Drafting the content is only one small part of keeping a happy client. It also boils down the relationship you’re maintaining with them both before and after the content is complete. This way, you can heighten your chances of keeping this client as a consistent customer and maintaining a strong working relationship.
In this blog post, we’ll explore what writers who want to keep and delight their clients do upon article completion – before they pass it in.
Check spelling and grammar
While this may seem straightforward and (likely) on your radar already we want to reiterate the importance of reading your own work.
I’ve often heard from companies that they’re incredibly happy with the subject matter expertise but that they’re consistently having to edit the work to align with their style guide or to correct sloppy spelling mistakes. While it’s great that they don’t have to fact-check the content, it still creates extra work to consistently proofread the piece and correct run-on sentences, sentence structure, and overall flow of the blog post.
I get it, it can be incredibly difficult to proof your own work.
Oftentimes, I’ll ask someone on the nDash team to give my work a quick proofread to make sure everything looks right (like I did for this article). However, we don’t always have the luxury of doing so.
Here is a quick checklist (to make life easier) on what to look out for when proofreading your own work:
- Does the brand prefer the Oxford comma, and did you use it?
- Did you write in the appropriate tone (casual v. professional)?
- Does this client prefer the active or passive voice?
- Are you using thought-out transition sentences and paragraphs to enhance the content’s flow?
- Does the concluding paragraph match what you promised in the intro paragraph?
Double-check the scope of the assignment
When you’re balancing multiple projects and clients, you can sometimes lose sight of what the clients’ end goal for a specific piece was. This can also happen when you’ve been working with the same client for months – some writers can begin to get a little too comfortable writing for the client, and the sloppiness can show.
Before you submit an article, ask yourself if the post stayed on-topic and if it covered all of the bullets that you and the client agreed upon ahead of time.
Take this opportunity to also double-check that the CTA that the client wanted to be included wasn’t just “thrown in there” but ties back to the post itself, so it’s not a “sell” at the end.
Send the brand a personal note
Once the content has been completed, don’t just send a text file their way. I’ve seen many writers make this mistake. This message, where you’re delivering the content, is your opportunity to build and maintain a relationship with them. Take advantage of it!
Consider including a personal note with the content that includes one or all of the following things:
1. Thanking them for the opportunity to work with them
2. Mention that you’re happy to make any edits for them. You want to make sure you got this project right
3. Asking them if they’d be open to receiving additional content ideas and/or if you’d be happy to do more work for them (if this is a client you’d like to work for)
Final Thoughts About Article Submissions
It’s important to remember that writing isn’t just about writing content – it’s also about maintaining and building relationships with the clients you’re working for.
Take advantage of every opportunity you have to speak with the client and deliver 100% effort for every single project.
What other tips do you have for fellow content writers? Please share them with us on Twitter!