Onboard in a fixed sequence: signed agreement, kickoff call, brand and access intake, account connections, strategy and calendar approval, then first content batch. Aim to publish within two weeks. The single biggest predictor of retention is how organised the first thirty days feel to the client.
Clients form their opinion of an agency long before results arrive. A chaotic onboarding creates a client who checks in constantly and churns at month four, no matter how good the content turns out to be. A tight one buys you the patience to let organic work compound. Treat onboarding as a retention activity rather than as admin.
Signed agreement and first invoice before any work starts. A kickoff call within three business days covering goals, audience, competitors, and the things they never want posted. An intake form for brand assets, logins, tone, and product information. Account connections handled on a screen share rather than by email, because that is where most delays happen. Strategy and first calendar sent for approval. First content batch live inside two weeks.
Access is the most common place onboarding stalls. Request business-manager level permissions rather than passwords, confirm the client owns their own ad and business accounts, and document who holds admin. Doing this properly at the start avoids the painful conversation later where nobody can log in and the person who set it up has left.
Name one approver. State the review turnaround you expect and what happens when a deadline passes. Define how many revision rounds are included. Agree the reporting date and the communication channel. Written expectations feel formal in week one and save the relationship in month six. Our answer on getting clients to approve content faster covers that in detail.
Set up the client's workspace with their accounts, brand profile, content categories, and approval settings before the kickoff call rather than after it. Walking a client through a workspace that already carries their branding, in your agency's colours, does more for confidence than any slide. Cloud Campaign includes approval workflows on every plan, with white-labeled client-facing surfaces on Team and Agency.
Put a check-in on the calendar during onboarding, not when something feels wrong. It gives the client a known moment to raise concerns and gives you a structured chance to reset expectations before small frustrations turn into a cancellation email.
Cloud Campaign is the white-label social media management platform built for marketing agencies. Every plan includes unlimited users and our full suite of time-saving tools, so you only pay more when you take on more clients.
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