Connecting with your audience is important, but when you connect with them to on an empathic level… your brand has just successful completed the emotional connection. Empathy can not only help consumers relate more to a brand, but it can also build trust and increase sales as well.
When a consumer feels deeply connected to a brands story regarding their start, a product/service, their “why”, or anything else; its dependent of their storytelling factors. It creates a trust factor that can create not only a strong emotional connection from your audience, but it can also create a strong loyal community within your audience. This creates a dependence on sales increasing and loyalty towards your brand growing.
Here is an example; I have a non-profit organization called The Celiac Connection. This brand is mainly to create awareness and build connections throughout the Celiac Disease community, but it builds empathy on both my side and the audiences side. While I am raising awareness of Celiac Disease, I have my audience telling their stories about their diagnosis and stories. This is what I like to call “the safe place of marketing”. Using empathy allows your audience to feel safe not only with the brand, but with the rest of the community. This builds connections between consumers, brands, and others relating to them. But this also creates an advocacy.
When consumers feel safe and heard, they want to share it with everyone they know can benefit from it!
Another way to think about it is simple. Instead of marketing as a brand, market your brand as human.
When consumers can see the person behind a logo, behind the brand, and behind the accounts; it not
only increases brand loyalty, but it also increases brand awareness and engagement. When using
empathy in marketing approaches, it allows campaigns to be created that speaks directly to a consumers
needs, desires, aspirations, and motivations. This marketing approach makes sure a campaign is not only
seen and heard, but felt and understood.
So while your next marketing campaign is being created, remember.
Never create the campaign as a brand, create it like a human. Build the
emotional connection with your audience by allowing them to
understand your brand on a personal and deeper level.