Winning businesses weaponise their humanity

Winning businesses weaponise their humanity

Frank Zappa once said: An algorithm can tell you a story but it can’t tell you the whole story, it just doesn’t have the eyebrows.

Emotion is everything. We lived through the ages of Content, Context, Attention and Authenticity. We now live in the Age of Humanisation.

In this era of digital business (and to disclose I run a marketing strategy agency and operate mostly in digital space) the most powerful marketing weapon your business has is the humanity within it.

We all know and often say things like:

• People are our most important asset;
• People buy from people.

So clearly, we should be saying, believing and acting as if, certainly when it comes to marketing, our people are everything. Our humanity is the key to the future success of our businesses.

Assuming you agree at this point, let’s quickly explore how to make all that wooly theory more profitable than it currently is for your business.

Here are two ways you can humanise your business immediately:

• Uncover the Why
  As Simon Sinek explains, people don’t buy what you do, they buy why you do it. So understanding your why is vital. And understanding your prospects why matters too. Sell to them once and frankly you’ve got lucky. You may not get lucky again. The downward loyalty trend confirms that. However, sign people up to your why because it aligns to them and you will likely have a customer for much longer.

• Be a storyteller
  When you have uncovered why you do what you do and what your prospects why is, start telling the story of your respective why’s. As a guide to a content strategy this is a great core focus point. Why does your company do what it does? Why do your staff choose to work there (and it’s not just because of the money)? Why did you start the business you started (and it’s not just because of the money)? Why do your prospects have the problems they have that you can solve?

What a radical thought. That we need to stop behaving like businesses full of people and rather start acting like a group of people making business happen together.