If You Measure Content Only in Leads, You’re Missing the Value of Trust

This is very much a FOMO you should not ignore …

For startups, SMEs and, quite frankly, any business, it’s understandable to think about the value of content in terms of lead generation.

If you’re spending time or money creating it, you want to know it’s contributing to the business. So, we look at enquiries, website visits, booked calls and opportunities we can connect back to marketing.

All reasonable things to measure. The problem comes when lead generation becomes the main test of whether content has any value at all.

Most people who come across your business today aren’t about to buy from you. Some won’t need what you sell for six months, a year or sometimes longer. Some may never become customers themselves.

They can still be of enormous value to your business.

They may recommend you, return as a previous client, apply for a job, introduce you to someone, invite you to contribute to an event, choose to partner with you or put your name forward when an opportunity comes up.

A lot can happen between somebody seeing your content and somebody becoming a “lead”. Trust plays a much bigger part in that than we sometimes give it credit for.

What happens before somebody is ready to buy?

B2B leads rarely arrive because someone saw a single LinkedIn post and immediately decided they needed your services. Wouldn’t that be lovely!

There is usually a period before that. Someone sees your name, then comes across it again. They start to understand what your business does and what you are about. They might read an article that helps them see how you approach a problem, or a post that gives them a sense of the experience behind the company.

At some point, your business stops being completely unfamiliar.

The B2B Institute’s 95:5 rule is a helpful way to think about this. The principle is that most potential B2B buyers are out of market at any given time, with only a small proportion actively looking to buy. The exact buying cycle varies from market to market, but the important point is that most of the people you want to reach simply aren’t ready today.

If we judge content mainly by the leads it creates now, we risk designing our marketing around the small part of the audience that happens to be in a buying window.

We also miss what is happening with everybody else. They are becoming familiar with the business, understanding what it knows and forming a view about whether it seems credible.

That work is much harder to see in analytics, but it can make a later decision considerably easier.

Trust changes business decisions

Trust can sound like one of those marketing buzzwords that everybody agrees is important, but nobody quite knows what to do with.

Part of the problem is that it’s easier to count an enquiry than a change in perception. Nobody fills in a form to tell you that they now have slightly more confidence in your judgement, or what you do, than they did three months ago.

Yet confidence affects an enormous number of business decisions.

Imagine somebody comparing two businesses offering broadly similar services. They know very little about one. With the other, they have read a few articles, seen one of its leaders explain how they approach the work and come across examples that suggest the company understands them and the problems they are dealing with.

That doesn’t guarantee the second business wins. Price, fit, timing and plenty of other factors will play a part. But one company has given that person far more to base a decision on.

The same applies to outreach. A message from a completely unfamiliar business starts from zero. If the recipient already recognises the name or has encountered some of its thinking before, the conversation begins with a little more context. Which makes cold a little less cold.

Trust matters to referrals too. Recommending someone carries a degree of personal risk because you are putting your own judgement behind that introduction. Knowing how a business works, what its people know and what they stand for can make somebody far more comfortable putting their name forward.

Seen in that context, trust isn’t a vague or fluffy brand benefit that is completely unaligned from commercial activity. Quite the opposite, in fact, as it influences whether people feel confident enough to take the next step.

Customers aren’t the only people making those decisions

A lead-generation view of content also tends to assume that the audience we care about is made up almost entirely of potential customers. Which, in our view, is a big mistake.

Decades in business have shown me that they depend on far more relationships than that.

A potential employee may look at the people leading a company before deciding whether they can imagine working there. Yes, the job description can explain the role, but it’s the way leaders communicate that can reveal something about how the organisation thinks and what matters to it.

Investors and funders have numbers, forecasts and presentations to assess, but they are also forming a view of the experience and credibility of the people behind those numbers.

Partners and suppliers are deciding whether they want their reputation connected with yours. Journalists and event organisers are deciding who has something credible to contribute.

Existing clients are part of the audience too. Content can remind them of the expertise available to them, expose them to parts of the business they haven’t worked with yet, or simply reinforce why they chose you in the first place.

None of those outcomes necessarily creates a neat conversion that can be attributed to a particular post, but they can all create real value.

People need something to judge the business by

This becomes particularly important for startups and SMEs, where there is often little distance between the reputation of the company and the reputation of the people leading it.

A smaller business usually has fewer ways to shine that people can rely on. No TV appearances here. It may not have decades of brand recognition or a huge body of public proof. The thinking and experience of its founders and leaders therefore carries a significant amount of weight.

People want a sense of who they are dealing with. Do they understand their subject? Have they thought properly about the issues their customers face? How do they approach difficult decisions? What have they learned from doing the work? Does what they say seem consistent with what the company claims to value?

If that thinking, experience and point of view are largely invisible, people have less to go on.

This is where leadership visibility becomes valuable, without requiring every founder or CEO to turn themselves into a “personal brand” or spend half their week creating content.

You just need enough visibility for people to understand them.

That might come from an observation drawn from a customer conversation, an explanation of why the company approaches something in a particular way, a lesson learned through experience or a considered view on something changing in the industry.

The source matters. Publishing more often doesn’t automatically create trust.

Customer conversations, leadership thinking, reports, research, lessons from the work and genuine expertise give people something substantial to go on.

Over time, that body of content can tell somebody far more about a business than a polished About page ever could.

Content needs more than one job

None of this makes lead generation unimportant. Businesses need customers, and content should contribute to commercial goals. We are no different in that.

But it does mean we need a broader idea of what that contribution looks like.

Some content can help a potential customer understand the problem you solve. Some can show how you think about it. Some can strengthen confidence among existing clients or give a potential employee a clearer view of the organisation. Some can make the business easier to remember and easier to recommend.

That absolutely changes the question we ask when deciding whether a piece of content has worked.

Rather than expecting everything to produce an enquiry, we can ask what it was meant to achieve and whether it gave the right audience something that helped them understand or trust the business.

The eventual lead may be the part we can see and record in the CRM. What happened before it is often much less visible: repeated encounters, growing familiarity, a recommendation, somebody reading an article before a meeting or a prospect deciding that the people behind the company seem to know what they’re doing.

And sometimes there won’t be a lead at all. There will be a returning client, a strong candidate, an introduction, a partnership or an opportunity you never knew started with somebody reading your content.

If lead generation is the only value we look for, we miss a large part of what good content can do.

The Answer to Rainbow-Washing Isn’t Silence in Pride Month

There was a really interesting observation and subsequent conversation at a recent OutBritain online networking event that also tracked what we have been noticing: that there appears to be less outward support across LinkedIn and other social channels by businesses towards Pride Month this year.

