An agency without documented procedures runs entirely on the owner's head. That works until it does not — until you hire, take a vacation, or add the client that tips you past what one brain holds. SOPs are what let an agency grow without quality collapsing.
Here are the specific ones worth writing, and what each should contain.
Document decisions, not clicks
Before the list, the principle: write down the judgment, not the interface. "Click the blue button" ages out when the interface changes, and it is not what people get stuck on anyway. They get stuck on decisions — is this good enough to send, when do I escalate, what do I do when the client goes quiet. Write those.
1. Weekly content production
From pillar plan to drafts ready for review. What makes a post ready, how AI drafting fits, how many posts per pillar, and the definition of "done" for the week.
2. The approval cycle
Sending, reminder timing, the default-approve deadline, and how to apply revisions. This one procedure removes most of the chaos in a growing agency.
3. Publishing and verification
Confirming posts went out, checking they rendered correctly, catching failed connections. The ten-minute check that prevents a client discovering their own broken week.
4. Comment and message management
Response timing, tone guidelines, and — critically — escalation triggers. When does a comment get handled by the coordinator versus flagged to you. Write the "stop and ask" list explicitly.
5. Monthly reporting
What data gets pulled, how the document is assembled, what commentary gets added, and when it goes out. Reporting is one to three days a month at scale; a procedure turns most of it into repeatable assembly.
6. New client onboarding
The day-by-day from signed contract to first published post. Access requests, the kickoff call, the voice document, content pillars, first batch, first approval. A good onboarding SOP gets a client live in a week and sets the tone for the whole relationship.
7. Client offboarding
Access removal, content export, final handoff. The procedure that protects your reputation when a relationship ends — and this industry is small enough that reputation compounds.
Structure each one the same way
Trigger (what starts it), numbered steps, decision points written as if-then, a definition of done, and an explicit "escalate when" list that includes "you are unsure." The decision points are what make an SOP useful; everything else is scaffolding.
Write the exceptions, too
The happy path is the easy part. For each procedure, list the four or five things that actually go wrong — expired connection, client approves then wants a change after publishing, feedback that contradicts brand guidelines — and what to do. These are the moments that generate escalations, and documenting them is the highest-value part of the whole exercise.
Keep them alive
An SOP nobody updates is worse than none, because people follow it into a wall. Assign each one an owner, update it the moment someone hits an uncovered case, review quarterly, and store them one click from where the work happens. The payoff is not the document — it is that new hires become useful in days, and you can take a week off without the work stopping.