Counterintuitively, highly formatted and image-heavy emails can feel corporate and impersonal, decreasing engagement. Shifting to a simpler, plain-text style mimics a personal message from a friend, which increases perceived authenticity and encourages more replies and genuine connection.

Instead of polished ad creative, have the founder record a simple, direct-to-camera video on their iPhone announcing the sale. This authentic, personal approach often generates higher click-through and conversion rates by creating a friend-to-friend connection with the audience.

The era of generic 'five steps to X' content is over. To stand out, marketers must frame their content as stories, whether personal or from clients. This narrative approach fosters a deeper connection with an audience that craves human experiences over sterile information.

Amy Porterfield found her newsletters with the highest open rates and clicks were those sharing personal stories, not just promoting content. This human connection, she argues, is the most powerful business strategy available to a creator.

A B2B marketing newsletter saw a massive spike in replies when it shifted from tactical advice to a personal story about managing mornings and avoiding burnout. This shows that content resonating on a human, empathetic level can outperform purely professional topics, even for a specialized audience.

The more time spent scripting, refining, and editing a post, the less authentic it becomes and the worse it typically performs. Higher-performing content often results from reducing the time between the initial idea and hitting 'publish.'

Overly polished video content in B2B can signal "advertisement" to users, causing them to disengage. Lower-fidelity, more authentic content often performs better because it feels more organic and native to social media feeds, focusing on the message rather than slick production.

Contrary to the trend of highly-designed posts, the most effective carousels now use simple, personal photos from a user's camera roll. These are paired with 2-3 sentences of text per slide to tell a story or share a tip, fostering a sense of authenticity and relatability.

In an era of highly produced brand content, raw, unpolished videos can feel more authentic and are more likely to stop the scroll. This "imperfect" quality is a strategic advantage, not a weakness, as it stands out against overly polished feeds.