How to Build Brand Trust Using Empathy-based Marketing

How can you connect with and convert more customers?

Connecting with customers is crucial to building relationships and converting them into loyal followers. In order to connect with customers, there needs to be a certain level of trust, yet there is a gap between how much trust business leaders think their brand has from its customers and how much those customers truly trust them.

According to PWC’s 2022 Consumer Intelligence Series Survey on Trust, there is a whopping 57-point gap between the two, with 87% of business leaders believing that their customers highly trust their company. Meanwhile, only 30% of consumers highly trust companies.

Closing that gap is a priority, and one way that businesses can accomplish this is with the help of empathy marketing. In this blog, we’ll explain what it is, why brands need to use it today, and how empathy marketing can help to improve trust.

What Is empathetic marketing?

In a strange way, empathetic marketing isn’t new. Leveraging emotions as a sales tactic has always been an element to sales success. What has changed is the way companies go about assessing and understanding their market. We’re seeing an insurgence of transparency and a new level of honesty. Value is in demand and it’s quickly becoming a 2023 trend.

Customers are spoilt for choice these days and won’t hesitate to go in another direction if a brand cannot meet their expectations. Those expectations are particularly high in this current economic climate as consumers want the most value for the money they can find. They can’t afford to continue supporting brands that aren’t putting in the extra effort to win their business.

But, customer expectations today are also shaped by how marketing was done in the past. If we look at the marketer’s journey, we see how the aggressive and bold advertising campaigns from the 30s, 40s, and 50s have negatively influenced marketing all the way into the 90s, until the internet suddenly shifts us into new millennial territory.

When ad space melted into cyber space, we saw an influx of new predatory marketing. Who can forget those very annoying:

• pop up ads
• false contest wins banners
• virus warnings
• bogus security system updates

It was around this time that innovators realized that chaos online was distracting consumers and making transactions extremely difficult. The solution was the user journey; a bit more hand holding because consumers needed guidance to make that purchase.

Creating better user journeys

In a strange way, empathetic marketing isn’t new. Leveraging emotions as a sales tactic has always been an element to sales success. What has changed is the way companies go about assessing and understanding their market. We’re seeing an insurgence of transparency and a new level of honesty. Value is in demand and it’s quickly becoming a 2023 trend.

Customers are spoilt for choice these days and won’t hesitate to go in another direction if a brand cannot meet their expectations. Those expectations are particularly high in this current economic climate as consumers want the most value for the money they can find. They can’t afford to continue supporting brands that aren’t putting in the extra effort to win their business.

But, customer expectations today are also shaped by how marketing was done in the past. If we look at the marketer’s journey, we see how the aggressive and bold advertising campaigns from the 30s, 40s, and 50s have negatively influenced marketing all the way into the 90s, until the internet suddenly shifts us into new millennial territory.

When ad space melted into cyber space, we saw an influx of new predatory marketing. Who can forget those very annoying:

• pop up ads
• false contest wins banners
• virus warnings
• bogus security system updates

It was around this time that innovators realized that chaos online was distracting consumers and making transactions extremely difficult. The solution was the user journey; a bit more hand holding because consumers needed guidance to make that purchase.

Technology’s effect on marketing

Technology both simplified and complicated the way the market delivers services and products. In some ways tech has allowed businesses to reinvent and modernize the marketing model to drive success, but that only applies to companies with the right tools and implementers at their disposal.

The right technology can enable companies to have conversations with chatbots, introduce personalization, deliver omnichannel marketing journeys, and more on the way to adopting more empathetic marketing strategies.

Some examples

Virtual reality (VR) has become a new tool for businesses looking to make a greater impact on their audience and it’s something we’re going to see more and more brands doing. Why? Because it allows the viewer to see through the eyes of someone else and evokes emotion and understanding by putting a face and name to a statistic.

For instance, while people are familiar with autism, very few understand it on a personal level. The National Autistic Society knew this and wanted people to better understand the effects of autism. They did so by creating a VR driven video campaign.

In this experience, you’re made to see through someone else’s eyes and walk in their shoes. It’s at this moment that your emotions are being used to fully understand a message.

How to create the trusting atmosphere customers expect

In order to build the trust that customers expect, there are many different approaches businesses can undertake.

Have a conversation

Conversational marketing involves building one-to-one relationships with customers through dialogue, and businesses use chatbots and voice assistants to accomplish this in the digital age. Having a conversation with customers can provide deeper understanding and allow you to connect with their emotional needs and desires. Ultimately, businesses can create a more human-centered marketing approach that appeals to customers emotionally.

Provide omnichannel marketing

Brands need to stay top of mind with current digital channels and relevant content. The customer journey spans multiple locations, and customers expect businesses to provide content on these channels. They also expect it to be seamlessly connected so that as they move through the touchpoints in their journey, the quality of the experience doesn’t falter.

By showing that your brand is aligned with the customer through every step of the journey, it’s easier to empathize and appeal to their emotions and get them to convert. This might sometimes mean incorporating new devices and experiences to better connect with customers.

Why is brand trust important?

Up until recently, there was consistent pressure on consumers to buy commodities as a way to validate their self-worth. This created an extremely materialistic disposable and negative outlook.

There’s a reason why the average diner, dive bar, or lunch spot are so successful. It’s not about the food or the affordable pricing; these places are a dime a dozen. It’s the comradery of being a regular, the service, the personalized greeting, and the overall social aspect. A regular not only feels welcomed, they feel appreciated and special. It is moments like these that create experiences. Queue the Cheers theme song.

This may come as a surprise, but personalized emails and campaigns are not enough to sustain and grow an existing customer base. People want a more emotional approach, they not only want you to know who they are and to appreciate them as a client, they want to know you and your intentions.

Empathy as a marketing tool creates a content strategy that resonates with consumer needs on a much more personal level and it can really strengthen those customer relationships. This is beneficial to everyone involved, you’re building brand trust, using transparency as a tool, and delivering your services to an appreciative and loyal audience. Everyone wins.

However, we know getting started is the toughest part, so here’s a word of advice from an expert:

There will always be growing pains, but starting small will allow teams to determine what works for them and their organization, as well as ensuring team members are trained up on how to use and maximize the power of AI and personalization.

Jill Grozalsky Roberson, Director of DX Product Marketing & Evangelism for Sitecore

Connect with your customers with the help of Content Bloom

At Content Bloom, we are well-versed in the need to provide empathy-based marketing to customers. We can offer the technical and strategic expertise to support your business through a number of services, including digital marketing, headless implementation, and others. But we don’t just deliver these services to clients. Instead, we guide them, assist with the strategy, and support their internal teams with new processes.

An American Energy Company needed to adjust its strategy following the pandemic to continue delivering a high-quality customer experience, even though they could no longer meet face to face. We showed them how they could leverage data to provide the right content to their customers at the right time, personalizing and optimizing the customer journey with the help of a plug-and-plug digital solution. They could relate to their customers’ challenges and provide them with exactly what they needed.

Interested in how Content Bloom can help you appeal to and relate to your customers? Contact us today.

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