How Overused Sentiment in Digital Marketing Undermines Trust

Scroll through any social media feed or landing page and you’ll find a familiar language: messages steeped in optimism, filled with phrases promising transformation, success, and empowerment. This emotionally charged tone is no accident. Brands have come to rely heavily on positive sentiment as a strategic tool to cut through the noise and engage audiences. But as this trend becomes ubiquitous, it raises a critical question, what happens when positivity becomes performative? When every brand is relentlessly upbeat, does the message lose its meaning?

The Seduction of Positivity

A recent analysis of 223 brands across sectors, spanning education, technology, finance, and lifestyle by Infoprations, reveals a compelling insight: more than 80% of these brands default to a base level of positive sentiment in their digital messaging. While this reflects a well-intentioned effort to appear encouraging and user-friendly, a small but noticeable fraction of brands take it further. Platforms like UNICAF and COROOT, for example, score the highest in sentiment intensity. Their messages are soaked in the language of hope and ambition, “change your future,” “unlock your potential,” “your journey starts here.” While these messages can inspire, they also run the risk of oversaturation, particularly when repeated across the digital ecosystem.

The Risk of Over-Optimism

This overreliance on high positivity isn’t limited to education. In the financial and crypto sectors, it takes on a more precarious tone. Companies like FMCPAY and PariPesa Nigeria project messages that are almost euphoric, talking about financial freedom, winning big, and limitless opportunity. The betting platform Bet9ja and the crypto services of ICRYPEX Global operate in a similar emotional register, using language that frames risk-heavy behaviour as exciting, even liberating. These brands are not just selling a product or service; they’re selling a fantasy. And therein lies the danger.

The problem with this hyper-optimism is that it creates what can be called “sentiment inflation.” When every brand is shouting positive messages into the void, the words start to lose their weight. What once felt motivational starts to feel manipulative. As users begin to notice the disconnect between the language used and the actual experience delivered, skepticism builds. It’s a quiet erosion of trust, one that doesn’t always show up in click-through rates or social shares but reveals itself in dwindling customer loyalty and diminishing credibility.

In industries like finance, education, or wellness, where stakes are personal and outcomes often uncertain, the trust gap can widen quickly. Users lured in by glowing promises may feel disappointed or misled when the experience fails to match the emotional pitch. And as more brands adopt similar tonal strategies, they begin to blend into one another. The emotional sameness makes it harder for consumers to distinguish between genuine value and empty messaging.

Exhibit 1: Majority of brands use a basic level of positive sentiment (score of 1), with fewer brands adopting more intense positivity (scores 3 to 5)

Yet, not all positivity is counterproductive. The real issue isn’t sentiment itself, but the absence of grounding. The brands that manage to strike a balance, Grammarly, LinkedIn, or TGM Education, tend to pair their optimistic tone with specificity and proof. Their messages are still hopeful, but they’re rooted in data, case studies, testimonials, and tangible benefits. Grammarly doesn’t just promise better communication; it shows users how, with measurable improvements. LinkedIn promotes professional growth but supports that vision with stories, connections, and shared experiences. This approach builds what performance marketing alone cannot achieve: emotional equity.

A New Mandate for Marketers

The takeaway for modern marketers is simple but urgent: restraint is no longer a weakness, it’s a competitive edge. The audience has evolved. Consumers today are more media literate, more skeptical, and more attuned to inauthenticity. They crave honesty more than hype. This doesn’t mean abandoning emotion altogether. It means using it judiciously, layering it with transparency, and earning optimism rather than assuming it.

It also means acknowledging that not every user journey is linear or joyful. Sometimes, the most powerful message a brand can send is one that validates struggle or complexity. Not every service will transform lives overnight, and that’s okay. Brands that admit this truth, openly, confidently, can actually deepen their credibility and stand out in a field of exaggerated claims.

As the data reveals, it’s easy to get caught in the loop of high-sentiment messaging. It feels good, tests well, and often yields short-term wins. But over time, when sentiment is divorced from substance, it breeds distrust. If every brand is “life-changing,” consumers begin to ask: what isn’t? In the end, the most persuasive message may not be the most positive, it may simply be the most real.

Infoprations’ Understanding Digital Integrated Marketing Communications Team includes Abdulazeez Sikiru Zikirullah, Moshood Sodiq Opeyemi, and Bello Opeyemi Zakariyha