3 ways to make your
brand more human
Before we can delve deeper into the realms of humanising a brand, there’s the big old ‘why’ to address. So…
Why do you need a ‘human’ brand?
A brand is a thing, not a human. Yet we need our brands to connect with real life humans… because, you guessed it, that’s what the customers are.
Here lies the problem.
The brand and the customer are not one and the same, therefore the level of trust takes longer to build. To connect with our audience more effectively, we need to make our brands appear more human. Our brands should embody human traits and characteristics that we can all relate to.
Simply put, brands that present themselves in a more human way, work so much better than those devoid of any personality.
There’s a famous quote by Bob Burg, “people buy from people that they know, like and trust.”
This is great advice, but getting people to know, like and trust a human is much easier than getting them to know, like and trust a brand.
To get the know, like and trust of your chosen audience you might need a few tactics up your sleeve.
Here are a few ways your brand can ooze charisma and charm the pants of your audience.
Building a brand personality
The best way to understand your brand personality is to go back to the beginning. the chances are your brand personality comes a lot from those who created it.
Ask some deep questions about there wheres, hows and whys.
Where did you start? Why did you start? Start thinking about your back story and don’t be afraid to go deep. If you are just starting out, think about what lead you to this moment, what are you hoping to achieve and how will your audeience benefit.
Is there something in your childhood that lead you to this moment, maybe you are a perfume maker who would sell bottles of fermented rose petals to the neighbours in the front garden when you were four? People love detail so the more they can visualise the journey that brought you here, the more likely they are to feel they know you. Talk about the founder/s as humanly as possible. If you bought a ready-made business, maybe talk more about your passions before you came to acquire it.
All of this stuff you are collecting is ensuring the ‘know’ part of the brief is fulfilled. The next step is to work on ‘like’ and ‘trust.’
Now think about your audience, and the types of peronalities you might be dealing with. Perhaps your people are tecchy, steretypically geeky and introverted with a love of star wars – How can you speak in a language they relate to? could you perhaps liken your startup story to a young Luke skywalker on his way to mastering his jedi powers? Just an example, but I think it’d make a fantastic ‘about us’ webpage.
Set your brand tone of voice
Instinctively we are drawn to people who are like us in some way. Whether we are similar in age, career, hobbies, life experiences or values. For this reason, it’s so important to really understand the audience you are engaging with.
When you put out any message make sure it’s written or spoken in a way that your audience understands. This is known as a brand tone of voice. Your language and the overall tone must resonate with them.
Think about your audience, are they the type that would appreciate a little humour? If so, use some in your messaging. Maybe they are technical experts of some sort that want big technical words and detailed diagrams, if so, give it to them.
Learn what your clients want based on who they are and tailor your messaging to a language they understand, and one they might use themselves.
Think a little about pace and tone, this can apply to the spoken and written word. Do your audience like thinks broken down and made easy? If so stick with short snappy headlines, puns or simple 1 liners. If for example you are writing for literary lovers then go for long flowing sentances packed with gloriously adjectives that set a scene.
Build your brand style and character with visual elements.
Colour can create emotional responses, so it’s the perfect tool for building your brand personality.
To give your brand a fun energetic vibe you can use colours that signify energy, such as highly saturated reds, orange and yellows. If you’d like your brand to get your clients thinking of relaxation and peace then go with soft pastels, particularly green.
Think about extras such as icons and illustrations – the style of these will also convey a message and there are many different styles you could adopt. Bold shapes, outline icons or maybe a quirky hand-drawn style? Always make sure this fits with the personality of your audience. The teccy star wars fans might appreciate an icon that looks like its stepped right out of a graphic novel. Use references your audience may be familiar with as inspiration. familiarity is a brilliant trust builder.
As always ensure anything used fits with your overall brand and conveys the right message to your audience. Consistency is always important!
Market your brand with personal touches
Bonus tip:
When we are looking at connecting on a personal level, there are a few other things that make a difference. Using someone’s name for instance. This is easy enough to do in email marketing with a list of subscribers.
There’s a fantastic pet food brand that includes the name of the pet on the packaging box. So it’ll arrive with ‘Rex’s biscuits’ (or something like that) printed on it. It really makes receiving something that extra bit special.
The other thing you can do is to involve a level of interactivity in your marketing, this can be as simple as asking question on social media with things such as polls. You could run competitions where people send in ideas for your next product launch. Or you could go big and do a bit of guerilla marketing and set up something interractive out on the street!
People love to be part of something, it deepens the connection with the brand in a big way.
These are just a few ideas, there are loads of ways you can include your audience more to bring them that bit closer.
What could you do to bridge the gap between brand and human?
Recent Comments