5 Min. Reading

The most popular acronyms in the marketing world are B2B and B2C. However, over the past few years, a new way to understand marketing dynamics has become more popular every time: H2H. But what is it?

H2H stands for Human to Human. This movement was found by Bryan Kramer, the author of Shareology: How Sharing is Powering the Human Economy and There is No B2B or B2C: It’s Human to Human #H2H. Its basic principle is simple, though we might struggle in moving away from our typical dynamics and apply H2H to our marketing efforts. This is the point: behind any business decision there  is a human being. If we connect with that human instead of the decision goal, we will build stronger, long-lasting, and humanly satisfying relationships. As a result, our businesses will grow and we will also enjoy doing our jobs more. 

By implementing an H2H culture in your organization, you will gain your customer’s trust by showing your human side. This taps into human emotions and behaviors that determine people’s choices.

However, as lovely as all of this sounds, we know no one has time to sit down with every potential customer to have coffee and talk about life. So, how can you implement this H2H approach in your business strategy? 

1. Talk like a person 

The most effective and easiest way to show your human side is by communicating in a friendly and straightforward way. All vertical sectors have a technical language, but there is no reason why you should use it on social media or your website. Leave technicalities for the meetings where you need them; for building new relationships, they are more of an obstacle than anything else. 

2. Humanize your bots

Nowadays, chatbots are a crucial tool for customer service. They help you speed answers to users that just came to your website for the first time or that need to solve a simple problem. When it comes to chatbots, the only worse thing than not finding what you need on their menu is finding a bot that actually talks like one. 

Here are some ideas:

• Give your bot a name and a face
• When creating your bot’s messages, use a casual, conversational language
• Give your bot a relaxed sense of humor
• Always give the user the option to request a team member to contact them directly

3. Use stories –and tell your story– to be more memorable

Tell the story of your previous customers and how your products or services helped them. Tell your story and how you started your brand. Let your audience know the obstacles you have had and how you overcame them. 

All of these shows real humans are involved in your brand and that you work for real people with worries and feelings. By showing your feelings and human experiences, your potential customers will see that they can resonate and work with you.

4. Incorporate user-generated content in your communication strategies

This point lands very near to the previous one. The difference is that you are not telling your customer’s story; they are sharing it by themselves. No brand in the world is going to say: “We are decent, but there are better people in the business than ourselves.” No one will do that, ever, but that is also why people tend to mistrust brand’s bragging and trust more on users’ reviews. 

If you sell your products through the web, such as Amazon or eCommerce, and get great reviews, share them on your website as well. If you receive an email congratulating your team for their outstanding work, share it. This way, potential leads will find more reasons to trust your brand, and your team will get the recognition it deserves. 

At the end of the day, the H2H approach is simple to understand and is not expensive to implement. We tend to get trapped in work dynamics that go by unchecked, but by stopping and enjoying more of the human side of what we do, we will receive positive feedback from our customers and be happier ourselves. 

Business Trends – YOU’VE HEARD ABOUT B2B & B2C BUT HOW ABOUT H2H? 
By: Ana Maria Enciso, May 2021
Edited by: Isabela Rosa