Monday, 26 March - 13:18 Category: Commentry

Empathic Marketing to Boost Sales

SYNOPSIS:  Empathising with the client can help you understand why they buy.  What is your marketing doing which makes the transition from prospect to client possible and how can empathic marketing improve your sales?

Perhaps one of the most challenging aspects of marketing is getting inside the head of your prospect.  Just imagine if you could telepathically connect with all those who buy from you to understand what it was that clinched the deal.  If only we could implicitly understand the line of commonality in what we do that makes some things successful and others a failure. 

As the likelihood of us all becoming X-Men is remote we are going to have resort to more conventional methods.  There are, of course, a myriad of the techniques you can employ to give you clues and pointers in determining how people react to your marketing.  Some of these techniques include; testing, competitor analysis, psychographic analysis and empathy.  It is this last approach which I think can produce rapid results and impressive business benefits.

Put briefly, empathy is our ability to see the world from another person's perspective (or paradigm).  Our capacity to empathise contributes heavily to our compassion as well as to strengthening our relationships.  This isn't wishy-washy emotional stuff, this is about understanding where people come from, what their motivation is, why they say the things they do, why they behave in specific ways and so forth.  We each understand our own motivations but how liberating is it when somebody genuinely understands you and your concerns? 

Let's put this in a business context.  I'm sure you'll agree that most businesses don't insist on the customer 'fitting in' with your business model.  Typically, you want to fit in with whatever are your customer's requirements.  This means that our marketing must reflect and understand the concerns of our customer.  Just this point alone shifts our marketing focus from being self-centred (what we do) to client centred (what do you need?) But in understanding what the customer needs we must also understand the emotional context of their need.  Is your business solving your client's problem, creating an opportunity for them, helping them towards success or pulling them away from pain?

For the most part people buy to move away from pain and towards pleasure.  What you do in your business helps that process along.  Think of the last 10 purchases that you put any kind of thought to -- how many of them fulfilled this criterion?  (My personal exception to this is food shopping which I hate!) 

Take a quick look at your homepage and ask yourself two questions: 

  1. Is it clear to your prospect that what you do helps them move from pain to pleasure and;
  2. does your offering reflect the emotional context of your prospect's needs?

If you can empathise with the emotional needs of your client and reflect this in your marketing you strengthen your overall business proposition.  And in actual fact empathy is easy -- just listen to what people mean not what they say without applying any pre-conceptions or prejudices. 

Test the impact of any changes you make but my experience of this approach has always been extremely positive and improved our client's sales. 

If you would like to read more about this concept than I recommend the Seven Habits of Highly Effective People by Dr Stephen Covey -- an inspirational read!

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Posted By:Jed Wylie on Mon, Mar 26th 2007, 13:18