The heart of human-centered marketing is understanding the multi-faceted nature of each individual. It’s a movement of marketers who are determined to meet each person where they currently are, assess what they’re looking for, and guide them where they want to go.
Human-centered marketing has become a bit of a buzzword, but it still holds a great deal of meaning. When you take a human-centered approach to marketing, it means you’re committed to building an emotional connection with each customer—the kind of connection that can’t be faked or manufactured.
It’s not enough to use a person’s name in your email subject line or give every customer the same templated response. Instead, human-centered marketing inspires today’s entrepreneurs to redefine what marketing personalization looks like.
This means putting the customer’s needs before your own and leading with customer-centric messaging instead of product-led content. When you focus on enhancing the customer’s journey, you’ll be well on your way to creating a human-centered brand.
If you’re looking to incorporate more human-centered marketing strategies into your business, let’s talk about how to use technology to accomplish your goals.
3 ways to use technology for better human-centered marketing
Human-centered marketing is about prioritizing the individual, but it’s hard to do this at scale. As your business grows, your marketing must evolve with it. This includes using technology that will give you the power of automation without sacrificing that personal touch.
With human-centered tools, you’ll save time by not having to respond to personal requests or messages. However, you won’t have to sacrifice the quality of customer interactions with your brand when you use any of these three tools:
Let’s look at three types of technology that can help you reach your ideal audience and turn them into loyal, life-long buyers.
Using personalized videos to form a connection
Do you frequently get bogged down by customer service requests? Maybe you find yourself answering the same questions over and over. While it’s important to keep a personal touch when interacting with your customers, you can also automate some of the customer service experience.
While chatbot marketing is often a great first step, you can go even further with personalized video responses. With a tool like VideoAsk, you can share personal videos on select shop pages on your website. It feels like having a face-to-face conversation with your customers without adding more work to your plate.
All you need to do is record a 30-second video, upload it to the platform, and embed the code on your website. This is exactly what Jen of Tonic Site Shop decided to do. Since Jen sells website templates, she understands that her customers often have questions before making a purchase.
Instead of leading with a static contact form, she includes a recorded video on the bottom left-hand side of her template shop page. When clicked, it allows any website visitor to watch the message and respond using video, audio, or text. To make the video more accessible and easy to consume, it also has a closed captioning option.
This is an innovative way to add a human-centered approach to your marketing, and we expect to see this trend grow in the next few years. Before you test it out for yourself, consider creating a video marketing strategy and determine how it fits into your current customer service process.
Using website personalization tools to increase conversions
If you’ve already created a series of customer personas to help you identify your ideal client, you’re one step closer to human-centered marketing. However, it’s important to recognize how many differences there are between individuals.
With a unique set of habits, motivations, preferences, needs, and desires, each person may be looking for something different from your brand. To anticipate their needs and take a more proactive approach in your marketing, think about using a website personalization tool.
Implementing a website personalization tool like RightMessage could be what you need to generate more leads by varying the messaging on your site. Instead of using one broad call-to-action (CTA) throughout your site, you can highly personalize your CTA with interactive opt-in forms.
By using website personalization, Brennan of Double Your Freelancing can keep his homepage clean and streamlined with minimal options. New website visitors can either sign up for the first lesson in the email course or answer a series of questions in the RightMessage pop-up in the bottom right-hand corner.
After answering three quick questions in the pop-up window, a personalized email opt-in form appears. This helps Brennan understand where someone is in their freelancing journey and what niche they’re focused on so he can deliver a unique personalized plan of action.
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Then, Brennan personalizes the content inside each corresponding email lesson, so each subscriber feels like he’s talking to them. This is a powerful way of positioning yourself as an expert guide who takes the time to understand each individual, even though the entire process is automated. You can use the same strategy with personalization tools or quizzes, which we’ll talk about next.
Using quizzes to give personal recommendations
To create a personable shopping experience online, you must think outside the box. While you may not be able to greet every customer and pair them with a personal shopper, you can create an interactive experience through a quiz.
When someone lands on your website, how do they determine which product is right for them? You can make the decision-making process easier by offering a quiz that personally recommends products.
The father-son duo behind Henry’s House of Coffee created a Coffee Matchmaker quiz to help first-time buyers find their perfect coffee roast. After answering a series of questions about their tastes and preferences, the quiz generates an automated product recommendation tailored to each quiz-taker.
Using a product recommendation quiz helps Henry and his son Hrag create an instant connection between their eCommerce business and coffee fanatics worldwide. This is a smart way to use automation to serve customers on a more personal level.
Implementing a human-centered approach
By intentionally using technology to create a stronger connection with your customers, you’ll be able to guide them toward the right solution. As markets get more saturated, you can stand out with human-centered marketing strategies that go beyond the status quo.
You can primarily do this through:
- Personalized video marketing through VideoAsk
- Website personalization tools like RightMessage
- Interactive quizzes from Interact
If you aren’t sure where to start, begin by signing up for a free trial of these tools to see which human-centered strategy feels like the best fit. While you’re at it, revisit your marketing strategy to see where these tools may be useful.