Everybody Writes, 2nd Edition



12Develop Pathological Empathy

Some people are naturally empathic. They easily understand another's point of view. They immediately intuit what another might be feeling in any situation.

Is that you? Congrats, you! You're ahead of the game.

The rest of us have to work a little more intentionally to get into another's mindset.

“Good writing (and therefore crafting good experiences) requires us to understand and have empathy for our audience, their situation, their needs and goals,” says content strategist Jonathon Colman. “The best content experiences are pitched perfectly in the sweet spot, the nexus of all those human factors.”

In other words, empathy for the customer experience should be at the root of all of our content, because having a sense of the people you are writing for and a deep understanding of their problems is key to honing our craft.

Content created only to further a search engine ranking is a massive waste of time and effort. It's also a wasted opportunity. It's far better, long-term, to create useful content that solves customer problems, shoulders their burdens, eases their pain, enriches their lives, creates a connection between you two.

This was true when we wrote Content Rules a decade ago. But recent and various Google updates have seemed to finally make it permanent and official. (High-fives all around!)

That means we should meet people where they are, with a spirit of generosity and benevolence.

We should help them ...