Compassion, consideration, empathy—these are virtues we must hold in our hearts during the pandemic which we’re facing today. Even a little bit of sympathy can go a long way since it’ll help us understand the other person’s point of view in a troublesome situation brought by COVID-19.
When it comes to marketing, you could say the same. COVID-19 has changed society’s way of living in the meantime, including businesses methods of advertising their products and services. But what has changed? What can we expect from the marketing industry while the COVID-19 virus continues to haunt the streets?
Due to the sensitive nature of the current situation, businesses should empathise with their customers. The topic for today is empathetic marketing, a form of advertising that comes from the heart. While it’s already been a legitimate strategy for advertising for a long time, empathy-based marketing is more relevant due to the controversies surrounding COVID-19.
People are terrified of the virus for a good reason: it can take your life, or worse—your loved ones. Not to mention, we’re getting more anxious about what the future lies ahead as we get used to living in “a new normal” world. For such reasons, connecting with your customers is the best way to show that your brand cares.
Empathy-based Marketing: What Is It?
Earning trust is the first step to gaining more customers. After all, it’s the foundation of a healthy relationship. As such, you should focus on establishing credibility when communicating with the consumers. To do so, you can engage in empathy-based marketing.
Empathy marketing revolves around the point of view of the customer. In this form of marketing, you’ll put yourself in the other person’s shoes to understand how they feel. As a result, you can customise your ads to appeal to the customer’s emotions.
In summary, you need to stay on the same level with your customers if you wish to understand them better. However, experimenting with human emotions is a sensitive task. Failing to execute your empathy-based marketing strategies can backfire and damage your reputation in the process. That’s why you need to plan carefully and consider other factors that will affect your marketing efforts.
Tips For Incorporating Empathy Into Your Content
1. Prioritise Your Customers
The objective of empathy-based marketing is to help others solve a problem, not to give them a solution. Help your customers solve their problem by providing them with relevant content.
For example, in a previous blog post, we discussed the importance of digital marketing and how it can help businesses amid COVID-19 pandemic. In this article, we provided tips that could help businesses across various industries in Singapore market their brands.
In short, you should prioritise your customers and post content that will give them what they need. Appeal to their interests and understand their motivations to create more meaningful content. So don’t just focus on how your content will boost your SEO ranking. Instead, focus on how you can help your audience by identifying their needs.
2. Engage With Your Audience
Every relationship is a two-way street with consistent communication from both parties. In marketing, it’s the same. You need to interact with your audience if you wish to connect with them on a deeper level. Fortunately, the key to customer engagement is to initiate conversations.
Right now, focus on creating conversations instead of campaigns. Doing so will help you avoid the notion that you’re pushing an agenda. You could post surveys, communicate with your customers, and ask how they feel about their current situation by encouraging feedback.
Treat your customers as if they mean the world to you. They’re the reason why your business is up and running, so it’s only appropriate to give back in response to their contributions to your services. So avoid the sales talk, invite someone over, and listen to their grievances. To do so, here are some examples that should help:
- Post ads and encourage your audience to comment and send feedback
- Send emails to existing customers and engage in a healthy conversation
- Write articles about helpful tips
- Show appreciation in your social media marketing campaigns
3. Understand Your Target Market
Everyone’s different, regardless of the person’s age, traits, and interests. As such, it’s important to analyse your target audience and understand their differences. For instance, what may be offensive to one person may not be the same for others, so it’s better to play it safe instead and create quality content that will reach a wide range of consumers.
Define your target market and identify their behaviours. In doing so, you can tailor your content to meet their standards and engage in more effective conversations. The best part is that you’ll know more about your audience along the way.
Conclusion
Bringing empathy to your content marketing campaign is an effective way to connect with your audience, regardless of the current dilemma we’re facing these days. Focus on these three steps to improve your empathy-based marketing strategies:
- Listen and observe
- Help others
- Practise empathy on a personal level
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