In today’s rapidly evolving marketplace, the concept of brand humanization has emerged as a pivotal strategy for businesses seeking to forge stronger connections with their target audience. When writing additional articles for our blog on topics such as trust and authenticity, the idea of humanization frequently arose. It felt worthwhile to dig deeper and explore why the concept of brand humanization is so prevalent in business.
This article explores the theory behind brand humanization, as well as its advantages for businesses. We also collected valuable insights and examples from 8 seasoned business professionals regarding the importance of brand humanization. Through our expert feedback, we uncover how adopting a more human-centric approach can transform the customer experience and propel brands to new heights.
Understanding Brand Humanization
Brand Humanization Defined
Brand humanization is the process of giving your brand a more human-like personality that consumers can connect with. It involves infusing your brand with relatable qualities, emotions, and values that resonate with your target audience. By doing so, you create a deeper, more meaningful relationship with your customers.
A study published by Sprout Social in 2019 shares the following key findings regarding brand humanization after surveying 1000 individuals:
- When customers feel connected to brands, more than half of consumers (57%) will increase their spending with that brand and 76% will buy from them over a competitor
- 70% of consumers report feeling more connected when a brand’s CEO is active on social. Additionally, 72% of consumers report feeling similarly when employees share information about a brand online.
- 91% of people believe in social’s power to connect people. More specifically, 78% of consumers want brands to use social to help people connect with each other.
These numbers highlight the growing importance of brand humanization in today’s market, specifically though social media channels. But what specific benefits can it offer your business?
The Key Benefits of Humanizing Your Brand
Humanizing your brand can offer a multitude of significant benefits that go beyond just establishing a connection with your audience. By attributing human-like qualities to your brand, you can create a more authentic and relatable image that consumers trust and feel loyal to.
Enhanced customer loyalty, improved brand perception, and increased customer engagement are just a few of the advantages that come with cultivating a human-centric brand identity. These benefits can ultimately lead to stronger customer relationships, higher conversion rates, and sustainable business growth. Below, we will delve deeper into the key benefits of brand humanization and how they can positively impact your business:
- Increased Trust and Loyalty: When your brand feels human, it becomes more relatable and trustworthy. Customers are more likely to trust a brand that shares their values and communicates in a genuine, authentic way. This trust can lead to increased loyalty and long-term customer relationships.
- Improved Customer Engagement: Humanized brands often see higher levels of customer engagement. When your brand has a distinct personality, it becomes easier for customers to connect and interact with you. This engagement can lead to valuable feedback, user-generated content, and a more active brand community.
- Differentiation from Competitors: In a crowded market, humanization can help your brand stand out. By developing a unique personality and voice, you differentiate yourself from competitors and become more memorable in the minds of your target audience.
- Enhanced Emotional Connection: Humans are emotional beings, and we often make decisions based on how we feel. By humanizing your brand, you tap into the emotional side of your audience. This emotional connection can lead to stronger brand affinity and customer advocacy.
Understanding the benefits can help you build a road map for implementing humanization into your brand identity.
Why Brand Humanization Matters for Your Business & Questions to Ask
In today’s digital age, consumers are bombarded with countless marketing messages every day. To cut through the noise and build lasting relationships with your audience, humanizing your brand is essential.
By giving your brand a human touch, you create a more memorable, relatable, and trustworthy image in the minds of your customers. This can lead to increased customer loyalty, improved engagement, and ultimately, better business results.
As a business leader, it’s important to ask yourself:
- Is my brand’s personality authentic and relatable?
- Do our values align with those of our target audience?
- Are we communicating in a genuine, human way?
By addressing these questions and making brand humanization a priority, you can position your business for long-term success in our current competitive landscape. To provide further insight, we reached out to experienced business professionals for their thoughts on why brand humanization is crucial in today’s market.
Real-Life Expert Examples
We spoke with 8 seasoned business professionals from various industries and asked them about the importance of brand humanization, as well as how they implement brand humanization strategies in their businesses.
Their responses highlighted the importance of storytelling and were broken down into two strategies; sharing stories from the employees POV and sharing customer success stories. When implemented together, businesses can create a transparent strategy that builds credibility.
Here are some key takeaways from our conversations:
Humanization through Customer Stories
Sharing customer stories is a powerful strategy for humanizing your brand. By showcasing real-life experiences and testimonials from satisfied customers, you not only build credibility and trust but also create a relatable narrative that resonates deeply with your audience. These authentic stories demonstrate how your products or services have positively impacted lives, adding a human dimension to your brand that goes beyond mere transactions.
Moreover, 87% of consumers read online reviews for local businesses and 72% of customers will share their good experiences with others. Making building and sharing customer success stories imperative for any marketing strategy.
