7 Effective Tactics for Humanizing Your Brand and Making it More Relatable (+ Examples)

Getting potential customers to engage with your brand is a complex undertaking. And that's not just because it requires you to develop next-level marketing tactics to attract your audience. More importantly, it necessitates a bulletproof branding strategy that positions your business as a trustworthy and relatable entity your audience can count on.

But why is humanizing your brand so essential for attracting customers?

According to research from Stackla, authenticity is one of the primary branding factors influencing the buying decisions of 88% of people. Moreover, Sprout Social discovered that 70% of consumers feel more connected with brands whose CEOs and employees are present and active on social media. And let's not forget that more than 60% of consumers feel like knowing a brand's values and beliefs makes them feel more trust towards the organization.

So, if you're looking for tactics to help you humanize your brand, make it more relatable, and attract your target audience, here are the best ones.

Don't Neglect Your About Page

Your audience wants to know who your brand (and the people behind it) is. And the easiest way to provide them with this knowledge — while working to humanize your business — is to create an informative About page for your website. 

Your brand's About page can be as pared down or elaborate as you wish. What matters is that it gives your prospects information about your company's history and mission.

For example, if you look at a brand like Serenity, you'll see it has an extensive About page on its website. But what this particular business does differently from anyone else is that it doesn't just tell the founders' story. It also includes an Our Farmers section on its website, where prospects can learn what farm each ingredient comes from, resulting in an uncommonly high level of transparency and a brand image that's human, relatable, and, most importantly, exceptionally trustworthy.

Tell Your Story In Your Own Words

As a step up from the strategy above, you can also explore ways to make your brand's story more relatable and authentic. And one excellent way to do this is to tell your story in your own words.

Creating and continually utilizing your brand's voice throughout your website and on social media is a good step toward achieving the desired result. However, if you want to take things a degree further, you could experiment with formats other than text.

For example, instead of creating a traditional About page, the SellerPlex homepage includes a video of the founder's story and motivations for starting the company. And while this approach may require a slightly more involved production process, the resulting video is a much more authentic way of letting its audience get to know the SellerPlex brand and the people behind it.

Highlight Your Brand's History

Sometimes, the best way to humanize your brand is to give prospects a better idea of when and where your company started its journey.

For example, if you check out the Vivion homepage, you'll see that the company does precisely this. It tells web visitors that it has been "operating with the same passion, dedication & trust, since 1957," which shows that one of the reasons this brand has survived for more than 60 years is the quality of its products.

To make sure the message sticks, try to complement the story of your brand's history with visual evidence. Knowing that visual content significantly outperforms text-only posts (especially on social media), explore ways to communicate your business' history through images or videos.

For instance, if you check out the Le Labo About page, you'll notice it includes a photo of the brand's first New York location. Sure, the storefront may not look like anything that people would expect from an exclusive brand. Nonetheless, the visual illustrates the brand's roots, making its mission of revolutionizing the perfume industry that much more believable.

Make Your Customers a Part of Your Story

Utilizing user-generated content is one of the best ways to market your brand. But did you know it is also one of the best methods to make your business more authentic and relatable?

According to research from Nosto, 60% of consumers feel like UGC is the most authentic type of content. So, to help your audience perceive your business as more relatable, genuine, and user-oriented, find ways to include UGC in your marketing strategies.

There are many ways you can do this. You can go with the least involved choice and commit to reposting tagged photos and videos on your social media accounts. Or, if you have the resources, you can include a dedicated UGC section on your website, as done by FOCL below.

Shine a Spotlight on Your Team (& Their Expertise)

According to last year's Edelman Trust Barometer, there's one thing that drives consumer trust more than anything else: expertise. 

So, if you want to help your audience see your business as an entity, which has their best interest at heart, use every opportunity to emphasize your team's expertise.

There are multiple ways you can do this. For instance, if you look at a brand like One Sec, you'll see that it uses scientific studies to prove its claims.

However, if your primary branding goal includes humanizing your business, consider shining a spotlight on your team and letting them do the talking. Shop Solar is a business that does this marvelously on social media. There it regularly uploads instructional and educational videos about solar systems, which help its audience make better purchasing decisions and underlines the ShopSolar team's experience and expertise, automatically building trust for the brand as well.

Use Live Chat & Make Contacting You Convenient for Prospects

In the era of chatbots and AI, customer service has become much easier to excel at than a decade ago. However, even though these advanced solutions can hugely benefit your audience, they can also make your brand look less human.

Research suggests that, even though consumers appreciate self-help systems like chatbots and knowledge bases, 89% want brands to make it easier to get in touch with human agents.

With this in mind, it becomes clear that one of the best tactics to make your business more human and customer-centric is to use live chat and provide plenty of contact options throughout your website.

For instance, if you check out the brand Trustshoring, you'll see it does precisely this to prove its reliability. The homepage includes an animated live chat button. The primary CTA invites prospects to schedule a call. And the Contact page makes it easier to get in touch via email, phone, and even LinkedIn, with dedicated points of contact for different customer needs.

Be Vocal About Your Values & Mission

Finally, if your branding goals include humanizing your business and making it more relatable, don't forget that consumers want the brands they support to share their values.

In a recent study conducted by McKinsey and NielsenIQ, researchers discovered that products that made ESG claims outperformed products that made no such promises. Moreover, the latest PWC survey found that 80% of consumers are willing to spend a premium on eco-friendly products.

So, if you want to help your audience connect with your organization on a level that makes a genuinely positive impact, be vocal about your values and your brand's mission.

For instance, if you check out the fashion brand AGOLDE, you'll see that it has a dedicated Sustainability page on its website. Here, the business describes why it cares about sustainable denim, introduces audiences to its eco-friendly production process, and points out its material sourcing strategies that differentiate it from other companies, particularly from fast fashion brands contributing to pollution.

Final Thoughts

As you can see, making your brand more relatable doesn't have to be challenging. It can be as easy as saying where your business started and why it does things as it does.

Of course, if you can support your claims with evidence or, better yet, well-made content, you'll add a much-needed element of storytelling to your branding strategy. 

Nonetheless, if your current marketing budget only allows for basic humanizing tactics like creating an About page for your business, don't despair. Start with what you can do, then slowly build up your authentic and humanizing content to ensure your audience sees your business as you intended them to in the first place.