When it comes to being more human with your marketing, you need to be more conversational, adapting more to the topics that are relevant to your customers.
It’s right to treat your customers as real people… but many lose sight of the best way to do this: be more human yourselves.
I appreciate this can be a challenge in today’s increasingly automated world.
A solution is to decentralise part of your marketing to team members where they can connect directly with smaller, more trusted communities.
This may raise concerns for some but employees who are empowered, trained and supported go on to be amazing ambassadors for their brands.
Here are 3 examples of how retailers are making stronger human connections with their customers:
#1 Be part of the local community online
The UK Post Office has hundreds of local branches which have historically been at the centre of their local communities. As customers are more active online the Post Office is adapting but rather than relying simply on national social media they training local post masters to become part of their local communities on social and building more personal customer relationships.
#2 Activate your employees on social
John Lewis & Partners wanted to bring the personalised experience of personal styling in store to social media. They empowered employees to promote their expertise and develop a more direct relationship with customers. The end result, a more empowered workforce and a more engaged experience for customers on Instagram.
#3 Bring back people who know what they’re talking about
UK electrical retailer Currys are recapturing the idea that experts are a good thing. They believe when it comes to tech customers want highly trained humans to help them in-store and online, not ‘fake reviews, bot farms and lazy algorithms’.