7 Ways to Humanize Your Brand

Humans connect to, relate to, and trust other humans.

If someone doesn't trust you, would they be likely to do business with you? Of course not. This is why providing faces and names to demonstrate your brand goes far beyond a money-making machine is immensely critical.  Some businesses excel at tying their brand back to the people behind it, making it relatable and memorable to the audience.

But others restrict themselves to a faceless, cold, and corporate environment where one monotone branded voice is utilized across all channels. Scary…

Take a second to think about your favorite brands. Which ones stand out? For me, Rent the Runway, Charity Water, Wistia, and HubSpot instantly come to mind, and unsurprisingly, these are all brands that have mastered the art of humanization.

Yes, some industries are easier to market; for instance, retailers and charitable foundations might have an easier time humanizing their brand than software or insurance companies, yet companies like HubSpot prove that humanizing a brand that might otherwise seem boring is indeed possible.

Brands are made by humans, so why do we sometimes feel like the marketing messages being delivered are robotic? The different between marketing we listen to and marketing that is easily forgettable is the ability to create a relatable and humanized brand to spark a connection between our audiences.

As marketers, you're trying to gain traffic, generate qualified leads, nurture those leads into customers, retain those customers, and grow revenue, but take yourself out of that money-making mindset for a moment. How do you feel when you browse your company's site? What about on social media channels and email marketing campaigns? Are all the messages you're sending out purely promotional? Did you ever stop to think that your brand could be 50X more successful if you stopped pushing solely sales-heavy content and started marketing as a REAL PERSON?

By now, hopefully, I've convinced you that humanizing your brand is crucial to long-term business growth. Here are seven ways to show your audiences the shining personalities behind your brand.

Recruit some office personalities to use in your marketing efforts. Showing the real people behind the work helps build trust with potential customers and also helps increase the likelihood of a client staying on. Physically seeing that there is a team behind the brand is impactful in itself. Follow these tips to get started.

Use REAL Photos of REAL People Who Work at Your Company

That's right, stock photos won't do the trick. If you're an awful photographer, but don't have the budget to hire one, then recruit someone internally. Chances are there is someone at your company who has at least mastered the art of iPhone photography.

Show off your employees on various parts of your site, like your About Us and Careers pages. Make it clear who writes each piece of content, and include an image of the author. Share albums on your company Facebook page from outings, events, or even just funny moments in the office. Create an Instagram hashtag where you show off day-to-day office moments.

The possibilities to model your fine-looking employees to the public are endless. Hubspot consistently does this well. Even their homepage shows a picture of employees at work. Take a look at their about section below, which shows a quality video of the office space while telling HubSpot's compelling story.

"One of the unique things about HubSpot, are the people behind it and the people behind our company," says co-founder & CEO, Brian Halligan. They've nailed the ability to turn a somewhat boring industry into a relatable and compelling story that attracts a wide audience of non-churning customers.

Source: 7 Ways to Humanize Your Brand