• There are no suggestions because the search field is empty.

Best Practices For Client Communication

Much of the advice currently available for content providers focuses on the content itself. This makes sense when you consider the fact that over 90% of B2B marketers today use some kind of content marketing strategy, according to the Content Marketing Institute.

As a content provider for your clients, you are a vital part of your clients' marketing strategies.  Your writers must not only be able to generate quality content in a timely fashion, they also need to be able to interact with their clients in a way that is conducive to the success of both parties. Here are a few important things to keep in mind to help you improve your interactions with companies or individuals that you provide content for.

Clarify Expectations

If you have any significant questions about what your client expects from you, the best thing to do is ask them to clarify. Most clients will be happy to explain what they meant or go into more detail about what they want from you, but they will not think to do so unless you ask them. Keep your clarification requests short and concise: the last thing you want to do is make things even more confusing after you request clarification on an issue.

Understand Deadlines

A big part of content marketing strategy for businesses today revolves around getting content out in a timely fashion, whether it is to be included in a magazine or publication or companies are looking for a gain in search rankings. Most of the time, clients have a reason that they have put their deadline in place: make sure you know what the timeframe is for an assignment and that you feel comfortable with your ability to get it delivered within that timeframe.

Communicate Early And Often

If something happens that prevents you from completing the assignment the way that the client expected, let them know about it as soon as you are aware of a problem. You will find that most clients are willing to be relatively lenient as long as you don’t make a habit of disregarding deadlines and you communicate with them about the situation. Business author Tom Peters says that a good rule to follow when it comes to client communication is to under-promise and over-deliver. This means that you should set reasonable expectations, then do your best to surpass these expectations to impress your client. Promising the moon and failing to deliver will damage your reputation and negatively impact clients’ opinions of you.

Don’t Waste Their Time

While it is important to get clarification from your clients when necessary, you also have to remember that they are busy and usually have a lot of other things they have to deal with. Remember that these clients are contracting you to help take care of this entire portion of their content marketing strategy: their day does not revolve around making sure that you can do your job properly as an editor/reviewer. While the client may respond if you ask questions about things like tone, style, and grammar, you should draw upon your experience as a writer and the assignment description given to you by the client to get your own answers about these types of concerns whenever possible.

Communicating with clients can be tricky, but the more you do it the better you will get. Do everything you can to simplify the lives of your clients and deliver great content to them and you may become situated as an important part of their content marketing strategy.

Topics: agency content solutions - content marketing for agencies - content marketing - content marketing strategy - content marketing plan

Previous Post

6 Must-Haves For All Blog Posts

Next Post

4 Reasons Branded Content Is Leading the New Age of Online Marketing

0 Comments