Today, brands often automate many communication services to save time and money and increase efficiency. There is nothing wrong with using some automation, but when it comes to digital communication and marketing, I’m a great believer that you should be careful how much you automate. Keeping your hand on the pulse can provide insight into what your clients think about your product and service, allowing you to tailor your offering. There is another, more significant reason to be vigilant about your communication and how personal it gets. We all want to be respected and valued as customers. Remember, you don’t do business with a brand or a company but with a person, so today I want to talk about ‘human to human marketing’.
We are all human
As Penny Powers, OBE says ‘business in personal’ – also the title of her book. We are all human, and so we are all seeking a meaningful connection. When we spend time to write an email, we don’t want to hear a generic reply. The reason we see such success and growth of various social media platform is underpinned by the same force. A desire to be associated with others and build a connection. The is why Influencers are winning on social media and brands are playing catch up. Influencers are naturally performing ‘human to human marketing’ and communication style. In my eyes, today, marking and digital communication are slowly merging into one. Forget about B2B or B2C communication. This creates unnatural language and gets you nowhere. This isn’t only my opinion but is also shared by such marketing experts as Bryan Kramer.
What does it mean from a brand perspective to perform Human to human communication?
It means you need to get down to your brand’s values and how do you do business. To achieve success as a brand, you need to be known, but unless you are also liked and followed, you have a slim chance for success. You have to adapt your communication style and stop feeding your customers marketing jargon but speak to them as you would to your friend. Explain, in the same way, how good your products are for them and how you can help them solve their problems. I might sound like a broken record here, but you need to know your customers well and understand their pain points so that you can focus your communication in providing value for them. Human to human marketing and communication means that you have to be brave and share your views and values. Yes, not everyone will like what you said, but it will resonate with some. This is your crowd. Take care of them, and they will build your brand.
Human to Human marketing and communication mean that you don’t automate all your emails and social media messages but have a team which leaves and breathes your brand values and can get personal. It means you can acknowledge your clients’ problems and feedback. That you know how to align with them and then offer the solution. It means you know how to listen to them rather than just shout at them and expect love.
Human to human marketing rather than B2B, B2C – the language
People buy products and services they understand. When you are presenting a pitch to a board, you are not presenting it to a company but humans. CEO’s have emotions too, even if they pretend they don’t. They also get bored and are overloaded with information. Clarity wins. So no matter if it’s a pitch to a board, a message on your e-commerce or a caption on your social media post, you want to talk directly to a person that you can help. Talk to them as if they are sitting across the table from you.
Stop with wordiness. Don’t try to sound smart. Keep your message simple. Overcomplicated language is particularly prominent in business to business communication, but brands in all sectors are guilty of corporate, marketing talk.
I’m going to quote Bryan Kramer here “Communication shouldn’t be complicated. It should just be genuine and simple, with the humility and understanding that we’re all multi-dimensional humans, every one of which has spent time in both the dark and delightful parts of life.”
How can the H2H marketing approach increase customer satisfaction and customer relationship?
It is costly to have a more hands-on and personalized approach to your marketing and digital communication, but in today’s world, it is the only way to see the long-term benefits. When you are sending an auto-generated reply to your social media message or email, do you say to the customer ‘I care’?
As humans, all our relationships are built on trust. The personal ones and the business ones. You can earn trust by shifting your communication from automated marketing jargon to authentic real-time connection. People remember how you make them feel even when they don’t know what you have said. You want them to feel loved and valued, and they will return. Undoubtedly, your communication has to be authentic and integral with your company values. Your actions need to represent those values too. The human brain is designed to look for, so it quickly picks up when things don’t add up.
When you feel valued, you sing prayers.
When you listen to your customers, and you tailor your service or product to their needs, they often love it, because it serves them well and solves their problems. Recall your personal experiences. You buy products and services to solve your problems, from moisturizers to the software. When your life is changed by the product, you sing prayers. You tell your friends. You go back to the same supplier when you need more of it. But, you can only tailor your service and product if you reduce automation and involve humans. In return, you will build an audience that builds your brand.
Go and champion H2H marketing
You probably will encounter some resilience if your company preferred communication style is cold marketing jargon. In those cases, showing a human face as a brand is not allowed. If you want to be a true leader in the field, you will learn the ins and outs of human to human marketing and authentic communication so that you can convince those stubborn around you that occasional venerability can be an excellent thing for a brand. If this article inspired you to make a change and get a little more personal with your clients than I suggest also reading the article’ Focus on the customer’, which will explain to you why it is so essential to build customer relationships.
If you are in a position of power and can make the change, be brave and show your face. Then share your results and let us all learn. Let’s use the internet to what it was intended to do, build a better broader connection globally.
