How to Build Digital Empathy
How to Build Digital Empathy
When you want to instantly connect with a person you just meet the theory is to make eye
contact, smile, mirror their body language & implore some active listening to better
understand them. When it comes to a face-to-face interaction all these theories never fail.
But, in our fast moving world of AI, endless social media posts, live video & marketing
automation how do we connect with people over a screen?
Marketing's goal is to create interest about your product/services & attract customer to your
business. You are challenged on a daily basis to build a connection with a person in a world
that sometimes feels disconnected.
On a daily basis it's fair to say that 90% of our days are spent in front of a screen. Getting
bombarded by message after message through smart phones, computer screens or
televisions, the goal of standing out & garnering interest becomes difficult. We've truly turned
a corner in marketing where it's important give our prospects & customers more by creating
empathy.
Their experience will deepen & connection to your business will solidify by simply adding
empathy to your marketing. When you learn to tap into this powerful emotion you'll be able to
inspire your prospects to pay attention & motivate them to buy because you understand what
they value & want.
Two Types of Empathy (Simplified):
1. Affective Empathy:
• Affective empathy is all about feeling's another person's emotions. An example of this
is when we see someone cry we get a tear in our eye or the way that laughter is
infectious.
2. Cognitive Empathy:
• Cognitive empathy is knowing what another person might think, intend, believe or want.
This is great for negotiating salary to motivating staff.
In the digital world you can benefit from both types of empathy to build trust with your
customers. Affective empathy will depend on the visuals you utilize in your marketing & how
they re-enforce your marketing message. The colours you use for your business plays a part
in evoking emotion in your prospective customer.
Cognitive empathy is based on how well you know your customers. An in depth customer
persona, surveys & good old fashioned talking with your customers will help you gain insight
into how they might think.
The best part about empathy is that as humans we all have it, well unless you're a
psychopath. Although, we to have empathy we could all learn to improve it.
4 Ways to Improve Your Empathy:
Read Read & Read!:
• It is your favourite hobby of 2017 right? If not you might want to look into picking it up
as reading can improve your cognitive empathy. And, you don't have to be stuck
reading one type of writing as both non-fiction & fiction will help expand your empathy.
Reflections Matter:
• A communication technique in which you basically repeat what speaker said back to
them is known as active listening. A digital way to use active listening is paraphrasing
messages when you return answer a customer question or email. This shows that you
read the enquiry & care customer.
Listen to Your Mother (Kinda'):
• The universal lesson our mother's taught us when we were children was “to treat
people like you would like to be treated.” While this is sound advice, in the marketing
world it reads more like “treat others as they would like to be treated.”
Walk The Mile:
• It's not enough to just know who your customer is but you really have to get into their
heads. Look at things the way they would & what makes them do the things they do.
Remember, behaviour exists because it gets reinforced. Put yourself in your
prospective customers shoes & understand their actions & problems.
If you take the time to understand & appreciate what makes your customer's special your
marketing will gain deeper traction in their hearts.
The market place is filled with many tools, tricks & techniques for to spread your message.
However, that's all they are tools, tricks & techniques that mean nothing without adding
human emotion. Building relationships with your customers through empathy should be your
number one marketing goal. It will ensure your message will be heard by the right people at
the right time.