Empathy Mapping - How to BE your customer.

Empathy? (not to be confused with sympathy).?

It’s a word we all use often.?

“He or she is empathetic.” or “We need to show more empathy to our customers.”

Let’s reset things by clearing up what we mean by Empathy.

According to the Cambridge Dictionary:?

“The ability to share someone else's feelings or experiences by imagining what it would be like to be in that person's situation.”

So what’s this got to do with B2B Marketing and ABM?

The answer is quite simple:

Everything.?

B2B Marketing is often perceived as soulless:

• Campaigns
• Clicks
• Demos
• Proposals
• Negotiations
• Contracts, etc.?

Just think - we talk about targets. We talk about prospects. We talk about targeting. We talk about winning (and losing).

These are not very customer centric, are they??

We talk about knowing our customers. We talk about developing deep relationships with them. But how much of that is actually true?

The CX and engagement gap

Research has shown the gulf between what brands believe [95% of brands believe they are delivering exemplary customer experiences) and customers (less than 65% of customers were happy with brand experiences).

In addition to this gap in CX, B2B trails behind its B2C cousin when it comes to engagement.?

And therein lies the problem and the answer.

Feelings.?

While we may be B2B that does mean we should be Boring-to-Boring or leave our ‘human-side’ (whatever that means) to one side when our working day starts.?

Speaking from my own experience, I am tired of being sold to.

Tired of being treated as one more Marketer - one more contact in your database.?

We respond to creativity.

We respond to innovation.

Just think of all those Christmas advertisements that bring a tear to our eye.?

We’re all swamped by a sea of B2B Marketing. Just think how rarely you stop scrolling on LinkedIn. Just think how rarely you click on a programmatic advert you see while reading the NYT.?

Why? Because they do not engage us. They do not talk to us. They do not understand us. They do not empathize with us.?

The role of empathy in B2B Marketing

Empathy is hard-wired into our brains. The neurological mirrors and shared circuits that we possess give us the ability to understand what others are feeling.?

Without empathy there can be no customer connection.?

If we are starved of customer perspective we suffer from ‘customer understanding deprivation’ and a lack of ‘empathetic concern’.?

No wonder our audiences don’t feel anything.?

Empathetic Marketing?

To be clear. This is not about Voice of the Customer (VoC) surveys.?

It is not about understanding the customer. It is about BEING the customer.?

And how can you BE your customer?

To really benefit from empathetic thinking, us Marketers need to take a step back.?

It’s so easy for us to think (and believe) that we know our customers - that we are one of them (or can be one of them).?

The reality is that nothing could be further from the truth. There is so much bias in our thinking. There is so much bias in our marketing.?

And this bias impacts everything that we do - value proposition, messaging, artwork, account experience, etc.?

So, as you can see, there we need to BE our customers if we want to really connect, if we really want to empathize.??

And here is where Empathy Mapping comes in.?

Empathy Mapping

Empathy Mapping was created by Scott Matthews and Dave Gray, of the Vision and Strategy firm XPLANE back in 2010.?

And in a nutshell - what is the Empathy Mapping?

According to its creator, It’s a tool that helps people step inside the heads of their audiences, putting a human-centered framework around co-creating a better picture of who we’re talking to when we design products, services, and experiences for people.

The outcome for B2B Marketers and us ABMers?

1. We design better strategies
2. We develop better messaging
3. We create better products/solutions
4. We create better customer experiences
5. We ensure that our solution/product will help our audience do the action we want to see.?

How to Empathy map

It is best used at the very beginning of any campaign or design process as a discovery tool to help get everyone aligned and ‘on the same page’ and, importantly, to uncover insights about how your customers think.?

It cannot be done in isolation.

It needs everyone with ‘intelligence’ on the customer(s) to come together to help build a strong picture - so Marketing, Sales, Customer Success, C-suite, etc.?

I'd recommend you add first and third-party research, survey results, testimonials, customer interviews, competitor insight, etc. to help fill in the gaps.?

I'd also recommend doing an Empathy Map for all key members of the buying committee or group that you are looking to influence.?

TIP: Fill in this diagram with real, tangible, sensory experiences, e.g.

The “What do they HEAR?” section - try to think of what the person might hear (and how they would hear it).

In the ‘What do they SAY?” section, write their thoughts as they you believe they would express them.

Important: Do not put your words into their mouth. The objective is to understand and empathize with their situation to design better Marketing campaigns.?

Here’s a 7-step approach to take:

1. WHO are we looking to empathize with?

• Who are you looking to engage and empathize with? (think Decision Maker, Influencer, Blocker, etc.)?
• Write down all the key job titles, positions, or indeed individual names. [Do one Empathy Map for each one]
• What is their situation??
• What is their role in that situation??
• Prioritize the most important roles.?

2. What do we want them to DO?

• What do they need to understand?
• What do you want them to do (differently)??
• What job/task do they need to get done??
• What decision(s) do they need to make?
• What does ‘good’ look like for them?
• Focus on the action (DO). What change/action/shift are you looking to achieve??

3. What do they need to SEE?

• How is their world changing?
• What market trends are impacting their role?
• What are they seeing happening within their own organization??
• What are they seeing other people doing in the market?
• What are they seeing their customers doing??
• What are they consuming (content, media, etc.)??

4. What are they SAYING?

• What do they say to us?
• What do they say to others??
• What key messages do they share with their teams or their peers?
• What do they say they are most optimistic about? (and pessimistic?)

5. What do they DO?

• What is a typical day for them?
• What are their highest priorities?
• Where do they ‘waste’ time?
• Where would they want to spend their time?

6. What do they HEAR?

• What are they hearing from their leaders?
• What are they hearing from their team?
• What are they hearing from their customers??
• Who most influences them? (e.g. influencers, publications, etc.)
• What messages are they taking from these influencers?

7. What do they THINK & FEEL?

• What are their fears, frustrations, and obstacles?
• What do they most want to gain (wants, needs, measures of happiness)??
• What gives them optimism??

Empathy mapping output

Now that’s a lot of data, right??

And what does that look like in reality? Well, a lot of colored post it notes at first as in this example.

At the Agency - what we do next with clients is:

As you can see Empathy Mapping provides a wealth of customer insights that are all too often underexplored and unused.?

And it adds a depth of knowledge and insight to your ABM strategy and ABM account experience that you just wouldn't have otherwise.

So...let's all be more empathetic!

P.S: Thank you to Dave Gray, XPLANE.com for providing such a wealth of information on this subject.