Empathy is a hot topic in the marketing community. And with good reason—we’re in the people business. Our ability to channel the needs, wants and values of our customers through content is a key driver of relationship-building.
And while, yes, we’re all responsible for promoting our own brands, we cannot forget that humans with real feelings and emotions are on the receiving end of every marketing message.
Remembering that there’s an actual person who opens, reads and processes your emails, texts, push notifications and the like is not just the right thing to do—it also impacts the bottom line. Brands that deliver humanized experiences are twice as likely to outperform the revenue growth of their competitors.
“If you have empathy, you can better design for the human experience because you intimately understand how your stakeholders find meaning and belonging in products and services.” Deloitte, 2020
Growth marketers have long been champions of empathetic marketing, and together, we’ve helped push this strategy into the mainstream.
Top analysts and even consultancy firms have caught the wave—we’re hoping that this will deliver the momentum needed to transform this movement from trend to rule.
Empathy in Action
It’s one thing to read about the importance of empathy in marketing, but it’s another to see it in action.
Inside our latest guide, “Driving Growth With Good,” we examined different examples of marketing emails that demonstrate four unique attributes of empathy:
1. Acknowledging perspective
We have to remember that our customers are people. They have different experiences, values, and especially viewpoints—we have to learn and listen from them. That’s the only way we talk with—not at—them.
2. Staying out of judgment
Before you judge a person, walk a mile in their shoes. Promoting the values of your brand is an important marketing tactic, except when it comes at the expense of those of your customers.
3. Recognizing emotion
Not all of our customers feel the same way about things as we do, so practice mindful marketing. Paying close attention to customer emotions and trying to feel what our customers might feel is a great guiding principle for developing the right tone.
4. Communicating understanding
Each of our customers is set upon their own unique journey. It’s the marketer’s role to support them from touchpoint to touchpoint—as if we’re doing it together. This comes from communicating in supporting ways that demonstrate “we get it.”
Learn How to Lead With Empathy
Each of these attributes can be characterized differently inside your marketing and deliver an impactful, resonant message to your audiences. Incorporating any degree of these elements can radically change how your campaigns are received by customers.
Download our guide, “Driving Growth With Good,” to see how brands like The American Red Cross, Lyft, Bloom & Wild, and Penzey’s Spices masterfully demonstrate these different elements inside their emails.
