Keeping It Real: Humanizing Your Brand in a Noisy Digital World
In today’s content-saturated world, polished imagery and sleek messaging are no longer enough to stand out. This is especially true for design-centric brands, where aesthetics are everything and polished results are expected. Does your brand come across as approachable and believable, or impersonal and transactional? What truly cuts through the noise is human connection. You earn your audience’s trust by being authentic and relatable – putting a face on your brand.
At Hanna Creative Co., we remind clients of a simple truth: people buy from people, not from brands. The best way to connect with your audience is to show them who you really are, not just what you do. “It’s not just about product and collections, it’s also about people,” says Erik Haig, Director of Marketing for the heritage design showroom Kneedler Fauchére. “Hanna Creative has helped us understand the value of that, and together we’re creating social content that reflects the human element. We’re incorporating it into our marketing strategy as well. Our company is so relationship-based so why not celebrate that.”
Share your relatable journey
Whether you're a luxury brand, a product designer, an interior design studio, or a high-end residential builder, your social media presence should tell the story behind the work. Share what inspired you to start your business, the journey that led to your success. Talk about the bold leaps, the pivot points, the late nights and the early mornings. Being authentic and showing some vulnerability – with a bit of humor – make your story inspiring and your brand relatable.
Take your audience into your process
We encourage our clients to show more of the behind-the-scenes: the team meetings, the material mockups, the dusty site visits. Short-form video content that features you and your team in action can help build engagement on your social channels. One example of this is our interior design client, Bella Mancine Design, whose two most popular videos showed her sourcing with a trusted showroom and discussing how she collaborates with architects.
Show how you collaborate
Content that shows your team collaborating and problem-solving on a job site also wins trust. What will clients experience when hiring you? Large-scale projects can last a year or more, and clients are looking for professionals who aren’t just talented—but collaborative, thoughtful, and easy to work with. “Think about what your target audience is looking for,” says Creative Director Roxanne Hanna. “High-net-worth individuals who are looking to assemble a team of craftsmen, designers, architects, and builders want to know that you play well in the sandbox.”
When you leverage your social media to show how you communicate, troubleshoot, and celebrate the wins with your team, you’re giving your audience a preview of what it’s like to work with you.
Share photography that balances polished with imperfect
When posting photography and video, consider the goals. As a product designer, your work should be beautifully documented for your portfolio and website, but when it comes to social media, overly polished content can sometimes create a disconnect. In our experience, real moments, captured with intention, often resonate more than studio-perfect shots. That’s why we encourage clients to break away from the status quo and embrace the imperfect beauty of process and personality.
So show the work. Show the team. Show the process behind the polish. In the end, humanizing your brand isn’t just about better marketing. It’s about building relationships, earning trust, and showing that you’re the kind of professional who not only delivers exceptional results — but makes the process enjoyable along the way.