And the questions that kept coming up were:

Do you think it’s because of a worry that businesses will look like they are just doing it as a marketing tick-box exercise?

Or is it that allyship is reducing?

Or simply a fear of “getting it wrong”?

Any one of those is a huge concern, to be honest.

Most people would agree that Pride Month should never be treated as a have-to-do, marketing thing.

But we also don’t want businesses, organisations and allies who genuinely care to hide away because they are worried their support will not be “perfect”.

There’s a big difference between a business using Pride Month as a convenient content moment or performative inclusion and a business trying, carefully and sincerely, to show support.

And there’s also a big difference between choosing not to make a hollow gesture and quietly disappearing from the conversation altogether. That’s the balance businesses are having to navigate.

And it’s not always an easy one.

Pride has become a more sensitive communication moment

Businesses and their leaders are facing a question that is both simple and surprisingly complicated.

Do we say something for Pride Month?

For some, the answer is immediate. Yes, of course. Change the logo. Share the post. Celebrate the team. Support the community. Make the message visible.

For others, there’s hesitation.

Not because they don’t care, or because they don’t support the LGBTQIA+ community.

But because Pride Month has become a more sensitive communication moment than it used to be.

There’s the worry of looking performative, saying the wrong thing, being accused of rainbow-washing, or turning something deeply personal, political and human into a piece of content.

And increasingly, we think there is another worry sitting underneath it all.

The worry of showing support publicly and getting it wrong.

We have a lot of sympathy for businesses here.

Many small businesses, founders, marketing teams and organisations are not trying to exploit Pride Month. They are trying to navigate something that feels important, emotional and public, often without a huge communications team or inclusion strategy behind them.

They may care deeply but not know the right language to use.

They may want to support but feel nervous about what to say.

They may worry that if they say something, someone will ask what else they are doing.

But maybe that question isn’t something to fear.

Maybe it’s the point.

If someone asks what you do beyond Pride Month, that does not have to be a threat. It can be a useful prompt. It can help you look at your business more honestly. It can help you move from message to behaviour.

Because allyship doesn’t require perfection. It requires willingness.

A willingness to listen, learn, be consistent and keep going after the June calendar moment has passed.

That’s where trust then begins. Not in getting every word perfect. But in showing that your support is genuine enough to keep working at it.

Allyship matters

There’s a danger, when we talk about rainbow-washing, that businesses hear only the warning and not the invitation.

Don’t be performative.

Don’t make it tokenistic.

Don’t just post and disappear.

But we also need to say this clearly: allyship still really matters. Visible support still really matters.

For the LGBTQIA+ community, especially those who may not feel safe, seen or fully accepted in every part of their life, a message of support can mean more than some businesses realise.

It says: You are welcome here.

It says: We have thought about this.

It says: You don’t have to leave part of yourself at the door.

Of course, a post can’t do all the work. A rainbow logo cannot create culture on its own. A Pride campaign cannot replace policy, safety, representation or everyday respect.

But visibility still has immense value.

And when businesses quietly withdraw from public support, even with good intentions, that absence can be felt. A lot.

Meaningful support doesn’t have to be huge

One of the reasons businesses get stuck is that sometimes they think Pride support has to look “big”.

A campaign. A launch. A major statement. A full content plan. A polished video. A bold brand moment.

It can be those things. But it really doesn’t have to be.

For many businesses, especially smaller ones, meaningful support might look much more grounded.

You could share why Pride matters to you as a business. You could highlight LGBTQIA+ voices, creators, suppliers, employees or community organisations (with care and their consent, of course!). You might choose to donate to or fundraise for a relevant charity, review your policies, look again at your language, or check whether your hiring processes and employee and client experience are as inclusive as you intend them to be.

It might also mean looking at the process parts of your business. Your website. Your forms. Your onboarding. Your internal communications. The places where people can be included properly or unintentionally excluded.

And sometimes, meaningful support starts with some simple honesty.

“We know we are still learning, but our support is genuine.”

That kind of message, when backed up by action, is often far more credible than a perfect-sounding post that disappears on 1 July.

The better question is what sits behind the logo

Changing your logo for Pride Month is not automatically wrong.

Sharing a supportive post is not automatically performative.

Using rainbow colours is not automatically meaningless.

The problem isn’t the visible gesture itself.

The problem is when the visible gesture is all there is.

So, the better question is not only “Should we change the logo?”

It’s: What sits behind it?

If you post about allyship, can your employees, clients, partners and community recognise that in their experience of you?

If you say everyone is welcome, have you thought about what welcome actually feels like?

That’s where businesses need to spend more time.

Because Pride Month is not only about what you say publicly. It’s about whether the public message matches the private reality.

And if it doesn’t yet match perfectly, that’s not a reason to say nothing.

It means you should be honest about where you are and committed to doing better.

People don’t need businesses to pretend they have everything sorted.

But they do need businesses to mean what they say.

Support has to live beyond June

If Pride Month is the only time a business talks about LGBTQIA+ inclusion, people will notice.

We’re not saying you need to talk about Pride every week or that every business must become an inclusion commentator. And it doesn’t mean forcing identity into every message.

It means inclusion should be visible in the way the business works.

We’re talking about year-round support that feels achievable, practical and real.

From the suppliers you choose to the people you platform.

In how you respond to discrimination and whether your team feels safe raising concerns.

The language you use without making a performance of it.

It also means asking whether LGBTQIA+ people are only represented during Pride Month, or whether they are part of the everyday story of your business, your sector and your community.

And sometimes, it can show up in content too.

Because communication is part of culture. What you say, share and choose to make visible tells people what you value.

The answer to rainbow-washing isn’t silence

Support doesn’t have to come from a place of perfection.

A business can care deeply and still be learning. It can support Pride while improving its policies, language and internal culture. It can ask for help, be honest about where it is, and make that support visible without pretending everything is already sorted.

That’s very different from using Pride Month as a marketing exercise.

A tick-box post says, “We have said the thing.”

Meaningful allyship says, “This matters to us, and we know our actions need to reflect it.”

And people can usually feel the difference.

That’s why silence isn’t always neutral.

There will be businesses that decide not to post about Pride Month, and that’s absolutely their choice. No judgement from us!

Sometimes support is happening internally. Sometimes there are conversations, donations, policy reviews or team moments that are not immediately visible online.

But we should also be careful with the idea that saying nothing is always the safer option.

Watching visible support appear to shrink, especially in a climate where inclusion feels increasingly contested, silence can feel like a message too.

