The Death of "Dear Valued Customer": Why Your Brand Voice Has Never Mattered More

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Let me tell you a story about the most refreshing confirmation email I've ever received.

It started with four simple words: "Hey there, it's Alex."

Not "Thank you for your purchase." Not "Your order has been confirmed." Not "Dear Valued Customer."

Just "Hey there, it's Alex."

And you know what? I instantly felt better about spending $87 on that hoodie. Why? Because suddenly I wasn't buying from a faceless corporation – I was buying from Alex.

The Human Drought

We're living through a bizarre paradox:

We've never been more digitally connected. Yet genuine human connection feels increasingly rare.

Our inboxes overflow with messages. Yet how many actually sound like they were written by a human who cares? (Count them. I'll wait. It won't take long.)

The AI Irony

The explosion of generative AI has created an unexpected opportunity. While everyone else is rushing to automate their communications into soulless perfection, you can stand out by simply sounding like a person.

This isn't theoretical. Look at the brands winning right now:

• Liquid Death: Built a $1.4B water company by writing copy that feels like your funniest friend wrote it

• Drift: Transformed B2B software marketing by putting their founders' personalities front and center

• Stanley: Turned a thermos into a cultural phenomenon by embracing real customer stories

None of this happened by accident. These brands understood that in a world of algorithms, humanity is the ultimate differentiator.

The Name Badge Strategy

Remember those "Hello My Name Is" stickers from conferences?

Your marketing needs one.

This doesn't mean turning your brand into a personal blog. It means giving your communications a recognizable human touch – what I call "personable without being personal."

Here's how to implement it:

1. Identify Your David Every brand needs a host – someone who can be the welcoming voice of your communications. This could be your founder, CEO, or an internal personality who embodies your values.

2. Audit Your Touchpoints Look at every customer-facing communication. Count how many times you say "we" versus "you." If "we" dominates, you're talking about yourself too much.

3. Rewrite One Thing Today Start small. Take your most robotic customer communication and rewrite it as if you're explaining it to a friend. Your confirmation emails, welcome series, or homepage are great places to start.

The Voice Checklist

Not sure if your communications have a human voice? Run this quick test:

• Could this have been written by any of your competitors? (If yes, problem)

• Would anyone be disappointed if they met the author in person? (If yes, problem)

• Does it sound like someone reading from a script? (If yes, problem)

• If your competitor copied it word-for-word, would anyone notice? (If no, problem)

The Fear Factor

I know what you're thinking: "What if our David builds their personal brand and leaves?"

This fear has paralyzed companies for decades. But look at the evidence:

David Leonhardt became the face of the NYT's morning briefing. Did subscribers follow him when he moved to the Opinion section? No – they stayed with the newsletter.

Why? Because the relationship wasn't just with David. It was with David-as-host-of-the-NYT. The format and the content still mattered. The brand still mattered.

The real risk isn't that your David will leave. It's that you'll never find your David at all.

The Implementation Step

Let's make this actionable. Take your most important customer communication – the one that gets seen the most – and ask these questions:

1. Does it have a recognizable voice?

2. Could it only have been written by your company?

3. Does it make the reader feel something?

4. Would anyone ever forward it to a friend saying "check this out"?

If you answered "no" to any of these, you don't have a content problem. You have a humanity problem.

The Bottom Line

In a world where AI can generate unlimited perfect paragraphs, your competitive advantage isn't better grammar or fancier words. It's having a voice that sounds unmistakably like you.

So take off the corporate mask. Put on a name badge. And start talking to your customers like they're actual humans.

Because in the end, they are. And so are you.

Until next time...