You don’t want to sound like a robot.  The world of digital marketing makes it hard to combine technology and personality, but it isn’t impossible.  Each technological medium offers a consumer a different experience.  Podcasts give them something to listen to, Instagram give them something to see, television gives them something to watch; the list goes on.  With a few simple steps, you can maintain the human touch while utilizing the benefits that digital platforms have to offer.  Every platform gives you the opportunity to humanize your brand from a different angle.  The six steps discussed in this article can be used across multiple marketing platforms. Put them to use to show your audience that there are real people behind the brand.

Be Engaging

engaging content man and woman looking at computerBefore you even get the opportunity to show who you are and what you represent, you have to convince your viewers, followers, friends, etc. that your brand is worth getting to know.  Begin by offering content that the viewers you are looking to attract would be interested in.

If you are doing podcasts or videos, keep the energy up so they continue watching.  If you are using posts with pictures or articles, use an engaging heading and pictures that catch their attention.  You know your target market.  You know what they are interested in.  Use that to pull them in.

Keep it Casual

Humanizing your digital marketing tactics can be done by keeping things casual.  When using social media platforms, make sure your post sound more conversational as opposed to scripted.  When offering visual content, give your brand a face, offer pictures and videos with real people doing real things.  Add content that may not directly involve sales but would be interesting or entertaining to the viewer.  It is not all about the immediate sale. It is about attracting them to your brand for the long term.  The best way to go about this is through humor. Nothing makes things more casual than a little comic relief.   A great example of this is when the White House tweeted a picture of the Barack Obama’s dog with a reference to the movie Mean Girls.  This shattered the normally professional reputation of the White House and made it more casual.  By making this simple tweet, they reminded people that there are people behind the posts.  In addition to this, they directed a ton of attention towards their account and increased their viewer base.

Focus on building a relationship

Social media allows you to communicate directly with consumers and build a real relationship, not a one-sided one.  Show them that you are interested in improving your brands relationship with each individual.  Start responding to the criticism, answer their questions, let them know you care!

Taking these small steps will allow you to get to know them better and help you adapt your brand in a way that will be more appealing to them.

 

 

 

In the picture above, you can see that Southwest Airlines used social media to not only improve an individual consumer experience but showed others that they are a company that wants to help will respond to personal issues.

Keep it Consistent

The personality you are looking to show should be sending the same message through the images, tone, and values you decided to associate with them.  You don’t want to be sending mixed signals about what you represent.  Sure, you can say your brand believes in honest wholesome values, but you have to show it.  Prove who you are by posting picture of things that represent these values, use a tone in your posts and responses that’s coherent with the message, post articles that reflect these.  Don’t just talk a big talk.

 

Endorse what you believe in

Whether you are endorsing a cause or another brand, know what you are endorsing.  Don’t promote anything that you have not done your research on or do not believe in personally.  You should look into any causes or brands you plan to back publicly before you tell your viewers to do the same.  Provide them with the same facts you would find important if you were the viewer.  It is crucial that the sources you are gathering your facts from are credible.  You want your viewers to trust you.  They only need to be misled once for that trust to be broken.  However, the better the experience they have with each product/ service you recommend, the more likely they will be to look to you for advice on what to get next.  Levi’s devotion to water conservation is a prime example of this technique.  On their website, they state what they have done their part and articles to back up their claims on the importance of this matter.

Levi's water conservation

Be Authentic

Your brand is unique.  Prove it.  Make the content you post original.  You are trying to show your brands personality, not someone else’s.  Most importantly, make it relatable.  No one wants to hear about things that are not relevant to them.  Posting more universal content will help pull in new viewers and introduce them to your brand.  There is nothing wrong with expanding your viewer base!

 

You’ve seen this work! Companies like Taco Bell and Wendy’s are great examples of bringing a brand to life.  These are large well-known corporations that used these steps to tear down the current outlook people had of them.  They are no longer known solely as being successful chain restaurants.

Now, thanks to proper utilization of digital marketing, they are known for their hilarious post. Their accounts have personality.  They respond to customers and create posts that their target market would find humorous in order to get them more engaged.  The posts don’t focus all on promotions and increasing sales.  Instead, the focus is to spread knowledge of the company.  Their target market is so amused by their content they are spreading it to other individuals. The positive word-of-mouth they are acquiring from posts allows them to be a topic of conversations.

Consumers are doing the promoting for them.

Let’s Get Creative.

Interested in creating more effective content? Over the past 20 years, BRAINBOX Intelligent Marketing has helped dozens of brands create meaningful experiences online and in the real world. If you’d like to chat about your brand’s digital marketing tactics, give us a call or drop us a line today.