Humanize Your Brand

Humanize Your Brand – Its Importance in the Present Era

Traditionally, marketing and advertising had primarily been about reaching out to the consumers and convincing them to buy products/services. What we now call outbound marketing. It used to be a one-way communication channel where the company talked and the consumer listened. The messages were created accordingly. But with the introduction of the digital era, things have changed dramatically for all businesses around the world. We are now in the digital age of inbound-marketing.

Reality Check – The Power of Social Media

We’ve all heard about social media platforms and how they help in bringing people together. They share experiences, opinions, news, and other topics of interest, initiating discussions and spreading the word. These platforms have evidently shifted power from businesses to people. It is no longer about what the company says about itself; it is more about what the people are saying about it!

This shift of power has intimidated all business owners. It has in fact, been one of the primary reasons why some of the most promising companies met an untimely doom. Negative remarks tend to make rounds more quickly than positive news. So when a company does something wrong with an employee or a customer, social media gives the victim the power to pull away several other potential revenue-generating customers, inflicting severe consequences for the business.

Humanizing the Brand – What Does It Entail?

One of the basic principles of marketing compels businesses to be where their customers are. And social media network seems to be where everyone is! It makes perfect sense to establish an online presence for your brand on networks that make sense for your vertical reach. This will basically give you the capability to interact with your customers, potential future customers. But a mere presence is not enough; you need to humanize your brand in order to build mutually beneficial relationships with your customers.

Develop a human-centered approach to marketing is an important element in order to connect with the digital buyers today. As you may have noticed it has evolved and will continue to evolve from the days gone by sales-centric approach/product-centric modes and the way you communicate will only give a stronger voice to your companies human-centered relationship.

As a marketer in todays’ technology you can’t go wrong with a human-centered approach. In simple terms, doing research and development into understanding the humanistic skills, attributes, and benefits your users will gain. Buyers today are much more sophisticated and companies can’t just wing it like they used to… a few clicks in Google will give the user all the information they need to make a decision. Ultimately you can’t fool buyers.

You need to make sure the customers can feel the “human” element behind the mechanical infrastructure. This is most effective when a two-way dialogue happens between the company and the customers. It benefits the company greatly by promoting greater customer satisfaction, high engagement and immediate feedback. When used correctly, these elements translate into guaranteed success for your organization.

Human Voice

First and foremost, you need to build powerful content that helps you connect with your customers. They are always looking for information – about their relationship with new trends, news, gadgets, fashions and other time-sensitive practices. Be the provider of this information if it makes sense and you’ll see the benefits of this engagement will open new channels and doors to explore. Create and brainstorm who that human voice is. How are they going to communicate with your users? These are all important questions that need to be addressed when creating your brands signature moving forward.

Aside from the fact you need humans to manage your company’s profile. That form of authority and structure will resonate with not only your employees but will come through your various communication channels. The way you interact helps them connect to your company on a personal level while representing and answering their needs.
Spotted a disgruntled consumer? Jump in the conversation and address the concerns in a timely manner. If left unattended for too long, you might see the butterfly effect working against you.

Ultimately You Must Speak Their Language

The simplest way to target your audience is to survey their niche customers in categories such as age, and communication platform. For example, It is obvious if you’re selling to children versus adults you’re going to vary your style and approach. Same could be said selling to children in Korea versus children in Canada. There may be certain slang words that are popular in the Korean culture that would not make sense in the Canadian demographic. You get the point, do your research and appeal to your audience directly.