Top Ways To Humanize Your Brand For Better Results

Thanks to the innovative technology of this day and age, the internet is flooded with updated websites, graphics and an overall pleasant surfing experience. But, the question arises- how can we make it better?

The internet has moved on from the wonders of artificial intelligence, and now helpful AI tools present on a website have become a norm instead of an exception. Chatbots have been here for a while, and people seek an even more advanced interactive experience. The answer to the previously asked question then becomes- we can personalize the experience for every individual.

Personalization of the experience is only possible if we connect with our target audience. In fact, the brand can only represent what it stands for. And only a living, thinking being can stand for something truly valuable. So, brands need to be humanized in order to connect well with their customers and website visitors. In this detailed blog post, you’ll get to learn about it. 

Here are a few different ways to humanize your brand for an enhanced UX:

Sneak Peeks Are Important

Access to what goes on behind the closed curtain is as important as what goes on in front of it. In order to earn a customer’s trust, provide short videos or picture galleries of your team and the process on your landing page itself. It gives a dual advantage of showing that you have nothing to hide, and it also helps in getting the customer’s involvement and investment in your brand.

The best example of this is the behind-the-scenes videos shot by so many famous online magazines like Forbes, Time and Maxim.

Tickle Their Funny Bone

If you listen to industry peers and psychologists, then humour is highly recommended even for a highly disciplined corporate environment. Without humour, your offerings might look dull, and it will reflect in your brand’s growth. 

Imagine yourself sitting with a sad person for days, and in another room with a soundproof glass wall, you get to see some people who are cheerful and laughing. For the first few days, you can manage to bear the sad person who has no emotions other than looking sad. Even his talks are dull. Soon, you would start envying people in separate rooms, laughing and cracking jokes and having a good time. You would eventually want to leave the room and share the space with the lively people in the other room.

It’s a fact that nearly everyone is looking for humour. And when a brand infuses it in its social media content, then people feel attracted towards it. For example, HubSpot has crafted some of the best humour-infused content that your brand can learn from.

Conversational & Personalized E-mails

The subscribers to your periodic e-mails usually delete them without reading because of their formal and impersonal tone. In order to keep them interested, you need to customize them, provide something new- be it information or fun facts, and keep the tone of the email conversational by making use of personal pronouns and active voice. The reader should not feel like the email has been automatically generated for a long list of subscribers in which he/she is just a number and don’t really matter. Add animation and graphics to your emails whenever possible.

Create A Mascot For Your Brand

A brand without a human voice doesn’t have a bright future. No matter how great your logo is or how attractive your brand name sounds, it can’t speak for itself. However, if you find a voice that can bring a human touch to the name and when people read it, see it or think it, they do it in the voice of your company.

The best way is to introduce a mascot that would bring attention to the subject. The best example here is McDonald’s Mascot, Ronald the Clown. From toddlers to adults, everyone likes to snap a picture with him, outside a McDonald’s food outlet. The perfect mascot happens when you add details to your brand’s defining character. Moreover, how you want to present your brand also decides the persona of your company’s character. 

Do good research on famous fictional characters, not only of brands, but of anime characters as well and find why kids and adults like them. What makes them stand apart and how they are giving a perfect message about their brand. 

Also, you need to be careful that your outlined character is perfect for your business. Now you can’t have a Ronald for your investment banking consultancy company. The clown Ronald won’t do well, as it’s more related to kids and bringing smiles to their faces while dining at McDonald’s.

Accepting Your Shortcomings is Good

There’s nothing wrong with admitting your mistake. Now you can’t afford to be arrogant and hope your audience will understand. Since there are too many alternatives and many competitors looking to take your place, you can’t really afford to make a mistake.

Every company is run by a body of individuals, and humans are prone to making mistakes; there’s nothing wrong with committing mistakes and then admitting them. It’s perfectly normal.

Imagine you are running an eCommerce portal, and you wrongly uploaded a discount offer for the weekend, saying a 20% flat discount. However, none of the company’s employees caught the mistake and forgot to mention that the discount can be availed only on a minimum amount of $100.

You checked the social media account and saw so many people interested in it, and some of them even ordered but didn’t get a 20% offer, as mentioned. Some commented negatively, while some asked for reasoning from the company’s officials. Realizing that you have made a mistake, it’s better to apologize to your customers/followers. This way, you will do way better because humans make mistakes, and successful companies have a human touch.

Acknowledge and Appreciate

Branding is not a one-way street. The dynamics of successful brands always consist of a dialogue between the business and its customers. Give shout-outs to your partner influencers and top customers. Prepare a unique social media campaign to highlight your achievements by acknowledging the efforts of your team members. This appreciation motivates your team members to work better and also conveys to your customers that you believe in positivity and cheering people on.

User-Generated Content

If a bunch of people are saying nice things about your products and advocating for your brand online, then that’s one of the most wonderful things for your business. That’s what user-generated content is known to do for a brand. It can include customer photos, unboxing videos, and honest reviews. 

By having UGC on your website or social feeds, you will be able to let your customers take the mic. This will showcase that you value your community’s perspective and that your brand is as human as it can get. The best thing about this approach is that it is less about selling and more about sharing. 

Utilizing Social Media

There are many brands that use social media only as a medium to make announcements. So, if you truly want to humanize your brand, you should be quite active in the comments section. For this purpose, you can do the following:-

• Try to reply to even the small comments, as it will truly go a long way. 
• Ask genuine questions, leverage polls, and even open-ended captions to have genuine dialogue. 
• Try to avoid canned and robotic responses. You should use the same language that your customers are using. 

Use the Power of Employee Advocacy

Your team is one of the biggest assets that can play a huge role in humanizing your brand. As a matter of fact, most people naturally trust individuals a lot more than they trust logos. So, you need to encourage your employees to share their professional journeys and their daily wins as well. 

When a particular person in your team shares about a project that they are passionate about, it showcases your company’s expertise through an individual. This employee advocacy will transform the company from a faceless organization into a collection of talented and relatable professionals. 

Conclusion

In a world that is driven by algorithms and automated workflows, the human element has become a necessity. When you show the faces working passionately behind the screens and speak to your audiences like friends, that will build a foundation of trust that no AI will be able to replicate. 

Humanizing your brand isn’t just about a single campaign but about a regular commitment to being a lot more real and reachable. So, start small and be transparent to transform the passive observers into loyal brand advocates. 

The one classic trait of humanity is believing and connecting by sharing experiences and participating in failures as well as successes. Attributing these qualities to your brand will automatically assure your customers of your honesty and trustworthiness. That’s why you should humanize your brand at all costs.