How Empathy Marketing Shows Your Readers and Customers You Care

Your head spins with confusion.

What could possibly help you acquire marketing results—no matter which online products and services you offer?

It’s an ability wildly successful entrepreneurs who are serving an audience (readers, viewers, customers) have mastered.

Writing content readers can’t stop reading, bonding with readers, selling as a natural step, and standing out from competitors aren’t shortcut tactics.

Deep connections with readers and customers comes with responsibility: serving your continuously loyal customers.

Empathy is known as considering others’ perspectives, taking their points of view, seeing through their eyes, or recognizing their emotions.

Enhancing Your Empathy Marketing Gift

Think about people whose empathy ability is strong.

These people are open-minded to others’ ideas. They’re flexible with shifting their points of view. They understand other people’s feelings. They’re accepting of others’ situations. Empathetic people relate well to others. They emotionally connect through listening, understanding, relating, and accepting.

Evidence-based research supports the idea that intensive communication training will lead to significant  gains in empathetic communication.

Empathy is a strength you too can enhance!

5 steps for enhancing your empathy marketing:

• Turn empathy into your obsession.
• Make understanding the perspectives of your listeners and customers your #1 priority.
• Shift out of your head, block out judging and critical thoughts, and step inside your ideal audience’s shoes (think of qualities shared by your ideal readers and customers).
• Limit judging. Don’t permit yourself to slip into negative thoughts. Catch yourself. Shift back to your ideal audience’s perspective.
• Most of all, continue learning about your audience’s words, thoughts and perspectives.

Satisfying Readers’ Frustrations and Desires

Let’s fantasize about writing content for your ideal readers.

What would it feel like to light up readers’ minds, see blog comments, and receive email replies?

Euphoria moment!

Author and Chief Marketing Officer, Brian Carroll, shares 7 steps for empathetic marketing.

Before our audience members will become interested in our world, we must listen, discover and show interest in their world. This is how we’ll learn what they want.

Furthermore, we will increase the likelihood of potential offers. Finally, we will project what steps will lead our audience towards a sale.

Capturing customer insights through conversations accelerates our learning. Providing help nurtures connection.

As we understand our audience members, we’ll learn what they want resolved or achieved.

Ramit Sethi strongly advises getting to know customers before marketing. Get to know customers deeply so you’ll know what they want and will purchase.

Until you tune into your audience, it doesn’t matter how many ways you market to them. Your communication won’t be effective.

Immersing yourself in your audience’s online world:

• Discover where your audience members hang out so you can read, comment, chat, network and learn.
• Then read and listen in order to
  • Understand what they appreciate and find appealing
  • Find out what’s missing in their lives that they obsess about
  • Discover insights about their burning pains, frustrations, challenges and desires

As you dive deep into your users’ world, you will be impacted by their feelings and thoughts.

Writing with empathy lets readers know you listen, relate to their feelings, invest in their reality, and care.

Bonding with Devoted Readers

3 ways empathy marketing entices readers to bond with and trust you:

1. Readers appreciate when you’re vulnerable, i.e., reveal weaknesses, flaws, past failures, etc.

2. They trust when your language is authentic.

3. They open up when your words emotionally connect with them.

Empathy Shows Off Your Courage

Brené Brown, the researcher and storyteller, reveals that empathy is a courageous choice. Getting in touch with vulnerability means revealing our flaws or mistakes. Hence, we can related to others’ painful feelings.

Experiencing vulnerability from sharing a personal failure story opens the door to human connection. Stories impact readers best when you describe your experiences and feelings versus just telling about them. Readers enjoy hearing stories with relatable messages.

Using your empathetic mindset helps you to know what types of stories resonate with readers.

Trust comes from reading authentic content

Authentic language is believable, meaningful, and unique to your communication style.

Readers know when your words are authentic. They sense language that comes from your true self.

Authenticity absorbs into your readers’ minds. They perceive scripted language (meaningless words, worn out from repetition and lacking novelty) to be noise. Unbelievable language sets off their friction filters.

Emotional Bonds Connect Us

Emotions are what people have in common. Writing that appeals to readers’ humor, pain, or physical senses has a greater impact than writing that does not. We learn and recall information better when it impacts our emotions.

Ever write content when you’re feeling emotional?

The next time you’re in pain or discomfort, notice your emotions and how you would describe them. Perhaps your hurt ruptures inside, exhaustion blocks blood flow, frustration boils into anger, fear comes in waves of terror, or your mind won’t release toxic criticism.

Your readers will recognize those same emotions while recalling the burning pains, frustrations, and challenges you write about.

Selling as a Valuable Invitation

The power of perspective is fascinating. It can override the reality of what’s been proven to be true or false.

