The owner was unsure how to develop a plan that would efficiently address their clients’ audience needs and pain points, without compromising content quality — and ideally, avoiding burnout in the process.
I realized that many agency owners must be grappling with the same issue, so I decided to put together some sage wisdom to help you create a high-impact content strategy tailored to your clients’ unique audiences.
By the end of this article, you’ll have a better understanding of your clients’ audiences and a clear plan to create content that resonates with them, all while maintaining a healthy work-life balance for your team.
Recognizing Your Clients’ Audiences Needs and Challenges
Before diving into content creation willy nilly, it’s crucial for your clients to gain a deep understanding of their audiences’ needs and obstacles.
After all, if your ultimate goal is to help your clients achieve their objectives, it’s worth spending the time preparing in order to ensure you’ll do a good job.
The end result should be that you’ll craft tailored, unique, and insightful content that tackles your clients’ audiences’ unique issues.
The more you hit the nail on the head, the more they’ll trust you and want to keep coming back for more. It’s a win-win for everybody.
Follow these steps to recognize your clients’ audiences’ needs and challenges:
Define your clients’ target audience
Develop a comprehensive profile of your clients’ ideal audience members, including demographics, interests, and online behavior.
This helps you understand who you’re trying to reach and what matters to them.
For example: If your client targets aspiring digital creators, their ideal audience member might be a tech-savvy individual in their mid-20s, eager to learn new skills and share their expertise. They might be active on specific Slack and Discord channels, specific subreddits, Indiehackers, etc.
If you’re researching in a specific community, there’s no shame in introducing yourself and asking, “hey, this is what I’m good at and trying to do with my agency. I’d love to hear more about your challenges and goals.”
Just be sure to hang around in that group for a few weeks first to be sure that this kind of thing won’t annoy the same people you’re trying to get on good terms with. The last thing you want is to get banned for not following their rules.
Conduct Keyword Research
Utilize keyword research tools to identify popular search terms related to your clients’ niches (we use Ahrefs, but SEMrush and Moz can do just as good of a job.) Be warned that while these tools ARE awesome, there’s a big learning curve and they cost hundreds per month to use.
The best bang-for-your-buck? Our $499 keyword gameplan will make everything easier for you going forward.
*(Basically, we do all the work for you and organize it into a useful tool that you can reference for easily planning at least the next year’s worth of content)
This research ultimately provides insight into the topics your clients’ audiences search for and the questions they ask Google on those subjects, along with how competitive the search is.
For example: If “how to monetize a blog” is a popular search term with low difficulty, your client can create content discussing various blog monetization strategies.
Analyze your clients’ competitors
Examine the content your clients’ competitors produce and pinpoint gaps or areas where you can offer a unique perspective or more comprehensive information.
For example: If a competitor’s article on “best tools for digital creators” covers only five tools, consider creating a more extensive list of 10 or 15 tools to offer additional value to your clients’ readers. Take note of what advice you’d offer differently.
Engage with their audiences
Advise your client to interact with their audiences via social media, online forums, and blog comments to learn about their needs, concerns, and challenges. This direct feedback can help fine-tune their content strategy to best .
Have your clients established a social media following? Encourage them to ask their followers what they want to learn.
Their responses might reveal knowledge gaps you never anticipated.
Developing a Tailored Content Plan for Your Clients
Once you’ve effectively identified your clients’ audience needs and challenges, it’s time to make a plan for creating content that addresses them.
A well-planned content strategy helps your clients stay organized and focused on delivering value to their audience, ultimately improving their online presence and business success.
Here’s how to develop a tailored content plan for your clients:
- Brainstorm content ideas: Based on both audience and keyword research, generate a list of content ideas that cater to their needs and challenges. Aim for a mix of topics covering various aspects of the niche.
- Prioritize your ideas: Not all content ideas hold equal weight. Evaluate the potential impact of each idea and prioritize them based on relevance, search volume, and keyword competition level. This ensures you’re creating content that has the best chance of performing well in search engine rankings.
- Set goals for each content piece: Establish clear objectives for each content piece, such as driving traffic, increasing engagement, or generating leads. This helps you measure content success and adjust your strategy accordingly.
- Create a content calendar: Plan content in advance using a content calendar to maintain consistency and ensure a steady flow of valuable content addressing your clients’ audience needs.
Even if you’re working alone and not on a team, project management tools like Notion, Trello or Asana help you to track content ideas, deadlines, and progress. They help you stay organized and prevents anything from slipping through the cracks.
Striking a Balance Between Evergreen and Trending Topics
A high-impact content strategy for your clients requires the right balance between evergreen content and trending topics.
Evergreen content offers long-term value and generates consistent traffic, while trending topics allow you to capitalize on current events and drive short-term engagement.
Follow these tips to strike a balance between evergreen and trending topics
Focus on topics that will be relevant for a long time
Most of the content you create for your clients should be evergreen, as it forms the foundation of their content strategy and drives consistent traffic to their site. Examples of evergreen content include how-to guides, case studies, and industry best practices.
Pro Tip: To maintain the freshness of your clients’ evergreen content, periodically revisit and update it with new information, examples, or trends. This helps retain its relevance and search engine rankings.
Stay informed about industry trends
Subscribe to industry newsletters, follow relevant influencers on social media, and participate in online forums to stay updated on the latest trends and news in your niche.
This knowledge enables you to identify opportunities for creating timely content that captures your clients’ audience interest.
Be selective with trending topics
Not every trending topic will be relevant to your clients’ audience or worth your time. Choose trends to cover carefully and ensure they align with the specific audience you’re targeting.
Conclusion
For agency owners looking to provide better services to their clients and expand their agency’s offerings, crafting a high-impact content strategy is essential.
By recognizing your clients’ audience needs and challenges, developing a tailored content plan catering to those needs, and striking a balance between evergreen and trending topics, you’ll be well on your way to delivering top-notch, SEO-optimized content that drives results.
Remember to maintain open communication with your clients, stay informed about industry trends, and continuously refine your content strategy based on performance data and feedback.
If you have any questions or need further assistance, don’t hesitate to reach out.
-Justin
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