How to Write an Article that Your Client Accept Instantly?

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Just think, your client asks you to write a two-thousand-word article and gives you some guidelines.

You are all set to go, and you finish the writing work before the deadline. You do the final edits, and when you’re satisfied, you submit the article.

After reading your article, the client says it’s not what he wants! Sadly, in my case, he said, “It’s not even presentable at all.”

Now, you’re at a loss for words because you did everything right, and this is what he wanted when he gave you this task.

Something in the process went wrong, and it should be correct. But before you correct anything, we need to figure out the real culprit.

“The Culprit is miscommunication: The client doesn’t accept our article because we couldn’t understand their requirement.”

It’s not about writing but the process because we thought we knew even when we didn’t know, or at least there was some vagueness in our understanding.

“Solution: Involve the client in the process from the beginning. It will make it easier for your client to work with you and he’ll get his desired result at the end.”

When you’re working with the clients, it’s not what you want but what they want. It may sound tricky or tough, but it’s not. We can involve the client by following a process, and it’s easy, so without further ado, let’s see how you can do it as well.

How to write an article that your clients accept instantly? [The Complete Process]

1. Analyze your client’s requirements and make a brief.
2. Outline the article based on the client’s requirements and ask for feedback.
3. Take confirmations within a specific period if the project is very long. (Optional)
4. Submit and take final feedback

1. Analyze your client’s requirements and make a brief.

Nobody knows what’s going on inside your client’s head other than the client himself. But it’s your duty to help your client unclutter his mind and tell you what exactly they want.

So what exactly should you ask from your client?

There’re many things to discuss, but here we’re going to talk about some important ones that must be clear in your mind before starting any project.

• Topic — Main topic, Primary Keyword, Secondary Keywords, etc.
• Purpose — Informing, Persuading, etc.
• CTA — What action do you want your reader to take after reading the article?
• Tone — Frank, formal, informal, etc.
• Where will it be published?
• Voice of the article — You’ve to write on behalf of a person or the organization.
• Backlink — Links that they want to add to the article.
• SEO related requirements (if they have any).
• [Most Important] Minimum two or three examples of articles containing the same language they want in this article. (Language here refers to tone, words, phrases, etc.)

Once you’ve all the information in place, send a short message to your client, and confirm if your brief contains everything they want.

Note: Record your discussion with the client and refer to it whenever you’ve any doubts.

2. Outline the article based on the client’s requirements

So the client is satisfied with your brief, and you’re all set to start writing, but wait, he doesn’t know what you’ll include in the article.

If you write the article and submit it now, I am pretty sure that your client will ask you for a revision and add or subtract a few points in the article.

He may even ask you to remove some of your subheadings, and he won’t pay for it. They will delete your hard work within a few seconds.

I am saying this because it happened to me when I submitted a 2200-word article, and my client reduced it to just 700 words. I was dumbstruck! And that’s the reason I included this section in my process.

This process is known as the outlining process. We can divide it into three steps:

1. Draft an Outline
2. Get it verified by your client.
3. Add the changes and reconfirm.

Draft an Outline

At this stage, you don’t have to worry much about the content. Here our main focus is to provide a structure to our article.

Here’s the deal, it’s not easy to come up with topics so fast. You’ll have to spend some time in the research process. Sometimes it’s easy to do it when you know about the topic; otherwise, it’s time-consuming.

Tip: I understand this method takes time, but believe me, you’ll thank yourself later for taking this step.

I use Google Docs to carry out this task because it makes it a lot easier to collaborate with other members of your team and the client.

For example, this is how my article looked like during the outlining stage. I’ve set some color codes and sizes for the heading tags.

Additional Resources: What are the heading tags (h2, h3, h4, etc.), and why they are essential for SEO in article writing?

Now, your client may not know about heading tags, and then you can share the document as shown here.

