6 Simple and Effective Ways to Humanize Your Brand and Make It More Relatable

Humanizing your brand is one of the best ways to attract, engage, and convert your target audience. 

According to research, 72% of people feel more connected to businesses whose employees and CEOs have an active social media presence. Apparently, this type of advocacy gives buyers insights into the workings of the brand. More importantly, human presence helps consumers understand that a company is not just another faceless organization. Instead, it’s a business made up of real people.

And if you consider how people assign value to products — they perceive handmade items as more valuable due to being made with intention — it’s clear to see that helping your audience relate to your brand allows you to reach your goals (whatever they may be) more successfully.

So, if you’re looking for simple and effective ways to humanize your brand and make it more relatable, here are the top strategies to help you achieve the desired outcome.

Adjust Your Voice and Use Humor

One of the easiest ways to make your brand more relatable is to say goodbye to the clinically sterile, professional voice many businesses employ when communicating with their target audience.

Yes, branding your business as credible and trustworthy is highly important when trying to convert customers. Nonetheless, removing all traces of a personality from your communications can prevent your audience from forming an attachment to your business, from seeing it as relatable, or even from understanding that you run a customer-oriented operation that puts people before sales.

For this reason, it’s essential that in your communication with customers (be it direct, via content, or social media), you use a voice that’s original, recognizable, and, most importantly, approachable.

Furthermore, don’t shy away from using humor (where appropriate). Some of the most relatable businesses have captured their audience’s attention by exhibiting a healthy dose of self-deprecation — think Dollar Shave Club or Aviation American Gin — using funny content to make buyers fall in love with them.

Showcase Your Team

Another super-effective way to humanize your brand is to celebrate your team.

After all, we already mentioned that consumers feel connected to brands whose employees are active online. And further research shows that people want to support businesses that create authentic experiences driven by human contact. So, being vocal about the people who make your organization what it is is one of the easiest hacks for making your business more relatable.

There are several good ways to showcase your team.

On the one hand, you can (and should) add an About page or section to your website, sharing your background information along with your brand’s mission. This is what Cold Plunge Facts does on its homepage, with a short description of who the business owners are and why they started the website in the first place.

Alternatively, you can take things up a notch with behind-the-scenes content. 

For a great example, check out the Atoms Instagram page. You’ll see that the brand is very vocal about its humble origins, showing how its first lasts were made and how the founders had people come to a basement space to check out samples and discuss collaborations. This approach may not be every organization’s first choice. However, it does an exceptional job of differentiating Atoms from its competitors — particularly from huge brands that release dozens of new products every week without having the slightest clue about who those products are made by and how consumers interact with them in the real world.

Finally, as you endeavor to humanize your brand by spotlighting your team, don’t forget that you can effectively combine this strategy with content marketing and get great results.

In 2022, Edelman discovered that 58% of young consumers find brand technical experts the most credible brand spokespeople. So, by pointing out who your content was written by, like Eachnight did in its Best Adjustable Beds of 2023 blog post, you can drive brand credibility and more. Adopting this tactic can also ensure that your organization is an approachable authority consumers can trust to have their best interest at heart.

Authentic Product and Service Descriptions

One of the biggest mistakes businesses make when trying to convert customers is presenting their products in an ideal light. 

Sure, guaranteeing that your audience understands the value offered by your solutions is crucial for making sales. But if you want your organization to be long-lived, you also need to prioritize converting customers who are a good fit for your business. That way, you’ll be able to deliver a top-notch customer experience, boost customer loyalty, and maximize your customer lifetime value.

With this in mind, you must practice complete authenticity when composing product and service descriptions. And that authenticity should include all aspects of being a human-led brand, including any potential shortcomings. In other words, don’t attempt to present your solution as the only possible answer to a customer pain point. Instead, do your best to point out who will benefit the most.

Furthermore, do your best to employ user-generated content on product pages — especially considering that 60% of consumers see UGC as the most authentic content format.

For instance, check out the BaseLang explainer video. You’ll notice that it’s entirely made from customer-submitted clips. They’re not just describing the value they got from the brand’s service. More importantly, they are also showing the knowledge they acquired thanks to the BaseLang immersion program, along with their personal learning strategies and their struggles.

