How do you stand out from the crowd in a saturated market? There’s no one answer of course, but for a gentle business model, one of the simplest strategies is to give your clients a special something that they probably won’t find elsewhere.
Elevating Your Client Experience is Easy
Elevating your client experience is a way to attract your ideal client and help them fall in love with what you do. And fortunately, it’s not that hard. The easiest way to elevate your client experience is simply to identify something you love and make it part of the package for people who do business with you. Ideally, this shouldn’t be an extra or an add-on. It should be a built-in element that adds value and gives clients the sense that you’re willing to go above and beyond to take care of them.
To give you a better idea of what this might look like, here are a couple of real life examples from my photographer clients.
Example 1: Elevate by Providing Something Extra
One of my clients provides artwork with all of her sessions. No matter what type of session you book with her, you’ll receive your choice of either a photo album or framed wall art. She’s built this into the price of her photo package so that every single one of her clients receives a tangible memory as part of their experience with her.
Example 2: Elevate by Meeting Unspoken Desires
Another of my clients provides a catered meal for families who come to her studio. (I am so onboard with this one!) She does lots of motherhood sessions and knows that picture-taking is hungry work, especially for littles and nursing moms. Sure, she could ask clients to bring snacks. Instead, she takes her services to the next level by providing a pampering experience so clients can enjoy a meal between their photoshoot and the ordering process.
How Does RedFox Blogging Provide an Elevated Client Experience?
I provide an elevated experience for my clients in a few different ways, including:
Setting clients up for success ~ Rather than asking clients to figure out how many or what type of blog posts they need, I provide packages that will set them up for success no matter which they choose.
Personalization ~ I spend time studying my clients’ websites, social media pages, and past blog posts. This way I can write in their voice and create content that is on point with both their business model and personality.
Guidance and Mentoring ~ To make blogging friendly and accessible, I provide more than just blog writing services. I also keep in touch with regular tips and encouragement, provide an initial series of guided blog posts to make long-term blogging easy, and collaborate with clients on content planning and business building in general.
All of this is part of my basic workflow though. It’s just doing my job and doing it well. To really elevate the RedFox Blogging experience for my clients, I wanted to come up with something I love that would also make my clients happy.
Example 3: Elevate by Customizing and Personalizing
Something I Love
I am a planner and I love organization! Trying to come up with ideas last-minute stresses me out, so I like to have my content all planned out in advance. That way, I know exactly what’s coming and I can work ahead.
For me, there’s nothing better than a beautifully filled-in content calendar. It’s pretty to look at and I can feel the stress lifting when I look ahead and see that it doesn’t matter if life gets crazy this summer, because I already know exactly what I’m going to be blogging about in June.
Making My Clients Happy
So, could I give my clients that same feeling?
To elevate my client experience, I decided to build a content planning call into every blogging package. A call like this takes less than an hour of my time and is a chance to connect with my client, learn more about their business goals, and help them brainstorm which topics and keywords will best help them achieve those goals.
As part of this process, I also include a content calendar with every package. After our call, I put together a pretty calendar, complete with my client’s personalized blog topics for every week of the year (plus some tips, inspiration, and encouragement). With just a little extra time on my part, my client can begin their blogging journey with a sense of feeling supported, and with that wonderful feeling of satisfaction and security that comes from having a plan and knowing exactly how to get there.
Matching Your Client Experience to Your Business Model
Are you feeling inspired already and thinking of ways you can elevate your own client experience? I hope so! As you consider ideas, there’s one more thing to keep in mind. Make sure that whatever you do to take your client experience from good to great isn’t just a random nice thing. It should be something that attracts your ideal client and fits well with your business model.
So, will a catered meal, a piece of artwork, or an annual pre-filled content calendar help to attract your ideal client? Does it make sense and fit with what you and your business are all about?
Let’s go back to our previous examples:
Example 1: Elevating by Providing Something Extra
For my client who offers artwork, tangible memories are a big deal to her. More importantly, they’re a big deal to her ideal client too. This photographer is marketing to mothers who want more than just school portraits and holiday cards. Her ideal client values memories and is investing in professional photography because she wants to pass those moments on to her children. So artwork makes sense as part of this photographer’s elevated client experience. If she was a commercial photographer, she would want to rethink her strategy, since most people don’t want a framed headshot hanging above their desk!
Example 2: Elevating by Meeting Unspoken Desires
My client who offers a catered meal knows her ideal client well: Busy moms who crave real memories and genuine connections…and who could really use some pampering. I don’t know of a mother in the world who would turn down a catered meal! Lunch fits in well with this photographer’s business model because she focuses on pampering moms while capturing memories. In addition to food, she also offers other luxury amenities, like makeup and hair styling, a client wardrobe, and interior design services to help clients decide on the right artwork options. A meal fits well with the luxury model and takes it to the next level.
Example 3: Elevating by Customization and Personalization
And what about RedFox? When I first started out, I was working with photographers and small business owners at all levels…which meant that some were more serious than others.
The clients who ended up getting what they wanted out of blogging services were the ones who stuck with it, ordered posts consistently, and gave some thought to the topics and keywords they asked me to blog about. These tended to be high-end, luxury photographers who were seriously committed to building their business and willing to pay for the expertise that would help get them there.
These people, I discovered, were my ideal clients.
So, rather than try to attract all types of photographers and small business owners, I started niching down to the people I knew I could serve well. While I did my best for clients who only ordered one post a month or took long hiatuses, I knew that approach wouldn’t result in blogging success for them. And I want to help people succeed!
My prices went up a little as I created more of a supportive experience for clients, but that was okay. I wasn’t interested in offering budget blogging. (Thank goodness, because now AI is taking care of that.) Instead, I was interested in helping entrepreneurs by providing long-term blogging services with second-to-none quality. I wanted to provide real support, guidance, and expertise rather than just ghostwriting. And part of that includes content planning!
A content planning call and annual content calendar fits with my business model and also helps to attract my ideal client. Content planning is important to business owners who are serious about blogging as a long-term strategy and who are committed to doing it right. And having an entire year of content planned out in advance takes a huge amount of stress off their shoulders. They know they’re going to have a fresh post on the blog every single week this year, no matter what happens.
Time to Elevate YOUR Client Experience
What’s something you’d like to try to improve the experience you offer your own clients?
If you’re just starting out or are on a tight budget, keep in mind that a better customer experience doesn’t have to cost much. While you can certainly go for gifts, goodies, and extras, you can also create beautiful and informative guides; keep in touch with resource-rich newsletters, emails, or blog posts; keep an eye on what clients have ordered in the past and let them know about upcoming offers they might enjoy; or develop a workflow that is seamless and supportive from beginning to end.
Whatever you choose to do, I’d love to hear about it! Share with me in the comments, and let me know if there’s anything I can do to help support you!
