Creating connections that fuel growth by humanising your tech brand
Standing out amongst a sea of almost homogenous tech products or services is a major challenge for any scaling tech business. If you’re the leader of a tech service or product, especially those with a purposeful mission, there’s no doubt that you have absolute clarity on what makes you unique. But does anyone else know beyond your key team? Are you caught up in a circle of highlighting features and benefits that fail to connect with your target audience and the problems that keep them up at night?
If so, you’re not alone. Human-centric storytelling is an opportunity to connect emotionally with your audience and yet it is widely overlooked by businesses as a form of differentiation. Never more so than in the B2B sector. Our article, the second of the Purplefish ‘Beyond features: the power of brand in scaling your tech business’ content series, provides a structured roadmap for leaders looking to capture the power of humanised brand storytelling to achieve sustainable growth by standing out from the crowd.
Missed out on our first article? Catch up here: Beyond features: why brand is your biggest opportunity to scale your tech business.
Did you know that inspiring emotion in B2B marketing is seven times more effective than just focusing on rational benefits (LinkedIn B2B Institute)?
Why humanising your tech brand is critical in creating an emotional connection
The brands that are growing are those that move beyond features and forge a genuine connection with their clients. They don’t just tell you what their product does—they show you why it matters, who it’s for, and what they stand for. And it’s this human storytelling that builds trusted relationships.
Top tip: create a narrative that showcases your mission, team and purpose – tell your audience why you exist and move beyond logical features and benefits.
Research shows that strategic storytelling delivers tangible ROI: brands using such narratives experience 23% higher engagement and 19% better conversion rates (Digital Marketing Institute). This comes from businesses feeling seen and understood, not sold to.
Building an emotional UX and CX
In a world where data overload is the norm, storytelling activates more of our brain than straight facts, helping customers remember your message better. That means emotional, empathetic design, clear language, and a tone that feels like it’s written by one person to another. Make every user touchpoint an invitation, not just a transaction.
Behind-the-scenes storytelling
Your brand lives through your people, particularly your leaders. B2B buyers and tech consumers alike connect with personality and purpose. Emotion-driven campaigns are 7× more effective at driving long-term growth than rational messaging alone (World Economic Forum).
How to do it:
Create “mini-doc” style content: spotlights which highlight leader pivotal moments
Publish thought leadership voices via blogs, LinkedIn posts, media op-eds or short video clips
Humanise complex technology through common day-to-day language and storytelling
Top tip: audit your website using a lens of empathy and clarity. Cut out the technical jargon and replace it with human language.
Case study highlight: ClearBank humanise fintech with P2P storytelling
ClearBank is a UK-based fintech that provides infrastructure for financial institutions—a technically complex, back-end product. Instead of relying solely on industry jargon and product specs, they adopted a P2P storytelling approach to build brand trust and emotional connection.
What they did:
Published founder stories that highlighted the “why” behind the brand—focusing on their mission to remove friction from financial systems and give businesses more control.
Shared real customer wins using plain, relatable language such as explaining how a challenger bank launched in record time using ClearBank’s platform—not with specs, but by spotlighting the team’s resilience and the founder’s vision.
Put faces front and centre: social storytelling that features engineers, account managers, and support teams explaining how their work helps real customers—making the tech feel personal, accessible, and trustworthy.
Why it worked:
This moved the brand from “B2B payments platform” to “the people who make banking better.”
The role of purpose in your brand story
In today’s market, 73% of consumers are more likely to buy from brands they feel personally connected to (World Economic Forum). Purpose-led storytelling isn’t about grand statements—it’s about weaving values into the everyday, making mission as visible as product. That’s the magnet for both customers and the talent you want to retain.
How to do it?
Weave values into campaigns: more than a tag line or slogan, this is around providing values-led narrative regarding decisions and product choices.
Share tangible outcomes or social impact alongside product benefits.
Use consistent storytelling cues across channels—whenever you talk features, remind people why you built them.
Let’s get creative
Translate features into felt benefits: instead of “AI-powered automation,” try “how will you spend the extra hour a day delivered by our AI automation?”
Tell micro-stories: share a moment of founder insight or team brainstorm, perhaps even the “oops” that led to learning.
Make your design emotional: empathetic UX with conversational copy, personalised messaging, and accessible visuals builds comfort and clarity.
Layer purpose into your messaging: embed your mission in context—not as a banner, but as why decisions were made and how they serve real lives.
Interested to learn more? Book a brand consultation today with our managing director.
Stay connected for more insights on creating connection by humanising your tech brand, creating stand out for investors, and how to use your brand to attract and retain the people you need to scale your business.
