Creative link building - Win before you begin

There have been times when, as a team, we’ve missed deadlines. I hold my hands up to it. Shoot me now. But, with every link building project we do, we learn from our mistakes and refine our internal processes. We try new things to make sure we never make the same mistake twice.

Part of my role as Manager of the Creative team here at Distilled is to ensure that both we, and the clients we work with, are set up for mutual success. I can tell you it’s no fun if we’re at odds, so it’s important to continuously strive to find ways to work well together.

And just as there are things we can do to make your life easier, there are also a few small things that you, as clients, can do to make the process less painful too!

A new initiative I’ve started to implement, is the sharing of what I like to call my ‘Creative one pager’. This is shared at the very beginning of a project, with the sole aim to minimise the number of roadblocks and frustrations that we might encounter throughout the production process.

I’ve shared the contents of this document below in the hope you may find it useful too. After all, life’s so much easier when we’re on the same page.

Creative one pager

(The below is sent to clients at the beginning of a new link building project)

What next?

Creative productions can be as simple or complex as we make them, but nobody likes missing deadlines.

To ensure a smooth production ride we’ve highlighted a few things, which if adhered to, should make the process run like clockwork.

What to expect from Distilled

• Scheduling - We’ll send you a schedule so you can see key milestones and feedback dates to make sure we can deliver the final piece on time.
• Regular project updates - Your designated project lead will be in contact to either set up a weekly call to discuss progress, or set a time for a weekly email update that suits you.

A typical weekly agenda looks like:

• Project status - Where are we with the project, are we on schedule?
• Next steps - What do we need to do next in order to get closer to completion?
• Milestones - What can you expect in the week ahead (this includes things such as feedback you may be required to give on design etc)
• General discussion
• An open door policy - Although we’ll be in constant contact, feel free to contact us at any time with questions or concerns, we’re always happy to help.

What we expect from you

• Rally the troops - The impact of this cannot be underestimated. Make sure to include all the decision makers and affected departments. Those who have an interest in the project should be involved throughout the entire process, that includes:
• SEO - This is more than likely the team you’re in right now, so hopefully we have that covered.
• Design - Your in-house design team may have certain design guidelines we need to adhere to, let’s find out what those are sooner rather than later.
• PR - The PR we do can be different to that of in-house PR teams, let's communicate from the get-go to make sure we’re all on the same page.
• Tech - We’ll need to speak to your tech team to know what technical limitations there are with creating something to sit on your site.
• Your Boss! - Or whoever may have the final sign off if that is not you.
• Swift feedback - Another blocker in a project sticking to its intended schedule is the amount of time in between feedback at certain key milestones. When we send a design or other assets for you to feedback on we’d like that back within 24 hours to ensure the schedule can be kept to. If that’s not going to be possible then it’s crucial you let us know from the offset so we can schedule more time in.

Here's to a successful project!

The Distilled Creative Team

Creative link building - Win before you begin was originally posted by Internet Marketing