Are you going to be loyal to a brand that you don’t know? Are you going to trust a faceless brand? Companies hire influencers and endorsers because they want to put a face on their brand. They want people to relate to these endorsers. But using celebrities and models to endorse your brand no longer works. Influential marketing made one thing clear: humans trust humans. More than popular personalities, they also want to get to know the brand—who’s behind it.
Putting a face and personality to your brand is crucial for it to be relatable and memorable. Brands that restrict themselves to being faceless and cold succeed only out of necessity. When a more relatable brand arrives in the picture, trust that customers will easily switch to these brands. It is scary to think of what will happen to your business if you don’t learn to humanize it.
Start a Community
Engaging your customers shouldn’t be a one-way street. This is why you should build an online community where your customers are also free to share their questions, comments, suggestions, and experiences. Giving them space to communicate with your brand is empowering. It is a chance for them to get to know your brand and the other customers who share the same interests and experiences.
Strike the Right Balance
Brands shouldn’t be stiff and cold. They need to have a personality, yes. But it is also important to note that striking a balance between personality and professionalism is critical to the company. Your personality should be limited to giving back to the community, traveling, and meeting with friends. When linking your brand’s account to yours, remember that you are still representing the company. Always be appropriate because things live online forever.
Show Character and Stand
Some brands are too safe that they stand for anything. This, however, means that their audiences cannot get to know them. They don’t know what stand they will take in specific issues, and they have no idea what values these brands hold dear to their heart. From time to time, don’t be afraid to add some humor to your posts. At the same time, stand up for something—social and economic injustices are examples. Although some issues make it hard for brands to take a stand, that doesn’t mean you always have to be neutral, especially when rights are at stake.
Have a Unique Voice
What kind of voice do you use when you post? Are you fun? Are you girly? Be consistent with your voice because this adds to your personality. A consistent brand voice will support the image that you want to portray. This triggers a memory in your audience. Once they hear your voice, they will know immediately that it is your brand talking. This has a positive impact on your brand and the relationship your brand has with its audience.
Be True to Your Voice and Your Brand
Your voice and brand have to complement each other. If you are selling girl’s clothes, your tone can’t be dull and formal. Remember that you are marketing your brand to little girls and not to bank executives. However, if you are a microfinance lending company, you can’t very well be posting dog memes. You have to be a bit more formal in your tone, although it’s nice to see companies like these let loose with a nice banking meme from time to time.
Go Behind the Scenes
Posting on social media isn’t enough. Your customers want to learn more about you as an organization. The best way to showcase your personality is by showing behind-the-scenes photos and videos. This is the perfect way to humanize your brand. Your audience will realize you are more than just a product they buy in grocery stores. You are unique; some actual people run and manage the business side of things. On Instagram, for example, use the Story feature to give followers a glimpse into your process.
Have Real Humans Interact with Customers
Companies are now using chatbots to respond to customers online, but do you know it’s still more beneficial for your business to use real humans in interactions like this? A simple “thank you” will send a positive vibe to customers. On top of that, humans can better answer questions and complaints. They can better address the issues that customers usually have with a product or service.
Humans trust humans. That’s something intrinsic to everyone. If you want to bring your brand to another level, you need to invest in humans and not in machines alone. While machine learning makes many processes and operations easier, humans are the ones that bring success to any organization.
