By Louise Hughes
The neuroscientist Antonio Damasio famously said, “We are not thinking machines that feel, rather we are feeling machines that think.”
Damasio’s statement highlights how every human decision depends on emotion — every single one.
If you truly want your messaging to resonate with your audience, now is the time to switch to an empathetic mindset and update your buyer personas to reflect the new realities your customers are facing and the emotional decisions they are making.
Customer anecdotes are as important as data
In an ever more digital world, where data has become king, this approach returns us to focusing on your audience as real people with real stories, and not simply amalgamated users at the receiving end of your communications and messages.
Whilst it is important to share the value of your proposition, by concentrating on your customers first you can focus on what motivates them to act, what challenges they may face and how you can help them. From this brands and campaigns can be built to connect with customers in a deeper, more emotional way. The end result will be increased engagement, sales and referrals.
Be Genuine
Marketing with an authentic voice and a customer-centric approach will ultimately help you convert and retain more customers, as well as attract new ones.
Start by listening to and understanding your audience, considering the customer journey from their perspective. The insight gained allows for the creation of campaigns and content that speak directly to your audiences’ differing needs at the various points in the sales funnel.
Creating useful content that people want and need, which addresses both their practical and emotional needs will build trust in your brand and services, generating higher levels of engagement.
Step into your customers world
Former CMO at IBM Systems, Doug Brown said: “The need for empathy towards the buyer is huge. It’s a differentiator…”
By stepping into your customer’s world, you develop an empathetic approach to your marketing strategy which helps your business to highlight a specific product differentiation or to work towards a new product or service.
Listen to your customers’ comments, watch how they go about solving a problem. Understand what motivates them and get involved in the problem fixing process with them.
By placing yourself into your customer’s world you will be faster to adapt with the ebb and flow of customer demands and keep one step ahead of the competition.
For guidance on how to build an empathetic approach into your marketing strategy and PR a member of our team would be delighted to speak to you on 01252 621293, or you can email us at info@scsmarketingandpr.co.uk