1. Why Don’t Clients Accept Your Article?
2. How to write an article that your clients accept instantly? [The Complete Process]
3. Analyze your client’s requirements and make a brief.
4. Outline the article based on the client’s requirements
5. Drafting an Outline
6. Get your points verified by taking proper feedback from the client.
7. Add the changes introduced by the client and reconfirm.
8. Take confirmations within a specific period if the project is very long. (Optional)
9. Submit and take final feedback
10. Things to consider that makes the above process easier
11. Conclusion

In a nutshell, do your hard work in the outlining process. Make your outline as precise as possible. Include every little detail that you’re going to add to the article.

Once you complete, share this outline and ask for feedback from your client. Let’s see how you’ve to do it.

Take proper feedback from the client.

Before I tell you, suppose you ask for feedback from your client, and he says you haven’t structured the article correctly. Everything else is fine.

Now, this type of feedback is vague [& disheartening also]. You don’t know how to structure the article correctly, and you don’t want to disturb your client again and again.

What will you do? Research more and make changes accordingly, or something else.

It’s when the actionable feedback comes in. Don’t think you’ll disturb the client by asking questions. It’s your job to provide the best article to your client.

You’re not a mind reader. How would you know what’s going on in your client’s mind unless he tells you? Therefore, ask for precise feedback, and I am sure he won’t refuse you for that.

Here’s how you can do it.

Send your Google Docs file to your client and ask him to share his views as comments. If there’s something that you couldn’t understand, then clarify it by sending a message or calling him.

Tip: Don’t assume anything. Keep everything clear from the beginning.

Add the changes introduced by the client and reconfirm.

Your clients want to make it easy for you to do your work. Ask questions if you haven’t gotten the proper feedback yet. Edit your outline as per the client’s feedback and reconfirm.

Now, this process may seem like it’s too long, but the truth is, it will take an hour of work at max if the article is long. Otherwise, it will hardly take ten minutes to do it.

3. Iterate the above process multiple times if the project is very long. (Optional)

Suppose your client asks you to write content for an e-book. In this case, you cannot draw the complete outline because things may change as you move further in the process.

Here you can only divide your e-book into chapters, but you cannot share what you’ll include in every chapter. So instead of complicating the process, we divide it into sub-sections.

Continuing with the e-book example, this is how you can divide your project into parts and iterate the outlining process.

1. Divide the e-book into chapters and get confirmation from the client.
2. Now suppose, you’ll start working on chapter one from tomorrow, then get the confirmation about sub-topics by today’s night, and then begin the writing process.
3. At the end of each day, ask your client to add their suggestions as comments if they want any changes. It gives them a feeling that the project is under their control, and everything is happening according to them.
4. Iterate the above process as many times as you want, and you’ll complete the project within the given time frame.

This method is helpful when you’re working on a large project. This strategy ensures that your client gets what he wants.

Note: Don’t share the same document in which you do your writing on Google Docs because it saves all your content as version history, and I am sure you wouldn’t want them to see your mistakes.

4. Submit and take the final feedback

Everything is perfect till this moment, and I am sure you can now submit your article or blog to your client. You’ve involved the client in the process from the beginning, so there’s hardly any possibility that he’ll ask you for a revision.

I know you’ve read your content many times, but there’s always a scope for improvement, so give your article the last read. In a nutshell, proofread it.

Quick Tip: Leave your article for a day and read with a fresh mind. I am sure you’ll catch some minor mistakes here and there. Correct them and then submit.

Ask your client if he needs any changes because it’s your duty, and ask for feedback.

Conclusion

Just remember, if you involve the client in the process from the beginning, then it leaves less scope for any mistakes from your side because you’re providing what he needs.

So from the next time when your client asks you to write an article, send him an outline and a brief of their requirement. Keep the process lucid and transparent from the beginning, and I am sure your client will accept your article the moment you submit it.

I hope you liked this article and it helped you, so feel free to share it with people who need it. Have a good day!