Building Authentic Connections: Humanizing Brands in a Digital-First World

What leads consumers to feel a sense of brand loyalty? What makes people drawn to particular brands and companies over competitors? In this digital-first world, filled with parasocial relationships and focus on being “real,” it’s crucial to make sure your brand feels human and your connections are authentic.

Ever heard of personality pictures or been asked to share a weird fact about yourself as an icebreaker? That’s because humans are constantly seeking real, personal connections with others. That inclination toward what’s real is no weaker in professional relationships than personal ones.

No matter what field you’re in, if your customers and clients think you’re professional to the point of being cold and robotic, they’ll likely be discouraged from doing business with you. People want to form human connections and bonds that aren’t strictly business.

Showing your more “human” side in marketing materials can help your customers feel like they know and can trust you. Certain businesses are more formal than others, but no one wants to feel like they’re working with an unfeeling, stiff robot when they should be working with an empathetic, creative human.

Being personable is a huge way to get more clients and customers. If you’re friendly and people like you, they’ll be more likely to want to work with you over others. Working with someone you like is always better than working with someone you can’t stand.

A step past just being personable to get more people interested in working with you is maintaining that personal connection through your marketing materials. If customers feel like they’re working with two different people, one who’s real and one who’s all-business, they’re likely to stop putting as much trust into you and your inconsistent personality.

Bringing out the personality of the people behind your company is a great way to keep up this personable, relatable rapport. People love to see the person behind the brand, making them feel more connected to the company and more likely to be reliable customers or supporters.

With the rise of AI and the increase in overall digital presence, brands need to feel personal to stand out. Working with Lauren Rose Senior Advisors, we needed to determine why a senior living community would choose to work with LRSA over other consulting agencies.

We determined that Morgan, the founder of LRSA, may be the main driving force. Although she has ample experience in her field, we realized that her personality had to shine through in her marketing materials for people to feel connected to her company and brand.

Whenever possible, we add relevant pictures of Morgan with her friends and family to the bi-weekly blog posts we craft for her website. We post these images on LRSA’s social media accounts as well, tagging Morgan, to show the face behind the name and the person behind the company.

We also try to add more bits of personal information that aren’t work-related to blogs, bios, and posts. Emphasizing Morgan’s humanity and showing that she’s a real person just like everyone else helps build ethos with clients.

At reCreative, we definitely put a lot of our personalities into our work, and we hope our marketing materials reflect both the people we are and the principles of our company. We’re not afraid to be a little silly and let people get to know us through our socials.

Being human and real doesn’t mean being unprofessional. There is a balance, but overall, people like to see that you aren’t just a working machine that doesn’t feel things. It’s important to make your business feel inviting and personal to stand out from companies that are scared to show their human side.

Sharing relatable content that’s also relevant to your business will help strengthen your connections with clients and customers, making them more likely to feel a sense of brand loyalty, trust you, and recommend your services to others.