Onboarding a new client for your agency is no easy task.

You have files to open, information to acquire, budgets to determine, goals to set, accounts to create…the list goes on and on. While onboarding will always be an undertaking, there are certainly ways to make it easier and smoother for your agency.

There’s a reason successful agencies have clearly-defined procedures for onboarding efforts—they work. Not only that, but having a clear strategy will ensure that things will happen correctly and quickly. But it’s hard implementing best practices if you don’t know what those best practices are. Luckily, the Internet is full of great resources to make onboarding a breeze!

 is a great place to start. With clearly defined steps (and videos to explain each of them), onboarding will soon become second nature to you. If you have some practice with onboarding and just need help getting organized, check out this  to help simplify your process.

Once you’re familiar with the processes, the next step is to get resources assembled to help you put what you’ve learned into practice. (Our favorite is the .) Not sure what questions you’ll need to ask your newly-acquired client? How about setting goals or creating content calendars? Don’t worry, someone has already thought of every question you might have, you just have to find it!

Having branded templates of any/all onboarding resources will drastically decrease the amount of time you spend searching through old jobs looking for materials. Don’t waste your time updating old documents when you can spend the time creating branded templates that are stored in a shared folder for everyone to access. This will save you hours in the long run! 

All that time you spend organizing your agency’s onboarding strategy will be worthless unless everyone on your team knows what their role is. You need people to be in charge of client communications, opening jobs, setting timelines, scheduling meetings, strategizing goals, etc., none of which will happen unless it is someone’s specific job to do so. Make sure to assign these roles when you establish an onboarding strategy so that your hard work doesn’t go to waste.

Even with a streamlined process, onboarding takes time and practice to perfect. Things will need to be updated from time to time and there will always be a few outlier clients. What is important, however, is that your team understands the process so that onboarding doesn’t have to feel like a chore for your agency.

Do you have any onboarding tips or tricks? Share them with us below!