Additionally, customer stories can provide invaluable social proof, highlighting the tangible benefits of your offerings and fostering a sense of community among your clientele.
Our experts dive in below with some real examples:
Showcase People and Values to Build Trust
In my role at Cleartail Marketing, humanizing the brand has been a pivotal component of forging deeper connections with our B2B clients. Humanization in marketing translates to moving beyond transactional relationships and showcasing the people, values, and stories behind the brand. This approach not only makes a brand more relatable but also strengthens trust and loyalty among customers.
One practical example of this strategy in action at Cleartail was when we decided to highlight successful client stories on our blog and social media. Instead of merely presenting the results in terms of analytics or ROI, we delved into the journeys of the businesses we helped transform, focusing on the challenges they faced and how our services provided solutions. These stories were complemented with interviews and testimonials from the clients themselves, adding a personal touch that resonated with our audience. This strategy provided dual value: demonstrating our expertise in a tangible manner while humanizing the brand through relatable success stories.
The effectiveness of our humanization strategy was measured through various metrics, including engagement rates on our posts sharing client stories, direct feedback from clients, and the increase in referral rates. Notably, following the implementation of this strategy, we observed a 25% increase in engagement on our social media platforms and a 20% increase in inquiries that mentioned the stories we shared. These numbers were a testament to the power of connecting on a human level, even in a B2B setting where decisions are often driven by data and ROI. Through humanizing our brand, we not only attracted more clients but also deepened our relationships with existing ones, fostering a loyal community around our services.
Magee Clegg, CEO, Cleartail Marketing
Spotlight Team for Relatable Brand Image
Humanizing a brand, in my experience, revolves around shifting the perception of a business from a faceless entity to one with personality, values, and emotive resonance.
Implementing strategies to humanize That Local Pack involved a focused effort on personalized communication and direct involvement with our community. We didn’t just optimize websites for SEO; we shared the stories behind the businesses we helped grow, emphasizing the local entrepreneurs’ dedication to their crafts. By doing so, we turned each service optimization into a narrative of community empowerment and personal triumph. These stories were shared across our web and social platforms, generating interactions that were not just about transactions but about shared local success.
In evaluating the success of our humanization strategies, we looked beyond traditional metrics like traffic and conversion rates. While we watched these indicators improve—seeing a notable uptick in inquiries and engagement—the real measures of success came through direct feedback and increased community involvement. Clients and local business owners began referencing specific stories we had shared, indicating a deeper connection to our brand. It was this qualitative feedback, along with a 35% increase in client retention and a marked surge in referrals, that underscored the effectiveness of our humanization efforts. We saw how making our brand more relatable and approachable translated into tangible business gains.
Ken Fortney, Founder, That Local Pack
Humanizing a brand is all about making your business approachable and relatable by infusing it with a personality that resonates with your target audience. At OneStop Northwest, we’ve embraced this concept by spotlighting our journey, including the highs and lows of building and evolving our service offerings. This narrative not only shares what we do but also who we are and why we do it, creating a deeper emotional connection with our audience.
One specific strategy we implemented was to feature detailed case studies and testimonials on our website and social media platforms. These not only showcased our capabilities but also highlighted the relationships we’ve built with our clients. For instance, by sharing a story about how we helped a startup navigate their branding challenges, we provided tangible evidence of our expertise while also humanizing our service through real-life success stories. This approach has proven effective, as seen in an increase in engagement and inquiries, with potential clients mentioning how those stories made them feel understood and confident in our ability to help.
To quantify the success of humanizing our brand, we closely monitor metrics such as engagement rates on posts featuring real client stories versus generic content, the increase in referral rates, and feedback gathered through client surveys. For example, after ramping up our efforts to share more personal and client-centric stories, we observed a 20% increase in engagement on our social media and a 15% uptick in direct inquiries mentioning these stories. These metrics serve as a testament to the value of building a brand that people feel connected to and trust.
Dylan Cleppe, Co-Founder and CEO, OneStop Northwest LLC
In the automotive service industry, particularly at Automobilia Auto Salon, humanizing our brand has been a cornerstone of connecting with our customers on a deeper level. We’ve taken a direct approach to this by showcasing the meticulous craftsmanship and personal care that go into each service we provide, from custom wheels and tires to paint protection. By sharing stories and detailed processes behind our services, we’ve managed not just to inform but also to engage our audience on a personal level, showing the passion and dedication our team puts into their work.
For instance, sharing before-and-after images of a vehicle undergoing brake painting or detailing the step-by-step improvements made through ceramic coating services, highlighted with real employee insights, has allowed us to present a relatable narrative. We emphasize not just the technical outcome, but also the labor of love behind each project. This storytelling approach transforms our services from mere transactions to engaging experiences, fostering a sense of community and trust between our brand and our clients.
