Understand your customers better and create personalized Empathy Maps – for free with the online editable templates from the graphic editor EDIT.org.
Do you want to better understand your ideal customer type?? Create an empathy map with the personalizable online templates of our graphic editor and empathize with your potential customers.
What is an empathy map and what is it good for?
It is a visual schema with questions about the ideal target customer of a given product or service of the given company: what does he think and feel, what does he see, what does he hear, what does he say and do, what efforts does he make and what results does he expect?
An empathy map is used to better understand this prototype and thus be able to better meet its needs as well as communicate with it accordingly by empathizing with it as much as possible. This picture helps to think about how the influences from the environment affect him and his experienced emotions. This approach is intended to go deeper than other, more superficial representations. Accordingly, it is important to take it as one of the starting points to find out what exactly constitutes the user persona.
The User Persona (also called Buyer Persona) is a concept that is closely related to the Empathy Map and helps to contextualize this person:
WHO do we want to empathize with?
- Who is the person we want to understand?
- In which situation are you?
- What is your role in this situation?
- In addition, it is highly recommended to use a photo and a fictitious name for each person profile.
What the structure and building blocks of the empathy map look like?
The Empathy Map has a structure consisting of 6 question blocks:
1. What DOES he THINK and FEEL?
- What gives meaning to his life?
- What worries him?
- What makes him happy?
- What other thoughts and feelings might influence and motivate his or her behavior?
2. What does he SEE?
- What does he see in the market?
- What does he see in his immediate environment?
- What does he see others saying and doing?
- What does he see and read?
3. What HE HEARS?
- What does he hear others say?
- What he hears from his friends?
- What does he hear his colleagues say?
- What does he hear from others?
4. What DOES he SAY and DO?
- What did we hear him say?
- What can we imagine him saying?
- What is he doing today?
- What behavior did we observe?
- What can we imagine him doing?
- What does he need to do differently?
- What job(s) he wants or needs to get?
- What choices should he make?
- How will we know that he was successful?
5. What are his or her DISCLAIMERS?
- What are his fears, frustrations and anxieties?
6. What are his expected ADVANTAGES?
- What are his wants, needs, hopes and dreams?
How to create an empathy map? (with editable templates online)
Do you want to create your own empathy map? Need a blank template to print out? Or would you rather edit the template online and then save each version?
Just follow these steps:
- Click on any map in this article.
- Choose the Empathy Map design you want.
- Customize the map with your logo, text, company colors, photos, etc. at.
- Save the changes online in the editor.
- Download your Empathy Map for free in JPG, PNG or PDF format.
Examples of empathy maps
An example of an empathy map applied to the customer.
Let’s create an easy to understand Example CALL:
An Italian restaurant right on the Costa Brava in Spain, where the ideal summer clientele for this trattoria are tourists traveling in groups (mainly families) as well as having medium to high purchasing power and between 1 – 3 children. The target audience is the parents of these families (who are the primary decision makers in this group).
1. What DOES they THINK and FEEL?
Their family gives their life meaning. You are worried that you won’t be able to enjoy time with your children while at work and want to spend memorable vacation time with them accordingly.
2. What do they SEE?
They see what other families are doing – both in their circle of friends and family, and in social networks. You see restaurants in the area that look appetizing. But not all of them create a family atmosphere with the lights, the music, the service and the view.
3. What do they HEAR?
They hear suggestions from the hotel they are staying at and opinions from their friends who have already traveled to the same destination. They read reviews about restaurants on Google, social media, and other platforms. They also listen to what their kids want, who like to eat pizza.
4. What DO they SAY and DO?
They say they want to spend quiet time with their family – but equally want to make the most of their time without risking too much in their decision. They say they want to eat delicious food and walk on the boardwalk.
5. What INSTRUCTIONS do they undertake?
You’re willing to pay a little more for the experience (food, space, service, location. ), but they don’t want to have to do a lot of searching or driving because they are on vacation. They want something near their hotel.
6. What RESULTS do they expect?
They want to find quality restaurants: with good food, good service, a casual yet formal and professional atmosphere (and preferably live music at the end of the evening).
We hope this example serves as your guide for creating the empathy map for your target audience. You can define 2 or 3 ideal customers for the same product or service and create the appropriate empathy maps for each one.
Use the Empathy Maps templates to print or edit online
Your cards are stored online in the editor, so you can access them from any device and from anywhere in the world. Just register with your e-mail, you don’t even have to download a program – easier than Word and better than Photoshop.