To be successful, an organization must know its customers perfectly; however, obtaining detailed information on each of them is practically impossible, so developing an empathy map will facilitate the process.
The empathy map allows you to divide customers according to the needs, characteristics and behaviors they share, making it easier to identify potential customers.
To find out what an empathy map is, the elements that make it up and how to make one, I invite you to continue reading the following content, where I will explain everything about it in detail and how you can implement it.
The empathy map is a tool that allows us to get to know the client in detail , showing a clear perspective of what they are looking for, feel, think, see, listen to and talk about the subject that interests us, as well as their needs, frustrations and aspirations.
The objective of designing and implementing an empathy map is to be able to put yourself in the customer's place and understand their experience, which allows you to quickly identify the ideal customer, to whom the communication efforts are going to be directed.
The empathy map was designed by Dave Gray, founder of XPLANE, a consulting firm that uses visual tools to enhance the strategic vision of its clients, and quickly became a classic of social analysis due to its simplicity and functionality, since anyone can do it.
Carrying out an empathy map has multiple advantages and some disadvantages for the organizations that implement it. Let's see which are the main ones.
The empathy map is known for not presenting great difficulties to its designer, in fact, anyone can fill one out.
The empathy map deepens the knowledge you have about the user: interests, needs, behaviour and communication networks, which helps you to get to know your potential customers better and reach them.
This tool is the cheapest when looking to perform audience analysis.
You just have to keep in mind that it must be done consciously so that the information collected and placed on the empathy map is really useful and relevant.
Using audience mapping to create or modify a product, service, purchase an item or carry out marketing actions facilitates the development of strategies, since it provides a broad view of the user.
You already know the good points, so now I'm going to show you the other side of the coin.
As you might have guessed there are very few disadvantages and almost not worth mentioning about empathy maps. This is because as a business, the lifeline of your trade is the customer and anything that helps them to feel more connected to you is a merit and an advantage to your business. The few possible disadvantages of empathy mapping are thus:
All the results obtained through mapping are only assumptions, so it must be complemented with other tools to validate the results.
The empathy map requires a great deal of research on current clients to be able to work on it, because if it lacks depth, some of the quadrants may remain empty and that cannot happen.
Recognizing the emotions of customers as the main purchase motivator, the empathy map is divided into six main elements that are not chronological or sequential, but that provide a real vision of who the user is.
To make an empathy map, the user is placed at the center of the map and is surrounded by the four essential points: saying and doing, listening, thinking and feeling and seeing, continuing with two sections at the end in which efforts are analyzed and the results.
Let's look at each section in more detail.
With the questions what does it say? what and how does it do it? The coherence that the user has between the words that he says and the attitudes or behavior that he shows when he expresses himself or the actions that he carries out when he is surrounded by people is analyzed.
Some questions we can use as a guide are:
Understood as the topics that the user usually touches on during the conversations that they hold, as well as the idioms that they tend to use and the opinions that they have about certain topics, products or services.
Here we look for the connection that the user has between the actions that he performs in the contexts that we are investigating and the forms of verbalization that he uses to express himself on certain topics, whether they connect or not, etc. It is investigated and the constant answer to why is sought.
Research is carried out on their hobbies, daily tasks and the activities in which they spend their time, to better understand the context in which they operate.
Answering what and to whom does the user listen? The most influential people for him in his immediate context (family, friends, work) and the public figures or media that attract his attention are recognized through the opinions they express and how they affect his environment.
The questions that we can use as a guide can be:
It refers to the people to whom the user pays attention when making decisions that are important or that he uses as points of reference regarding daily life or in the acquisition of products or services.
The type of content that the user prefers on the different platforms, the way in which they do it, the devices they use to enjoy said content, as well as the public figures they follow and the interaction they have with them are analyzed.
Information is sought on the main concerns, worries and aspirations of the user, understanding their feelings and thoughts, differentiating them from their words and actions.
Questions that can be used as a guide include:
Analyzing their deepest thoughts, it seeks to know the user's aspirations and the most important concerns.
Also, when you buy a product or service, it is important to consider what is the first thing you think about it? What impressions does it leave you? What would be your ideal of that product or service?
The important thing here is to know what the user's impression of their daily environment is and how they interact with it, what they pay attention to, what messages they receive, what media they use, etc.
Some questions that can help fill out the empathy map are:
In this part of the empathy map, the pain points, fears, obstacles, doubts, worries and frustrations that the user deals with not having their needs met will be noted.
Questions that can be used as a guide for mapping are:
By answering these questions, the frustrations that the user presents in his life and with which he must deal daily to feel complete or that, if not completed, cause feelings will be obtained.
It is important to also describe that part on the map.
Contrary to what is put in the efforts section, the results describe the user's strengths, desires and indicators of success, as well as the actions they take to achieve what they want.
Guiding questions such as the following can be used for user mapping:
The definitions that are obtained from each point are vital for the knowledge that we seek about the user and the ideals that he has regarding effort and success.
The ideal is to write down the answers obtained with verbatim citations to ensure that we have sufficient and reliable information during the investigation and correctly develop the ideal client.
If there are any empty quadrants, more research should be done until you have what is necessary to fill all the spaces with real information.
Having all of the above clear, now comes something important, which you must already intuit but which must be clear... How does creating an empathy map help ?
The empathy map allows knowing the user's behavior and their interests, through their actions, behaviors, thoughts and communication networks, with which detailed information about them is obtained.
With an empathy map, the organization can better understand its customers, better satisfy their needs and effectively develop the profile of their ideal customer in order to obtain more sales.
In short, the empathy map serves to segment, humanize, empathize and validate the user, in order to get to know him in a concrete way through his feelings and actions.
How can you do it? Now we explain to you.