Evaluating the effectiveness of these humanization strategies, we’ve looked closely at customer engagement metrics and direct feedback. Increases in social media interaction, particularly on posts that feature behind-the-scenes content or highlight our technicians’ expertise, are tangible evidence of our strategy’s success. Moreover, a noticeable uptick in customer inquiries referencing specific services showcased in our stories indicates a stronger brand connection. These metrics, combined with anecdotal feedback praising the personal touch felt in our services, reinforce the importance and impact of humanizing our brand in building lasting customer relationships.
Alex Jones, Owner, Automobilia Auto Salon
Humanization Through Employee Stories
Brand humanization can also be effectively achieved by sharing authentic employee stories that highlight their personal experiences, skills, and contributions to the business. These stories add a layer of relatability and transparency, showcasing the human elements behind the brand. By featuring employees’ unique journeys, their expertise, and their dedication to customer satisfaction, companies can create a compelling narrative that resonates with audiences, fostering trust and deeper emotional connections.
A 2018 study published by Microsoft highlights the importance of customer service, sharing that 95% of consumers say that customer service is essential for brand loyalty, and 60% of consumers report having deserted a brand and switching to a rival company because of poor customer service. By sharing employee stories you are essentially creating an environment in which customer service is highlighted at forefront of your business. Consumers are making judgements on what type of communications come from your business, how you are sharing them, and determining if they can develop a connection with your brand. Making it vital that a customers centric approach is taken.
Let’s check out our expert responses below:
Spotlight Employees to Humanize Your Brand
Consumers often view brands as possessing too much power and influence, making them seem distant and unapproachable. To differentiate yourself and gain trust, you need to craft a brand image that comes across as more accessible, relatable, and approachable. Essentially, you need to humanize your brand to connect with consumers on a personal level.
In our company, we focus on spotlighting our employees because we believe one of the best ways to show that there are real people behind our brand is to highlight these individuals. We share stories of our employees on social media. Every week, we feature employees from various departments, posting their photos along with some personal details about them. Sometimes, we also create behind-the-scenes video segments that show how different departments operate, including interviews with the staff involved.
Amir Elaguizy, CEO, Cratejoy, Inc
Highlight Team Personalities and Stories
In my work at FireRock Marketing, humanizing the brand has been critical in building and sustaining strong relationships with our small- to medium-sized business clients. We’ve found that people don’t just want to engage with faceless corporations; they’re looking for brands that they can connect with on a human level. To this end, we’ve implemented strategies that put our team’s personalities and stories at the forefront of our marketing efforts. Sharing snippets from our daily work life, celebrating team milestones, and discussing our failures as well as our successes have significantly contributed to making our brand more relatable and trustworthy.
A specific example of humanizing our brand involved a campaign where we shared personal success stories of how our marketing solutions directly impacted the businesses we serve. Instead of focusing solely on metrics and analytics, we narrated the journey, highlighting the human decisions, challenges overcome, and the collaborative efforts between our team and our clients. This approach not only showcased our expertise but also built a narrative that clients and potential clients could see themselves in, envisioning how we might assist in their growth stories as well.
To evaluate the success of our humanization strategy, we closely monitored engagement on our social media platforms, email response rates, and direct client feedback. Metrics showed a significant increase in engagement on posts that featured personal stories and behind-the-scenes content, with a 40% increase in interactions compared to more traditional, sales-focused content.
Furthermore, clients often mentioned how these stories made them feel more connected to us, influencing their decision to either initiate or continue their partnership with FireRock Marketing. This feedback has been invaluable, not only in affirming the effectiveness of our approach but also in informing the direction of future marketing efforts, reinforcing the notion that in marketing, genuine human connections can be one of the most powerful tools at our disposal.
Ryan Esco, Chief Marketing Officer, FireRock Marketing
Narrate Founders’ Vision and Customer Journeys
In my experience leading Intrabuild, humanizing our brand has been pivotal in distinguishing us from competitors in the New York City remodeling industry. One memorable strategy involved sharing the personal journey and vision that drove me to found Intrabuild. By intertwining my passion for design and commitment to transformative remodeling solutions with our brand’s narrative, we fostered a deeper connection with our clients. They weren’t just hiring a company; they were collaborating with a team that shares their values and aspirations for creating beautiful, functional living spaces.
We’ve implemented humanization through various channels, prominently through showcasing real-life remodeling projects on our social media and website. These weren’t just before-and-after photos; they were stories of spaces reimagined and brought to life through the collaboration between our team, the clients, and sometimes, their architects. By detailing the challenges overcome and the creative solutions employed, we allowed our audience to see the dedication and personalized service we bring to each project. This approach demystified the remodeling process and highlighted our customer-centric philosophy.
