Build Trust with AI and Win High-Paying Clients

AI helps you do client-focused marketing

Key Takeaways

Client-focused marketing builds trust, positions you as a partner, and helps you make more money.
Use free AI tools (ChatGPT and Perplexity) to learn about client needs fast.
Create a value statement that states what you do, who you help, and why you are the right choice.
Verify AI outputs for accuracy and tone, and make sure your marketing sounds like you.

Show Clients How You Meet Their Needs

Busy clients don’t buy freelance services—they buy solutions. Steady, high-paying clients are looking for freelancers who can take problems off their plate, reduce their workload, and make their lives easier.

Marketing that speaks to client needs and how you meet those needs:

Cuts through the noise: Clients are flooded with pitches. Most of them focus on what the freelancer does, not what the client needs. Client-focused marketing helps you stand out in a sea of freelancers.

Positions you as a partner, not a commodity: Freelancers who talk about what they do sound interchangeable. Freelancers who talk about how they help sound essential. Client-focused marketing elevates you from a vendor to a long-term partner.

Builds trust quickly: Clients want to work with freelancers they can trust. Showing that you understand their world builds trust quickly.

Lets you charge more: When you frame your services around helping clients meet their needs, you deliver more value. And when you deliver more value, clients will pay you more for your work.

I call this client-focused marketing.

The Shortcut to Identifying Client Needs

So how do you know what your clients need?

It used to take a lot of work to learn what clients need. But now, you can do this quickly and easily with AI, using the free versions of ChatGPT and Perplexity. You can use AI to:

Quickly identify the needs of clients in your target markets.
Use: Creating your general marketing messages and content, like your LinkedIn profile and website
Develop your value statement.
Use: Developing client-focused marketing messages and drafting direct emails.
Quickly identify the needs of specific clients.
Use: Drafting rough direct emails

Target markets are groups of similar clients, like medical communication agencies, CROs, and professional associations. Most freelancers have two or three key target markets.

Use AI to Identify Target Market Needs

Your LinkedIn profile, website, and other general marketing should focus on your target markets.

Before AI, it usually took months to learn about the needs of different target markets. Professional associations helped—and still help—us do this. But we have to sift through content, attend events, network, and often get more training.

Now, we can identify target market needs quickly and easily with the help of AI.

Prompts for target market needs

Here are the prompt formula and an example to identify target market needs, and a sample AI-generated answer (output).

Prompt formula
What are the key marketing needs of [TARGET MARKET] in [COUNTRY] that a freelance [WRITER OR EDITOR] can help with?

Sample prompt
What are the key marketing needs of hospitals in the United States that a freelance writer can help with?

Full answer (output) from ChatGPT

1. Patient-friendly education and content.
  Hospitals need accurate, accessible content that explains conditions, treatments, procedures, and services in plain language to build trust and support patient decision-making.
2. Service-line marketing.
  Hospitals must promote high-priority specialties (cardiology, oncology, orthopedics, etc.) through web pages, blogs, brochures, and patient stories that highlight expertise and outcomes.
3. Reputation building and brand trust.
  Hospitals rely on strong stories—patient success stories, clinician profiles, awards, innovations—to reinforce credibility with patients, physicians, and donors.
4. Digital content for visibility and engagement.
  Hospitals need SEO-optimized web content, email campaigns, and social copy to improve search rankings, drive traffic, and engage audiences across platforms.
5. Physician outreach and referral marketing.
  Many hospitals need content that helps physicians understand programs, pathways, research, and care coordination to increase referrals.
6. Recruitment and employer brand content.
  Hospitals compete for clinical talent, so they need compelling job-related content, staff stories, and culture messaging to attract and retain employees.
7. Community engagement and public health messaging.
  Hospitals often need writers to create content for community programs, health initiatives, events, and health-equity storytelling.

This answer is too long for marketing messages, but reviewing it helps you better understand client needs.

Next, ask AI to shorten the answer to one or two sentences. Also, if you’re using ChatGPT, look at the suggestions below the answer. For my hospitals prompt, ChatGPT suggested:

“If you want, I can condense this into 1–2 sentences or tailor it specifically to what you offer as a freelance medical writer.”

So I cut and pasted “condense this into 1–2 sentences” into the prompt box. Here’s ChatGPT’s output.

Short answer
Hospitals need clear, patient-friendly content that builds trust, promotes key service lines, and strengthens their brand with patients, physicians, and the community. A freelance writer can help by creating accurate, engaging digital and print content—from web pages and patient stories to physician outreach and recruitment materials—that drives visibility and supports their strategic goals.

