What Makes a Source Credible and Trustworthy?

In a time when trust in traditional advertising is declining, consumers are constantly evaluating the sources from which they get information. With so much fake news and misleading stories, what should people look for in a reliable source?

We’ve found that there are three characteristics that make a source credible and trustworthy. First, they must be knowledgeable on diet and nutrition. Second, they should have interests that are aligned with the consumer—promoting a healthy lifestyle. Finally, this trusted and credible source must be able to provide relevant, actionable advice.

Knowledge and Expertise

Knowledge and expertise are arguably the two most important factors in determining the credibility of a source. Consumers are constantly looking for answers to complicated health & wellness questions—and often these answers vary depending on the person. A quick Google search seeking a solution to nutrition advice can yield “answers” from scores of so-called “experts.” But who are these people? Do they have a nutritional background? Do they know the consumer and their dietary needs? The internet is cluttered with so-called “experts,” making it extremely difficult to understand whose opinions matter, and what advice to act on.

With the media creating this clutter, where can consumers turn for dietary advice? Their hand-picked health professional. Why? This professional has gone through the extensive education required to obtain a degree and are counseling people everyday! The same cannot be said about the blogger or journalist, whose interests are not always in line with consumers’.

Interests That Align With the Consumer

The evolution of internet marketing has led to an enormous number of conflicting voices in the health & wellness conversation. For bloggers and journalists, it is in their interest to promote products or headlines that will attract attention, drive clicks, and increase advertising revenue. Based on their incentive to create traffic, their credibility should immediately be questioned. Are they truly interested in improving consumers’ health, or in gaining clicks?

The main objective of everyday health influencers is exceptionally clear: to help the people they counsel adopt and maintain a healthy lifestyle. These professionals want to share information and findings that are relevant to the people they counsel. Finally, they want to share relevant better-for-you products, because that can lead to change.

Context and Action

How valuable is health advice if it’s not applicable and actionable? Creating relevant and actionable advice is a huge hurdle for online sources. Often times, a problem is highlighted, an argument is made and supported, and the article ends. The reader is left with no actionable advice. Further, that health & wellness monologue might not even apply to them!

Personal healthcare professionals have an advantage that other sources don’t. They have the benefit of a two-way conversation. They can assess the dietary needs, restrictions, or preferences of their patient. These health professionals can then, in turn, make a personal and actionable recommendation.

Personal, everyday, health professionals meet all of these criteria. No other source does. When consumers don’t know where to turn, health professionals can cut through the clutter.

Why Digital Influencers Aren’t Enough

We live in a digital age, rife with social networks, digital publishing platforms, and online communities that tantalize marketers with a seemingly affordable and measurable way to reach large numbers of consumers. It’s no wonder marketers have flocked to digital tactics to support their brands.

But as the value of a digital impression has declined, due to ad blockers, bots, and a lack of consumer engagement, many marketers have altered their digital approach to focus on influencers as opposed to advertising. But are digital influencers like bloggers and social media darlings really an effective and compelling way to market to consumers?

Authors Ed Keller and Brad Fay think not. In The Face-to-Face Book, Keller and Fay conclude that real relationships rule in a digital age, with 90% of recommendations that lead to consumer action occurring offline. While the internet can deliver impressive scale, it is a mile wide and an inch deep, lacking the ability to deliver real engagement and real influence—the kinds of interactions that drive choice at shelf.

While digital remains an effective approach for building brand awareness and generating interest, a default reliance on digital influencers can be a mistake—particularly for healthy brands. According to the most recent IFIC Food & Health Survey, just  13% of consumers trust bloggers for accurate health & nutrition information. Turns out, these digital influencers have neither the trust nor credibility to effectively deliver healthy brand messages  or recommendations.   

Here is why face-to-face influencers deliver the results that digital influencers cannot:

1. Credibility

IFIC found that consumers trust dietitians/nutritionists and their own personal health professional more than other sources, including TV personalities, bloggers, and social media. Will your healthy brand messages be delivered to consumers by someone they trust?  

2. Appropriate Context

McKinsey & Company reports that the setting or context in which a recommendation is made is  crucial to the power of the message. Messages delivered within a tight, trusted network, such as that between a consumer and their health professional, have a greater impact than those circulated through dispersed communities.

3. Face-to-Face

There are 15 billion conversations about brands every week in America. With trust in traditional advertising down, and 90% of recommendations that lead to consumer action happening offline, marketers should focus on earning face-to-face recommendations from trusted influencers to cut through the clutter and maximize impact.

As Keller and Fay found, good marketing starts with conversations, and some conversations are more impactful than others. By all means, healthy brands should build awareness digitally.  But, if marketers want their brand to become part of a consumer’s everyday choices, they must have their messages the information delivered from a trusted source, in the right context, and face-to-face.