Many businesses assume their marketing needs to look highly polished to be credible.
Yet in practice, the opposite often proves true – marketing that reflects real life tends to build trust more quickly.
At Crisp, we’ve seen this play out in a few interesting ways with our clients and peers recently. Here’s three of our favourite examples…
Example 1: iPhone photos on a financial adviser’s website
A financial adviser we worked with decided to use photos from his own iPhone across his website.
No staged lifestyle shoot or stock imagery – just genuine snapshots of the life he enjoys. Time with family, travel and the kinds of memories he works hard to create.
Not only did using these photos help us get his website launched quicker, but the feedback from people has been incredibly positive.
Visitors to the site connected with the images immediately. Instead of analysing the standard of photography, they were responding to the signal behind it.
“This guy seems to enjoy a great life – maybe if I work with him, he can help me achieve the same thing”.
This is a person who has built a life that fulfils him and helps others do the same.
As they say, a picture is worth 1,000 words.
Example 2: Screenshots of client SMSes instead of testimonials
A business coach we work with has taken a different approach to testimonials, and we absolutely love it!
Instead of publishing polished quotes designed in Canva, she shared screenshots of real client messages. For privacy reasons, all identifying details were removed, but the raw conversations remained intact.
Prospective clients get to see the interactions for themselves: breakthrough moments, success stories, and words of encouragement.
It not only provides compelling evidence of the quality of this coach’s service, but it also sends a subtle, yet meaningful message about the closeness of their relationship.
For someone looking for a business coach who gets results, and genuinely cares about you as a person, why would you look anywhere else?
Example 3: James Wrigley’s content engine
Financial adviser James Wrigley has built one of the most recognisable personal brands in Australian financial advice, with more than 100,000 followers on both Instagram and TikTok.
Yet when you zoom in on his content, it’s pretty simple. He films on his iPhone, he shares something he knows directly to the camera, and his format remains pretty consistent throughout his content.
Not only does this approach make you feel like he’s talking directly to you, it also probably lowers the barrier to him creating content. When recording a video feels easy, producing the next one becomes far more likely. And as you can see from his results, that consistency compounds over time.
The production values are simple and the editing is minimal, but he keeps showing up with real insights from his wisdom and experience.
And judging by the results, this approach is working exceptionally well for him.
Humans want to work with humans
Each of these examples highlights the same pattern.
There’s often a highly polished version of marketing that businesses assume they should produce, yet audiences tend to trust the human version – featuring real people, real conversations and real explanations.
When marketing reflects the work as it actually happens, people find it easier to imagine what working with you might feel like, which reduces fear and builds trust.
And it also makes marketing easier, which provides you with the secret ingredient to any success marketing strategy – consistency.
Your next marketing move may be already sitting on your phone, or just 15 minutes away from being created.
It turns out keeping it real can be easier, more fun and more impactful.