From Company to Creator: Why Expert-Led Content Will Dominate 2026

There's a shift away from the company as the expert to the people who power the company as the expert. And going into 2026, it's going to be even more important.

People are looking for expert knowledge and insight—unique insight from people who they trust. And I do think this is a shift, because when we look at how we would write blogs in the past, and even how we've been writing blogs the last five, seven years, we want it to be from the company, the big company perspective, the big we, and see the company as that expert.

But there's such a shift away from that now.

Why People Don't Trust Brands Anymore

People are more educated than ever about how search works, and they're skeptical about what they see. That's why alternatives like DuckDuckGo have increased—their entire marketing strategy is "we protect your data, everyone else sells it." That behavioral change is going to persist.

Here's what's actually happening: people won't trust what the company has to say, but they will care what the individual expert has to say. They'll follow that person, and then we can amplify the message through the brand, through particular channels.

Think about it from your own behavior. When you're looking for information, do you trust the corporate blog post with no byline? Or do you trust the article written by someone with a name, a face, a perspective, maybe even a comment section where they're actually engaging with readers?

The cost to produce content is so marginal these days. Anyone could spin up an AI article on whatever they want, even if they know nothing about it. And if you're not educated on that topic, it's hard for you to discern whether it's good or bad.

Community as Credibility

If there's a strong community around that person, or that brand, or that particular piece of content—either on social or on a website with blog comments turned on—that's a big indicator of credibility that that person or brand knows what they're talking about.

People are going to look to that increasingly as that kind of hallmark of what's good content and what isn't good content.

This is why expert opinion and testimonial in marketing is going to be what probably works best going forward. Real people, with real expertise, having real conversations.

How This Changes Content Strategy

Instead of asking "what does our company think about this," we need to ask "who on our team is the actual expert on this, and how do we amplify their voice?"

Instead of the sanitized corporate perspective, we need individual points of view. Instead of "we believe," we need "I've seen in my fifteen years of experience."

This doesn't mean abandoning brand voice entirely. It means recognizing that brand credibility now flows through individual credibility. The people are the brand. The experts are the authority.

And yes, this means getting comfortable on camera. It means writing in first person. It means having a perspective that might occasionally be controversial or at least distinctive.

The Multi-Platform Reality

This also ties into the multi-channel ecosystem we're operating in. You can't just host everything on your website anymore and expect that to be enough. You have to be present where your audience is, in the formats they prefer, with the individuals they trust.

LinkedIn for professional thought leadership. YouTube for deeper educational content. Newsletters for ongoing relationships. Maybe even platforms like Substack where individual experts build their own audiences.

The brand follows the expert, not the other way around.

What This Means for Clients

Not everyone is going to be a good fit for this approach, because not everyone wants to do what it takes. Building personal brand and expert presence requires showing up daily. You can't touch it once a week or twice a week. You have to be on there building that all the time, almost like a little mini business.

We can do some of that for clients, certainly. And there are ways we can get good enough at different industries and understand human behavior enough to help amplify expert voices. But the expert has to be willing to be visible.

The clients who are willing to do that work—to put their people forward, to invest in personal brands alongside corporate brand—those are the ones who are going to win in this new search environment.

True Expert Advice Is Content's Pot of Gold

That's what's going to elevate any piece of content or marketing communication we put out next year. Not polish. Not production value. Not even perfect SEO optimization.

Genuine expertise, from real people, in their own voices.

Everything else is just amplification.

Build Expert Presence That Actually Drives Trust

Corporate content won't cut it anymore. People trust experts, not brands. At Winsome Marketing, we help you amplify the individual voices that make your company credible—building personal brands that drive business results.

Ready to put your experts forward? Let's build a strategy around the people who make your brand trustworthy.