Intertwining empathy with your content marketing.... here are two ways you can approach this.

Having empathetic abilities means I have often deeply questioned every creative decision made across my work, in particular to ensure my viewer emotionally interprets my content the way I wish them too.

Here are a two ways I practise empathy when assessing my content on social media. They can be applied to your businesses' content or your own personal content.

Soo, number 1. Try detach from your content.

Everything that we create and post has a level of our own emotion attached to it. Perhaps you want to share a picture of a delicious cocktail you just enjoyed because it was delicious, of the beautiful beach you've just spent an entire week relaxing on or of that new cake design you're very proud of. However, we have to begin to empathise whether the image and copy itself will spark those same feelings for the reader. By detaching from our own emotions we can therefore begin to see the content for what it is at face-value as supposed to how we see it.

So, as a stand alone post, is the image relaxing to look at? Does it motivate them to try out the new cocktail for themselves? Does it say how much time and effort went into the chosen ingredients and design of your latest cake?

Now you've detached your own emotions question the above and see what additional things you can do to encourage the viewer to feel a certain way or think a certain thing about your content. Perhaps you can share a series of images demonstrating how the cocktail was made, giving the impression that there was a lot of care and time spent on crafting it. Or maybe you could maybe yourself raising the cocktail to your lips encouraging the reader to salivate at the thought of tasting the froffy cocktail for themselves. Maybe post a drawing of your cake design, showing the idea and how you brought it to life. Reflecting your emotions and experience can therefore be done through well great content that has practised empathy.

Another way of creating great content is considering what your audience is actually getting from viewing your image or reading your post.

So, number 2...offering your reader value.

Not every single post has to offer your audience value but the more the viewer feels as if they are gaining something from your post the more likely they are are to act on your post in return. This could be via a like, comment, share or follow.

So, when you post that image, blog, video, story etc, question what are they going to be left with when they reach the end of your post.

Now, this doesn't have to be a huge takeaway. It could be a great fashion tip, a restaurant recommendation, a spot of motivation, visual pleasure (like that relaxing picture of the beach you last posted). What this encourages is a feeling of reward, or time well used when they choose your post to view and engage with.

Take my Instagram for instance (@MissGingerFreckles) - here, someone may choose to just view my image or they may also read my copy. Across my content I therefore try and express a message visually so that my audience, regardless of whether they read the copy or not, are left with something all the same. A feeling of motivation maybe or simply with a smile on their face.

Overall, give back to your reader. Give them something to hold onto by the time they reach the end of your post. Inspire them. Motivate them. Educate them. In hand, this could all show how attentively and empathetically your content has been created thus encouraging a more meaningful and creative connection with your audience.

Thank you for reading! Good luck.