Empathetic Marketing: How to Create Content that Connects with your Audience

In a world where creators hustle for recognition, visibility and clicks, using the power of empathy to create content that connects with your audience is one of the biggest content marketing recipes that’s transformed the story of many creators.

As far as content creation is concerned, empathy is the secret sauce that converts casual readers to loyal followers. It is the difference between creating content and forging connections that takes readers from casual viewers, to raving fans.

Unfortunately, majority of creators are not aware there’s a thing called empathetic marketing or even worse, how to launch one.

But in this guide, I’ll be walking with you to navigate how to use the power of empathy to create content that resonates with your audience, builds connections and leaves lasting impression on them.

My Experience with Empathy

If you were around on that 30th August, you could easily have felt the deep sense of loss hanging all over the room as I sat there on the reading chair with my back against the wall.

Unlike my usual self, I was lost to everything! I didn’t notice her presence in the room until I felt a warm hug from behind me.

She placed her left hand on my shoulder as I tried hard to stop myself from sobbing.

Of course I couldn’t care less about whoever was in the apartment. I’d lost it all. So what’s more?

The moment she brought out a piece of cloth to dab my tears, I realized she had this tears built up in her eyes.

Seeing I’d noticed her tears, she gently squeezed my palm with her right hand while rocking my back with the other hand as the silence seemed to last forever.

At this point, I became lost on what to do. Overwhelmed with the deep sadness that enveloped me, I allowed the tears to find its way down my chin. I cried like a child.

I was in this state. Tears flowed through my slightly bent face, unhindered like a river on its course. My heart pumped up furiously like it’s about to explode but as she kept rocking my palm, I started to realize that I was not alone.

At this point, I realized what it is to have someone connect with you at a deep level of need. I felt for the first time, safety in spite of that vulnerability. And right there and then, I felt a gradual ease as the pain started to give way.

Of course I didn’t feel hopeful instantly. But, I had the first glimmer of hope. And then I realized, I was not alone.

That was when I first felt the power of empathy.

Here’s the truth; If you were able to see yourself through this story, then you’re not far from understanding the concept of empathy as an individual.

What Empathy Does In Content Marketing

Empathy is not just a popular phrase it is the foundation you can use to build authentic relationships that leaves lasting impression on your audience.

The following are key reasons why empathy is important in content marketing;

Creates Understanding

Empathy is a powerful tool that can help you to understand your target audience, reframe their needs, clarify their aspirations and even identify their pain points.

With a clear understanding of the needs of your target audience, you already have what it takes to create a more focused driven content that effectively addresses their concerns.

Done effectively, this can improve your ROI, engagement rates and outright followership.

Makes Content Relatable

Naturally, readers are more drawn to content they can relate with.

Using the power of empathy in content marketing, you can create relatable content that reflects the experiences, journey and emotions of your audience.

This makes it easy for them to be drawn to your content and gets them more likely to share with their friends or even return to read your blog.

Builds Trust

Be it online or offline, trust is one of the foundations of every lasting relationships. As a brand aspiring to build authenticity and trust worthiness, you can use empathy as one of your super powers.

By creating empathetic content that gets your audience feeling seen, heard and understood, they become more willing to trust your brand, listen to your recommendations and respect your expertise.

Boosts Connections

In the marketing world, empathy is one of the biggest tools to forge strong and meaningful connections with audiences.

The moment you’re able to share the feelings of your audience, it becomes easier to walk in their shoes.

As a creator when you’re able to walk in the shoes of your audience, you’re already equipped with the resources needed create a strong bond with them using content marketing.

Builds Audience Loyalty

Metaphorically, you must be able to wear the same shoes as your audience so you get to know exactly where it pinches. So, put yourself in their shoes while creating your content. Get into their head.

Using the power of empathy to create connections with your audience, you get to build result driven content that generates consistent outcomes for your audience.

Over time, this goes to create a level of loyalty that gets your audience coming back over to your blog. With time they can even become raving fans, sharing your posts, patronizing your business or recommending you to their friends.

How to Use Empathy in Content Marketing

Now that we’ve outlined the importance of empathy in content marketing, in the following paragraphs we’ll navigate the practical steps to unleash the power of empathy and use it to enrich your content..

Identify your Audience

You can’t care about someone you don’t know or a situation you don’t have a background information about.

In order to create empathetic content, you want to clearly identify the target of this emotion, find out the things that make them thick and then navigate ways to attract them with your content.

In addition to this, find out how they prefer to consume their content (whether videos, images or text), what matters to them specifically and the kind of content they care about.

Understand their Needs

Empathy thrives on knowledge. To unleash the power of empathy and create content that resonates with your audience, you need a beyond a surface knowledge of your audience.

It is only from such deep understanding that you can find a way to create a custom solution that works for them using your content.

Create Audience Focused Content

Your audience already have what they are looking for in an ideal content. They have an idea about what they expect to see when they jump on Google search or get on the social media.

As a smart content creator, you have to follow their pre-conceived expectations to create content that’s centered around their needs.

It doesn’t matter what you already have in mind as content goals, the key to unleashing the power of empathy is using insights from analytics data, keywords, search trends, etc. to build content around the specific needs of your audience.

Share Authentic Stories

Authenticity is one of the most admired traits that gets people to trust you far easily than they would in real life.

As a content creator, you can use authenticity as your super power to build trust, likability and relatability with your audience.

So, it starts with telling authentic stories through your content. Sharing the good, the bad and not so bad parts especially when it suits the purpose of your content.

What this does is that it allows you to be vulnerable and at the end of the day this robs off on your brand. It puts you out there as this sincere, truthful and relatable brand. And when people can relate to your story it instantly builds connections.

Create Valuable Content

Empathetic content is valuable. In fact, one of the things that makes an audience easily connect with a piece of content is the fact that they find value in that content.

Beyond trying to find connection, create value for your audience. Find ways to solve their problems, meet their needs. Create custom solutions that answers their questions without fail and you’ll find them coming back to you.

Engage with your Audience

Outside creating and sharing content, engaging with your audience is another way to use the power of empathy in content marketing to build meaningful connections with your audience.

So, you want to reply to their comments on your posts, answer their questions, give them call outs where applicable, connect with them beyond your blog and on social media platforms.

At the end of the day, whether it’s your family, colleagues, business associates, clients or your tribe,…

If you’re ever going to give them the right experience with your content, you’ll need to understand the power of empathetic marketing and use it as part of your content marketing strategy.

Final Words

Empathetic marketing is a marketing strategy that puts your audience at the center piece of your content marketing experience. And one thing about this marketing strategy is that it pushes you to create more result driven content that can will boost long term conversions.

So, using these strategies, you will find ways to unleash the power of empathy to grow your marketing and create a more deeper connection with your audience.

But to do it even better, sign up for our content marketing course and get all the skills and mentorship you need to get started today or reach out to us here.

Now, it’s your turn. What are your biggest challenges when it comes to using empathy to create relatable content? Drop your comments below!