Client Relationships - How to Develop Them

All too often, freelance writers, authors, and coaches create a website, do a few things to promote their site, and then expect people to visit their site and buy their products and services.

But this isn’t the way online sales are typically made.

In general, most potential clients and customers must get to know, like, and trust you before they will purchase anything from you at your website or blog.

For that reason, you need to create ways to develop a relationship (a professional relationship, of sorts, you don’t have to become best friends, although you might) with these people over time.

Ways for Developing Client Relationships

There are many ways to create a good relationship with potential clients and customers.

The most obvious way is by -

• Creating a Regular Newsletter that provides information your target market values and looks forward to receiving.

For example, I send out The Morning Nudge to my subscribers every weekday morning, and it has been an excellent way for me to develop relationships with readers and many of them become my coaching clients.

Another way is with…

• Regular E-mail Campaigns you create that are generally more focused on one topic than a newsletter and sent out in several e-mail messages over a short period of time (several days to several weeks).

For example, create a free e-course or free content (that your clients can use) that you can deliver in just a few e-mails.

Another way is to…

• Make Your Blog as Interactive as Possible, so your readers get a chance to communicate back and forth with you there.

For example, start a week or month long challenge for your readers and each day (for that week or month) post something for readers to do to take part in the challenge and encourage them to leave a comment each day with an update about how well they are doing with the challenge.

• Being active on social media sites, such as Facebook, Twitter, Linkedin, and Instagram will also help potential clients and customers get to know you better, so they’ll be more likely to buy from you.

Each time you post to your blog, announce it (with a link to the post) on your social media sites.

Today, take a look at the ways you currently have in place for your potential clients and customers to get to know, like, and trust you.

You may already have several ways you are doing this.

But keep adding to the mix.

The more ways you provide for your site visitors to get to know, like, and trust you, the more sales, writing assignments, and other opportunities you can expect to get.

Try it!


For more writing tips, be sure to visit writebythesea.com and get your free subscription to The Morning Nudge. Once you're a subscriber, you'll also have access to a Private Resource Library for Writers.

Suzanne Lieurance is the author of over 35 published books, a freelance writer, and a writing coach.

4 comments:

Karen Cioffi said...

Suzanne, great advice on how to develop client or buyer, or even reader relationships. You've got to do the work to make yourself and what you're offering visible and credible. Thanks for sharing!

Carolyn Howard-Johnson said...

Amen to that, Suzanne. I keep in touch several ways, but my favorite is tagging my #FrugalBookPromoTips on Facebook with the names of clients who might be especially interested in the tip and mentioning my consulting services unobtrusively by way of introducing my little list. I keep the list short so it feels more personal!

deborah lyn said...

Powerful article Suzanne, thanks.
As readers and customers, we all want to know and trust who we buy services from. Your tips make a great list to do just that--ex. newsletters, email campaigns, and an interactive presence on blog and social media. All these have that personal touch.

Terry Whalin said...

Suzanne,

Every writer in the publishing community wants people to know us, like us and trust us. You give some great practical advice in your article for us. Thank you.

Terry

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