In marketing, empathy means putting your customer’s needs before your own. If you think this is not business savvy, don’t! This approach benefits your bottom line. About 82% of consumers purchase from brands with whom they share high emotional engagements, and 70% spent twice as much money on brands they felt emotionally. Research shows that empathy is positively correlated with growth, productivity, and earnings.
Content that hits home
About 37% of marketers consider content creation as one of the top three reasons for stagnation, a clear issue for the 60% of consumers who believe that branded content is irrelevant or fails to deliver. Introduce empathy into your strategy by producing content that helps customers solve problems.
Channel empathy by connecting your brand to a powerful on-brand message, whether you’re a company that sells shoes, or one that sells furniture.
Campaigns that resonate
Creating campaigns from the point of view of the brand will likely alienate customers, as your perspective may not reflect their reality. Look at the world through your customers’ eyes, understand what matters to them, and use these insights to create campaigns that customers can connect with.
Research shows that inclusive advertisements are 25% more effective and emotionally engaging than non-inclusive creatives. Not surprisingly, the least inclusive advertisements generate the most negative emotional reactions.
When you recognize customers’ pains and join the fight to solve the issue, your target audience will feel recognized and eager to support your brand.
Be aware of the main issue
An empathy map can help you visualize your customer experience and better understand the challenges your customers might face when interacting with your brand.
A map is a tool for discovering solutions and simplifying the customer experience. 55% of consumers claim they pay more for a brand that delivers a streamlined experience, and 64% say they’d recommend a brand with simpler communications.
Though they may seem similar, empathy maps aren’t a replacement for customer journey maps. Rather, empathy maps make it faster and easier to understand what your customers are thinking and feeling.
Identifying what customers want and need is crucial to staying in business. And the best way to understand your target audience is to channel the customers themselves.
Deliver empathetic customer service
When things go wrong, customers don’t want sympathy, they want empathy. For 40% of customers, that means better service. Adopting an empathetic customer service approach can mean the difference between losing or retaining a customer.
Empathy-based customer service requires a deep understanding of your customer’s frustration, active listening techniques, and a satisfying resolution process. This approach makes customers feel understood and appreciated.
Empathy is one of the most valuable assets your customer service team can have. Use it to mitigate the blow of a negative interaction.
Put your customers first
Talent and creativity alone aren’t enough to reach customers at an emotional level. Inch toward an empathetic-driven strategy by using customer data to understand and illuminate their impressions of your brand.
Choose topics and messages that relate to your target audience on a deep level. Without first putting yourselves into the shoes of consumers, it’ll be almost impossible to create a campaign that truly resonates, no matter how ground-breaking it seems.