How to Humanize Your Business in the Digital Age

In today’s digital world, it can be extremely difficult to engage your consumers in a deep and meaningful fashion. Captivating your audience members through a computer screen is hard; there is no doubt about that.

This is not, however, an impossible endeavor. So long as you go above and beyond to humanize your business’ brand, there is no reason why you can’t reach, engross, and retain your web-based leads over a sustained period.

Adding a personal touch to your brand is advised for so many different reasons; one of the most important is that it will help your company stand out from the crowd. Once you show your organization’s ‘human side,’ potential consumers will find it much easier to trust in you and the service that you provide. Ultimately, this will help you to position yourself as a leading, reliable, and credible figure within your field. 

Are you ready to humanize your business despite its digital constraints? If so, be sure to heed the advice laid out below.

1. Generate memorable experiences

If you are serious about forging strong and long-lasting connections with your audience members, being remembered should be one of your top priorities.

The longer your clients remember you, the more inclined they will feel to bring you their custom time and time again in the future. This will aid you in your bid to solidify your core audience base, and it will help you to tailor your ongoing branding efforts around your ideal consumer image.

To stand a chance at being remembered in today’s competitive digital environment, you have to generate memorable customer experiences regularly. This can be achieved by:

• Determining a clear customer experience vision that is easy to follow and execute.

• Get to grips with the wants, needs, and specifications of your ideal consumer and how you can best engage them.

• Capturing and utilizing real-time consumer feedback through chatbots and webforms on your site.

• Measuring your ROI every time you successfully deliver a memorable customer experience.

• Optimizing the customer journey by offering a seamless and streamlined service on a clean and easy-to-navigate professional site.

• Going above and beyond to create ‘wow’ moments.

• Devoting your time, effort, money, and resources to engagements that stimulate positive reactions.

• Enhancing your recruitment process to ensure that your workforce has the right attitude towards customer service.

2. Create a strong ‘About Us’ page

When utilized correctly, your online presence can profoundly affect your ability to humanize your brand.

How you portray yourself via the web will either attract today’s digital audience (particularly those that belong to Generation-Z), or it will repel them and, subsequently, push them straight into the clutches of your nearest and biggest rivals.

There are a plethora of things that you can do to increase your online presence, one of the most simple yet effective beings to create a strong ‘About Us’ page. This is one of the most important pages on your company website, simply because this is the first section of your site that many of your leads will head to.

In addition, it is the perfect place in which to portray your company as open, trustworthy, and inclusive, which is why you are advised to optimize it at all costs. For comprehensive advice and guidance on how to create an amazing ‘About Us’ page, click here.

3. Showcase your staff members

Your employees really are your secret weapon when it comes to humanizing your brand. They are the ones out there on the shop floor (virtual or otherwise) interacting with your consumers on a day-to-day basis, which means that they are the ones who your clients will naturally turn to for support.

Showcasing your staff members and revealing just how welcoming, reliable, and trustworthy they are should, then, be one of your top priorities.

Thanks to the rise of social media, this is now a relatively straightforward task to undertake. You can now run what is known as a staff Instagram takeover, a period in which you hand over the reins of your IG account to one of your employees.

During this period, the staff member charged with operating your account will provide a ‘day in the life’ report of what it’s like to work for your company. This will unveil your organization’s true manner, which, amongst many other benefits, will showcase the fact that you have absolutely nothing to hide.

4. Start a company blog

As well as making a conscious effort to showcase your company’s human side via social media, you might also want to consider starting your very blog.

With this type of platform at your disposal, you will have the capacity to convey your company values and vision in a highly engaging, engrossing, and effective fashion. In addition, this will provide your consumers with the means to keep up with the latest happenings within your organization, which in turn will make them feel involved in the day-to-day running of your operation.

To run a blog that actively humanizes your business in the digital age, try:

• Ditching the corporate tone of voice — aim to integrate emotion and personality into your written text instead

• Incorporating stories that your audience members can relate to

• Studying your consumers to come up with content that is sure to resonate with them

• Generating thought-provoking pieces that are written and proofread to an extremely high quality

• Filling your content with organic calls-to-action (CTAs)

• Offering a peek behind your company curtain by uploading real images of your workforce

• Seeking and utilizing user-generated content

• Writing about current trends

5. Be funny

So long as you read the room and don’t say anything inappropriate or offensive, being funny is a great way to humanize your business’ brand.

Laughter actively releases a feel-good endorphin within the brain, making people feel composed and comfortable. Once you put your consumers at ease in this sense, they will be much more likely to buy into whatever it is you are saying and/or selling.

Not a comedian? Fear not, as this doesn’t mean that you can’t inject a little humor into your day-to-day business operations. For advice on how to be funny within the working environment, click here.

6. Be transparent

As well as being funny, you should also aim to be completely transparent to add a human touch to your business. At all conceivable points, it is highly recommended that you act in an honest, trustworthy, and reliable fashion.

Holding yourself accountable is a simple yet effective way to operate in this manner. If you ever make a mistake, don’t attempt to make excuses or, even worse, blame it on someone else. Hold your hands up and claim ownership of the fault.

This will help you to cultivate respect amongst your workforce, your core consumer base, and your peers. Ultimately, this will give people a reason to continuously place their trust in you going forward

7. Get out there and network

Networking is a great way to humanize your brand. Taking on this challenge will provide you with fresh perspectives and ideas, it will aid you in your attempt to spread the word about your latest service range, and it will give you the confidence you need to take your promotional endeavors to the next level.

But, more importantly, it will allow you to get out there and actively converse with potential clients, partners, and investors in an engaging and personal fashion. Ultimately, this will showcase the fact that you are willing to take time out of your day to strengthen your business connections.

If networking has never really been your strong point, fear not as help is very much at hand. Here are eight things that you can do to improve your schmoozing capabilities:

• Request referrals and always remain on the lookout for potential leads

• Leverage the power of social media and optimize your online presence

• Always let the other party speak and actively listen to what they have to say

• Present your business venture  as a success story

• Be courteous and polite (even when the other party is really testing your patience!)

• Ensure that you are equipped with a strong knowledge regarding your industry

• Address the other party by their name

• Most important of all, just be yourself

The rise of digital technology has improved the world of business, that much can never be denied. It has given birth to remote working, it has increased the coherency of communications across continents, and it allows companies to store, safeguard, and access their private data without any fuss or hassle.

For all the good that digital tech has done, however, it can be accused of having had a negative effect on the personal connection shared between company and consumer.

If you don’t want your organization to be blighted by this plight, it is highly recommended that you find a way to humanize your business. When you decide to take on this all-important challenge, be sure to remember all the advice and guidance laid out above.