Here’s a little secret about humans: we’re not rational beings. We like to think we are, we pretend to make decisions based purely on logic, but everything we do comes down to emotion in the end. Which means that, as content marketers, it is our job to make our clients feel the emotions that provokes them to choose our brand over the others.
So, how do we create emotion? With empathy. Generating empathy in your copy makes your audience feel understood, heard, and taken care of. Here are three easy ways to add more empathy to your written content today.
Let Your Voice Shine Through
Make your copy personal. That doesn’t mean make it all about you (it should be about your audience), but it should showcase your brand’s personality. Add a little humour, an anecdote here and there, anything that brings a personal element to your copy. That being said, if you are writing about a sombre topic, don’t throw a bunch of jokes in there. Personalize your copy, but match your tone to your topic.
Use the Art of Storytelling
Remember years ago when you took that creative writing class in college? You learned how to create characters, conflict, and a story arc. You should be putting that knowledge into use in your marketing copy as well!
Create a narrative flow to everything that you write. It engages people and makes them more likely to read to the end. A good way to do this in marketing content is to use the problem/agitate/solve formula, which looks like this:
- Problem: find and describe a problem your prospective clients face.
- Agitate: talk about how the issue could get worse. Include potential consequences and worst-case scenarios.
- Solve: offer a solution–specifically a solution that your product or service will provide.
Connect, Don’t Sell
Talk to your audience like you’re one of them, not like you’re selling to them. It can be so easy to get caught up in our own industry’s buzzwords and technical jargon, but that does not elicit trust in your customers. Instead of trying to wow them with your company’s prowess, imagine that you are giving advice to a friend. Approach it like making a connection and helping out someone you care about, and your audience will pick up on that.
For more tips on content writing, check out our blog.
