Issue July 2026

Marketing moves quickly, but good marketing decisions still start in the same place: understanding who you are trying to reach, what they care about and why they should choose you.

In this month’s newsletter, we are looking at how brands can build stronger relationships before a sale, why zero-click search is changing the way people discover businesses, and how founders can get clearer about their marketing foundations when everything feels urgent.

Featured article: What construction can teach us about winning work before the brief lands

In construction, work is often won long before the tender lands.

That is the starting point for our latest article, Build Certainty. Build Relationships, which explores why construction brands need more than visibility to win in a risk-averse market.

Although the piece focuses on construction and the built environment, the lesson applies much more widely. In any relationship-led sector, from professional services and consultancy to technology, property, education, infrastructure and B2B services, buyers rarely make decisions in a vacuum. They are influenced by familiarity, reputation, trust, evidence and the conversations they have had long before a formal brief appears.

One of the findings we explore in the article is that technically capable firms can still miss out when they do not have an existing relationship with the right people. That is a useful reminder for any organisation that relies on long sales cycles, referrals, partnerships or stakeholder-led buying decisions.

The takeaway is simple: visibility matters, but visibility alone is not enough. Brands need to be known, understood and trusted by the people who shape decisions.

Read the article

Marketing tip: map the relationships behind the decision

When marketing teams talk about audiences, they often focus on sectors, job titles or company types. That is useful, but it does not always go far enough.

For many organisations, especially those selling complex services, there is rarely one buyer. There may be a senior sponsor, an internal champion, a procurement lead, a finance decision-maker, a technical adviser and several people quietly influencing the final view.

This month’s practical tip is to map the relationships behind the decision.

Ask:

• Which organisations would we most like to be working with in the next 12-24 months?
• Who needs to know us before a brief or opportunity appears?
• Who influences the decision, even if they do not sign it off?
• Who already trusts us?
• Who understands what makes us different?
• Where are we over-reliant on one senior contact?
• Which emerging buyers or influencers are we not yet reaching?

Once you understand that map, your marketing becomes much more focused. Thought leadership, events, email, LinkedIn content, research and senior leader activity can all be used to build familiarity with the people who matter most.

A challenge for this month

Take 15 minutes with your team and map the people who influence your next major opportunity. You may discover gaps in your marketing that no campaign dashboard will ever show.

Need a fresh perspective?

If you’d like an outside view on your positioning, audience or marketing strategy, we’d be happy to have a conversation.

Speak to us today

Trend watch: zero-click search and what it means for your brand

One of the biggest shifts in search is the rise of zero-click behaviour.

This happens when someone gets the answer they need directly on a search results page, in an AI-generated overview, a featured snippet, a knowledge panel, a map result or another search feature, without clicking through to a website.

For marketers, this changes the job of search. It is no longer only about getting people to click. It is also about making sure your brand is visible, credible and clearly associated with the topics you want to be known for.

That means your content needs to work harder in three ways.

1. First, it needs to answer real questions clearly. FAQs, explainers, definitions and practical guidance can help search engines and AI tools understand what your business knows.
2. Second, it needs to build authority around specific themes. Publishing one article is useful, but building a connected body of content around your key areas of expertise is much stronger.
3. Third, it needs to make your brand memorable even when a click does not happen. If someone sees your name repeatedly in relation to a problem they are trying to solve, that visibility can still influence future consideration.

The question for marketers is shifting from “How do we get traffic?” to “How do we become the brand people recognise when they are researching a problem?”

Want to stay ahead of the shift?

Idea to steal: turn one insight into five useful assets

If your team is short on time, do not start with more channels. Start with one strong insight.

A useful research finding, customer pain point or market observation can become:

• A short LinkedIn post from a senior leader
• A longer thought leadership article
• A client email or newsletter feature
• A roundtable or webinar theme
• A sales conversation starter

This is especially powerful for B2B brands because it connects marketing and business development. Instead of creating content for the sake of it, you create something that gives your team a reason to start better conversations.

For example, if your research shows that buyers are struggling to compare suppliers on value, that insight could become a practical guide, a LinkedIn discussion, a client briefing, a leadership article and a meeting prompt.

One insight. Multiple uses. More meaningful conversations.

Let us know what you think

Question for your next marketing meeting

Here is one question to take into your next planning session:

Are we creating content to be seen, or are we creating reasons for the right people to engage with us?

It is a small shift, but a useful one.

When content is only designed to be seen, it can become broad, generic and forgettable. When it is designed to create engagement, it becomes more specific, more useful and more commercially valuable.

The best marketing does not simply fill a calendar. It helps people understand why you matter.

How we can help

At The Listening People, we help organisations find the clarity behind better marketing.

That might mean understanding how your market sees you, sharpening your positioning, developing a thought leadership campaign, creating a content strategy, building a stronger brand narrative or turning insight into activity that supports real commercial conversations.

If you’re planning your next marketing project and would like to explore how greater clarity could support your growth, we’d be delighted to have a conversation.

There’s no sales pitch, just an opportunity to share ideas and see whether we’re the right fit for one another.

Get in touch

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