12 Ways You Can Humanise Your Business

by | Jun 20, 2022 | Business Building Musts, Marketing Strategies, Small Business Help

If you’ve hung around me for any length of time, you will know that I talk A LOT about Human-to-Human marketing – H2H marketing.

Human-to-Human Marketing is, in essence, about showing up as you, attracting the people who align with your values and giving your community/audience someone to get to know, like and trust in order to build your business.

Simple, yes?

Well, I am afraid that many business owners hide behind their products, their services, their logos (I hope that’s not you!) and don’t really give their audience a “person” to get to know.

The businesses that do that, will be finding 2022 even harder to make traction in the busy and overcrowded marketplace we do business in.

Those who start implementing, experimenting and enjoying human to human marketing – well they will be the winners against competitors.

So, as I said, I do a lot of talking about H2H marketing – but what does it mean in reality?  Well, in this blog I’m going to run you through 12 ways to be more human – not just online but offline too – but mostly online, as it is awfully hard to hide from your customers offline if you have a retail space!

So, let’s get into it:

1.Your profile picture – is it you?

If I go to LinkedIn, Facebook, Instagram or wherever – can I see you?  Do I know instantly who I am talking to and/or whose business I am browsing?  If you answered yes, then fabulous! If you answered no, then as soon as you finish reading this blog go and change it.  Seriously!

2.Your Bio

Is your business social media headline or handle your name? If it isn’t, then the first thing you need to do is add it at the very start of your bio. This also means if you have a business page on your LinkedIn. The reason this is important, is that if I as a potential client or customer can’t see your name anywhere in your socials, that makes it so hard to build trust without knowing who you are building trust with! WHY?  You don’t have the marketing budget of Mcdonald’s – so don’t show up like a corporate when you’re you, a small business!

3.Video

One of the best, quickest and most amazing ways of putting more human to human marketing in your marketing is video.  Video is king. It’s not going anywhere, so please start using more video.  Have you noticed your Instagram feed lately? It’s absolutely FULL of video now as the algorithm is pushing it, so go and create more.

4.Community

Stop worrying about how many people follow you on Instagram or like your post or connect with you on LinkedIn – it seriously DOES NOT matter! In 2022, it is ALL about building a community.  A community of people who know, like and trust you, who buy from you, come back to buy again and refer their friends and family to you – became a super fan!  What are you doing to build community with your marketing?

5.Share your knowledge

NEVER underestimate what you know that others would like to know. You are the EXPERT in your field.  You might not feel it, but you are.  People look up to you and want to know what you know.  Sharing your knowledge freely is a huge way of adding more humanness to your branding and marketing.  When you say something and people look at you strangely like “I didn’t know that” – that’s the source for a piece of content!  Again, never underestimate what you know that others would like to know.

6.Invest in photography

Showing up with video is great but so is investing in some professional photographs of you and/or your products/services is really important.  It is an investment – I get that – but at some point, photos from your iPhone need to be in the mix with photos by a professional.  There’s a reason why we aren’t all professional photographers!  There is a difference and in your marketing, it can be the difference between a lead and not a lead – a purchase and not a purchaser because you are standing out from the crowd!

7.Behind the Scenes

People LOVE to see behind the scenes of a business. It’s not all roses and prettiness – share your life (as much as you want to share), share behind the scenes, what a day in your life looks like, how you do what you do, why you do what you do!  Share behind the scenes, but ensure it aligns with your business values, your business brand and don’t share anything you don’t want to. It’s your business, it’s up to you, but you do need to bring the curtain down a little – again, the know like and trust factors!

8.Podcasting

Aha – What a fabulous way of showing up!  It’s certainly very human.  Now I’m not suggesting that you all go out and start your own if you don’t want to (although, if you do want to – then let me know, I’d love to help guide you through it! But there’s a truckload of podcasts out there all looking for guests!  There is a podcast for everything and I am no doubt that there is a podcaster or 10 in your niche who would love to interview you and hear your story, your why and learn more about what you do.

