How to Take an Empathetic Position in Your Website & Marketing
Executive Summary
If you are confident you can close the deal but struggle to get the right people to the table, your website may be the reason. The problem is that most sites just list what a company does instead of helping visitors feel understood, and when people do not feel understood, they hesitate. This article shows you how to take an empathetic position in your messaging, speaking to your customer’s goals, frustrations, and worries so trust comes first. Read it for simple tests and shifts that turn a self-focused website into one that earns the right conversations.
The Real Challenge Isn’t Closing the Deal—It’s Getting the Right People to the Table
If you’ve ever thought, “I know I can close the deal—I just need more of the right people to talk to,” you’re not alone.
You’re great at what you do. When you get in front of the right prospect, you can explain your value, answer their questions, and help them make a confident decision. But getting to that point? That’s the real challenge.
The frustrating part is that your website should be helping you get there—but is it?
For many businesses, their website doesn’t create a sense of trust or confidence—it just lists what they do. And when potential customers don’t feel understood, they hesitate to take the next step.
That’s where empathetic messaging comes in. It’s not about what you do—it’s about helping people see themselves in your solution so they feel confident in reaching out.
What It Means to Take an Empathetic Position in Your Marketing
If you’ve ever been on a website that just rattles off a list of services but doesn’t really speak to your situation, you know how frustrating that can be.
Empathy in marketing means putting yourself in your customer’s shoes and asking:
- What are they trying to accomplish?
- What challenges or frustrations do they have?
- What concerns might stop them from taking action?
When your website (and marketing in general) speaks to these things, it builds trust—and trust leads to conversations with the right people.
This applies to all your marketing, but your website is one of the most important places to get it right because it’s often the first impression.
Is Your Website Focused on You or Your Customer?
Let’s do a quick check. Look at your website and ask yourself:
- Does it talk more about my company than my customer?
- Does it focus on features and services instead of problems and solutions?
- Does it assume visitors will “connect the dots” rather than making my value crystal clear?
If any of these sound familiar, you’re not alone. A lot of businesses unintentionally make their website about themselves instead of their customers.
But when visitors don’t feel understood, they hesitate. And hesitation kills conversions.
Where Businesses Unintentionally Create Friction
Sometimes, it’s not about what you say—it’s about how it comes across.
Here’s where businesses often make their websites harder to connect with:
Talking too much about themselves
It’s easy to fall into the habit of leading with statements like:
- We’ve been in business for 20 years.”
- “We provide innovative solutions.”
But that’s not what your customer cares about. They’re asking:
- “How does this help me?”
- “Can they solve my problem?”
Making people work too hard to understand the value
If a visitor has to “figure out” how you can help them, they won’t.
- “We provide world-class business solutions.”
- Better: “We help [specific audience] solve [specific problem] so they can [specific outcome].”
Not being approachable or relatable
If your website feels cold, overly polished, or too corporate, it might be pushing people away instead of drawing them in.
Real-world example:
A consulting firm was struggling with website conversions. Their homepage was full of industry jargon, award mentions, and a big section about their company history.
But when they reworked their messaging to speak directly to their clients’ challenges and goals, their consultation requests increased by 40%.
The shift? They stopped making the website about themselves and started making it about their customers.
Overcoming the “Curse of Knowledge”
One of the hardest things about marketing your own business is that you know it too well.
This is called the Curse of Knowledge—when you’re so close to your own business that you forget what it’s like to be an outsider.
How to fix it? Start listening.
- What questions do people ask on sales calls?
- What frustrations come up in emails or support conversations?
- What do people misunderstand about what you offer?
Action Step: Take those real customer questions and work them into your website messaging. If the same things come up repeatedly, your website should be answering them before a prospect even has to ask.
Experience Your Website Like a Customer
Want to see if your website is truly customer-focused? Try this:
Pretend you’re a first-time visitor. Go to your homepage and ask yourself:
- Would I want to do business with this company?
- Does this company understand my challenges?
- Do they feel approachable, relatable, and trustworthy?
If the answer isn’t a clear YES, it’s time to refine your messaging.
Bonus tip: Ask someone who isn’t familiar with your business to do this test. Their feedback will give you fresh insight into how outsiders perceive your messaging.
Make Every Marketing Message More Empathetic
When your website (and all your marketing) makes customers feel understood, it creates trust. And trust leads to more conversations with the right people.
This is just one piece of the bigger picture. Throughout this series, we’ll dive into other key website elements—navigation, FAQs, contact forms—but none of those things matter if your messaging isn’t clear and customer-focused.
So here’s the challenge: Look at your website today and ask—does it make visitors feel understood?
If not, now’s the time to make a change.
Common Questions
What does an empathetic position actually mean?
It means putting yourself in your customer’s shoes instead of leading with what you do. You ask what they are trying to accomplish, what frustrations they have, and what concerns might stop them from taking action, then you speak to those things. It is not about your services, it is about helping people see themselves in your solution so they feel confident reaching out.
How do I tell if my website is about me instead of my customer?
Do a quick check. Look at your site and ask whether it talks more about your company than your customer, whether it focuses on features instead of problems and solutions, and whether it assumes visitors will connect the dots themselves. If any of those sound familiar, you are not alone, and it is a sign your messaging needs to shift toward the people you serve.
I know my business too well to see this clearly. What do I do?
That is the Curse of Knowledge, when you are so close to your own business that you forget what it is like to be an outsider. The fix is to start listening. Pay attention to the questions people ask on sales calls, the frustrations in emails, and what people misunderstand, then work those real questions into your messaging. It also helps to ask someone unfamiliar with your business to react to your homepage.
Does this really change results, or just sound nicer?
It can change real results. When one consulting firm reworked a homepage full of jargon and company history to speak directly to their clients’ challenges and goals, their consultation requests increased by 40%. The shift was simple: they stopped making the website about themselves and started making it about their customers. Feeling understood builds trust, and trust leads to more conversations with the right people.
Related Resources
Data vs. Information – Forgetting What It’s Like To Be The Buyer
If seeing things from the buyer’s side speaks to you, this is a sharp reminder of how easily we forget it.
If Your Homepage Confuses People, They Leave
If you want the right people to stay, this shows how a confusing homepage loses them in seconds.
Does Your Website Work for the Skimmer and the Researcher, or Just One of Them?
If taking the customer’s point of view is the goal, this is that empathy made practical: one page that speaks to the quick skimmer and the deep researcher without choosing between them.