around AI-generated content has consequences for B2B marketers: marketing can fall flat, buyers can lose interest, and opportunities can disappear without warning. MarketingProfs explains why this is happening and how marketers can build trust by connecting it to value and storytelling.

How ‘first-impression’ buying impacts your video strategy

New research shows 86% of buyers have a top list of choices on “Day 1” of a buying cycle, and 81% of those will ultimately purchase from a vendor on that list. Most B2B marketers look at video as a strategy for the top or very bottom of the funnel, but Search Engine Land points out that this excludes most of those first-impression buyers. Here’s what to focus on instead.

Get back to the basics with zero-click B2B buyers

B2B buyers are getting stealthier, sometimes drifting past your ads, email campaigns, and social posts without a hint of engagement. CustomerThink says marketers need to embrace the fundamentals of brand to shed their anonymity and earn some mental real estate in the minds of buyers.

What you need to know about Instagram marketing

Now that Instagram is widely accepted as a viable channel for B2B marketers, the question is how to use it in a strategic way. MarTech breaks down the basics of the social platform, the types of audiences you can find there, and the most effective ways to reach them.

Need help reaching those stealthy buyers?

Zero-click, AEO, GEO — whatever you want to call it, AI-assisted search is a huge focus for brands who want to keep up with the modern buyer's decision-making patterns. To do that, read this blog for some helpful pointers from our Manager of SEO & Analytics.