DECISION POINT: How to Humanize Marketing
have a heartbeat? COOL! do your stakeholders know?
Just joining us? You might want to start here - A Call to Humanize Marketing. — Moving on. —
Any marketing professional paying attention to the world around them should ponder the following question:
How do I know if my marketing organization lacks the human factor?
There are two dead-giveaways. Are you brave enough to acknowledge them?
1. The brand tone and voice is on par with licking a napkin
2. Institutional brain holds an email address equal to a person
Is this overly reductive? YUP. But is it accurate? Yuuuuuup.
Even the blandest marketing content should be adapted for human consumption. I’m willing to bet you’re still reading because - on some level - the cognitive dissonance of your professional reality is taking a toll.
Look in the mirror. What do you see?
or
Gather thyself.
Nothing is hopeless! I’ve got you!
1. Burn down the funnel
(Yeah, I said it.)
a. We’re not cattle. Put away your prod.
The funnel has been around in some way for more than a 100 years. Its original design simplified and influenced customer decision making and organized systems for customer relations. But now we've bastardized it to increase efficiency and conversions by reducing human contact and independent consideration. Then we built TITANIC marketing operations dependent on it.
If we can't burn it down, how do we evolve it?
(You should keep reading.)
2. Onboard the human factor
There is a human behind every transaction.
a. Embolden - don't manipulate - your customers
Notice how i didn’t say EMPOWER? This is not that. Start talking like humans to other humans. I don't care if you're selling raw materials at square one of the supply chain. You're marketing to someone not some thing. Your subject matter is only as (in)human as you make it.
b. Bring in the behavioral scientists
Imbed behavioral science thinking and frameworks from the c-suite all the way down to the interns. Every marketing professional SHOULD BE capable of exploring and understanding the social-emotional framework of the decision point.
c. Bring the customer’s need to every deliberation
Start every creative or customer activation deliberation with exercises in radical empathy. Think of it as personas on steroids. Tattoo this question on the back of your eyelids, then roundtable it with your team":
"What does our customer need to explore / understand / feel to confidently make our desired action?"
d. Hold your marketing professionals accountable to the decision point
Include in every job description within or adjacent to the sales and marketing functions specifics about how the role
Aligns with the customer experience
How it supports, influences or impacts the decision point
Why and where it matters to how the system maintains the human factor
Ultimately, ask them to articulate and internalize their micro and macro responsibility in fostering customers' confidence at the decision point.
Need more direction on why and how to onboard the human factor?
3. Put the people first
a. Pursue professional development & coaching grounded in advanced emotional intelligence
Don't call them "soft skills" when they're the hardest part of the job.
Pursue professional development and coaching grounded in advanced emotional intelligence - for yourself and your team. Then apply what you learn during your strategic marketing deliberations and customer considerations.
Do it enough and it will BECOME the way you think about your customers, not an item on an agenda.
And the piece de resistance for direct-to-consumer companies:
b. Create a HUMAN VERIFICATION program for marketing professionals
As we become more dependent on automated systems and chatbots, we must work harder to earn trust among customers, strengthen the relationship with them, and ultimately embolden their confidence at the decision point.
Design human-factor marketing frameworks and curriculum / certification based on advanced EQ development and implementation, behavior science standards + your organizational and cultural priorities.
Human-factor marketing can also include human verification to indicate
>> Human-driven and human-designed marketing systems, moments and engagements
>> Connection with a real human, as opposed to chatbots and other customer management systems fronted by AI