B2B marketers recognize that humanizing their brands — through creativity, humor, insights, and emotional storytelling — is important for building connections with their audience.
No matter what you’re selling, making an emotional connection with your target audience is the foundation for any customer relationship. It’s what gives prospects the confidence to make a purchase, and builds the trust that keeps existing customers coming back.
For B2B companies, particularly those in the tech sector, there’s a tendency to focus more on technical details — products, features, solutions — and less on the emotion behind the problem you’re solving. But the truth is, every brand has a human side, and showcasing it can help you make the kind of meaningful connections that are essential to building lasting customer relationships.
While you should aim to infuse emotion into your brand story on every webpage, your About pages are a great place to start. Let’s look at some of the ways you can highlight the human side of your brand on these pages, and what makes this a strategic marketing move.
Why humanizing your B2B brand matters
Helping prospects understand what sophisticated B2B products and solutions do can be challenging, which is why many companies get hung up on explaining how their products work. While this is important information, it won’t necessarily help you build trust — which is absolutely essential for B2B buyers evaluating complex solutions and making high-stakes decisions. Trust hinges on emotion.
To make an emotional connection with prospects, you also need to talk about your origin story, your mission, and your values — everything that makes up the human side of your brand. Plus, you can put a literal human face on your company by introducing your team members and real-life customers.
One recent survey found that 62% of B2B marketers say storytelling is effective in content marketing. Humanizing your brand helps to set your company apart in a sea of dry, technical jargon.
Smart ways to humanize your B2B brand
So, how can you build authentic and engaging About pages? It’s all about being human. According to a recent Marketing Week article, “B2B marketers recognize that humanizing their brands — through creativity, humor, insights, and emotional storytelling — is important for building connections with their audience.”
- Tell a clear and compelling brand story
- Be transparent about your mission and your values
- Use everyday language and avoid corporate jargon
- Introduce real people — on your team and using your product
Tell your brand story
Every brand has a “why” — your reason for existing. What problem do you solve? What need, event, or realization inspired the company’s creation? What’s the shared vision driving you forward today, what do you hope to achieve in the world?
Telling your brand story in an authentic and compelling way helps to build credibility with your target audience by showing them that you genuinely care about their problems.
Be transparent and build rapport
Another way to humanize your brand is by sharing challenges you’ve faced and lessons you’ve learned throughout your company’s history. Even if you’re a startup, chances are you’ve overcome adversity in some form or another. Sharing how you dealt with it and what insights you picked up as a result reinforces your authenticity and makes your brand more relatable.
Being transparent about your company’s values and culture, the way you think and work, helps to build rapport and establish trust. About pages are also a good place to invite people to connect by linking to your social media accounts and Contact Us pages.
Show your brand personality
When it comes to branding, most B2B companies tend to be more buttoned up than their B2C counterparts. But a little bit of personality goes a long way. By establishing a clear, recognizable brand personality, you can differentiate your company from the competition.
Be sure to use a conversational tone and consider infusing some humor, fun, and energy into your brand voice. Steer clear of impersonal language and salesy jargon. By aligning the tone and personality of your About pages to your brand guidelines, you can reinforce your brand while making personal connections.
Put a human face on it
To really bring out the human side of your brand, introduce real team members and tell their stories, too. Share a variety of experiences and anecdotes and include photos and videos for authenticity.
This is also a good place to showcase success stories, and using the voice of the customer can help to deepen trust. Real people are the key to bridging the gap between being an unknown tech vendor and a trusted partner.
Humanizing your B2B brand helps to create the kind of real connections with prospects and customers that drive long-term growth. Let’s talk about how we can help showcase the human side of your brand on your About pages.
