- News
・ October 15, 2026
From Content to Influence – Poll Reveals B2B Content Builds Networks But Rarely Influences Leaders
SINGAPORE, 15 October 2026—Business leaders in Japan and Asia-Pacific are sceptical of B2B content yet most act on it, according to new research from AIM B2B, the Tokyo-headquartered integrated PR and marketing agency. In a survey of 152 leaders, 69% agree that most B2B content communicates but rarely influences. Yet 71% say content has led them to contact or connect with someone and 63% have seen it influence a business preference or decision.
Entitled, From Content to Influence, the report asked whether content and storytelling can create influence in B2B. Its answer: content can, but it rarely does on its own. AIM B2B CEO and co-founder Robert Heldt presents the findings today at the B2B Marketing Leaders Forum in Singapore, in the session “Content, Storytelling, Trust and the Influence Gap.”
Key findings
- Trust, not content, builds relationships. 82% say trust and reliability turn a business connection into a relationship. Useful and relevant content ranks last, at 9%. Some 80% say relationships carry more influence than connections.
- Content earns credibility more often than decisions. Among leaders who think good content has an effect, 71% say it changes how credible an organization seems. Only 12% say it changes what people finally decide or do.
- Quality matters and generic content fails. 51% say high-quality content can significantly influence perceptions or decisions. Among those who think most content fails, 50% blame a lack of distinctiveness, ahead of competition for attention (39%).
- Companies measure leads, not changed minds. Some 64% of organizations judge content by leads. Only 22% judge it by whether it changed perceptions, preferences or decisions. And 25% of C-suite leaders judge content by the relationships it builds, against 6% of marketing leaders.
- Storytelling works when built on substance. About 74% see a link between storytelling and influence, but leaders rank useful insight (48%) and credible expertise (32%) above telling a story (31%).
- Japan is the hardest market to convince. Leaders in regional Asia-Pacific roles were the most likely to call content an important source of influence (43%), against 23% of Japan-focused leaders. Japan-focused respondents were the only group to say content has only limited influence.
“Leaders told us they don’t trust content, then admitted they act on it,” said Robert Heldt, CEO and co-founder of AIM B2B. “That tells me content works, but we keep asking it to do the wrong job and judging it on the wrong number. Content earns credibility. People, proof and trust close the decision. The brands that build influence in Asia will be the ones whose content is distinctive enough to matter, and who check whether it changed anyone’s mind.”
“AI makes the production of content sludge at scale cheap, fast and nasty,” said Dr Greg Story, President of Dale Carnegie Training Japan, who took part in the survey. “Authentic storytelling written from our hard-won experiences will be the one bulwark against this tsunami.”
The report closes with six practical recommendations, including testing every content brief against whether a competitor could publish the same piece, pairing content with proof of business value, and tracking changes in client perception each quarter. The full report is available for download.
Launch webinar
AIM B2B will walk through the findings in a free live webinar on 18 November at 10am JST, with Robert Heldt, CEO and co-founder of AIM B2B; Andreas Moellmann, Chief Experience Officer and Global Strategy Lead, Future Inc., Ltd., and Dr Greg Story, President of Dale Carnegie Training Japan. Register here.
About the research
AIM B2B surveyed 152 business leaders and content decision-makers between 18 July and 10 September 2026. 56% are CEOs, managing directors or other C-suite executives. 49% focus on Japan, 18% hold regional Asia-Pacific roles and 18% global roles. The survey is exploratory: it captures what respondents believe and report, and differences between markets are directional because of smaller sample sizes.
About AIM B2B
AIM B2B is an integrated PR and marketing agency headquartered in Tokyo, with offices in Seoul and Singapore. It helps B2B companies drive influence and grow across Asia through strategic storytelling, creative thinking and data-driven insights. AIM B2B is part of Custom Media.
