"More Human Than Human" Humanizing Your Brand Voice

Consumer trust is one of the most important aspects for the success of your business. Your brand voice is one way to secure this. Of course, UGC being the first. Wink, Wink. People respond to real people. Authentic people. This also adds to the personalization that everyone now expects in their customer experiences. So, having a unique voice that resonates with your audience is a way to create transparency but how do you do that? Think of your brand as an entity. A person. Who is this person who represents your business? What is their personality? What do they care about? Make sure that their tone is approachable and engaging that speaks your customer’s language. Here are some more tips on ways to humanize your brand’s voice.

1.     Transparency. Share your story. All of it. The good. The bad. The ugly. People appreciate honesty. This will help them empathize with your brand and its journey when they see there are real people with real stories behind the scenes. 

2.     Gratitude. Celebrate wins and give thanks to the community that devotes their loyalty to you. Gratitude creates abundance in your business and your personal life.

3.     Relationships. The foundation of any partnership, whether it be business or personal, is the prosperous, valuable relationship between two parties. Your customer is a person. With their own story. Focusing on engaging with them and connecting with them on a personal level. This will deepen the bond in an organic and genuine way.

4.     Availability. Be available. There should always be a real person on social media to respond to comments, reviews, questions and messages. Don’t leave people with impersonal bounce back messages. Although, these are ok for the short-term, make sure to reach out in response to them in a timely manner.  

5.     Blog. Keeping a blog on the brand’s website shows that you stay current in your industry. You stay educated in your field and that gives you credibility. Not to mention, it improves your SEO. If written correctly blogs should be conversational that easily invite others to read them. Thus, showing you’re a real person on the other side of the screen and not just some AI machine.

Showing your human side through your brand voice will only increase its success. Being relatable makes stronger connections and it makes you more interesting. Mysterious is out! Relatable and transparent is in! Stand out from the crowd with your brand’s unique, humanized voice to tell its story. Your loyal audience will thank you and so will your employees.

Is Brand Loyalty Immune From Economic Downturns?

The economic climate in the U.S. is changing. We all know it. Even though it hasn’t been dubbed an official recession yet, consumers already have. Let’s be honest, that’s all that matters because their perceptions determine how they purchase. 70% of the American population think that the recession is already here, according to an article in Media Post. However, according to a study done by Brand Keys, 38% of industry categories have reported decreases in loyalty whereas, 44% have seen it grow. Why is this? Does this indicate that brand loyalty may be “recession proof” depending on the field? While we don’t have the answer, it does indicate that consumers will have to adjust their spending, but it may not affect their loyalty to brands that they love. Industries that are tied to economics seem to take more of a hit than others when it comes to loyalty. This depends almost entirely on how the brand’s marketing deals with economic issues during downturns in economy. Loyalty can actually be strengthened during economic downturns since customers will concentrate spending with companies that they trust. Brands who focus on protecting and growing loyalties during these times of unrest can sustain loyalties and revenues. It can be difficult but it’s not impossible. You need to know your core audience and how they’re being affected. What changes will they have to make and how can you appeal to their needs during these tough times? Although, we cannot give you the answers to these questions because they will be very different for each industry and audience group, we can give you a couple of tips that may help your brand keep its loyal customers. That being said, according to Bain & Co., there are three distinct characteristics that can make a brand stand out as a loyalty leader during economic crisis. One, they don’t try to discount too aggressively. It can be hard to keep customers once the downturn is over when prices increase again. Two, they apply practical means to keep their most important audience before others. Keep that core group at the front of your mind when making marketing decisions. Lastly, they identify critical moments that positively impact their customers most. This can be done through a simple “rate your purchase or experience” questionnaire. In the end, we all know it’s easier and cheaper to keep customers than to gain new ones. Customer satisfaction will keep loyalties high while spending is low.

Increasing External Brand Engagement with Sourced Content

Let’s talk about why brand engagement even matters but first, it’s important to know that there are two types of brand engagement: internal and external. Internal is that within the company through engaging with employees. External is engagement with the brand audience and what we will focus on in this article. External customer engagement is all about the emotional connection to the brand itself. This helps drive customer loyalty and word of mouth business. And let’s be real, word of mouth business is the best kind of business. People trust the people they know to steer them in the right direction. Brand engagement will also increase overall customer retention and help a brand improve on their products and/or services through getting feedback from their audience. “Literature found that customer-brand engagement exerts significant effect on organizational performance, particularly growth of sales, reductions of cost, products/services development, customer commitment, satisfaction, and loyalty” (Harrigan et al. 2017; Kumar et al. 2010). In an ever-increasing social media space, CBE (customer brand engagement) has never been easier. There are many types of ways to engage consumers with a brand, such as email newsletters, surveys, polls, contests and, most importantly, in-person customer interactions. However, in the digital space, sourced content is one of the most beneficial ways to increase customer engagement. An in depth, scientific study concluded that UGC has, “functional and emotional values (that) exert positive and significant effects on customers’ brand engagement.” But why? Why does this type of content advertising increase engagement between brands and consumers more than traditional advertising? Well, it’s simple really. People trust people. Not logos. “UGC is created by a fellow consumer for their friends and online followers. This content gives viewers a sneak peek into people’s lives and daily habits, which deepen the audience’s connection to the product.” (Forbes) Younger generations want brands to be aligned with their own personal beliefs and values. With social media channels the way they are now, people can voice their own opinions through likes, comments, shares and even direct messages to a brand on social media platforms. Therefore, since there is a positive correlation with UGC and increased brand engagement, companies should be mixing in this form of user generated content marketing to increase overall productivity.

Building Brand Trust with Sourced Content

Building trust in any relationship is the key most fundamental aspect for success. Having a business that provides quality products and services in today’s society is not enough to keep it afloat for the long haul. Building brand trust is important in keeping your customers satisfied and keep your business thriving. It will provide loyalty to your brand, which in turn will drive new business. It will also create public backing of the brand and increase overall marketing receptiveness in the public eye. Being authentic is the second most influential reason to trust a brand next to pricing (PwC’s 2018 Global Consumer Insights). Other reasons include fulfilling brand promises, the impact it has on society and product/customer experiences. So how does one go about navigating this space in today’s society of social media overload? The answer… Sourced content! A published Journal Study conducted in 2019 found that, “there is a positive relationship between the use of UGC, brand trust and purchase intention.” Organic user generated content is the most relatable form of influence in the world. “Consumers are 3x more likely to say that content created by a consumer is authentic compared to content created by a brand (Stackla). This is where brands can take the opportunity to create an increased connection to their audience through emotional relatability and, in turn, increase brand trust with their consumers. The use of sourced content in advertising is on the rise for this reason as well as many others. In a world where every person with a smart phone can now be a content creator, there is an infinite library of sourced content available daily. I mean, who do you actually know that doesn’t have a smart phone in their pocket right now?!?! For this reason, new content is uploaded perpetually to social platforms. So, let’s recap this. People trust sourced content, otherwise known as user generated content, more than traditional advertising. Real people stimulate real connections. It’s necessary for a business to create trust with their audience in order to remain relevant and successful. Sourced content is also a never-ending tap that keeps on flowing and changing daily. Integrating sourced content into marking strategy therefore, seems like a no brainer to heighten a brands trust with their consumers.