And naturally, some of this content deals with delicate topics. My audience may be a person recently diagnosed with stage 4 cancer, or the parent of a chronically ill child. Those are drastic examples—other times I might be writing for an excited expectant mother or a young athlete recovering from a sports injury. So how can a healthy, something writer empathize with people struggling through arthritis, cancer, or disability—and how can she communicate that empathy clearly through every paragraph and word that she writes? With the entirety of the internet at your fingertips, you have access to a treasure trove of information on virtually every topic. Some of our team even drew on the personal stories of their friends and loved ones to get into the mindset of our readers. This helped us think beyond WebMD, giving us a firm grasp on the little details a patient will care about—like whether their room will include a pullout bed for their loved ones to sleep on when they spend the night. Start and end with the reader. It takes a little extra work to frame everything in terms of your reader, but if you really want to make a connection, you have to put in the time. All you need is another human.


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The driving force behind our emotional reactions, as demonstrated by very cute monkeys
Faking empathy leads to tone deaf messaging. It keeps us all from being self-absorbed assholes. Trying to write persuasive copy without empathy is a bad idea, one that will ensure you have a short copywriting career. The goal of empathy is better communication — plain and simple. The problem is that too many think of writing with empathy as a stopping place, when, really, empathy is just the cost of entry. And it shirks your responsibilities as a copywriting.
The right way to use empathy in copywriting
There are few things that make a savvy consumer cringe more than tactic laced sales copy. Buy it now or never! Once in a lifetime deal! So, now let me ask you…Are you guilty of putting out this type of messaging? There are a lot of copy experts who herald the benefits of using these types of tactics. They do, sometimes. But, while throwing sales tactics at the wall to see how much money sticks might work in the short term, what is the actual cost? We take a user centered approach to our copy! We talk all about our customers problems, and then offer them a solution to their problems!
I recently heard our friend Joanna Wiebe say something that blew my mind. No matter what kind of writing you do, empathy is what allows you to create powerful messages that move your audience. Whether you fall more to the content marketing or the copywriting side , deep understanding and empathy is the foundation that lets you move — and help — your audience. We often say that content needs personality. It needs a strong, distinctive voice , or it just gets lost in the sea of mediocrity and mush. It absolutely is possible. But I will suggest that you make absolutely certain that your topic matters to your audience … and then make sure that your tone matches the topic. No one wants to hear Gilbert Gottfried squawking about the latest painful political crisis.