Experience Guide

for Accounts at Stratos

Welcome to Stratos Creative Marketing.

We’re beyond thrilled to have you as a client. We know it can be intimidating to work with a marketing agency, which is why we’re so honored you’ve chosen to work with us. Take a deep breath; your marketing is about to become a lot less intimidating.

This guide will help you know what to expect when you work with us. We’ll walk you through the entire process step-by-step so you feel completely equipped to accomplish your marketing goals.

Onboarding

Our onboarding process typically takes about 2 weeks from the point of your kick-off call. Some onboarding tasks will happen even before your kick-off call, like filling out your Discovery Guide and Client Intake Form and reviewing your contract in Honeybook.

Kick-Off Call

This is when our team will gather all the information we need from you in order to create excellent content for your business. On this call, we’ll review your Discovery Guide, get to know you and your business, set timeline and deliverable expectations, and set up any account access we will need. This call typically takes an hour.

StoryBrand Messaging

StoryBrand is a framework that helps clarify your messaging so you can create marketing that compels your audience to take action. If you do not already have a StoryBrand script, we will take you through a messaging session during onboarding. This typically happens during your kick-off call. We will ask you questions about your ideal customer, the problem they face, the solution you provide, and more. We will apply your answers to the StoryBrand framework so our writing team has everything they need to write copy for your business.

Intro Work

Our team creates content on a monthly basis. Your first month of content will start as sample content. Our team will create several sample social media posts, emails, and/or ads for you to review with your account manager. Although we are confident in the work that we produce based on the information we gather in our kick-off call, we know there is a learning curve to creating content for new clients. Creating sample content gives us a chance to present our ideas to you, and you a chance to help us better understand the direction you envision for your marketing. We expect that this sample content will be revised and reworked more than any content we’ll create for you in the future because we are still getting to know you.

Review Meeting

Once we have sample content ready for you to review, you will meet with your account manager to go over the content, request revisions, and give it your stamp of approval. After this meeting, our team will schedule the approved content to publish.

Ongoing Rhythms

Cycle

Our team creates content on a monthly basis, depending on your cycle. Cycles start on the 1st or 15th of each month. We will determine your cycle in our kick-off call.
For example, if your content cycle starts on March 1st:
  • payment for March will be due on February 15th,
  • our team will start working on March content on February 15th,
  • your March content will be published March 1st-March 31st,
  • and you can expect to receive your March report on April 1st.
If your content cycle starts on March 15th:
  • payment for March/April will be due on March 1st,
  • our team will start working on March/April content on March 1st,
  • your March/April content will be published March 15th-April 14th,
  • and you can expect to receive your March/April report on April 15th.
If you have questions about your cycle, you can ask your account manager.

Weekly Status Updates

Each week our team meets to go over the status of every project for every client, and we want to share that status with you. We will send semi-automated weekly emails to let you know our status (and yours) on your content or project, including accomplishments, what we’re working on, what we’re waiting on, and what’s coming up. You can expect to receive this status email in your inbox from Bryce every Monday or Tuesday.

Content Approval

Ads

We will send you an approval link with your ads content, including captions and media. You will have comment access in order to leave comments for our team to see. During your monthly meeting with your account manager, you will work together to approve the ads. Once all ads content is approved, our team will start running the ads.

Social Media Content

We will send you an approval link with your social media content. You can leave comments for our team to see. During your monthly meeting with your account manager, you will work together to approve that content. Once all social media posts have been approved, our team will schedule those posts to publish starting at the beginning of your cycle.

Email Marketing

We will forward you a test copy of your email 3-7 days before it is scheduled to send to your audience. You can reply to the email with revisions or approval. If you do not respond to the test email, we will assume the email is approved and will send it out according to the schedule we decide on in your kick-off call.

Reporting

At the end of each cycle, we will send you a report that shows how your content performed that month. You will have a chance in your monthly meeting to review this report with your account manager.

Monthly Meetings

You will meet with your account manager each month to review content, strategy, and action steps. Typically we will schedule this as a standing meeting, depending on your availability. Here’s what you can expect from your monthly meeting:
  • We will review your report together and discuss any action steps.
  • We will review and approve any upcoming content.
  • We will discuss any upcoming events or announcements you’d like us to highlight in your content and brainstorm ideas for upcoming content.
  • We will determine if we need to adjust our strategy moving forward.

Contract Renewal and Cancellation

When you sign up for content creation or lead generation services with us, your introductory period is 3 months. At the end of month 2, you can decide if you want to renew your monthly contract with us. If you decide to continue working with us, we will set up a new contract and recurring payment. If you decide to stop working with us, we require 60 days’ notice.

Communication

Your account manager is your main point of contact. You can email them any time with questions or ideas for your marketing strategy.
 
While we will set up a standing monthly meeting, you are welcome to schedule other meetings as needed to discuss strategy, ideas, or changes. You can email your account manager or our assistant to set up a meeting.
 
We appreciate simple and straightforward feedback. When we send you content to review, please follow these guidelines to help us understand and move forward to create content you’re proud of:
  • Collect all of your feedback all in one place. Back and forth emails can get tiring, and we don’t want to miss anything you say. Use bullet points to break up your thoughts & ideas, and use headers to organize your feedback.
  • Be honest!
  • Be specific. Instead of saying “I don’t like this image,” let us know why you dislike it and what you would like to see instead. For example, “This image does not match my understanding of my ideal customer. Instead, I would like to use an image of someone younger and more relatable.”
  • Think about your project goals, your audience, and your customers. Base your feedback on their preferences and not yours. It’s more important to make sure your brand appeals to your target client/customer and audience. Ask yourself: Do you feel this content will attract your target market?
  • Tell us how you feel about the presentation. How do the colors, fonts, images, graphics, and messaging make you feel?
  • Think about your main goals, refer back to your brand strategy, and ask yourself: Do you feel this design will or won’t help you reach your goal?

Whew, that was a lot!

You’re probably feeling a bit of information overload right now; that’s ok! Take a deep breath and give yourself a pat on the back. You did it! You’re one step closer to reaching your marketing goals without the overwhelm of doing it yourself. We’re committed to helping you get leads through your marketing so you can focus on what you do best in your business.