Redesign your website

Get website content from clients on time

Collecting content from clients is one of the biggest bottlenecks in the web design process.

The problem of getting meaningful content on time isn’t just limited to websites, though.

Any project that requires significant input from the client is susceptible. Running a digital agency can be just about anything.

In this post, we’ll talk about the best ways to gather content from clients.

More importantly, you’ll learn how to get it in the right format and on time.

Note: Many examples in this post include screenshots from our software solution, Content Snare.

Even though it was created to help solve this problem, everything in this post can be applied to your existing process and other systems. We’ll even show you some alternative tools.

Prefer video? This post is available as a video series on YouTube: How to collect website content from clients.

Consequences of the content bottleneck

First, let’s talk about why this is so important to get right.

As soon as you send a content request to your client, you are at their mercy.

More often than not, they’ll take a long time to get back to you, grinding projects to a halt.

Then there’s a back and forth via email which can easily end up spanning 50+ emails (if you’re lucky) with massive attachments and a whole lot of unusable content that requires sorting and editing.

All of this results in:

• Lower profitability from all the time wasted
• Increased stress from several projects backed up at the same time
• Frustration at clients
• Potentially sabotaging client relationships through constant follow-ups or because they see no progress on their website (despite them being the source of the delay)

There’s one major thing that makes getting content from clients problematic: Creating content is both times consuming and difficult for clients.

Difficult and long tasks tend to get placed at the bottom of their ever-expanding to-do list.

We somehow need to show clients that:

1. Your content needs to be a priority, and
2. Encourage them to send it on time

The key to all of this is that you need to make it easy for your clients.

A great content workflow takes time to set up, but a little bit of work now will save you hours later.