Building Trust in the Digital Era: The Human Element in Marketing with Wendy Steinle
33 min read
In an age where AI can copy Shakespeare and deepfake sincerity, the question marketers must ask isn’t whether machines can copy emotion, but whether they should. At the crux of this modern problem stands Wendy Steinle, CMO of Domo, championing a marketing model that merges ultramodern tech with the endless significance of humanity. In her world, it’s not just about data pipelines—it’s about heartstrings. The aim? Build trust at scale without losing soul at depth.
The Possible within Trust in Marketing
Before we get lost in the algorithmic woods of video marketing, let’s ground ourselves in something classic: people trust people. Full stop. Not APIs. Not pivots-to-video. Not an Alexa with a voice smooth enough to read bedtime stories. As Steinle suggests, marketing today is far less about technical execution and much more about emotional resonance. The customer’s vistas isn’t a straight line—it’s a tangled web of micro-moments, distractions, half-read newsletters, and one-too-many push notifications. What cuts through that noise? Feeling seen.
As we surrender more territory to automation, we risk thinning the very thread that holds brand affinity together: genuine link. And in an constantly-accelerating economy of media and mistrust, this human connection is no longer a “nice to have.” It’s necessary infrastructure.
Comparative Views: Trust – The Invisible Currency
| Strategy | Trust Factor | Performance Indicators |
|---|---|---|
| Human-centric Content | High | ↑ Engagement ↓ Churn Rate |
| Automated Campaigns (No Personalization) | Medium | Variable ROI High scalability cost |
| AI-Driven Personalization + Human Oversight | Very High | Strong Lifetime Value (LTV) Enhanced User Retention |
| Algorithm-Only Approaches | Low | Muted NPS Brand dilution risk |
Trust Drift: When Tech Becomes Too Smart for Its Own Good
Here’s an uncomfortable truth: many customers feel more comfortable scrolling Reddit threads than clicking on brand emails. Why? Because tech-first interactions tend to feel invasive, or worse, uncanny. Just because an AI knows our pet’s birthday doesn’t mean we want to hear from it unprompted.
As technology becomes more predictive, the customer becomes more skeptical. Trust drift occurs when automation outpaces human setting. It’s the uncanny valley of transmission—and the only fix is reintroducing actual human touchpoints in the video funnel. The smartest CMOs know this is where brand equity is either made or lost.
Real-World Details: Lessons in Trust
San Francisco: A Tale of Tech and Trust
A B2B SaaS startup re-engineered its CX funnel around behavior-based personalization instead of aggressive retargeting. By building setting-aware conversations, they saw a 30% increase in conversions and slashed their churn rate by 18% in six months.
-18% Churn
Austin: Keep Marketing Weird
When you decide to meet head-on with regional slang and comedic realness, one Austin-based D2C brand turned self-deprecating awareness into sales velocity. The gap? Customers felt like co-conspirators, not metrics.
+10% Loyalty Program Uptick
New York: Transparency Wins in the Concrete Jungle
Facing saturated verticals and price parity, several NYC-based fintechs leaned hard into transparency—revealing fees upfront, narrating founder flaws, and limiting jargon. The result? Trust grew, critiques exploded, app deletions fell.
+9% App Retention
Expert Perspectives: The Pioneers of Trust
“Trust is like a well— expressed our necessary change agent
Jean-Luc Buttery
Once a three-Michelin star chef, Buttery now helps legacy brands revamp their message recipes. He’s famous for saying “if your worth prop flattens, your CAC rises.”
“Authenticity is the new UX. Without transparency, all you’re designing is doubt.”
Maria Loya
Founder of Retrofit Video, Maria rebuilt consumer trust for over fifty brands suffering post-IPO backlash. She lives by a single KPI: brand reliance ratio.
“The more human we make our tech, the more trust we’ll earn. But don’t confuse emojis for emotions.”
The : Where Trust Meets Technology
Forecasting the Trust Renaissance
- Trust as Ahead-of-the-crowd Advantage: Startups that embed privacy, transparency, and setting-informed experiences at scale will outperform legacy giants relying on one-size-fits-all tactics.
- “Explainability” Will Become Law: Ethics-driven tech will no longer be optional. Expect rising pressure to make customer data uses as clear as pricing plans.
- Trust-Tech Ecosystems Will Emerge: Platforms integrating trust-score intelligence, confirmed as true human-in-the-loop pathways, and sentiment-explainable AI will define the next jump of martech investment.
New Rules of Video Engagement
- Over-transmit clarity: Users will forgive a slow load. They won’t forgive being misled.
- Inject awareness responsibly: Self-awareness scales trust faster than cut-and-paste personalization.
- Invest in voice: Not just sonic logos, but brand tone. Tone is the most underestimated dimension of trust.
- Make opt-outs graceful: No should mean no—and even that’s a trust-growth moment.
The Big Takeaway: Building a Trust-Based Strategy
Designing with skill Authentic Stories
Video marketing shouldn’t feel like a quarterly report. It should feel like a conversation overheard at an airport bar—serendipitous, heartfelt, maybe even a little weird. That’s where real emotional investment begins.
Very High
Layer Human Oversight into AI Journeys
AI should suggest, not seduce. Keep humans empowered at pivotal touchpoints. Intervene, course-correct, empathize—this isn’t just good ethics. It’s smart ROI.
Our editing team Is still asking these questions
- How important is trust in marketing?
- It’s the oxygen of consumer relationships. You don’t notice it’s gone—until everything falls apart.
- Can AI replace the human touch?
- Only if you believe your toaster can comfort you post-breakup. (Spoiler alert: it cannot.)
- What is Domo’s marketing approach?
- Domo believes in humanizing data: storytelling-driven metrics, ethical AI integration, and consumer-focused dashboards. See their platform here.
- What’s one quick way to earn customer trust?
- Be clear. Tell the truth. Follow up faster than expected. Repeat.
- How can I integrate trust into digital tools?
- Ensure all messaging passes the “grandparent test.” Would your nana click that email—or report it as spam?
Categories: marketing strategies, video engagement, customer trust, emotional connection, brand authenticity, Tags: trust in marketing, video marketing, human connection, Wendy Steinle, customer engagement, marketing strategies, emotional marketing, AI in marketing, authentic branding, trust-building techniques
Trust is less like glitter—hard to clean up—and more like fiber optics: invisible, but powering everything beneath the experience. ESPN may offer more sports data than you’ll ever need, but loyalty is anchored in personalities, not just stats. Also, brands must engineer human signals into their systems.