9.Email

Email is a great way to show up as a human! Using stories in your emails – sharing a little about you, your life, your why, your values – whatever, but being more human in your emails and less “email robotic” is fabulous!  Think email segue. A segue is where you tell a story and then segue it in a call to action or a sales message for the reader.  For example, if you’re on my email list, you see this all the time – most weeks in fact.  But one example is me telling you a story about how I liked to play marbles when I was young and how when someone had a better one than me, it created FOMO (fear of missing out) in me and then I segue that story into how you should/could create FOMO in your business to attract more business.  See – email stories and segues – great human marketing!

10.Stories

You can use stories not just in emails! Storytelling in your marketing is a great way to being more human, attracting the people who align with your values, being memorable, create trust and let your community get to know you – stories – are super powerful. How many times in the past few weeks, in your marketing, how you used stories to interact and build know, like and trust?

11.Reach Out

A good old reach out strategy is a great way of being more human! Stop thinking that just because you have Instagram and use hashtags and geotagging that your ideal client or customer will find you – have a reach-out strategy!  What is a reach-out strategy? Basically this is a strategy that you spend time on the platform, commenting, liking, following, basically doing to other people’s content (strategically other peoples) what you would like them to do to yours!  And along the way leaving Hansel and Gretel bread crumbs of your business name around to create curiosity with others who might then come and have a look at your content and you!  It’s like magic!

12.Networking

Want more human-ness in your brand, then take the human (that’s you) and network!  Talk to others, either online or offline, and start conversations, join groups, ask great questions of others and use networking strategically to help grow your business, get customers and get referrals!

So out of the 12 ways to put more human-ness into your brand, into your business, into your marketing – which ones do you do well, not at all or need to improve on?

Let’s recap:

  1. Your profile picture
  2. Your bio and your name in it!
  3. Video
  4. Investing in photography
  5. Community
  6. Sharing your knowledge
  7. Sharing behind the scenes
  8. Podcasting
  9. Email and email segue
  10. Storytelling
  11. Having a reach-out strategy, and
  12. Networking!

Let me know in the comments of this post!

And I would love to continue the conversation about this over in in my Like Minded Business Owners Facebook group – you can join on Facebook if you haven’t already.

Oh and talking about my Like Minded Business Owners Facebook group – I have some amazing guests coming in there to do lives with me this year.  I am super excited by this.  From finance experts to PR and marketing experts (besides me) to Law experts – they are all coming on to give you their time and do some Q&As with the group.

Another amazing reason to come and join that community!

CONTACT JENN:

Do you need some extra assistance with your social media strategy, and some tailored advice around humanising your presence in your business marketing? Then I would love it if you would book a discovery call with me here!

And again, don’t forget to join my Like Minded Business Owners Facebook group. It is a great place to get ideas, seek feedback and generally get some awesome support! The business owners in the group are so great with sharing their expertise with others, it’s such a wonderful community of supportive people!

Or you can DM me on Instagram or send me an email jenn@jenndonovan.com.au

I wish to acknowledge the Traditional Custodians of the land, the Yorta Yorta People, on which I conduct my business today and pay my respects to their Elders past and present. I extend that respect to Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander peoples reading this blog post today.

About the Author:

Jenn Donovan of Social Media & Marketing Australia.  Jenn’s a coach and mentor from rural NSW and is all about empowering business owners to earn what they’re worth so they can make a bigger difference in the world.  The Founder of Buy From a Bush Business, Co-Founder of Spend With Us – Buy From a Bush Business Marketplace and host of the very popular podcast Small Business Made Simple, Jenn is all about community and humans interacting with humans!  H2H Marketing – human to human marketing. Jenn talks the talk but importantly walks the walk! Jenn’s online community is over 320,000 with her famous Facebook Group currently at almost 351,000 members and still growing every day.  She’s the major of her own little online city!

Get in touch – www.socialmediaandmarketing.com.au

On Instagram – @jenndonovan_

On Facebook – Jenn Donovan

Or on LinkedIn as Jenn Donovan

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Brilliant – it’s on its way – thanks!

 

Brilliant – it’s on its way – thanks!

 

Brilliant – it’s on its way – thanks!

 

Brilliant – it’s on its way – thanks!

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