How do you adapt the needs of different clients in content development?
Each piece of content for clients needs to sound like something that would come from their organization. A business client would not have the same type of content as a business client, and certain business-to-business industries sound vastly different from business-to-consumer enterprises. It can be difficult to learn exactly what type of content you need to create for certain clients, though. Here are some ways to adapt content to meet your clients' individual needs every time.
Develop a Style Guide
Creating and using a style guide for client content can make it easier to determine how to write using their voice. Your style guide should answer questions such as:
- Does the client like to use a first-person "I" or a collective "we?"
- Is the voice of content casual or formal?
- How do Twitter, LinkedIn, and Facebook profiles differ from each other?
- What are good pages to link to, and which don't help competitors?
- What acronyms and other terminology will the audience not need defined for them?
It can take time to get answers to all of these questions, but once you've received them, you can develop an effective style guide that you can use as a reference when creating content.
Understand the Client's Specific Goals and Audience
Goals and audiences vary greatly depending on the industry. For instance, a company that wants to sell to technologically in-tune customers might be free to use complex terminology and more formal content to explain their products. At the same time, a nonprofit trying to raise awareness for a specific cause might use a more casual voice to communicate with less informed individuals.
Once you figure out a client's goals, you can then determine the type of audience they want to speak to and influence.
Practice Content Creation
The only way to get a better idea of what your clients want is to write a lot of content for them until you've figured out their voice. If they have changes to make, you can always keep adjusting the voice and tone until you've met the client's needs.