Why you should humanise your business
When you are about to start work with, start a new role with or buy from a certain company, which is a web page you always head to? Richard Stone, founder of Stone Junction thinks he knows.
The ‘about us’ section, right? Probably the meet the team page? You want to see who you’ll be working with. Do they look friendly, will you get on with them, do they look trustworthy?
Of course, you can’t really tell all those things from a picture or bio. Nevertheless, it’s human nature; we want to trust the people we work with.
Funnily enough, one of Stone Junction’s top performing pages on Google Analytics is our meet the team page.
Why? Because people respond to people. It’s that simple.
People want to see the why behind your brand and also the people behind it. It allows them to relate to you and eases any anxiety about their decision.
So, what steps can you take to humanise your company?
Showcase your workforce
The simplest thing you can do is to get the faces of your workforce onto your website.
It allows a potential consumer to put a face to your name. If somebody decides to reach out, it makes them feel as if they are speaking to an individual rather than a faceless entity.
It’s impossible to ignore a face. Amazingly, an eye-tracking study of 106 people demonstrated its power. When a face was next to a headline in a piece of content and facing the reader, people’s eyes were immediately drawn to the face before the headline. Whereas, when the face was pointing sideways, looking at the headline, people were drawn to the words first.
Faces increase engagement and stop people from leaving your website and content.
People don't buy what you do, they buy why you do it.
Tell your story
Your business had to start somewhere, right? In the words of business author Simon Sinek, “people don’t buy what you do, they buy why you do it.”
The most reputable companies often have the most memorable stories behind them — stories that are intimately bound to their founders and represent a sense of greater good for what they do.
For example, think of the movies ‘Steve Jobs’ and ‘The Social Network’ — Apple, and Facebook have become valuable brands created by visionaries who aspired to change the world. Ones who had stories interesting enough to make a movie about.
A customer or an audience is much more likely to engage with a vision that it can subscribe to, than if it is ‘just’ a product or service.
Indeed, the largest companies not only thrive financially, but also have a burning desire to change society in a certain way. There is no better way to humanise your brand, as long as you actually believe it yourself!
Having an identifiable company culture
Being approachable is everything. When people take the leap and dive into the unknown, they want to feel like they will be greeted with affability on the other end, whether it’s a prospective client or a potential employee applying for a job.
A strong company culture also works wonder in terms of employee retention. If people feel like they belong to an organisation, they’re more likely to stay at the company for the long-term and will carry a stronger desire to be productive. It also creates a great team chemistry which aids collaboration.
Utilising social media
Companies often fall into the trap of being too corporate on social media. People go on social media to detach and laugh at success kid and grumpy cat memes.
Social media, in particular Instagram, X, Facebook and TikTok are platforms where companies are able to let their hair down and show their human side. Just look at how much engagement a huge brand like McDonald’s, or a well-known football team gets when it posts something funny or has a stab at a competitor. It produces that wow factor because you don’t expect this from such a large brand. You don’t expect a brand to act like a human, even though they achieve the greatest success when they do.
Social media is a platform where you can market your products and services, but it needs to be done in a humanised, funny and understated way.
Humanising sets you apart
In an increasingly competitive business environment, where almost every product or service has competitors, your brand and your story is what sets you apart.
So, don’t be just another generic company, be a company with a vision. And a grumpy cat meme.
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