Finally, don’t hesitate to show your solutions in action. By doing your best to exhibit how your products and services work in the real world, you’ll make it much easier for your target audience to recognize the value they offer and decide if they’re the right fit for their needs.

A business that does this superbly is GetSafe. Knowing that its audience may not have a complete understanding of medical wearables, the brand includes three examples of genuine emergency calls on its Medical Alert Systems product page, ensuring that web visitors fully understand that investing in this solution comes with human-operated support as its most advantageous feature.

Share Your Values and Practice Transparency

If you look at consumer behavior research, you’ll see that buyers want to support businesses that care about the same things they do.

According to Harris Poll, 82% of shoppers want to support brands whose values align with their own. And PWC has found that 80% of people are willing to pay a premium for products that are sustainably and transparently sourced and made.

With this data in mind, one of the best ways to build trust, attract the right audience, communicate worth, and get your prospects to see the human side of your organization is to be vocal about your brand’s values and practice transparency.

You can do this in different ways. 

For example, Amendi is a brand that has a dedicated Traceability page where buyers can trace specific garments and get precise information regarding where and when the materials were sourced, how they were processed, and who made the items.

Some businesses choose to be more proactive in communicating brand values to encourage a connection with their target audience. 

If you check out the Activism page on the Ben & Jerry’s website, you’ll see that the business is vocal about what it stands for. And you’ll witness even more of the same approach if you check out the brand’s Instagram feed. There, Ben & Jerry’s regularly comments on social, economic, and environmental issues the company cares about, using this approach to engage with like-minded individuals and show people that the brand cares about its community instead of seeing customers as a means of making more profits.

Highlight Social Proof

In some cases, the best way to humanize your brand is to rely on what others have said about your business.

As already mentioned, UGC is perceived by consumers as the most authentic content format brands can use. So, knowing this, it’s only logical that you’d find ways to highlight reviews, customer feedback, or media mentions that talk about the genuine (human) impact your solutions have made on customers’ lives.

For example, check out the eTraining homepage. You’ll see that this business humanizes its brand by pointing out the various small yet meaningful ways it has helped customers acquire their required safety certificates.

Or, for a more advanced approach (that works particularly well for B2B organizations), enrich your online presence with case studies that testify to your team’s commitment to helping customers solve their pain points. 

An excellent example of this tactic in action comes from ClickUp, which regularly publishes result-oriented case studies to showcase how it helps customers. What stands out in the company’s approach isn’t just that it shares the exact outcomes it has helped clients achieve. More importantly, the brand is further humanized by the fact that each case study ends with a CTA inviting prospects to get in touch with the business’ sales team to identify ways the ClickUp product could help improve team efficiency.

Engage with Your Followers and Customers

Lastly, as you endeavor to humanize your brand and make it more relatable, don’t forget to engage and communicate with your prospects — both on social media as well as in other online (or offline) spaces.

By encouraging communication, you’ll help your target audience see that your business is run by real humans. Moreover, it will help show that your organization cares about delivering an outstanding customer experience. Plus, engaging with your customers helps keep your business (and products) at the forefront of consumers’ minds, making them more likely to purchase and recommend your solutions.

In addition to the standard practice of replying to social media comments and messages (note that 76% of social media users expect a response in less than 24 hours), find ways to nurture communication on your site as well.

For instance, you can include a live chat option on your website to offer real-time help to consumers browsing your offer. You can add CTAs that invite prospects to get in touch by phone or email. 

Or, you can do something similar to Transparent Labs. This brand includes a Questions section on its product pages — as seen on the Whey Protein Isolate page below — where customers can ask any question and get a very specific answer from one of the brand’s sales reps.

Final Thoughts

As you see, humanizing your brand doesn’t have to be difficult or time-consuming. However, making your business more relatable (and more attractive to your target audience) requires an approach that rests on authenticity.

So, as you work to implement the tactics described above, remember that winning over your target audience with relatability necessitates a preparedness to be transparent, honest, and sometimes even vulnerable. 

Because, at the end of the day, what makes people (and brands) human isn’t their capacity to do everything perfectly. Rather, it’s their power to excel at the things that align with their purpose.