A perspective shift might be needed before solving or achieving whatever your customers need or want.

In Mindful Manipulation, author James J. Ranieri discusses a considerate negotiation approach that will help you understand another person’s perspective.

What if your customers aren’t ready to take your offer before shifting their perspectives?

Guiding this perception shift begins by communicating with empathy.

September used to be my speech-language pathology “pro bono” month. My toughest screening cases were when moms believed their children would outgrow their speech disorders. They’d heard advice from fellow moms or even their family doctors to wait and not to get help: “Other kids have outgrown their speech difficulties, and your child will too.”

The perspective of these moms needed altering—quickly.

It caused friction when I would tell those moms about supportive research for life-long benefits of early intervention services. They didn’t want to hear about funding limitations or the brain’s timeframe to reach its full communication capacity. This information contradicted their thoughts and beliefs.

Perspective trumps truth.

Before your clients consider shifting their perceptions, they need to gradually warm up to trust you.

It’s not easy to share clear, specific, and believable content. Validating opinions with supportive research and case studies takes diligence. Authentic communication pushes your vulnerability.

Crafting a favourable impression draws readers to trust you. You’ll be the one for whom they’ll alter their mindsets.

How did I shift parents’ perspectives when it benefited their families?

When moms were surrounded by their kids happily playing with toys, we were able to talk as equal partners. I was on their side. I brought up what they were thinking, feeling and believing. We talked about their concerns, fears, and feelings.

Our common goal was helping each child’s communication to thrive, then and in the future. We examined case studies of kids in comparable situations. We began our relationships by connecting on a human level. Then we advanced to the next stage: booking an evaluation.

But you’re not selling in-person or one-on-one!

Donald Russell uses a StoryBrand marketing framework you could adapt and simplify for selling online as a content series.

Remember those insights you discovered researching what your readers say, do, and think?

Consider empathy marketing insights while writing story blogs or emails:

• The theme for a story series could come from identifying your readers’ burning problems or challenges that you are able to help.
• Solving those problem is your story’s end goal.
• Use hooks for what’s coming next to intrigue your readers so they’ll want to keep reading.
• Begin the series with your readers’ perspectives of their problems. Talk about what they think their problems or challenges are.
• Your readers then go on a journey which solves their problems. They are each the story’s hero, and you’re their guide.
• Beneficial stories include interesting twists. Stories should reveal your vulnerability because relatable experiences earn your readers’ trust.
• Eventually, present your offer as a natural next step.

How could empathy marketing help?

You begin with your readers’ perspectives and insights about their reality. They’ll notice when you’re aware of their thoughts and feelings. Reading the story helps readers visualize the solution process. You gradually shift their reality. It moves from a perspective focused on their problems to a perspective that sees your solution—the solution they can’t wait to purchase.

First Choice Advantage

Bonding more strongly with your audience makes you a premium choice.

Your competitors might have similar offers.

BUT

• Do they satisfy your readers’ obsessions?
• Have they bonded with your readers?
• Have they earned your readers’ trust and loyalty?

Being part of an education-based agency, our biggest competitor was healthcare services. Our services focused on family preferences and considered parents’ input on therapy decisions. But if parents were unaware of this fact, they sometimes chose the healthcare option. They perceived being on a 6 to 9 month wait list as a better option because of greater demand.

After a couple years of working with the same schools, we earned the teachers’ and previous parent clients’ trust and loyalty. Written and verbal referrals were plentiful.

Think what an authentic Facebook group shout out or raving comments from a popular blog could do for your business.

Zen moment!

Wrap-Up

I’ve put you on an emotional rollercoaster.

I’d be lying if I were to say empathy marketing is easy. It’s not a marketing and sales shortcut.

Focusing on your audience’s point of view keeps your relationship-based business alive and thriving. Considering your audience’s perspective is the art of discovering what they can’t stop reading and can’t wait to buy.

The motivation to connect with your audience matters more than you realize. If you don’t use empathy to emotionally stimulate and connect with your users, someone else will!

Enhancing your empathy marketing knowledge is a remarkable milestone. Your hero customers’ success is achievable through your empathy gift. Tune into their needs and desires while mindfully guiding their sales’ journey.

Who would read your content, or purchase from you because you considered their perspectives?

Keri Vandongen guides heroes like yourself through earning loyal customers. This sales journey enhances your online listening and communication insights.

Click for 3 email scripts for enticing subscribers to read, reply and trust.

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Keri Vandongen

Want to improve your listening and communicating, online? I can help you with that. I wear two hats as an empathy marketer, plus a corporate speech-language pathologist. Your customer journey taps into audience insights, active listening, and two-way communication for connections and trust.

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