When you meet someone, how do you know whether or not you like them? Is it their clothes? Their voice? How well they speak? Or is it their personality?
Usually, it’s going to be their personality – their sense of humour, their intelligence, their kindness, etc. Now flip this and think about your business. What is it that attracts people to your business? Is it the colour schemes, taglines, or messaging?
Those items can definitely contribute to why someone likes your brand, and they can even help
set your company apart from competitors. But that likely isn’t enough to really help customers connect with your brand on a deeper level. Like with people, customers engage with and become loyal to businesses that offer a unique and authentic personality.
And you weren’t going to get very far in this article without me pointing out that podcasts are a great way to breathe life into your brand. Brands who are creating shows for their audience are operating on another level from other B2B companies. Why? Because they are giving their brand a literal voice and aligning the experts at their company to their actual personality.
So if you launched or plan to launch a B2B podcast, then considering how your podcast impacts or informs the personality of your brand needs to be on your to-do list.
Here’s a look at why adding personality to your brand is a must.
Why is Brand Personality Important?
Authenticity—it’s an incredibly important characteristic right now in the world for brands. The companies that don’t exhibit authenticity will have a harder time earning the trust of their audience.
This is essential because 86% of consumers say authenticity is a major factor when deciding which brands to support. Another 81% say they only buy from brands they trust. Unfortunately, 57% of consumers state less than half of brands are delivering content that feels authentic.
It’s difficult for a business to gain trust if its focus is solely on sales and marketing. What needs to happen is a shift in how you perform these tasks.
You can market your brand, but you should be creating discussions and joining conversations rather than using typical ads and promotional content. Communication is a driving factor in building relationships with people. We also find this to be true with storytelling.
Numbers show 66% of consumers say transparency is an attractive brand quality. So if you’re jumping on your B2B podcast and sharing your ups and downs, then it does two things:
1. Provides transparency
2. Shows your human side
Corporations of yesterday lacked both personality and transparency, making them feel cold and inhuman. And this showed through the marketing and sales tactics of the time.
So what can you do to humanize your brand?
How to Give Your B2B Brand Personality
The first interaction consumers have with a business is typically its website, ads, social media posts, or blog content. These are all necessary for building awareness for your brand, but you’ll find they aren’t the most effective ways to connect with your audience.
Instead, focus on giving your B2B brand personality with a podcast. As we’ve said before, audio is the perfect medium for pushing your brand forward. Reading text on a screen doesn’t provide the same intimacy level as hearing the excitement or passion in someone’s voice.
Podcasts will give your audience insight into not only the subject matter, but also the person’s feelings about it. The host can express their humour, their joy, their sarcasm, all of which help you to relate to them as a personality. Brands who capitalize on this will also see their engagement rates increase.
Podcasts offer exclusivity and a personal touch that makes audiences feel like they know you. You will be creating a multi-dimensional picture of your brand, giving it the authenticity consumers seek.
Once they start to feel connected to your stories, conversations, and thought leadership, it humanizes your business and creates a deeper impression.
You can use your B2B podcast to grant access to your brand’s human side while also delivering valuable content. For example, you can invite influencers, industry experts, and even host Q&As with your audience to create meaningful conversations.
Adding faces to your brand voice with video
Then to make your B2B podcasts even more personable, you can implement video. For instance, you can record your studio sessions so listeners can also see your face. This also makes the content more shareable on platforms like YouTube, LinkedIn, and Instagram.
By enabling followers to put faces to voices, they can become more acquainted with your team and company culture.
It also helps your marketing strategy—93% of marketers say video brought in new customers. And 63% of businesses say video provides the best ROI on social channels.
Use your audio and video content to fuel your content strategy
You can use audio and video content to really take your content strategy to the next level. With podcasts, you can invite expert guests in to provide insights on all subject matters. Your audience will be able to find more value in the content, because they’re being offered expert opinions and perspectives.
The voices on your podcast, from your guests to your hosts, are far better suited to talk about the topics and pain points your audience is experiencing than a content marketer digging into research. Harness the power of the expert to make your content better and make the job of the content marketer to amplify the voice of the experts throughout your marketing channels. That already seems far more authentic and interesting doesn’t it?
Align your business with your efforts
A brand personality can’t only exist in one area of the business. If it does, then suddenly the personality of your brand seems inauthentic, doesn’t it? Having a podcast and a video series is a great way to breathe life into your brand, but you have to make sure that the content from these channels, and the personality they are building, extend to other areas of the business.
Make sure you are working to de-silo your marketing content and instead allowing this amazing content to fuel other areas of the business. After all, your audience isn’t just the people in the top of your marketing funnel. Your audience lives in all areas of your business - your customers, your partners, your employees. Make sure the work you’re doing to build a personality through your audio and video content is also carrying over to other teams.
Get the Tools to Grow Your B2B Podcast’s Authenticity
Running a B2B podcast is the first step to connecting with your audience in a different way. It enables you to take a more granular approach to who you’re targeting and why.
Podcasts enable brands to deliver valuable content in a form that’s easy to consume. Listeners can play your episodes while they’re on-the-go, relaxing at home, or working in the office.
But as a marketing leader in a past life who’s experienced this, I know that without the right tools, it’s challenging to attribute the ROI and engagement of your B2B podcasting episodes.
That’s why we built Casted as a podcasting platform designed specifically for B2B marketers. We wanted to offer marketers a way to access, amplify, and attribute their podcast and other related content to their overall marketing strategy. This way, they’re getting the best results possible.
If you’re excited to take your B2B podcast to the next level, then schedule a demo with Casted today!
