Bring back the humans

💌 Welcome to the Newsletter

Welcome to the 39 new people joining this week! Please feel free to reply to this email and say hello 👋 - replying helps Google realize it’s not spam and helps me learn what topics are important to you!

Reading but not subscribed? Join 381 others here.

Use Twitter? Drop me a DM here

Now let’s crack on with the newsletter 😍

(Estimated read time: 3 minutes)

Human Marketing 💕

Marketing without humans sucks.

Most ads and websites are plastered with corporate branded colors and impersonal images.

But what happens when you scrap the rulebook and get human?

I love researching marketing playbooks. A lot of the time I look at brands I interact with and will happily trade my email address for insights into their email nurturing flow or how they'll retarget me on social media.

One company I've been following is Privy.

After visiting the Privy website I was retargeted on Instagram. The ad I was saw was extremely basic, but awesome.

Why did I like it so much?

Well, normally when I see an instagram ad for a B2B company's eBook it's stale. The same old generic company branded post with a CTA to download an eBook I'll probably never read.

These generic ads stand out in my stories section. It's clearly an ad, my pattern recognition has become razor sharp, like yours. I quickly skip past them I don't want to be interrupted.

🤮

But Privy managed to make their Instagram ad human.

It blended into my feed because it looked and felt like all the other posts I see on my feed. Real people doing real things.

Instead of a branded ad, Privy simply recorded, on an iPhone, someone flicking through a printed out version of their new eBook.

A crappy shot with cheap equipment. It was a real human.

You can watch a screen recording here 😍

I felt more connected to the people behind the brand because I could physically see them. I wasn't just staring at a beautifully designed landing page.

Remember, people connect with people, not companies.

It made me think:

"Good marketing doesn't feel like marketing"

Show real humans on your website

There are many ways you can make your marketing more human, like adding human faces to your website instead of an animations or cartoons.

It doesn't surprise me that both Drift and Privy share the same human approach to marketing since Privy's CMO, David Gerhardt, is Drift's old VP of Marketing too. He's clearly brought the same warm, connected feel over to Privy.

It got me thinking. What other ways can I make my brand more human?

Here's a couple of ideas:

Copywriting that speaks to a single person, not the crowd

Un-staged social proof

Instead of corporate stuffy testimonials that no one reads...

Create a 'Wall of Love' using tools like Testimonial.to. You can pull your Twitter mentions or informal iPhone recording into a social proof page on your website.

Tip: Instead of asking your customer to pre-record a testimonial which sounds scripted, call them on your iPhone and screen record, then ask them five questions. Cut out yourself in post-editing and you'll have a much more natural sounding testimonial.

Un-staged social proof feels more genuine and less scripted. People feel like they're getting advice from their friend in a bar, rather than looking at an over produced marketing asset.

User-Generated-Content works amazingly for ads.

Wrapping it up 🌯

People connect with people. Make your marketing human.

The way you speak, talk, write, and prove your worth should all revolve around a human touch.

Help people relate to your brand by being relatable.

Where can you add more humans in your marketing?