That doesn’t mean businesses should post out of a feeling of obligation or guilt.

But it does mean businesses should think carefully before stepping back from visible support simply because the conversation has become more difficult.

Pride Month shouldn’t become a seasonal costume or a moment where businesses appear for the rainbow and disappear for the reality. Or a place where fear of criticism becomes an excuse for doing nothing.

Support just needs to be honest enough, consistent enough and human enough for people to trust that you mean it.

In June.

And in every other month too.

Your Leaders Are One of Your Strongest Credibility Assets

Many businesses are sitting on one of their strongest sources of credibility without using it properly.

We are not talking about a campaign, a polished company update or a shiny whitepaper. We are talking about their leaders: the people inside the business who hold the values, perspectives, experience and stories that help others understand why the business is worth trusting.

And yet, in many organisations, that thinking stays behind the scenes. It comes out in client meetings, team conversations, strategic decisions, event discussions and the way leaders talk about the business when they are face-to-face with people. Meanwhile, the public-facing content carries on doing the safe, sensible thing.

A company update. The obligatory service post. The “what an amazing…” event post. That carefully worded “we’re delighted to share our latest…”

All useful. All valid. But often missing the thing that brings people into the conversation: a human point of view.

Because people do not only buy into businesses. They buy into the people behind them. The leaders. The thinkers. The decision-makers. The ones with experience, opinions, values and a real sense of where the business is going.

In a world full of noise, where trust is harder to earn, attention is harder to hold and every business is trying to sound credible, your leaders may be one of the strongest credibility assets you already have.

Not because they need to become influencers, post every day or perform online. But because people want to know who is behind the business. They want to understand what your leaders believe, how they think, what they care about and whether there is a real human voice behind the brand.

Visibility is not vanity

This is where the conversation often gets slightly uncomfortable.

Leadership visibility can sound like self-promotion. And for many business owners, founders and senior leaders, that is the bit they really do not want.

They do not want to become the face of everything. They do not want to overshare. They do not want to spend their working week thinking of LinkedIn posts. And they definitely do not want to sound like they have suddenly appointed themselves as a thought leader.

Which is fair. Nobody wants that.

But visibility is not vanity when it helps people understand the business more clearly. It is not vanity when it builds trust, or when it helps prospective clients, employees, partners and referrers see the thinking and the people behind the work.

And it is not vanity when it makes the business feel more human, more credible and more connected to the world it operates in.

That is the distinction. Leadership visibility is not about being seen for the sake of being seen. It is about being understood.

People form an opinion before they ever speak to you

We all do it.

Before we work with someone, buy from them, partner with them, interview them or even reply to them, we look them up. We search their name, scan their LinkedIn profile, read what they have shared and notice whether they sound thoughtful, human and credible, or whether there is not much there at all.

That first impression does not always happen on your website anymore. It happens in search results, LinkedIn posts, event clips, podcast snippets, comments, interviews and all the small public signals that help people form a view.

This is one of the strongest themes in our sister agency Social C-Suite’s report, Your Voice Matters: The Rise of the Social Leader. Leadership today is not only experienced in boardrooms, meetings or formal announcements. It is experienced in public, often before a conversation ever takes place.

The report explores this shift through conversations with senior leaders, looking at how visibility, consistency and a clear social voice are becoming part of how trust is built.

That does not mean every leader needs to be on stage. It means their visibility, or lack of it, is already saying something. And that really does matter.

Because if someone searches for your leadership team and finds silence, outdated profiles or content that says very little, it may not destroy trust. But it does not build it either.

And that is the missed opportunity.

The missed opportunity is credibility left on the table

Of course, a silent leader can still be a brilliant leader. A low-profile founder can still have a brilliant business. A senior team that rarely posts can still be doing excellent work.

But if nobody can see their thinking, hear their perspective or understand what drives them, a huge amount of credibility stays hidden.

That is the real missed opportunity.

Not “we could have got more engagement on LinkedIn.” Not “we should have posted three times this week.” But people could have understood us better. They could have trusted us sooner. They could have felt more confident in our expertise. They could have seen the values behind the work. They could have remembered us when the right conversation came up.

That is what leadership visibility does. It helps trust start earlier.

Company pages can inform. Leaders can create belief.

Company pages matter. They give your business a place to share updates, services, news, events and proof of work. They are important, and they absolutely have a role to play.

But a company page can only do so much on its own.

A company page can say; Here is what we do.

A leader can say; Here is why we believe this matters.

A company page can share a service, but the leader can explain the problem behind it. A company page can celebrate a client win, and the leader can reflect on what the work taught them. A company page can promote an event, while the leader can talk about the conversation that needs to happen in the room.

That is the difference.

Brand content gives people information. Leadership visibility gives people the story. And that is often what builds credibility.

Final thoughts

Your leaders are already one of your strongest credibility assets. The question is whether their thinking is visible enough to build trust.

Because people want to hear from people. They want to understand the humans behind the business. They want to know what you believe, how you think and why they should care.

They do not need to become influencers or be seen everywhere.

They just need to be visible enough to be understood.

Want to make better use of the voices inside your business?

At Colour Me Social, we help businesses turn leadership thinking, stories and expertise into visibility that builds trust, credibility and connection. From strategy and content planning to LinkedIn posts, blogs and leader-led campaigns, we help your leaders show up in a way that feels human, useful and true to them.

Why Your Content Needs More Direction, Not More Volume

Many businesses are not short of content.

But they are often short of clarity.

Yes, posts are going out. Blogs are being written. Emails are being sent. Reels are being tested. LinkedIn updates are being squeezed in between client work, meetings and everything else that needs doing.

But if the content feels a bit scattered, or worse, random, reactive or disconnected from what the business really should be saying, the answer is rarely to produce more.

It is usually to step back and ask a question:

All this content we’re producing. What are we actually trying to do with it?

Because content without direction can quickly become noise. And when everyone is competing for attention, noise is easy to ignore.

And quite frankly, who wants or needs more noise?

The problem with “just posting”

Social media has made content feel like and urgent and almost daily task. Sure, being on consistent is important, but there is always another trend, another platform update, another format people say you “should” be using. Before long, content becomes something you have to keep feeding rather than something that is genuinely working for the business.

That is where many small teams and founder-led businesses get stuck.

They know they need to be “out there”. They know visibility matters. They know silence is not a clever strategy.

But they also know that posting for the sake of it does not build trust, create clarity or make people care.

And that is the bit that really matters.

Good content should not just fill a gap in the calendar. It should help people understand who you are, what you stand for, how you help and why they should listen.

