Empathy mapping

While persona mapping tells you who your customers are – highlighting their demographics, goals, and behaviours – empathy mapping helps you understand how they experience the world, including key touchpoints with your brand. It focuses on the emotions, thoughts, and reactions they experience at every stage, uncovering not just what they do but why they do it. With this depth, you can connect with their mindset and resonate on an emotional level.

To get the ball rolling and build an initial picture, we’ll speak with key stakeholders to hypothesise customer pain points and moments of truth (the factors that trigger a decision). Then, we use qualitative and quantitative data – from interviews and surveys to social listening and search data – to uncover emotions and motivations firsthand. We take a holistic view, looking at the entire audience journey to pinpoint where different emotions and decisions come into play at each stage.

Armed with a detailed understanding of your audiences’ behaviours, we formulate targeted therapies to speak directly to their needs. Whether they’re feeling stressed, excited, or confused, we craft a message that hits the mark – landing in the right place, with the perfect tone, at exactly the right moment. The kind that makes them stop and think, wow – you really get me.

Your empathy map isn’t a one-time exercise. Instead, it should be a living document that evolves as your customers do. We recommend revisiting and refining the map regularly, at least once a year or whenever there’s a significant shift in your product, service, audience, or any external factors (like technology advancements or economic changes) that impact customer needs and behaviours.