Compare the long and short versions of the answers and look for common needs to focus on in your marketing.

Use AI to Develop Your Value Statement

Once you understand what your target markets need, you can create a value statement to frame your marketing. A value statement says what you do, who you help, and why clients should hire you.

Start by answering three questions.

What do you do [TYPE OF FREELANCER AND TARGET MARKETS]?
How do you help your clients meet their needs? [CORE VALUES AND PERSONALITY TRAITS]? Choose 3-5 core values and personality traits like accurate, adaptable, collaborative (team player), and dependable.
What do you want to be known for? [RELEVANT EXPERIENCE LIKE DEGREES and YEARS OF EXPERIENCE. IF YOU’RE A NEW FREELANCER, INCLUDE OTHER TRAINING AND TRANSFERABLE SKILLS AND EXPERIENCE].

Then, choose the tone and writing style that’s right for your target markets, like casual, formal, or persuasive.

Next, prompt AI to help you develop your value statement. Here are prompts to do this, with the formula, an example, and a sample answer.

Prompt formula:
Create a value statement for my freelance business based on this information. Use a [XX] tone.

I am a freelance [TYPE OF FREELANCER] who helps clients [HOW YOU MEET CLIENT NEEDS]. I work with [TARGET MARKETS]. [Optional] My work is for [AUDIENCE(S)].

I [MORE ON HOW YOU HELP CLIENTS MEET THEIR NEEDS, INCLUDING YOUR CORE VALUES AND PERSONALITY TRAITS].

I want to be known for [KEY RELEVANT EXPERIENCE LIKE DEGREES, YEARS OF EXPERIENCE, AND FOR NEW FREELANCERS, RELEVANT EDUCATION AND TRAINING].

My value statement

Here’s the prompt I used for my value statement.

Prompt:
I am a freelance medical writer who helps clients by writing targeted medical content. As a freelance writer, I work with hospitals, disease-focused health organizations, and other health and healthcare organizations. I write for consumers, patients, physicians, and other audiences.

I write targeted content to help my clients informs, builds trust, and inspires action in their audiences, and deliver content on time, every time.

I want to be known for my Master’s Degree in Journalism, 20+ years of experience in medical writing, being trustworthy, and making my clients’ lives easier.

Review your ChatGPT and Perplexity results. Refine your value statement, based on one or both answers to fully reflect your freelance business.

Here’s my value statement, after I edited the AI responses and added my personal touch.

Lori’s value statement
As a freelance medical writer, I help clients connect with their audiences through clear, targeted medical content that informs, builds trust, and inspires action. I believe in delivering content on time, every time—because reliability matters. With over 20 years of experience and a Master’s Degree in Journalism, I know how to take complex health information and turn it into content that connects—whether the goal is to inform patients, engage physicians, or inspire consumers.

I bring trustworthiness and expertise, and focus on making my clients’ lives easier. Whether writing for hospitals, health organizations, patients, or physicians, my work is focused on creating meaningful impact and building strong connections.

Create Your Marketing Messages and Content

Next, use your value statement to create your key marketing messages and content.

Example

Here are some of my key marketing messages.

Tagline:

Targeted medical content. On time. Every time.

LinkedIn headline:

Freelance Medical Writer | Targeted Medical Content that Informs, Engages, and Builds Trust with Your Audiences | On Time, Every Time

Website home page headline:

Targeted Medical Content that Moves Audiences to Action

Website home page subhead:

Accurate, engaging content that informs, builds trust, and inspires action

Use AI to Identify Specific Client Needs

Direct email lets you choose the steady, high-paying clients you want to work with and make yourself irresistible to them. When done right, direct email is very effective.

Done right means customizing your email to each client. And that means focusing on the needs of the client and showing how you can meet those needs. Also, you’ll also use some of the client’s language to show that you understand their world.

Before AI, you had to go to the client’s website and find the right language yourself. Depending on the website, this could be easy or require more time and wordsmithing. Now, you can use AI to do this for you.

Prompts for specific client needs

Here’s a prompt formula and example to identify the needs of a specific client, with a sample answer. Your goal is to develop a client needs statement for use in your direct email.

Prompt formula
What does the [CLIENT NAME] need from a freelance [WRITER OR EDITOR]? Here’s their website: [URL].

Sample prompt
What does the American Holistic Health Association need from a freelance writer? Here’s their website: https://ahha.org.

Since AI tools learn from what we’ve input before, ChatGPT’s answer includes information from my value statement (e.g., “Your experience with health organizations and writing for consumers is a direct match.”).