Strategy gives your content a job

A strong content strategy does not need to be complicated.

It simply gives your content purpose.

It helps you decide what needs to be said, who it needs to reach, where it should show up and how it should sound. It connects your business goals with your audience’s real questions, concerns and motivations.

Without that, content can start to feel (let’s go back to the beginning) a bit scattered, random, reactive and disconnected.

One week you are educational. The next you are promotional. Then you disappear. Then you come back with a post that sounds nothing like you because you felt under pressure to say something clever. Or funny. Or… just something.

That lack of consistency is not always obvious from inside the business. But your audience sees it.

They may not think, “This brand lacks a clear content strategy.”

But they don’t connect.

And they won’t remember you.

They certainly won’t feel enough trust to take the next step.

Your audience does not need everything from you

One of the biggest mistakes businesses make is trying to say too much.

They want to explain every service, every offer, every benefit, every detail. But strong content is not about saying everything. It is about saying the right things often enough, clearly enough and humanly enough for people to remember.

Your audience (all your stakeholders by the way, not just people you want to sell too) does not need to know every part of your business straight away.

They need to understand:

  • What problem do you help solve?
  • Why should they trust you?
  • What do you see that they may not have considered?
  • How does it feel to work with you?
  • What do you believe about your space?
  • It’s called building a connection. And it’s where it starts.

Human content still needs structure

There is often a fear that strategy will make content feel all rigid or corporatey.

But the opposite is true when it’s done well.

The right strategy gives you the confidence to sound more like yourself because you are not starting from scratch every time. You know your themes. You know your tone. You know the stories, insights and ideas that matter.

That structure creates freedom.

It means your content can still feel warm, personal and spontaneous without becoming random. It means your brand can have a recognisable voice without sounding over-polished. It means your posts, blogs and campaigns start to feel like they belong together.

And that matters because people build trust through repeating sights and sounds.

Not one perfect post.

Not one viral moment.

Not one beautifully designed carousel that disappears after a week.

Trust comes from showing up consistently with something useful, relevant and recognisably you.

What direction actually looks like

Content direction does not have to mean a huge strategy document.

It can be much simpler and more useful than that.

It might mean defining three or four core content themes that your business wants to be known for.

It might mean turning your founder’s thinking into regular thought-led posts.

It might mean building a monthly rhythm around blogs, LinkedIn posts, email content and repurposed assets.

It might mean deciding what you are not going to talk about, so your content becomes sharper and more focused.

It might mean taking the conversations you are already having with clients and turning them into useful, audience-led content.

The best content strategies are not built around what a business wants to broadcast. They are built around the space between what the business knows and what the audience needs to understand.

That is where useful content lives.

More content is not always the answer

Like we said. There is nothing wrong with being visible. Quite the opposite.

In fact, most businesses need to be more visible than they are.

But visibility only works when there is substance behind it. If your content does not sound like you, reflect your values or connect back to your business goals and stakeholders, more of it will not fix the problem.

It will just make the problem louder.

Before you create another batch of posts, it’s worth asking:

Are we clear on what we want to be known for?

Are we creating content that reflects the conversations we actually want to have?

Does our content sound like us?

Is it helping the right people understand our value?

Are we building trust, or just doing it for the sake of it?

These are not fluffy questions. They are commercial ones.

Because when your content has direction, it gives people a reason to pay attention. It helps your brand feel more consistent. It supports your business objectives. It builds familiarity before someone ever gets in touch.

And, perhaps most importantly, it stops content from feeling like a constant scramble.

Your business doesn’t need to shout louder

It needs to be clearer.

Clearer about what you do. Clearer about who you help. Clearer about what you believe. Clearer about the stories, insights and ideas that make people want to listen.

That is what content and strategy should do together.

Not more noise.

Not more pressure.

Not more content for the sake of content.

Just thoughtful, human content with a clear purpose behind it.

And that is the kind of content people remember.

Need help giving your content more direction? At Colour Me Social, we help businesses turn their ideas, expertise and stories into content that sounds like them and works harder across the channels that matter. And we offer a completely free, no-obligation consultation, too…

Overcoming Content Repurposing Challenges as a Small Business

For small businesses and lean marketing teams, content creation can feel like a never-ending treadmill—write a blog, post on social, create a newsletter… and then do it all over again next week. But what if you could get 5–10x more value from the content you’re already creating? That’s where content repurposing comes in.

Content repurposing means taking one piece of content—say a blog post—and reworking it into multiple formats: social posts, videos, infographics, carousels, podcasts, or newsletters. Instead of starting from scratch every time, you extend the life, reach, and ROI of every idea you produce.

Why It Matters (Especially for Small Teams)

For SMEs, every hour and every resource counts. Repurposing allows you to:

  • Maximise your content investment – one idea can fuel weeks of material
  • Reach new audiences – different formats suit different platforms and people
  • Boost SEO – with more related content, you build stronger topic authority
  • Stay consistent – without burning out or constantly chasing new ideas

Despite these clear benefits, many small businesses still struggle to embed repurposing into their marketing strategy. Below, we unpack the most common hurdles—and how to tackle them head-on.

Challenge 1: “I don’t have time to repurpose content.”

The Reality:

You’re already stretched thin managing day-to-day content. Finding time to revisit and rework past content can also feel impossible.

The Fix:

The secret is to plan to repurpose from the start. When you write a blog, plan the related social posts, video snippets, or LinkedIn carousels upfront. Repurposing doesn’t have to be an extra task—it can be built into your existing workflow.

Time-Saving Tools:

  • Repurpose.io: Automatically transforms videos or podcasts into platform-ready clips.
  • Lately.ai: Uses AI to turn long-form content into dozens of social posts.
  • Canva: Easy drag-and-drop design with templates and resizing.

Pro Tip: Block out a monthly “Repurposing Power Hour” to batch your best-performing content into multiple formats.

Challenge 2: “I’m not sure what content is worth repurposing.”

The Reality:

With so many blog posts, social updates, and newsletters, it’s hard to know what’s actually worth revisiting.

The Fix:

Let your analytics guide you. Look for:

  • Blog posts with the most page views or the longest time on the page
  • Emails with the highest open or click-through rates
  • Social posts that sparked conversation

If it performed well once, chances are it can be reimagined to perform well again, especially in a different format or on a different platform.

Tools That Help:

  • Google Analytics or GA4
  • Social media insights (LinkedIn, Meta, X)
  • BuzzSumo to see top-performing industry content

Pro Tip: Evergreen topics (e.g. “how-to” guides or tips) are goldmines for repurposing—flag them in your content tracker.

