Updating your marketing funnel? Time to add empathy!
Do you like being put in a neat little box? Does anyone else?
But that's exactly what the marketing funnel model does. Sure, it illustrates a theoretical and simplified customer journey. And marketers like it because it gives them a way to measure their efforts.
But the marketing funnel is an illusion, a way to prove the value of a department with the help of vanity metrics and a lot of creative stories. And in the end, the funnel collects all potential clients and customers in one neat little box.
Don't get me wrong. I'm not saying that the funnel is useless. It provides a handy framework to help you plan, implement, and measure your marketing. However, I am saying that it's not enough.
The funneldoes not take into account empathy.
Empathetic marketing beyond the funnel
You've been taught that empathy is "walking in someone else's shoes." But this idea confuses you. It makes you think you can put yourself in your customers' shoes and understand everything about them in that moment.
Empathy is walking alongside someone until your shoes feel like theirs. This is not a moment, it requires constant communication and deep understanding.
Walk alongside your client until your shoes feel like their own.
But the marketing funnel doesn't allow you to walk alongside the customer. That's why when you use this structure, you step into the customer's shoes and walk purposefully with your eyes closed, pushing the outcome the way you think it should be achieved.
How do you add empathy to a system that lacks it?
Let's look at four ways to do this.
1. Put your marketing funnel on the back burner
You can use the marketing funnel as a foundation, but you need to build on it. Overlay the funnel on the never straight, often winding, sometimes stopping road that is the customer journey.
By taking a curved road, you are less likely to reject potential customers who do not make a purchase within an arbitrary time frame. You are forced to think about long-term utility rather than short-term profits. It also prevents marketing from being reduced to a sales enablement role rather than a brand-building role.
2. Understand what your customers like and dislike
Remember that over time, you are walking alongside the customer. Social marketers are in a unique - and valuable - position because they are one of the closest teams to their audience.
For example, if your brand wants to reach customers 45 years and older, you know that TikTok doesn't have many fans in this demographic. (A survey conducted in March 2023 found that 65% of people aged 45 to 64 and 83% of people aged 65 and older favor banning TikTok.)
Or if you're trying to win over Generation Z, know that they like to turn on subtitles when they consume social, streaming content, movies, and TV shows. (A Preply survey found that 70% of Generation Z use subtitles most of the time, compared to 53% of Millennials, 38% of Generation Xers, and 35% of Baby Boomers.) You know your video content needs to include this important detail.
3. 3. Create a community
My working theory is that every outdated social media platform loses users to newer platforms. The barrage of ads and inauthentic connections make them run away and look for more personal connections.
Be sure to put into practice what you've learned about what customers like and dislike, and demonstrate your new empathy skills on all the platforms you use.
TikTok's January 2023 data shows that 76% of users like it when brands become part of interest groups they identify with. The key phrase is "become part of". Brands have to be authentic wherever they are, because the audience can see from a mile away that someone is trying to sell them something.
Once you've found your communities, find non-obvious ways to authentically integrate your brand into them.
One example of an unexpected collaboration is the #TrainTok content by Gucci and The North Face. The brands teamed up with useful train spotter and 20-year-old TikTok influencer Francis Bourgeois to create content about a $9,000 down vest. This YouTube video shows one example of their collaboration.
While Bourgeois may seem like an odd choice to represent a luxury brand, his fans include many celebrities and his content encompasses a love of adventure, which makes sense for The North Fans. Working with him allowed both brands to reach a new community of outdoor and travel enthusiasts.
4. Show, don't tell (or sell)
You have to show that you are getting your audience, not sell (tell) them. That's why TikTok has always been guided by the principle of "creating TikToks, not ads."
You do this through brand storytelling - creating content that people want to engage with. Comment and interact with your audience through social listening. This leads to your audience starting to feel close to your brand.
Remember that it's not about you, the brand, but about them, the customers. Although this graphic from UserOnboard dates back to 2014, it still serves as one of the best visualizations of empathy marketing.
It plays on the Mario Brothers game with a small Mario-like character representing a person who is a potential customer. This is followed by a plus sign and a flower representing the product. The caption to the stream explains that the product is not what your company produces.
But the potential customer and the product add up to more than the real-life character of Luigi, who is described as "an amazing person who can do cool things!" The point is that a cool person is what creates your brand, not the product you sell.
Here's a real-world example of customer-centric empathy. The social marketing team at Gillette Stadium outside of Boston used their Twitter content to connect with Taylor Swift fans (like me) before her concert earlier this year.
They posted an image of her wearing a New England Patriots jersey during a performance in 2010, alongside an image of a blue, white, and red Patriots jersey with her name and the number 13 on it.
They wrote over the images:
"13 years ago, Taylor Swift played her first concert at Gillette Stadium. There's 1 week left until her 13th. RT and subscribe to win a special Swift t-shirt number 13!"
This may not mean anything to those who don't wear wristbands, but those in the cult of Tey-Tey (and viewers of her Capital One commercials) know that 13 is her favorite number. Gillette Stadium's social team showed that they understood its fans (i.e., what their customers like) through storytelling and a prize giveaway, rather than a call to enter a contest.
Build with empathy
When you view the marketing funnel as a foundation on which to build, you can look at the customer journey through the lens of empathy. By valuing emotional connections and an authentic customer community, you take customers out of that neat little box and into a world where they can see themselves and how your brand relates to their lives.
