Tips for a Successful Onboarding

Onboarding is a strategic process that sets up both the client & agency for a successful partnership. During the onboarding process, clients provide insight into their business that the agency will use to create the strategy. We have created a personalized onboarding process that includes a welcome document where we introduce our staff to new clients, as well as explain to clients how we run our operations.

It is likely you have experienced some type of onboarding with businesses you have partnered with, but below are insights and tips for a successful onboarding process with Matchstick Social:

We build in a buffer for our timelines.

Sometimes, things happen before schedule and sometimes, we hit hurdles. (We’re looking at you, Facebook.) You can be sure that when your ink hits the contract, we are hard at work behind the scenes to ensure a seamless transition.

When completing onboarding documents, err on the side of over-communication.

If you’ve gone in to assign us as an Administrator on your ad account or website back-end, communicate that so we can be on the lookout for the email. You’d be shocked at how many times these things break!

Additionally, always ask for clarification if there’s any part you don’t understand. There is a growing culture among adults in the 21^st century that we have to know everything about everything. Don’t be afraid to speak up if something is unclear. This will ensure our partnership begins and continues to be strong.

Discuss specifics on how you make revenue and profit.

Assume nothing. The better we understand your business model, the better we can implement analytics to track key performance indicators (KPIs) and the better your strategy will be.

For example, communicate not only your hottest sellers or converters, but also where you have the best profit margins.

Additionally, don’t be afraid to share your big, audacious goals for the future—6 months, 1 year, 5 years! We often take a phased approach (crawl, walk, run) to find the “sweet spot.”

Communicate your fears.

Have you been burned by previous agencies or team members who didn’t deliver? Have you blown through a big budget optimizing toward the wrong end goal? Don’t be afraid to share these trials with us!

We can a) talk to you about our process, and b) understand where you’re coming from when you ask questions or seem doubtful.

When in doubt, share the assets!

Everyone knows to share their brand guidelines (when they have them), but they usually don’t think to share photos and videos they have. The resounding feedback we get about our strategy is, “Wow; we had no idea how much goes into this.”

Your strategy is only as strong as your creative, so if you have videos or photos that are still relevant to your business and team, we want to see them! Additionally, if you have some assets that are no longer relevant but you have strong opinions about the look and feel of them, share those too.

Our onboarding process is usually slated for two weeks, but it can fluctuate depending on the scope of work. Our Welcome Doc will go over everything you need to know in terms of timeline and scope.

I (and the team) hope to talk to you soon!