Challenge 3: “My team lacks design or video editing skills.”

The Reality:

You might be a wizard with words, but feel stuck when it comes to creating visual or video content.

The Fix:

You don’t need an entire design team or video editor—just the right tools. Platforms like Canva and Descript are built for non-designers and automate much of the creative heavy lifting.

Tools That Simplify:

  • Canva: Pre-made templates, Magic Resize, and drag-and-drop ease.
  • Descript: Edit video and audio by editing the transcript.
  • Pictory: Turn blog content into videos with AI-generated visuals and voiceover.

Pro Tip: Choose one brand template for your carousels, stories, or quote graphics so your visuals stay consistent without extra effort.

Challenge 4: “We’re worried repurposed content will feel repetitive.”

The Reality:

No one wants to sound like a broken record or post the same thing over and over.

The Fix:

Repurposing is about reframing, not recycling. One message can be reshaped through different formats, tones, or contexts:

  • Turn a blog into a carousel
  • Extract a quote into a visual
  • Turn FAQs into video explainers
  • Turn stats into infographics

Audiences consume content differently across channels—most people won’t notice repetition. In fact, repetition reinforces brand messaging.

Ideas to Vary Format:

  • Quote graphics
  • Expert “tip of the day”
  • Behind-the-scenes posts
  • Mini video series from blogs

Pro Tip: Use the 3R framework: Reformat, Reframe, and Resurface your best ideas.

Challenge 5: “We forget to repurpose—we’re always focused on the next campaign.”

The Reality:

Getting caught in the “create-and-forget” cycle is easy, always focused on the next thing.

The Fix:

Make repurposing a core part of your content lifecycle, not an afterthought. Build a content calendar that includes a “repurpose & reshare” phase.

Tools to Systematise:

  • Notion, Airtable, or Trello: Track each content piece and its repurposing status.
  • Use Zapier to connect AI tools and automate moving content from draft to publish.

Simple Workflow:

  1. Create: A blog, video, or podcast
  2. Repurpose: Extract 3–5 new pieces from it
  3. Schedule: Distribute across channels
  4. Revisit: Refresh and reshare quarterly

Final Thoughts

Repurposing content isn’t a nice-to-have—it’s a smart business growth strategy for small businesses. By breaking from a content creation mindset into a content expansion mindset, you gain more exposure, engagement, and time in your day. Don’t let great content die after a single use. Begin repurposing your most valuable concepts into a lasting digital asset—with less stress and more impact.

Humanising Your Brand – Why It Matters

Brand humanisation: Gaining trust and authenticity

Like many of us, we bet you are besieged by all sorts of marketing messaging telling you to “buy now” or “subscribe today,” which begs for just 10 minutes of your time.

However, there is a deeper and more effective means of engaging with your audience and stakeholders than that. By genuinely humanising your brand, you can foster authentic connections that resonate on a personal level, building trust, loyalty and engagement.

In this blog, we explore “the why” and the benefits of humanising your brand and share practical strategies for ensuring you do it right.

Unveiling the Benefits of Humanising Your Brand

Building Trust and Credibility: Trust is the cornerstone of any meaningful relationship, especially in business. When confidence in companies and institutions seems to be dwindling, people are naturally sceptical of faceless entities. Humanising your brand helps bridge this gap by creating a sense of authenticity and reliability. Stakeholders, whether customers, investors or future employees, are more inclined to trust a brand that feels genuine and relatable. In fact, according to a report by Edelman, 81% of consumers state that trust in a brand is a deal-breaker or deciding factor when making purchase decisions. This statistic highlights the pivotal role trust plays in modern consumer behaviour. By humanising your communications, you cultivate trust and, with it, long-term loyalty.

Emotional Connection: It’s true what they say. People connect with people—not faceless corporations. You’ll make emotional connections with your audience when you reveal the human side of your brand, ensuring deep connections are made. Emotional resonance is integral to creating sustainable relationships with consumers. It’s not a “nice-to-have”; it’s necessary for engagement and long-term loyalty. A study conducted by Harvard Business Review found that emotionally connected customers are more than twice as valuable as highly satisfied customers. Tapping into your audience’s emotions by humanising your brand will unlock an incredibly potent driver for business growth.

Creating Standout in a Crowded Place: Competition is fierce, and consumers have countless options, so humanising your brand can be a game-changer. Through the stories of your business’s values and unique personalities, you can show differentiation in the sea of sameness from your competition. When customers can relate to your brand on a personal level, they are more likely to choose you over a competitor. Storytelling is where the rubber meets the road: it’s your unique differentiator. Whether you’re telling the story of your brand’s journey or shining a spotlight on employees’ personal stories, storytelling forges deep connections. According to the author and branding expert Bernadette Jiwa, “Brands that lead with purpose and values attract customers who buy with their hearts.”

Increased Customer Loyalty: Loyal customers are the backbone of any business. Trust and authenticity are central to creating lasting bonds with your customers and clients. By humanising your brand, you can foster a sense of community, ensuring customers feel seen, heard, and appreciated. Humanisation extends beyond external relationships; it also impacts internal culture. According to Gallup, businesses with highly engaged teams experience 21% greater profitability. Being transparent and creating an authentic work environment will increase morale among employees, thereby increasing productivity and customer experiences.

Social Media Interaction: One of the best opportunities to show the human side of your business is through social media. Being personal in whatever content you post elicits great interest among today’s consumers. Sprout Social found that 86% of people say authenticity is critical in determining which brands they like and support. Other favourites—personal stories, behind-the-scenes views, and leadership insights—have the right “container” to be most effective on social media. Such posts are shareable and help build a more personal and emotional connection with your audience.

Practical Tips for Humanising Your Brand

Now that we’ve covered the benefits of humanising your brand let’s dive into actionable tips you can implement:

Showcase Leadership Personalities: Leadership sets the tone for a brand’s personality. Ask your leadership team to share personal stories, insights, and experiences through blog posts, video messages, or social media updates. This type of communication helps humanise your brand, making it more relatable and approachable. A CEO’s voice or a leadership team’s candid perspective allows customers to see the individuals behind the brand’s decisions, fostering greater trust and credibility.

Share Real-life Content: Give your audience a glimpse into your company’s daily workings. Sharing behind-the-scenes content such as team-building activities, product development processes, and employee stories can humanise your brand and strengthen the connection between your company and stakeholders. For example, clothing company Zappos regularly shares behind-the-scenes moments with their employees, further reinforcing their brand’s core values of happiness and customer service.