To gauge the success of our humanizing strategies, we closely monitored client feedback and engagement across our digital platforms. Notably, projects featured with a storytelling approach saw a 50% increase in inquiries, and client testimonials often highlighted the trust and rapport built with our team. Furthermore, positive reviews frequently referenced the personal attention and thoughtful guidance provided throughout their remodeling journey. Such qualitative indicators, paired with a noticeable increase in referral business, affirmed the value of humanizing our brand in creating meaningful connections and driving business growth.
Nick Chatzigeorgakis, CEO, Intrabuild
Storytelling Builds Emotional Brand Bonds
Humanizing a brand revolves around creating a personal connection with your audience by showcasing the people, stories, and values behind the brand. My experience at First Pier has taught me the importance of storytelling and being authentic in every aspect of your brand’s online presence. We’ve successfully humanized our brand by spotlighting team members, sharing their interests, the challenges they’ve overcome, and what drives them in their work. This not only makes our brand more relatable but also builds an emotional bond with our audience, fostering loyalty and trust.
For instance, we’ve shared behind-the-scenes content from our projects, highlighting the process and the people involved, rather than just the end result. This approach has enabled us to demonstrate our agency’s personality and how it aligns with our clients’ values and expectations. By doing so, we’ve seen a substantial increase in engagement on our social media platforms, with our audience resonating more with the content that offers a glimpse into our company culture and the individuals that make up our team.
In terms of evaluating the success of our humanization strategy, we closely monitor engagement metrics, client feedback, and referral rates. A significant positive shift in these areas indicates that our efforts to humanize the brand are resonating well with our target audience. Specifically, feedback mentioning our team’s stories or expressing a sense of connection to our brand ethos has been incredibly affirming. Additionally, an increase in referral rates suggests that our humanized approach is not only deepening existing client relationships but also attracting new clients who value authenticity and a personal touch in business interactions.
Steve Pogson, Founder, First Pier
How We At Robert Lowdon Photography Help Clients Build Brand Humanization Through Photography
At Robert Lowdon Photography, we understand that visual storytelling is a powerful tool for brands to create authentic connections with their audience. Our approach to helping clients build brand humanization through photography involves a meticulous process of capturing not just images, but narratives that reflect the heart of the brand and its people. Whether it’s through corporate headshots, behind-the-scenes captures, or showcasing finished products, we focus on conveying the unique stories and values that define each brand.
Collaboration to Align with Brand Identity
We collaborate closely with our clients to understand their vision, culture, and objectives. By doing so, we ensure that the images we create are aligned with their brand identity. This collaboration allows us to highlight the human elements that make each brand stand out, from the passion of its employees to the authenticity of its mission. Real moments, candid interactions, and genuine expressions are all integral to our photographic style, enabling brands to present a relatable and trustworthy image to their audience.
Versatility Across Platforms
Our expertise in photography extends to various digital and print formats, ensuring that the visuals we produce are versatile and impactful across multiple platforms. Whether for social media, marketing campaigns, internal communications, or press releases, our photographs help brands build an emotional connection with their audience. We also offer video production services, allowing brands to bring their stories to life through dynamic and engaging visual content.
Real People, Real Scenarios
Promoting authenticity through our photography involves utilizing real employees and actual work settings in our shoots. By depicting genuine interactions and authentic scenarios, we can capture the true essence of a brand’s culture and operations. This approach not only adds credibility to the visuals but also allows the audience to connect with the brand on a more personal level. Featuring real people in their everyday work environment showcases the dedication and passion of the team, providing a transparent look into the company’s dynamics and values. Consequently, the images resonate more with viewers, creating a trustful and relatable brand image that emphasizes authenticity and transparency in every shot.
Conclusion
In today’s competitive market, building a strong, humanized brand is essential for forging lasting connections with your audience. Through storytelling, consistent engagement, and authentic visual representations, businesses can effectively communicate their values, culture, and mission. Our industry experts demonstrated the power of a humanized approach, showing significant increases in engagement, trust, and client loyalty. Afterall, loyalty is an extremely important factor for any business with 93% of customers more likely to make repeat purchases with companies who offer excellent customer service.
At Robert Lowdon Photography, we are committed to helping our clients achieve this by capturing the real people and genuine moments that define their brands. By doing so, we not only help brands stand out in the crowded marketplace but also foster deeper, more meaningful relationships with their audience. Investing in humanization strategies is not merely a trend but a strategic approach to building a loyal and engaged customer base, paving the way for sustained growth and success. By increasing customer retention rates by just 5%, businesses can increase profits by anywhere between 25% and 95%. Making brand humanization an integral marketing strategy.
If you would like to chat more about how we can capture images that help establish brand credibility, feel free to reach out! We’d love to discuss your project, ideals and goals, as well as how we can help achieve them.
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