How to Create Empathetic Content To Impress Your Readers and Clients

Being an empathetic person is essential for effective communication, but empathy actually plays an important role in writing too. How good your content is can directly depend on how empathetic you are.

Luckily for writers and marketers, enriching content with empathy is not as difficult as it may seem at first. Hence, here’s everything you need to know about how to create empathetic content to impress your readers and clients.

#1 Know Your Audience

First and foremost, you need to know your target audience. Who are you writing for? Who will be reading your content? And if you are creating it in a different format (images, videos, etc.), then who will be seeing, watching, or listening to your content? Knowing your ideal reader is the first step in understanding how you can craft a piece of content that will be empathetic towards them.

It’s a good idea to segment your audience and not take all your readers as a monolith. They will likely be different people with different opinions, so you need to take into account these differences. That being said, your audience will have some things in common such as interests, problems, preferences, etc. Those are important for you because your content will need to address these points to be empathetic.

#2 Write Like a Human

When you do start writing, you should always write like a human. Technical content is meant to sound somewhat robotic, but if you are writing blog posts or preparing a script for a video, there is no reason for you to sound like a robot. Likewise, avoid adopting a corporate-like tone. You need to sound like a human being talking to another human being. This doesn’t mean that you should be casual, but it does mean that your text should sound natural.

Of course, you should also take into account your brand voice. If you are going for something sarcastic because that’s what your brand image is about, then by all means do that. Using humor and even swearing can lighten up the tone of your writing and make it more distinctive. As long as you sound human, you should do well.

#3 Address Problems

One of the best ways to show empathy is by addressing the problems your readers have. Everyone has their own struggles, and because you are covering a specific topic, you probably know what issues people can encounter when dealing with something you are writing about. Your job is to identify these problems and show that you are there to help the reader in some way.

For example, many students struggle with their assignments and can’t submit them on time. That’s why many of them start looking for a college paper writing service to hire a professional writer who will help them. You could be the solution they are looking for if you are offering such services, so you need to show that in your content.

#4 Prioritize Value

To truly help your audience and solve your readers’ problems, you need to prioritize value in your content. If you are just writing and writing without any value, your readers will just consider their time wasted. The same can be said for videos, podcasts, webinars, and any other type of content you create.

That is why you need to prioritize value and make your content relevant, useful, and helpful. If you are discussing a specific topic, don’t stray away from it too much. If you are writing a tutorial, guide your audience through every necessary step. If you are sharing your personal story that is meant to entertain, make every word count and don’t bore your audience.

#5 Keep It Simple

Speaking of the value of your words, you need to keep things simple. One of the reasons why a humorous story can get boring or a tutorial can be unhelpful is that you are trying to complicate things. You don’t need to use big words to make yourself sound smart. Keeping it simple is often much better.

Moreover, simplicity in your writing will help you reach a wider audience and connect with more people. Not everyone has higher education or is a native English speaker. If you write using simple sentence structure and common words, you will show your audience that you are speaking their language.

#6 Be Inclusive

Inclusivity is one of the things that gets mentioned quite often today – and for good reasons. Being inclusive in your writing shows that you are considering multiple perspectives instead of focusing on a single one. As mentioned earlier, your target audience is not a monolith, so you need to segment it.

It’s also a good idea to hire diverse writers for your team to have different voices. You can do this by hiring professional writers from the custom writing reviews site Supreme Dissertations. The more diverse your team is, the more inclusive you can be, but this doesn’t mean you should only value diversity when choosing your employees. There are many talented writers that come from diverse backgrounds and will satisfy your requirements.

#7 Focus on Them

One of the most essential things you should understand to master empathy is that the focus is on “them”, not you. When you are writing, you need to put your audience first and think about your readers throughout the entire process.

Ask yourself, “Is this something my audience will read and enjoy?” If the answer is yes, then you are on your way to creating content that will resonate with your readers. The same can be asked about videos, infographics, webinars, and other types of content you create.

#8 Propose Solutions

While it is definitely necessary to acknowledge and address the problems your audience has, you can’t just leave it at that. You need to propose solutions that your readers can implement to solve the said problems. Moreover, you need to take into account a variety of factors that could impact your readers’ ability to use the proposed solutions.

For example, if you are writing a recipe for a dish, you could include alternatives for some of the ingredients you are using. This will help readers who have allergies as well as those who would prefer to use cheaper alternatives to the ingredients you are using. It’s a small addition, but it can show your empathy.

#9 Listen to Feedback

Last but not least, always listen to feedback. Writing can often seem like a one-way conversation, but it’s actually a discussion. As a writer, you need to listen to your audience and use your readers’ feedback to improve the content you create, including articles, videos, photos, and anything else.

If your readers are asking you to cover a specific topic, then go ahead and write about it. If they are asking you to make formatting changes (e.g. using fewer links), then you should consider doing so. It’s also a good idea to directly engage with your readers by answering their questions, replying to comments, and so on.

In addition to all of that, you can also actively reach out to your audience for feedback. The best way to do this is by having regular surveys on your social media profiles or your blog or by sending them out through email. Short surveys don’t require much time from your readers, but they can really show you what your audience thinks about your content and how you can improve it.

Final Thoughts

To summarize, creating empathetic content is just like creating regular content, but you need to be more human during the process. If you truly want to show your empathetic side, you need to be invested in what you are doing. Utilize the tips and techniques from this article to help you become a more empathetic writer and start impressing your audience.

Author:

Frank Hamilton is a blogger and translator from Manchester. He is a professional writing expert in such topics as blogging, digital marketing and self-education.He also loves traveling and speaks Spanish, French, German and English.