Encourage Employee Advocacy: Your employees are influential brand ambassadors. This helps add authenticity and empowers your workforce to share their personal experiences on social media. Authenticity comes when employees share their stories about their journey with the company; corporate marketing cannot duplicate that. In fact, LinkedIn found that content shared by employees has 2x higher engagement rates than when shared by the company itself. This highlights the importance of leveraging employee voices to humanise your brand.

Personalised Customer Engagement: Engage with your audience personally. Respond to comments, reviews, and social media interactions in a thoughtful and meaningful way. Tailored responses show that your brand values its customers and listens to their concerns and feedback.

Host Live Interactions: Live videos, webinars, Q&A sessions, and live events create spontaneous, authentic engagement opportunities. These real-time interactions provide a direct line between your company and customers, allowing them to engage with your brand in a meaningful way.

The Takeaway: Humanising your brand is not just a marketing tactic—it’s a critical strategy for creating genuine, lasting connections with your audience and stakeholders that allows you to create an environment of trust, engagement, and loyalty by revealing the people behind your company, sharing authentic stories, and fostering a transparent work culture.

Want to learn how humanising your brand can drive success for your business? Book a totally FREE no, no-obligation chat.

References:

  1. Edelman Trust Barometer, “81% of consumers say trust in a brand is a deal-breaker or a deciding factor in their buying decision.” Source
  2. Harvard Business Review, “Emotionally connected customers are more than twice as valuable as highly satisfied customers.” Source
  3. Gallup, “Highly engaged teams show 21% greater profitability.” Source
  4. Sprout Social, “86% of people say authenticity is a key factor when deciding which brands to support.” Source
  5. LinkedIn, “Content shared by employees has 2x higher engagement rates than when shared by the company.” Source

The Colour Of Marketing, With Roger Jackson, SenseCheck

As part of our monthly content series, The Colour Of Marketing, we spend quality time listening to the thoughts and insights of the people who know what’s what when it comes to the world of SME marketing. In this edition, we talk with Roger Jackson from SenseCheck about the power of getting marketing feedback from outside your bubble.

Hi Roger, thanks for taking time to speak with us. Firstly, how did you get involved in the world of small business/SME marketing

I always had a vague career plan to start a business one day, but that was rather accelerated when I was “fired” from my corporate job. Well, it was called  “by mutual agreement,” but it gave me a buffer of cash to start my first consulting firm. From there, I launched various businesses, notably moving to Australia, before hitting on the Shopper Intelligence idea. I have been working on that system for the last 20 years, selling data to CPG companies and supermarket chains around the world.

What are the unique challenges SMEs face in marketing compared to larger companies?

Big brands have many inherent advantages. Being “well known” is a massive plank of how marketing actually works. Consumers buy the things they already know about to save mental time and effort. B2B buyers buy what others buy to feel safe. The brain itself conspires to stop us from noticing new things. In addition to that, the inevitable lack of resources, small budgets, few experienced people, difficulties in doing good market research, the inability to afford top agencies, and the challenges mount up. The final problem is that most SMEs are a hothouse where a small number of people live in a bubble of passion and belief, so they can be poorly placed to see things as the outside world does – and that harms marketing efforts.

What are some common mistakes SMEs make in their marketing efforts?

Allied to the point about being in your bubble, the main issue is talking too much about themselves and not enough about the customer. Given all the barriers to anyone accepting a new idea, your message has to work incredibly hard to punch in, and the only way in is to connect to your prospect’s world quickly and compellingly. The temptation is to imagine that your customers will automatically read your material and get interested in the marvellous things you are doing. They won’t. They don’t yet have any reason to. In B2B, SMEs are often also fearful of getting it wrong and being seen as flaky. Thus, their marketing ends up being horribly dull, which doubles down on a prospect’s lack of interest in reading about you!

How can limited budgets impact the marketing decisions of SMEs, and what strategies can help maximise results?

Low budgets mean SMEs can’t do marketing as the big guys do, ie long-term brand building using multiple media tools. Instead, an SME has to be like a sniper compared to a shotgun. A few things done well, precisely targeted to exactly the right people (at the right time). Good salespeople always knew to do that, to put effort where the best results were likely, and this applies to all other elements of marketing. Indeed, many in B2B are better off with a good salesperson and no marketing in the short term (it’s how we started). This is about defining a very tight target market and knowing as much as you can about them so you can get to them with efficiency and spot-on messaging.

In today’s online world, I think the secret sauce for small businesses is around content – producing genuinely helpful material that prospects love (and the Google algorithm appreciates). Answer their questions and share your expertise to help them (before you sell to them!) Second the ability to take creative risks and so brave things that stand out, buying more bang for your buck. The huge risk is that none of your marketing is noticed, so your money is wasted.

How can an external perspective help identify blind spots in an SME’s marketing approach?

The crucial thing is to be aware that you are in a bad position to judge any marketing work. If you are interested in creating the material, then you already know what you are actually saying. And guess what, you see that in it. You can’t help it. The only way to assess if your marketing is saying what you hope is to ask a third party. I lose count of how many ads I see on LinkedIn that don’t even say what their product is. That’s blindingly obvious to the advertiser, so they don’t notice its absence. You need a feedback tool. Market research may be available, but that can be tricky. We assert that any length of arms and independent and objective eyes can help. And by the way, this isn’t the same as showing it around the office (they are in the same bubble) or asking your friends (your mum). Most will just want to be nice to you.

What are the benefits of having an external expert review an SME’s marketing idea or strategy?

An external perspective will spot gaps (things you missed) and tell you if your material “works” well. That helps you refine it to get it to work better. But the reviewers might also ask questions and point out things that really make you think about your strategy. Just one suggestion could really shift the dial.

What should SMEs look for when selecting an expert to provide a second opinion on their marketing strategy?

You must find someone who will be truly objective and honest. That’s not easy. Agencies and paid consultants will want to maintain the relationship and retain you as a client. You must be sure that they place the truth over self-interest. Once someone has been involved with you for a while, of course, they “go native” too and hop into the same bubble as you. You really need to find fresh eyes on a regular basis.

How does SenseCheck work?

We have a huge panel of time-served marketers who are willing to look at any piece of marketing and give their thoughts. It’s like a confidential “phone a friend” for small business marketers. They have been there and got the T-shirt, and they will take a quick look and give you their immediate gut feel response. In effect, it acts as a proxy for your prospects when they see the same material. You get five independent points of view compiled into a simple report. Then, it’s up to you what feedback to act on. They aren’t there to make life hard or to slate you – it’s always helpful and constructive. The goal is to make you a hero.

How do you see the landscape of SME marketing evolving in the next few years?

