In order to create content that is targeted to your audience, it’s important to understand where their heads are at so we can speak to them in their language, about the problems they have, and the solutions they are looking for.
In addition to just understanding our customers so we can create content (and solutions) for them, if we plan our client conversations strategically, then we can leverage them into content pieces of their own.
By taking advantage of client interviews, you can come up with several different types of content:
- Blog Posts
- Case Studies
- Featured Client Stories
Tell A Narrative With Your Blog Post
Blog posts that tell the narrative of a customer’s decision making process can highlight exactly what other prospects just like them are thinking and help those readers come to the same conclusion – hiring you 🙂
By telling the story through your customer instead of through your own business, you’re providing more credibility and social proof to choosing your company. It’s something your reader will relate to and resonate with, and imagine being in that person’s shoes.
Client Stories Help Prospects With Risk Aversion
When people make decisions, they want to feel like there is as little risk as possible.
This means feeling like there are far more potential positives than negatives, but also includes the slight ability to shift blame if possible. If someone reads your customers’ stories and can show them to their boss to make their decision, they feel like if for some reason something went wrong it’s easy to say “well we did our research, other companies like us made the same choice and it worked out really well, so we’re not really to blame for making that choice.”
Of course there won’t be any negatives to them choosing your company because you’re awesome, but they don’t know that from personal experience yet and are still looking for any possible way to reduce the risk of their decision.
Case Studies
Case studies can provide tremendous value for your business and website when utilized to their full potential. Don’t be overwhelmed by the idea of needing to put one together either. If you’re already talking with your customers and are actively listening and taking notes, then writing your case study will be easy.
If you have a major problem that you’ve solved for a client and can show your 10X value compared to your competition, you can then use that case study to support your sales process for quicker close rates and get more of those borderline deals closed.
When you feature a case study and show the data publicly on your website, you’ll be positioning yourself as a leader in your field. Promoting your new case study in the appropriate online communities will drive traffic from your peers, strategic partners, and potential customers alike.
After we published our blogging case study, we saw traffic increase across all channels and started using the story in our lead nurturing process to move prospects through the sales funnel faster.
Once the story broke onto the scene of our peers, we got more coverage in other places (extending our brand reach) and started seeing more and more natural links back to our website (helping with our search rankings).
Not to mention, now strategic partners started seeking us out and wanting to refer more business to us.
Don’t overlook the power of publicly sharing case studies and showing off your abilities.
Featured Clients
Featuring clients with a spotlight piece that introduces their business and gets them more exposure is another great way to leverage clients for content and earn some more exposure for your brand as well.
Choose your featured clients wisely not only on their success levels, but also on how valuable they may be in your promotion process. If you have some high profile clients with a far reach, then make sure you get them on your interview list. Don’t be mistaken, I don’t mean highlight low performing companies. The cost of entry on being a featured client should be that they are a great company that provides massive value (just like you).
Any client that you feature will be excited and anxious to start sharing their featured spot on your website, if you can leverage clients with existing audiences then your chances of quicker impact rise immediately.
You’ll also get the added benefit of greatness by association. Featuring great companies that you work with will show off to your prospects and clients that you are a world class organization on that same level.
Client Interview Questions
Here is a list of questions that you want to get answers to, but make it a more casual conversation. Don’t just run down a checklist of questions, be more friendly and conversational.
Questions You Want Answers To By The End Of The Conversation:
- What problem were you having that triggered the need to find a new payroll company?
- What obstacle(s) could have prevented you from buying payroll services from us (or did prevent you from going with someone else)?
- Why are those problems significant?
- What consequences were you facing if this problem wasn’t resolved?
- What lead you to ultimately choosing Balance Point?
- What specific “feature” do you like most about working with us?
- What are three other benefits about our service that weren’t obvious when you were making your decision?
- What has your overall experience with Balance Point been like?
- Have any issues come up during your time with Balance Point? How were they resolved? Were you happy with the results?
- If you could describe it in one sentence, what would it be?
- Would you recommend our company? Why or why not?
- Is there anything you’d like to add?
Your Client Interview Content Strategy
Now that you understand how valuable client interviews can be to your business, let’s review how to put together and execute your strategy:
1. Select your best performing clients and ask if you can talk with them and feature them on your website.
2. Have a conversation to learn their stories and turn them into content assets.
3. Once you publish those assets, start promoting them accordingly to drive traffic to your website. Integrate them into the proper stages of your sales process. Talk with people from different departments in your company to see if there is a way they can leverage the new stories you have on your hands.
Get Your Client Interview Questions Worksheet
Time To Take Action. Download your free Client Interview Worksheet now and start creating better content!