Key Takeaways
- Standard Operating Procedures (SOPs) are crucial for maintaining quality deliverables, fostering impactful collaborations, and ensuring seamless task transitions. They provide clear, detailed instructions, eliminating ambiguity and enhancing trust, credibility, and scalability within a marketing agency.
- Developing SOPs involves defining clear agency goals, documenting each process in detail, training the team thoroughly, and regularly reviewing and updating procedures. This ensures that all team members understand their roles and responsibilities, leading to a well-coordinated and efficient operation.
- Focus on key areas such as client onboarding, account management, reporting, and offboarding. These SOPs streamline communication and workflow, ensure deadlines and responsibilites are clear, and maintain consistent client interactions, ultimately leading to improved efficiency, client satisfaction, and business growth.
Table of Contents
Introduction
Not to be dramatic, but SOPs have changed my life (and my business!) so I’m here to share the ins and outs with you. As the founder of The Borden Group, a marketing agency transforming executive teams and businesses on LinkedIn, I’ve come to love SOPs. Why? Because they’re the key to quality deliverables, impactful collaborations, and seamless task transitions. Not to mention, the gateway to exponential growth.
Ultimately, SOPs are a game changer when it comes to establishing yourself in a competitive marketplace and scaling your agency’s success. Effective SOPs build a solid foundation where trust and credibility can thrive, dare I say effortlessly. Let’s take a deeper look.
What’s the difference between an SOP and a Guideline anyways?
Great question! While often used interchangeably, the biggest difference between an SOP and a Guideline is that an SOP leaves little room for interpretation. Better said, there are no gray areas. SOPs are detailed frameworks that provide step-by-step instructions for executing a specific task. Guidelines, on the other hand, provide best practices but lack detail. Without the details, an agency’s processes are susceptible to various interpretations across roles and departments. This can cause confusion, unnecessary mistakes, and stunt overall growth.
To avoid these blindspots, SOPs will become your new best friend safeguarding your agency’s reputation. They’ll ensure all processes are accounted for, all communication is clear, and all team members are on the same page. This allows you to take your hands off the wheel as your agency runs like a well-oiled machine…with that human touch, of course!
How do you get started with creating SOPs?
- Define your goals: Clearly articulate what your agency goals are. What is the future vision? The systems you create today will work in making this vision a reality tomorrow. When you’re clear on what you want, you can more confidently create SOPs to support. Don’t skip this step! Foundation building is vital for scalability.
- Document and detail each process: Pretend you’re trying to explain each process that takes place within your agency to someone who has absolutely no background or experience in this particular niche. How would you guide them in successfully completing each task? From social media management, to content creation and client communications, what would those steps look like? Take inventory so nothing gets missed. Then collaborate with your team of experts to get their input in structuring each SOP to precisely reflect all role-specific responsibilities.
- Train your team: It’s one thing to write a comprehensive SOP, it’s a whole other to make sure it’s adequately received. Because at the end of the day, what’s the point of having an SOP if it doesn’t make sense to those who need to reference it? As a leader, it’s your responsibility to thoroughly train your team so they can ask questions and receive clarity on their roles, as well as gain insight into other systems within the agency.
- Review and update regularly: SOPs aren’t a one-and-done formula. Your SOPs are designed to evolve as your agency evolves. To keep your SOPs soaring alongside your success, be sure to update and review them regularly with relevant changes and additions.
Which SOPs should a marketing agency focus on?
Writing an SOP for every single process in your agency can sound like an overwhelming task, especially with an already packed schedule (trust me, I get it!). To alleviate the overwhelm, start with the essentials and then work your way through. I can vouch that taking the time to do this will pay off tenfold in the long run, so it’s worth the upfront time investment.
To get started, I highly recommend locking in your client SOPs to ensure smooth agency-client communication and workflow. Here are frameworks I use within my own agency:
- Client Onboarding Call
- Define the purpose of your onboarding call
- Set the scope of who this call applies to
- Outline the responsibilities of each agency member who will be working on the client project
Pre-call preparation: - Gather & review all relevant client information that will shape the call
Prepare Call Agenda: - Welcome & Introductions
- Overview of your agency and your purpose
- Discuss client goals & expectations
- Overview the services being provided
- Introduce key team members and their roles
- Next steps and action items
Setup Communication Tools: - Setup all necessary communication accounts and test them
- Send a calendar invite to the client with the meeting link and call agenda
- Client Account Management
- List deadlines for each task and role included in the project
- Establish when all client approvals will be completed
- List the dates of any needed scheduling
- Name who will be responsible for final project publication after client approvals
- Detail the methods for account engagement once published
- Track metrics and measurables based on client goals
- Client Reporting
- Determine the frequency and timing of client reports based on contractual agreements
- Establish a clear schedule for delivering client reports
- Identify all relevant data sources for the report including analytics, CRM systems, and internal databases
- Ensure client and team access to each source
- Determine KPIs and metrics to be included in the reports based on client goals
- Choose a standard reporting method that aligns with both the agency and client preferences
- Collect & analyze all relevant data to show trends, patterns, and insights
- Provide interpretations for each metric highlighting successes and areas for improvement
- Share the full report and associated insights with the client for feedback
- Address all questions and concerns
- Revise original marketing plan / goals as needed
- Obtain final approval from client
- Confirm any changes and put the new plan into action
- Schedule the next review and report
- Client Offboarding
- Verify the terms and conditions outlined in the client contract regarding completion of services
- Determine any outstanding deliverables or obligations to fulfill prior to offboarding
- Notify team members who are included in the client project
- Evaluate the reasons for offboarding
- Schedule an offboarding meeting with the client to discuss the transition
- Clearly communicate the plan including timeline, final deliverables, and responsibilities
- Offer space for feedback and future opportunities
- Document feedback for internal review and improvement
- Complete any outstanding deliverables
- Ensure a secured transfer of ownership for relevant assets and accounts
- Update internal project management systems to reflect offboarding
- Archive or close out client profile
- Prepare and send a formal closure letter acknowledging the end of the client-agency relationship
- Maintain lines of communication
- Request referrals or testimonials to enhance agency credibility and reputation
With these checklists and guidelines you’re well on your way to swooning over the miraculous benefits of SOPs! You’ll notice instant results with increased efficiency, cohesiveness, quality output, and let’s not forget those rave reviews! Enjoy the process and embrace the beauty of organized systems.
Download a FREE SOP checklist for Marketing Agencies here.
Want to learn more about this topic? Make sure to follow Melanie Borden and The Borden Group on LinkedIn™.
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