In an industry where you will be working with clients and helping to push their marketing campaigns in the right direction, it’s important to maintain a strong client relationship from the start. This principal applies to all forms of marketing and goes beyond just this sector alone. Whether it’s SEO, advertising, PR or content marketing, a decent relationship between both you and the client will certainly bring its advantages.
So why exactly is it important to maintain an effective client relationship when it comes to content marketing?
Well first of all, with a strong relationship, you can create better content. By sharing ideas, the content will be more relevant to the company you are working with. Although in order to achieve this, both parties will need to firstly need to understand the full process involved and secondly, have a desire to work together for better results. These results stem from the client’s business needs and from the professionals willingness to help out and put their skills to good use.
It’s important to bear in mind that at this stage that it’s not solely down to the client and there is obviously a level of input that all professionals will need to pursue in order to see results; however this is probably obvious to most people, given the nature of the business we work in.
In addition to the benefits mentioned above, a shared interest will also help when it comes to the later stages of content marketing. By this, I simply mean the promotional stages from both parties once the content has been written and published. As mentioned earlier, if both you and the client are pushing forward in the same direction, then your campaigns can really prosper.
So, it’s all very well having an understanding of what the benefits are for maintaining an effective client relationship, but how exactly do you get to this stage? Well, this is where you, as a content manager, marketer or executive, come in to the equation.
In order to achieve this, you have to be clear from the start, explaining:
Getting the best from your clients
Now that you have shed light on the digital marketing environment, it’s over to your clients to provide you with the necessary information you require. But in order to get the very best from them, there are a few areas you can focus on:
Challenges and expectations
If your client is working on other forms of marketing, such as SEO, then they may already have certain expectations when it comes to content. This again reinforces the belief that you need to be clear from the start, explaining that time frames and expectations will be slightly different. This situation obviously depends on the existing knowledge and grounding of your clients in relation to the digital marketing environment.
Content is less about rankings per se and more to do with driving traffic, increasing social signals (which will act as a ranking factor in itself), as well as generating worthy links. A really great piece of content has the potential to reach a lot of people and start pushing traffic towards your client’s site. Therefore, make sure you’ve stated the main purpose of content marketing so that your clients know what to work with and what to look out for as the campaigns progress.
It may also take longer if the client decides to hold onto the content in order to review and approve it. However, if this is the case, you should prioritise and start the content well in advance to allow enough time for approval before it’s published thereafter. Initially you might learn this as you go, although once you are in the swing of things, you will easily get used to your clients requirements.
Finally, once all the content has been completed, ensure you report back to the client to tell them the progress that’s been made to date. How you do this is entirely up to you, whether it’s a phone call, an email, building a report, or a combination of all three, as long as they are made aware and the communication is maintained, then your clients will be able to see the results for themselves.
If you’ve got any client management tips for content marketing then please add them to the comments section below. Hopefully the above has been useful and will help you to work with your clients, maintain a decent relationship, and push their campaigns in the right direction for the benefit of better results in the coming months.
Image Credits:
Pen and checklist image from BigStock
Strategy image from BigStock
Thanks for your comments James. It definitely helps to keep clients informed during certain stages of their campaigns. Initially, they have to get to grips with how you work and the exact processes involved. In the same breath, as a content creator, you also have to gain an understanding for the subject you are writing about, particularly if they are a brand new client. As the campaigns progresses, this will become easier for both parties and will hopefully provide the basis for an effective relationship.
Some great advice in here John! I like the tips on getting the best from your clients, and all it takes is the occasional email or phone call. For me, this is one of the most important aspects of client management, because they know their business better than anyone; so by incorporating them at the early stages, we are able to come up with far greater content.
Sign up now and get our free monthly email. It’s filled with our favourite pieces of the news from the industry, SEO, PPC, Social Media and more. And, don’t forget - it’s free, so why haven’t you signed up already?
Call us on 0330 353 0300, email info@koozai.com or fill out our Contact Form.
2 Comments