One of the best parts of being a marketer right now is the freedom to present business expertise in fun, creative ways. People often relate to businesses and people they can connect with, engage with and relate to. This means the more personality you put into your content, the more likely people will engage with it. When your content is infused with personality, it will also stand out more, and people will look forward to seeing what you publish next.

So, how can marketers seamlessly infuse personality into their content?

Use humour in marketing

When you think about the content shared most often or those elusive viral posts, it usually has a humorous element. Being humorous with your content will encourage conversations and create engagement.

Ottawa Public Health's social media team has done a great job engaging with their audience using humour. In what could otherwise be dry social media content, Ottawa Public Health shares educational messages with humorous pop culture references, involving local celebrities, and owning up to typing mistakes by blaming lack of coffee (something most people can relate to).

Humour (and even silliness) is an effective way to make otherwise bland topics memorable. To explain how close is too close during the COVID-19 pandemic, Ottawa Public Health created this short video that explains it through everyday situations.

It’s funny, gets the point across, and it can easily be shared.

People love to laugh! So, loosen up and have some fun to capture attention, make your brand stand out, and make your message more memorable. It also helps your business to connect with your audience by eliciting an emotional response.

Make your marketing personal

Storytelling is a great way to make your marketing personal. Think of Apple’s holiday commercials, such as The Surprise from 2019. Coming home for the holidays and making someone smile is something people can relate to. The ad received over 25 million views on YouTube, and it's not because the ad cleverly shared the functionality and ease of use of the Apple iPad, but because it evoked emotion through the heartwarming story of a family coping with their first holiday without their wife, mother and grandmother. In three emotional minutes, Apple disputes critics who feel their products are about social media and mindless use by proving that they can be used to create something meaningful. 

It’s not easy to get personal with the masses but it works when you give your audience something to relate to. The story should have a purpose (in Apple's case, it was to highlight the Apple iPad's functionality and place in a family, and have an end goal—in this case, encouraging people to purchase an iPad to create their family slide shows.

Be authentic

Whether through storytelling or humour, when you're marketing your business, always try to be as authentic as possible. Don't push messaging that isn’t aligned with your business's core values and mission, and be transparent about what your company truly believes in. The social media management company, Buffer, is well-known for their dedication to transparency, and being transparent is the ultimate display of authenticity. They even make their transparency clear on their website. They are proud of their diverse team, customer service, and product – and they make this clear in everything they do.

Zappos is another brand that is known for its authenticity. They share “What We Love By” on the about section of their website that explains their core values and how the brand’s actions work to support those values.

Building brand authenticity means believing in the importance of being authentic and having that belief permeate through every aspect of your business, including your marketing.

Be open about what you sell. Take your audience backstage and show them behind the scenes work to demonstrate your diversity and sustainability. Encourage your audience to engage with your business and have them ask questions – and don’t make your answers feel canned or rehearsed. Share the good, bad and ugly about your business and being a business owner. Over polished or perfection often convey inauthenticity—and most people see right through that.

Adding personality into your marketing is essential if you’re going to stand out amongst the noise. Still, it needs to be done in a way that stays true to your brand, is helpful, is aligned with your overall business goals, and can be done without seeming forced or inauthentic.

How can you naturally infuse personality into your marketing?