AI will help us all generate more stuff at a lower cost. Maybe even better stuff. But by definition, more stuff in the world will make the competitive challenge even harder.

What role will companies like SenseCheck play in helping SMEs navigate future marketing challenges?

We hope that getting validation will become habitual and a necessary step in any marketing process. This will save a lot of wasted money and unnecessary stress and worry.

Are there any emerging trends in SME marketing that highlight the need for fresh perspectives?

AI promises much for marketers, but AI is just aggregating learning from material already out there. It can’t predict the effectiveness of what it generates. Moreover, it’s only responding to the prompt you gave it – which itself might not be exactly right. That step of validation is still crucial.

Thanks for speaking with us, Roger.

Next month, we will be speaking with author and LinkedIn personal branding expert Damian Corbet about how business leaders can better use their personal brand on LinkedIn to humanise the face of their business.

5 Ways To Build A Truly Purpose-Driven Company Culture

Does your company have a purpose? Do you live and breathe that purpose? Do your employees?

A purpose-driven company is clear about its direction to leaders, stakeholders and customers, but it takes a little more for that purpose to be truly imbued into its culture. When done right, every single team member has a heartfelt sense of ownership for the purpose, employees feel respected, and everyone in the company is working in the same direction.

It’s no secret that companies are facing the toughest labour market in decades. Competition for top talent is fierce, and the ‘great resignation’ is still a pressing concern for many. Pair this with the fact that countless studies have shown Millennials and Gen Z are more likely to join a business if it demonstrates ethics that align with their own (in fact, nearly half of Gen Z will work for a purpose-driven company for a 20% lower salary) and it’s evidently never been more important to instil your company’s purpose into your culture.

To attract and retain the most socially-conscious generation, purpose must sit at the heart of your company culture. Read on for our top five tips on embedding your purpose and attracting top talent.

  1. Do the work, and talk about it 

Imbuing a sense of purpose into your culture is one thing – ensuring your employees know about it, and bringing them along for the journey is just as important. 

Drive your mission and values home with your internal communications – tell your team about your success and community endeavours to show your purpose in action. Establishing a positive culture that centres purpose and highlights the valuable output of your company’s work is key to employee retention. 

  1. Don’t neglect inclusivity and belonging 

Inclusion is a major driver of employee buy-in, particularly for younger workers. 

A strong and genuine DEI effort helps employees connect to your organisation and helps establish a purpose-driven culture. 

Working hard to offer your employees the resources they need to thrive is win-win for your business. Purpose and belonging go hand in hand, and providing a safe and welcoming context for your employees is a huge step towards establishing a culture that centres purpose.

  1. A purpose-driven workplace starts at the top

You can’t expect your employees to live your purpose if senior team members aren’t leading the way. 

Transparency is the key here – the leadership must share knowledge about their goals, mission, and progress with employees, so team members can see exactly how their work contributes to them.

Understanding the bigger picture is crucial when establishing a purpose-driven culture. It allows individual contributors to see how their work fits into the end goal; it also makes for a more confident and able workforce.
Knowing why things happen the way they do is an incredible motivator. Rather than blindly following leadership with no sense of the reasoning behind decisions, employees with a ‘whole-picture’ view have more agency to drive their work towards the main business objectives.

  1. Bring everyone together

Purpose-driven workplaces start with socialisation and collaboration. 

Creating a sense of belonging is crucial for motivating employees to embrace your company’s purpose. Make them feel safe, respected and supported. Leaders can achieve this through feedback and praise and by asking employees to offer their perspectives. This gives you a unique insight into their purpose and what drives them.

Collaboration has become a different beast throughout the past few years as the pandemic changed ways of working forever. The uptick in hybrid and remote working makes this even more important – try to assemble your employees together frequently and provide social contexts for them to come together and share their passions and purpose with their colleagues. 

  1. Adopt a whole-person approach

Seeing employees as a collective undistinguished mass of workers is the antithesis of a purpose-driven culture. Leaders must adopt a whole-person approach when it comes to their team. Your employees are dynamic, complex individuals, each with their own passions, strengths and needs – be sure to recognise this.

Motivate employees to follow what lights them up – getting them excited about your purpose will drive great productivity and improve employee happiness. 

The work to build a purpose-driven company culture begins today

We hope these tips help you foster a culture that will connect your employees to something above and beyond the fundamentals of their day-to-day roles and help them understand and embrace the higher purpose of your company.

How Developing A Purpose-Driven Employer Brand Helps Attract And Retain Top Talent

The last few years have seen a seismic shift in the behaviour and attitudes of the global workforce. Unless you’ve been living under a rock, you are likely all too familiar with the phrase ‘The Great Resignation’ (also known as the Big Quit and the Great Reshuffle.) The clickbait term has dominated the news the world over, but behind the headlines is a deeply concerning economic trend. The numbers are sobering:

  • 41% of employees are considering resigning from their jobs
  • UK job vacancies are at their highest since records began
  • One-third of workers report being unhappy at work

This major disruption was spurred on hugely by Covid-19 (during which record numbers of employees voluntarily quit their jobs) however, this crisis is not just short-term turbulence caused by the pandemic. The trend has been quietly bubbling away for the past decade, coming to a culmination as employees took stock of their priorities during the biggest health crisis in a century. On top of all this, and in spite of a looming recession, the trend shows no sign of slowing down.

The Times They Are A-changing

In the past, people could be tempted into roles by the promise of job security and decent pay. In today’s world, that just won’t cut it. Employees are seeking purpose. They want to feel invested in the work they do, and they want to know that their employer shares those values. 

Understanding the role of purpose and culture in today’s workplace is vital. As is recognising the needs of diverse employees and Gen Z recruits.

In order to find a remedy for the Great Resignation, it’s crucial that employers get to the root of why people are leaving and what needs to change to keep them. Now’s the time to go back to basics and build a strong employee offer that meets the needs of today’s workers. 

Putting the Employee First

With more open positions than there are workers to fill them, employees are truly in the driving seat, and they know their worth. In the most competitive talent marketplace in decades, a small salary bump is not going to cut it; employees want to:

  • Feel a sense of belonging
  • Have flexible working options
  • Feel valued
  • Have growth potential 

So, how do you go about putting these values at the heart of your employee offer and retaining the fantastic talent you have whilst attracting more great candidates to your company? 

It’s time for businesses to invest in developing purpose-driven employer brands. Here are five factors that can transform your current organisational culture into one that attracts new talent and motivates employees to stay.

