What I’m listening to: Rx (Medicate) by Theory of a Dead Man
I had a great post for you last week for Marketing Monday. And somehow, I never posted it. I just put that sucker in the Drafts folder and quickly forgot about it.
So here it is this week. I hope it was worth the wait.
Today’s Marketing Move:
Meet Your Client’s Needs.
So how are you going to do that?
You’re going to invest some time into learning who each client is. Here’s how:
- Research: visit the client’s website. Read it. No, really read it. Answer these questions: Who is their customer? What is their product/service? How are they going about pleasing their customer? What on that website is working? What isn’t?
- Conversation: Invite that client you’ve just researched to have a conversation. In that conversation, ask those same questions. Ask follow-up questions such as what marketing have you tried? What worked? What do you want to do going forward? Ideally, how would you like to reach your customers?
- Compare notes: You’ve just researched the client from two angles. Compare those angles. Where do you see discrepancies? What is an ongoing theme or two that you see? What stands out, either good or bad?
- Follow up: Comparing notes shows you more than what your clients are/aren’t doing. It shows you how you can help them. Your job now is to follow up on that conversation with a plan for how you’re going to help that client improve things.
As you practice this kind of research/follow up, you’ll find your own questions, methods, etc. that work for you. The main goal is to do the preliminary work that shows your clients you’re thinking critically about their business and that you’re ready to meet their needs. Even if your research takes you ten minutes on the website and ten minutes on the phone, you stand out as a writer who isn’t walking into the job blindly.
Writers, how do you go about meeting your clients’ needs?