Full answer (output) from ChatGPT
What AHHA likely needs from a freelance writer

From their content ecosystem and your skill set, here are specific needs you can infer:

1. Accessible, consumer-friendly wellness content
  - They publish content for patients or wellness-seekers (“Do you wake up with enthusiasm…?”) Ahha
  - As a writer, this means translating health/medical evidence into clear, engaging language for lay audiences.
  - Your experience with health organizations and writing for consumers is a direct match.
2. Holistic/integrative health framing
  - Topics include aromatherapy, naturopathy, integrative strategies, mind-body, etc. Ahha
  - A freelance writer needs to be comfortable (and credible) writing about holistic modalities, complementary practices, and integrative wellness — while maintaining responsible language around evidence, disclaimers, and audience expectations.
3. Evidence-based yet approachable
  - The site references “Evidence-based Research Articles” as a section. Ahha
  - While AHHA is holistic, they emphasise “impartial” and “free” wellness resources. So content likely needs to balance wellness enthusiasm with accurate communication of evidence, caveats, and credible sourcing.
  - Your expertise in medical content and working with healthcare organizations equips you to provide that balance.
4. Varied formats and content types
  - They list “Self-Help Articles,” “Journeys to Wholeness – True Stories,” “What Is Holistic?”, “Selecting and Dealing Effectively With a Healthcare Professional” e.g. Ahha
  - So you might write: personal narrative/interviews, how-to guides, educational explainers, practitioner-profiles, resource referral pieces.
  - As a freelance writer, offering versatility across these formats would be valuable.
5. SEO & digital content sensibility
  - Although not explicitly stated, given this is a website with many resources, freelance work likely includes webpage articles, blog posts, optimized for web readability.
  - Given your background, you could emphasize your capability to meet deadlines, produce web-friendly content, tailor to audiences, and understand the healthcare niche.
6. Timeliness, professionalism, reliable delivery
  - You stated you pride yourself on being professional and easy to work with and delivering on time. That matters here because AHHA likely has an ongoing pipeline of content and wants a reliable partner rather than ad-hoc writers.
7. Your focus on “doing more than expected” is a good match for a nonprofit/association that may appreciate proactive pitches (e.g., new wellness topic ideas, integrating new research, etc.).

Shorten client needs

Next, use a follow up prompt(s) to shorten the answer.

Follow-up prompt formula
Shorten the needs of the [CLIENT NAME HERE] to 2 sentences.

Follow-up prompt formula example
Shorten the needs of the American Holistic Health Association to 2 sentences.

Answer
The American Holistic Health Association needs clear, consumer-friendly wellness content that explains holistic and integrative health topics in an accurate, approachable way. They also need writers who can translate evidence into easy-to-understand articles, guides, and stories that help people make informed choices about their health.

Once you have your value statement and know the needs of specific clients, you can use AI to help you draft direct emails. While AI can generate rough drafts fast and provide some great language, it has many flaws—even with expert prompting—including:

Lack of a strong first sentence
Inability to focus on client needs and how you meet client needs
Lots of marketing fluff, which drives clients away (e.g., “I am passionate about” or “My professional commitment”).

Conclusion

AI—when combined with your voice, knowledge, and experience—can help you develop the client-focused marketing that builds trust and helps you win high-paying clients. While AI seems to be accurate for most marketing tasks, it can produce bad information and doesn’t understand nuances. So you need to verify the answers and ensure that the information is correct. And you need to make sure that your marketing sounds like you, not a bot.

Updated November 2025 by Lori De Milto.

Learn More About Using AI to Identify Client Needs

How to Be on the Right Side of the Red Velvet Rope

How to Get Steady, High-Paying Clients with Direct Email

The Secret Weapon that Helps 4 Freelancers Get their Ideal Clients

Frequently Asked Questions About Client-Focused Marketing With AI

What is client-focused marketing?

Client-focused marketing speaks to client needs and how you meet them. It shows you understand their world, which builds trust and moves you from a commodity to a long-term partner.

How can I use AI to identify target market needs?

Use free tools like ChatGPT or Perplexity. Ask for the key needs of your target markets and specific clients. Review the long answer to learn the landscape, then ask for a short 1 to 2 sentence summary you can reuse in your LinkedIn profile, website, and outreach.

How do I create a strong value statement?

Answer three questions: what you do (role and markets), how you help (core values and traits), and what you want to be known for (experience, degrees, and training). Feed this into AI to get drafts, then edit for accuracy, voice, and tone.

What should I watch out for when using AI for marketing?

AI can be long-winded, include fluff, and miss key marketing messages. It can also introduce errors. Verify facts and add your voice.