The Importance of Humanising Stories in PR
Kai Communications
The Importance of Humanising Stories in PR
By Katie Warne, Intern.
Public relations sits at a critical crossroad between organisations and their audiences, playing a crucial role in shaping public perception through knowledge and maintaining brand reputation. While strategies and platforms are constantly evolving, one powerful and often underutilised approach remains constant: storytelling. More specifically, humanised storytelling that creates authentic, emotional connections.
Today, there tends to be a prioritisation of polished corporate branding over relatability, developing sleek and professional essences that may look impressive but fail to resonate. That's where storytelling comes in, not just to tell a brand's story, but to make it human too! When audiences can connect with a personality or voice behind the brand or client, they are more likely to engage with the story.
In today's fast-paced digital world, people are overwhelmed by information at every turn. As a result, PR professionals must move beyond formal writing and dry factual dumps. The key to standing out is to give your message a voice. One that speaks to people, not at them.
Why Is Humanising Content So Important?
We Want To Hear From Real People With Real Experiences
In a world where AI is rapidly advancing, when content feels robotic and generic and incorporates no emotion, it loses its impact. People crave person-to-person communication, even in professional settings. What any audience wants is authenticity. They want to hear from real people, not through robotic or formal language. Stories that reflect real challenges, triumphs, or even light-hearted humour tend to stick. After all we all experience highs, lows and everything in between.
Connecting on an Emotional Level
Evoking emotions is one of the most potent tools in PR. Emotional connections ignite behaviour and loyalty to brands. When people feel emotional bonds with brands, they are more likely to support a brand and become long-term followers. Personal relevance to the audience demographic is key.
Storytelling Builds Trust and Credibility.
In an age of scepticism around what promotional messaging we receive, storytelling is a powerful credibility builder. You show audiences the authentic and vulnerable side by sharing its challenges, behind-the-scenes experiences, and mistakes. We all make mistakes, and that makes your brand more relatable. What people respect is honesty. Honesty can increase a brand or client's following drastically.
How to Humanise Content in PR
1. Know Your Audience
Before crafting any narrative, the first step is knowing who you are speaking to. Take a considerable amount of time to research and understand your audience. What is the audience's demographic, values, interests, and behaviour? What interests them? What type of content do they engage with? What emotional catalyst resonates with them the most?
When you tailor your message based on this understanding, your stories become more personalised, relatable, and far more likely to reach and impact your intended audience or beyond. It also helps define your core message and ensures it aligns with your broader PR goals and organisational values.
2. Craft a Cohesive Narrative Structure
Storytelling is most effective when it follows a clear narrative arc: a beginning, middle, and end.
To structure a compelling story:
- Start with a hook to grab attention.
- Introduce the characters and setting to build context.
- Present a challenge or conflict.
- Show how it's resolved to deliver impact.
A strong narrative structure helps audiences understand and follow your message while keeping them engaged from start to finish, much like a movie!
3. Use Character Development to Humanise Your Message
Incorporating character development is a powerful technique to make brands and organisations feel more relatable. Drawing on media theories like Blumler and Katz's Uses and Gratifications, audiences often seek content that fulfils desired needs: entertainment, identification, relationships, or surveillance. When people see themselves in a story or emotionally relate to its characters, the message becomes more memorable and impactful, influencing continuous loyalty to a brand.
4. Simplify Complex Language
Humanising content also plays a key role in simplifying complex messages. Making information accessible and easy to understand to all audiences, regardless of age or disability, broadens your reach and ensures that your audience can connect with your message (even audiences you did not intend to reach). This kind of inclusivity promotes public trust and drives deeper engagement.
5. Be Authentic
Audiences are increasingly wary of overly polished content in today's digital environment, especially with the rise of AI. How do we know if what we read was written by AI or a human? What AI cannot uphold is the value of incorporating genuine human experience.
Brands that openly share their journey, including challenges, mistakes, and successes, are more likely to develop genuine audience relationships. This approach can be particularly efficient in digital PR by using compelling visual content and videos and behind-the-scenes content.