  1. Purpose, purpose, purpose

Organisations with a well-defined purpose have a much better shot at attracting and retaining top talent. In fact, a recent Harvard Business Review study found that a staggering nine out of ten employees would take a pay cut for more meaningful work.

Employees are not only looking for purpose-driven companies, but they also want to know that their leaders live by those values too. Leaders who can embrace the company’s purpose and lead ethically are much more favoured by Millennials and Gen Z workers in particular. 

  1. Recognise greatness

McKinsey & Company’s research on the Great Resignation found that a majority (54%) of employees who quit their jobs felt that they were undervalued by their employers. 

Truly talented people aren’t highly motivated by money; feeling special is often more important to them. Treat your top talent like valued individuals, not like members of a group. 

Skilled workers know their worth. It’s key that employers do too.

  1. Flexibility remains critical

The pandemic made it clear that employees can be as productive (if not more so) in a work-from-home environment. 

Remote work has become normalised over the past two years and can be a real morale boost for workers. It’s a great option for businesses, too, as it significantly opens the talent pool, allowing employers to recruit from anywhere in the country or anywhere in the world!

Offering flexible hours is also an important perk for workers today. It’s a win for employees with families, who can plan around childcare and school pick-up times. It can also be a bonus for those commuting into cities from the ‘burbs –  avoiding a nasty commute during rush hour can be a huge contributor to workers’ wellbeing.

  1. Promote a culture of inclusion and belonging 

Adjusting hiring procedures with an eye toward diversity, equity, and inclusion (DEI) is a great first step toward greater workforce representation, however, it’s crucial that this work continues beyond the hiring stage.

Ensure DEI initiatives are embedded in your talent retention plans by promoting an employee experience that recognises the specific needs of all employees. For instance, some underrepresented groups (like working mothers) may be more inclined to stay working at an organisation if they offer flexible work arrangements. If you are not prioritising DEI, and the specific needs of underrepresented employees, then there will be an inevitable knock-on effect on staff retention.

  1. Practice what you preach

It’s all well and good taking a position on these retention and attraction efforts, but it’s crucial that your words and actions match the promises you make. Anything you say to attract new talent is meaningless if your internal environment and actions don’t support it.

We are experiencing a major shift in the workplace; it’s only right to consider your talent retention and attraction strategy with the same level of scale and ambition. Things are changing, and the businesses that don’t keep up will get left behind. 

Six Ways To Show The Human Side Of Your Brand On Social Media

The clue’s in the name – social media marketing should first and foremost be ‘social.’ 

People want to feel a connection to others with authentic content that feels inspiring, informative and crucially, human. In essence, they want to engage with other people, not brands. 

The key to seeing success on social media, therefore, is to put humans (your customers and your employees) at the heart of your marketing strategy. 

A purpose-driven business has a head start when it comes to creating more human-centric content. Your commitment to a bigger goal is a powerful USP that can supercharge your efforts and ensure you stand out from the crowd on social. 

Presenting the human side of your brand will simply amplify your mission whilst building trust and emotional connections with your audience. 

Sound good? Read on for our six top tips for developing a strategy focused on humanising your brand. 

Use Video 

We know you’ve heard it a million times – video marketing is the most important element of any social media strategy. That’s because it’s supremely powerful, and if you’re on a mission to humanise your business, then video is everything.

One of the most powerful ways to utilise video is by giving your followers behind-the-scenes content that paints a picture of your business and your people; a video walk-through, a personal introduction or a behind-the-scenes tour is a great way to do this. 

Remember, these don’t need to be slick, highly produced videos, most phone cameras can capture brilliant footage nowadays, and a more informal approach to production (so long as it’s not too scrappy) will help with your efforts to make your social presence more human. 

And who should be featured in these videos, you ask? Well, that leads us nicely to our next point… 

Shine the spotlight on your employees

What better way to show the human side of your company than to put some focus on the people behind your brand?

Think about it, would you be more likely to engage with a logo or a face on your own social media feed? 

Social media allows you to bring your employees’ voices to life and gives your customers the chance to put a face to a name. This is a powerful asset – most customers will react best when they are able to know who they’re speaking with. 

Showing the faces of your team allows customers to connect with your brand on a deeper level, giving them a good idea of whether or not your brand’s values line up with their own. 

Content could include photos at team events or get-togethers, or behind-the-scenes tours led by an employee. This is a great way to get your staff to contribute to your content – encourage them to get involved; their personality will shine through if they can bring their own ideas to the table, and it will help them feel more valued and engaged with your company as well.

Research shows that consumers are increasingly preferring to do business with actual humans than faceless companies, so now is the time to let your employees shine online!

Sell less (yes, really)

One of the most important things to remember when humanising your brand is to take your foot off the ‘sell, sell, sell’ pedal and ease into a more gentle gear that prioritises great content over winning business. 

It may be tempting to shout from the rooftops about how great your service is, but your content should not be a glorified sales pitch to your followers. Instead, focus on the foundations of your brand – trust, integrity, reliability – selling the values at the heart of your business should be what captivates your follower’s interest.

Keep it chatty

One of the most crucial ways you can humanise your brand is through the language you use. 

Using industry slang, formal sentences, and third person tense are all big no-no’s. Social media is about creating dialogue and building those all-important personal relationships, so keep things light and breezy, and don’t be afraid to write as you speak. 

Some good advice is to act like you’re talking to your neighbour, be informal (but polite) and crucially – be human. Remember, you are not a robot! 

Use follower content

We know it’s all well and good for us to spout on about what kind of content will humanise your brand, but creating that content can take a lot of time. 

We get it. 

So, here’s an idea for the time-strapped – share your follower’s content. You can’t get a better endorsement than an enthusiastic Twitter post from a happy customer or an Instagram story from your biggest client. It also works wonders for making you seem human by centring on real-life human experiences.

Embrace storytelling

Want to show the human side of your business? Then tell your story. 

Storytelling is such a buzzword right now, and brands are getting smarter about how it can work for them on social media. It’s also a fantastic way to humanise your social feeds and build emotional connections with your followers.

How did your company start? Perhaps your founder was in a dead-end job and needed more purpose in their life; perhaps it’s a family business that has been passed down through the generations. Every business is made up of humans, and therefore every business has a human story. 

Your job is to tell it. 

The Human Touch 

Approaching the job of humanising your online brand may seem daunting, but so long as you keep a people-centric focus, you’ll likely find the job of creating content becomes much easier. 

Just remember to keep humans front and centre, be it your customers, your employees or other advocates. 

You’ll find that creating relatable and consistent human-focused messaging will not only grow your business but will also boost engagement as well.

Good luck, and remember that human touch!