Onboarding Magic // Essential Elements for New Clients

Would you agree that first impressions are important?

If you're a small agency committed to excellence, you understand the significance of onboarding new clients seamlessly. A well-crafted onboarding experience sets the tone for an amazing partnership, offering clarity, reassurance, and guidance from the beginning.

Personalized Welcome Letter

Begin with a warm and personalized welcome letter and/or email. This should express gratitude for choosing to work with you and outline the agency's commitment to their success. Emphasize the excitement of collaborating and set the tone for a productive relationship

New Client Welcome Deck

I love when I get one of these and highly recommend especially if you want to set the tone of not just who you are, but how best to work with you and your agency. This can include a highlight of your core values, mission, and vision. It should also include office hours, boundaries, communication expectations and potentially a project phase or general timeline (your process). Clear is kind, so being clear right from the beginning can help establish great boundaries and set your partnership up for success.

Team Introduction

If your client will interact with other people on your team it's helpful to do those intros early on. Maybe you share their role, expertise, contact info, making sure they feel confident in this person supporting them during the process.

Project Goals and Timeline

I find it helpful to outline and action plan or initiative goals along with a timeline and send it within the first two weeks of an engagement. That helps the client see the process and keeps us on track during the engagement.

Resources and Support

If you are an expert in your field, it might be beneficial to have resource support for your clients. Loom videos, educational content (free or paid), FAQ's, templates, etc that they can use during their engagement with you. This highlights your superpower, gives them amazing service and can up-level their experience with you.

Next Steps and Onboarding Checklist

Make sure you list out any tasks you need from them to get started early on, to not hold up the project. Using a project management tool like ClickUp is a great way to manage tasks with clients.

I highly recommend you map out your onboarding experience and look for ways to up-level and streamline. Remember your goal is to demonstrate professionalism, transparency, clarity and be client love focused. Doing this well sets the foundation for a successful partnership and engagement. So you can focus on delivering excellent work!