Identifying the ideal client is essential for any organization, since communication efforts are focused on them.
The previous investigation helps to separate the different profiles that are discovered into groups, which share characteristics, and the empathy map helps to know these parts in depth, which allows finding the ideal client of the organization.
Knowing that we are working with people and want to understand them in order to satisfy their needs, makes it possible to make the results obtained more useful.
To get to know the user from a personal perspective, it is important to create a connection with him, to see things from his perspective, to be able to imagine from our reality what that person's is like.
When we carry out the empathy map, it is necessary to confirm the information obtained by the designed and resolved instruments, to know if the reality of the user is as we imagine it and to obtain conclusions in this regard to increase, maintain or change the strategy that the organization is following.
Now comes the good part... the moment to know how you can put this into practice.
Making an empathy map can become complicated, especially if you have not done one before, but I share the following steps to make the process more bearable.
Here's the real reason why you're doing audience research: you want to define the real customer, you want to change your marketing strategy, you're going to develop new products, and you want to know who's going to use them, etc.
It is necessary to carry out this step to know the path that we are going to take when carrying out the investigation and define the following movements, since they are all essential to make the map effectively.
To make an empathy map that yields true information, you must research your current customers and define who is going to be mapped to focus your attention on them.
Demographic (age, sex, occupation, marital status, income, education), ethnographic (customs, practices, beliefs and ways of life) and geographic (place of residence, location of recreational spaces) data to be placed must be defined. in the center of the map to allow a constant view of the user.
The empathy map can be done on a physical, digital or paper board; the surface is not important, the main thing is comfort and practicality at the time of conducting the investigation.
A template can be drawn or downloaded directly from the web to help design the tool: placing the user in the center with their data and surrounding them with the four main elements of the investigation (saying and doing, listening, thinking and feeling, seeing ) and placing the efforts and results at the end.
The mapping of the audience is put into practice by answering the questions that are established in each of the quadrants that the empathy map has, to collect the necessary information that we require for the study.
It is advisable to write down the answers obtained on sticky notes (physical or digital) and that they be the literal words of the user to keep the information pure and reliable.
To know that the results we collect are useful, an information validation must be done, since what is obtained remains hypothetical until compared to what the real user shares.
Through surveys, interviews or focus groups, we can compare our information. It all depends on the trust you have with your client and the budget you set for the investigation.
Now that you have the theory about the empathy map, I want you to see what it would look like in practice, so I share with you an example of an empathy map:
We want to implement a new software to develop an Inbound strategy and we want to promote it with our clients, but we are looking for the ideal client for the software.
Age: Between 35 and 50 years old
Gender: Male
Occupation: Commercial director of a technology company
Marital status: Married with children studying at the university
Income: More than $150,000 pesos per month.
Way of life: He dedicates himself to his work without neglecting his family, looking for the constant growth of his company and the generation of results.
Habits: Wake up early to solve work pending without being disturbed, have breakfast with your family and share moments with them before each one of you takes on your homework.
Place of residence: Residential area
What does he say and do?
"We have to increase sales" "We must exploit the digital tools we have to achieve the goals we set for ourselves" "I need results".
You may be considered a workaholic because of the amount of time you spend working; however, he wants to spend time with his family and enjoy recreational activities, so the assignment of tasks, accompanied by an efficient work team, are his priorities.
"Family and work come first."
What do you hear?
He listens to his peers, to people who are in the same conditions as him, who are entrepreneurs and seek to grow, because he thinks they are the ones who can understand him the most.
His family's opinion is equally valid for him; however, when it comes to work issues, he prefers to make decisions based on real information and not assumptions. If his family shows him results, he takes them into account, otherwise he asks them to stay out of it.
Consume magazines and content related to the business world, technology and a bit of economics. He seeks to be informed and keep up to date with the areas related to the company, since he wants to be prepared for any external situation.
He listens to his work team, tries to get to know them and pays them the necessary attention to obtain better results, because he thinks that if his team is good, the rest will work.
What do you think and feel?
How can I improve the performance of my company? What strategies should I follow so that my company continues to grow? How do I increase my sales?
“Who should I ally with to maintain my image in the market?”, “I am the success I have, the more successful I am, the better my life”, “The company is part of me, so my bad decisions affect many people” .
What do you see?
Although he is not a fan of social networks, he needs to stay informed about the economy, so Twitter is his main social network, followed by WhatsApp for informal conversations. He prefers to have personal conversations over digital ones but has had to adapt to the current world.
efforts
He lives constantly worried about the future of his company and his family, he takes meticulous care of the performance of his teams to always take advantage of all the potential they can give.
His biggest fear is that he could lower the performance of the company he created from scratch and lose the largest inheritance he can leave to his children, because he wants them to stay in charge of the business as soon as they finish college.
pain point
The sales team is one of its strongest pain points, since failure to achieve the stated objectives creates a domino effect that ends up affecting the entire company.
Therefore, it constantly seeks effective and measurable strategies so that all teams, together with sales, work hand in hand in search of common goals and it is possible to achieve them in a more organized and simple way.
Results
He seeks to give himself completely to his company because he thinks it is the greatest connection he has with the outside world and his family, he constantly strives for it to grow and continue generating the results he has obtained so far.
The empathy map is a tool that allows you to get to know your user, providing real information and a perspective on what they want or are looking for in a product or service, leaving aside the hypothetical beliefs of the organization.
With the use of the map, the business model will be strengthened and a customer-focused value proposition can be designed, creating stronger ties with them and using the appropriate channels for communication, being able to understand them better.
If you want to understand your customers better, you want to improve communication, you are going to develop a product or you need to carry out any audience study, an empathy map could come in handy, so what are you waiting for?
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