Welcome to another episode of Silence is Golden where we give away invaluable tips for your business. This week Gin is in the hot seat with Simon. Troy is over at our office in the Philipines meeting our staff for the first time and tunes in to say hi as well.
In today’s show, we talk about how you can add value to your WordPress clients. We also discuss the new release of WordPress, how to use Google Trends to come up with new blog topics and we will look at some content marketing tools and plugins.
Watch the Video
Stuff That Happened
6 Pointless Design Achievements You Should Totally Go For
This article gave Gin and Simon a good laugh. These pointless design achievements will allow you to have a bit of fun with your design and your clients. One of our faves was to see if you can convince your client that their logo doesn’t need to be bigger. LOL.
How to Use Google Trends to Help You Come Up With New Blog Topic Ideas
One of the most basic keyword research strategies that Simon uses is SEM Rush plus Google trends. You can use them to come up with different keyword ideas and see how they are trending over time. You simply enter a topic and Google Trends will come up with related keywords and let you know how it's trending. Find out more from Elegant Themes in this article.
13 Best Content Marketing Tools and Plugins for WordPress (Expert Pick)
In this article from WPBeginner, they have hand-picked the best content marketing tools and plugins for your WordPress site. It features SEMRush, Canva and Grammarly (especially if you are writing a lot of content) which Gin says she can’t live without.
WordPress 4.9.6 Privacy and Maintenance Release
WordPress 4.9.6 is now available. This is a privacy and maintenance release. It's worth reading the release notes which encourage you to update your sites to take advantage of the new privacy features including some features which help you with the GDPR changes.
WP Wednesday
If you like the news that we bring in the show each week, make sure you sign up to our newsletter – WP Wednesday where we curate the best news from the internet for the week. Subscribe here.
This Pisses Me Off
Simon says he hasn’t been pissed off enough this week. So he is really scraping the barrel by saying that it took him a long time to curate this week’s WP Wednesday using Feedly. Every time he would click on an article to add to the newsletter, it opened it up in the same tab.
What are your thoughts on keeping links in the same tab? Troy thinks that if it is a link to an external site then it should be in a new tab but if it is a link to another page on your site, then it should be in the same tab.
Let’s Get Unstuck
Simon started a facebook discussion on adding value to clients. One of our WPE coaches, Mike Killen said that the way he has added value is through Coaching.
I've added 5k 10k and 25k to website projects just by adding a bespoke 13-week coaching program. They require no setup and can be tailored to each customer
Awesome idea! Thanks Mike.
The Golden Nugget
Adding Value To Your WordPress Clients
If you're wondering how you can retain clients and get referrals – it's all about adding value. Here's how.
Check-In
Check in with your clients and see how they are going. No need to make a big plan and over think it, just send them an email or give a quick call and ask how they are doing and see what's new. If you like, you can tease a bit of good news that can be useful to get a reply.
Listen
When your client speaks, really listen to them. One way you can be a more active listener is taking notes and repeating back key points during the conversation and/or in a recap email after a conversation.
Simon holds the meeting on Zoom and then for an initial meeting with a new client he will get it transcribed by something like Rev. He is also trying out another one at the moment Descript which he is saying is quite good and cheaper.
Know Their Goals
A partner is someone that knows your goals and actively works towards them with you. If you want to partner with your clients, you need to know what their goals are. Use the go wide go deep method and just assist them to get their goals clearer by asking a lot of questions.
For an in-depth goal setting info, see Troy and Simon's goal setting livestream
Share Useful Content
Are you ever browsing around and you come across something that could be useful for your clients? Let them know! Send them an email with a handy link or article.
You can also stay top of mind by sending a periodic newsletter to your clients. The newsletter can be as simple as a collection of useful articles (example: our WP Wednesday).
Provide Great Support
As part of your WordPress care plans, you can really wow them by offering outstanding support. Of course, this needs to be profitable for your business so make sure you charge accordingly.
Alternatively, partner with a WordPress support and maintenance service to handle this for you. There are many white label companies out there such as GoWP and WP Buffs.
Offer Additional Services
Websites are just one part of a business' online presence. Help your clients by offering additional services to grow their online marketing. If you don't offer these services yourself, consider partnering with someone that does so you can focus on your strengths and you can benefit from giving and receiving leads from each other.
Troy says that any kind of coaching or strategy advice is one of the most valuable things you can provide. There is always room for improvement!
Reminder from Gin – Sell the benefits, not the features.
Help Them Plan Their Marketing
Marketing is important to all business, but most don't have the time or knowledge to plan out their marketing in advance.
Check out the full document from Simon about adding value, including some email templates to help you out.
Tool of the Week
The tool of the week has kindly been given to us by Simon. He shares his marketing calendar template with us. Copy it, change it for your clients and ask them if they would find it useful. You can also use this as a way to show your marketing expertise and to sell marketing services to your clients.
Wrap Up
Like us on Facebook, subscribe to our YouTube channel or let us know what you think about this episode below!
