Putting Empathy at the Heart of Technology
As you have heard to the point of exhaustion, the business landscape has changed dramatically since that tiny airborne virus began its quest for world domination. With an even larger emphasis on technology as a means of connectivity, it has never been more important to make empathy a part of your brand story.
Our evolving landscape values digital transparency, so audiences are more likely to consider buying from a business whose messaging feels genuine. While the world has changed, the core features of connectivity and humanity remain the same. Genuine empathy leads to visibility, which creates spaces for communication, goal-sharing, and mutual understanding. Tech can act as the means of this communication, but cannot (yet) respond to, or empathize with, how people feel. That is where you come in.
As ethical marketers, we would be wise to remember that our audiences are simply people. What matters most is meeting their very real human needs, and using tech to support that, not to manufacture it. Appealing to the pathos of your audience can be a very effective first step — care about your audience, put yourself in their shoes, and strive towards discovering novel ways to help them.
Now let’s talk tech
The COVID-19 crisis has changed our society’s relationship with tech, making us more dependent on its conveniences. Digital tech has upped its capacity considerably to meet expectations, and if your platform isn’t responsive to a client’s evolving needs, they will jump to the next competitor in a nanosecond.
Many professional and personal interactions now exist remotely, meaning mechanisms for measuring digital interaction have become abundant. Your business is now able to track what your audience is consuming, how they are reacting to certain content, and what stage of the buyer’s journey they are at. These are all tools you have at your disposal that, when used correctly, can help you engage with and appeal to your audience’s pathos.
Avenir’s Approach
At Avenir, we help our clients thrive by using an empathy first, technology second model.
The ability to listen and adapt to an audience’s evolving needs is suddenly being touted as a “new” competitive advantage, but that’s what we’ve been doing all along. As storytellers, we combine sincere messaging, with robust technology to deliver unique and effective narratives to all of our audiences. Keeping track of engagement is one piece of this puzzle, but empathizing with a brand’s goals, values, and narratives completes the picture.
As a digital marketing agency, Avenir is proud to represent a diverse array of brands, non-profits, and businesses, all with unique ambitions and principles. By adopting an empathetic, person-centered approach, we can adapt to the values of any audience.
Find out what the empathy first, technology second model can do for your business.
