How to make your brand more personable
If you’ve got a small e-commerce business and you’re looking to grow, one of the best things you can do is be more personable. This can be hard to do over the internet, as unlike a brick and mortar store, you don’t interact with your customers personally. Letting customers know there is a real human being at the other end of their online order enriches the customer experience overall and can do wonders for your business. In this blog post, we’re going to cover some of the things you can do yourself to add some personal touches to your e-commerce business.
Say “thank you”!
Saying thank you as a business is a beautiful thing and luckily is very easy to do. By making grateful gestures you can really make someone’s day. Gestures such as thank you notes or throwing in a freebie to a long-standing and loyal customer are some great and relatively inexpensive examples. It’s these unexpected gestures that surprise people in such a great way and generate positive energy around your brand. Remember, it’s not necessarily the monetary value that matters but the gesture itself. It has to come from a genuine sense of gratitude.
Get social
Another method of being more personable is by showing it through your social media content. Sharing content on social media that isn’t always about sales or promotions will really improve your approachability. Content with people and faces has been proven to result in better engagement by many different sources. People find it much easier to connect with faces and their emotions and by including people and faces from your own business, you’ll create a much better connection with your customers. Why not try making your next few social posts like this and see the difference?
You can also go one step further and share your customer’s content on social media. If someone shares their experience with your brand in a photo or a video, share it on social media to build that connection with them for all to see.
Build a tone of voice
If you want to build a stronger, more personable connection with your brand, your tone of voice needs to reflect this. By researching your audience and attracting people who share the same ethos, you can create an authentic tone of voice that appears to speak directly to your customers. If it makes sense to do so, you should also ensure you show your fun side from time to time. When your content can make people feel like they’re part of the family or tribe, they develop a stronger connection to your brand.
Share business stories
One of the things a lot of businesses don’t do is acknowledge the fact that they’re a business, with real people working behind the scenes. Now and again, you should remind your customers or followers that this is the case. If you’ve got a story to share that’s relevant, you’ll show everyone how relatable your business is. For example, you could show them how products are made or even what the team gets up to outside of work. Just like your customers, the people behind the brand are all human beings. Don’t be afraid to show that from time to time.
Another thing you can do is share employee accomplishments. If an employee has done something great (whether it’s for the company or not), then let the world know! Maybe they kept operations running whilst at home looking after the kids or they raised money for charity. Not only will it make your employees feel valued and appreciated for their work, but it will also show your customers what a great employee you are.
Respond to reviews
Something else which helps build a great personal connection between you and your customers is responding to reviews. Whether a customer leaves a positive or negative review, it’s important that you do your best to respond.
Saying thank you or addressing a complaint shows that your business cares about its customers. Since most reviews are public, it also gives potential customers reading them some insight into what to expect when dealing with your business. If they can see that you’re a personable brand with people who really care, they’ll have a much better first impression of you.
Be Genuine
Behind all of this, you have to be genuine. Customers will be able to tell whether you genuinely care about the connection with them or not. You need to make sure that this sincerity is the same across all aspects of your business, including your customer service so that the connection you’ve tried so hard to build isn’t damaged.
