I see this happen all the time with new agencies. They finish a blog post or a video for a client and instead of publishing it they send it over for review. Then they wait. Days go by. The client is busy running their business and doesn’t have time to look at a blog draft. The content sits in limbo and nothing gets done.
Why this keeps happening
It comes from a good place. You’re excited about the work you’re doing and you want the client to see it. You want them to feel involved. Maybe you see them as a fellow teammate working alongside you on the marketing. All good intentions but it creates a mess.
What actually happens is you train the client to expect approval power over every piece of content. Now they feel like they need to review everything before it goes live. You’ve added friction to a process that should have none and you’ve put burden on the person who hired you specifically so they wouldn’t have to deal with this stuff.
The heart surgeon analogy
Think about it this way. When you go in for surgery you want to understand what’s happening. You want to make informed choices about your care. But you don’t walk into the operating room and tell the surgeon which scalpel to use or what type of anesthesia to administer. That would be insane. You hired an expert so you let them operate.
Marketing works the same way. Your client wants to understand the big picture and make informed decisions about their business. That’s not the same thing as approving every blog post before it goes live. Those are two completely different conversations.
When review actually makes sense
There are situations where client review is appropriate. If you’re working with a Starbucks or an Adidas they have corporate apparatus. Large teams, legal departments, brand guidelines, multiple stakeholders who all need to weigh in. That’s the reality of working with big companies and you respect the process.
But a local painting company or a small service business does not have that. They don’t need it. For these clients you publish first and inform them after. If they want to look it over once it’s live that’s fine. But you never hold content hostage waiting for permission.
How the best agencies handle this
The successful agencies we know and coach all have a version of the same policy. They set the expectation with clients from day one that the agency publishes and informs rather than asks and waits. Trust the process is not another way of saying don’t second guess me or I don’t want to talk to you. It’s about intelligently working as a team where everyone does what they’re best at.
The client is best at running their business. You’re best at marketing it. Let each person do their job.
Start now
If your content is sitting in a client’s inbox right now waiting for a thumbs up go publish it today. Your clients hired you to move fast not to wait.
Want to go deeper on how to manage agency workflows and build a team that operates without bottlenecks? Check out our Agency Management course.