top of page

SOP Outlines for your Blog, Newsletters & Customer Service Emails

Do you want to improve or create standard operating procedures for your marketing and customer service teams?

 

Are you feeling overwhelmed about where to start and how such documents should flow?

 

Below I've included the beginning outlines of standard operating procedures for your blog, newsletter and customer service emails. Use these as a jumping off point. My clients love them!

 

 

Your Blog Procedure:

 

  1. Does your Company have a blog? Y / N

  2. If your company does not have a blog, do you want a blog, or envision having a blog in the future? Y/N. Explain.

  3. If you answered ‘No’ to both questions, then please skip down to the “Newsletters” section.

  4. If you answered ‘Yes’ to one or both questions above, please fill out the Blog Procedure below:

    1. What topics do your blogs cover, or do you want your blogs to cover and WHY

      • Topic 1

      • Topic 2

      • Topic 3

      • Topic 4

      • Topic 5

  5. Who currently writes your blogs?

  6. Going forward will this person keep this job or will someone else step in to write the blogs?

  7. If no one is currently writing blogs, who do you envision doing this?

  8. How long do you like your blogs to be? Please provide a word count range.

    • If you don’t know, I recommend checking out the word count of blogs you read and enjoy to guide your decision.

  9. For SEO (search engine optimization) purposes, what tags do you always want tagged on your blogs? I recommend that these all purpose tags include:

    • The name of your business

    • Your CEO’s name (if she/he is the face of the business)

    • Your website URL

    • Related Product or Service

    • Your overall business category, for example: “life coach training”, “plus size clothing”, “European travel tips”

  10. SEO Tags for individual blog topics. These will be blog-specific. However, coming up with a clear procedure for identifying key tags is a powerful step to include here. For example,  Do you want your team to use websites like http://www.spyfu.com, http://soovle.com/, https://ubersuggest.io/, Wordstream or Freshkey?

  11. Blog Pictures:

    1. In general, how many pictures per blog do you include/anticipate?

    2. Who chooses the pictures that go with the blogs?

    3. Where do the pictures come from? What is the log-in information for this location?

    4. In what ways do you want your pictures search engine optimized?

  12. How frequently do you want to be publishing a blog?

  13. What day(s) of the week and what time of day? (Please be as specific as possible and be sure to include time zone)

  14. Who approves blog copy?

  15. Who gives the final 'okay' before publishing the complete blog?

    1. How does this person like to be notified?

    2. How will this person mark approved or send edit requests?

    3. If edit requests are needed, what is the expected turn around time and how do you re-notify the editor?

 

 

Your Newsletter Procedure:
 

  1. Does your company send out a regular email Newsletter? Y / N

  2. If your company does not have an email newsletter, do you want one, or envision having one in the future? Y/N. Explain.

  3. If you answered ‘No’ to both questions, then please skip down to the “Email” section.

  4. If you answered ‘Yes’ to one or both questions above, please fill out the Newsletter Procedure below:

  5. If you publish email newsletters, who is currently writing them?

  6. Going forward will this person keep this job, or will someone(s) else step in to write the newsletters?

  7. If no one is currently writing a newsletter, who do you envision doing this?

  8. How frequently do you want to be publishing your email newsletter?

  9. What day(s) of the week and what time of day? (Please be as specific as possible and be sure to include time zone)

  10. What is the layout for your email newsletter? (Or, what would you like it to be?)

    • Example:

      • One column or two columns?

      • What do you include in your newsletter?

      • Includes a note from the CEO?

      • Includes blog copy?

      • The entire blog or an excerpt with a link to the rest of the blog on your website?

      • Do you include a PS.?

      • What kind of content do you usually include in your PS?

      • What do you use as the email signature?

  11. What topics do you cover in your newsletter?

    • Topic 1

    • Topic 2

    • Topic 3

    • Topic 4

    • Topic 5

  12. Newsletter Pictures:

    • In general, how many pictures per Newsletter do you include/anticipate?

    • Does the header image remain the same each week, or change according to the content’s theme?

    • Who chooses the pictures that go with the Newsletters?

    • Where do the pictures come from? What is the log-in information for this location?

  13. Newsletter Subject Lines:

    • Who writes the email subject lines?

    • Any guidelines you have for the subject lines?

  14. Who approves the newsletter copy?

  15. Who gives the final 'okay' before publishing the complete newsletter?

  16. How does this person like to be notified?

  17. How will this person mark approved or send edit requests?

  18. If edit requests are needed, what is the expected turn around time and how do you re-notify the editor?

 

 

Customer Service Email Communication SOPs:

 

A.  Who in your company currently replies to the following emails: 

  • Customers

  • Affiliates

  • Billing

  • Marketing

  • Public Relations

B.  Who do you WANT replying to the following emails, if you don't like your current system?

  • Customers

  • Affiliates

  • Billing

  • Marketing

  • Public Relations

C.  Based on your response to question B, move through the below questions for each category (Customers, Affiliates, Billing, Marketing Public Relations).

 

 

1.  How quickly do you want response time to be:

  • within 24hrs

  • within 48hrs

  • within 24hrs M-F

  • within 48hrs M-5

  • within 3-5 business days

 

2.  Email Tone: How do you want the emails to sound?

  • List 3 - 7 words that describe the email tone you’d like to assume with your customers/clients.

    • Here are a few descriptive words to choose from (or feel free to include your own):

      • Professional, Formal, Friendly, Informal, Feminine, Animated, Admiring, Praising, Respectful, Entertaining, Humorous, Enthusiastic, Passionate, Straight Forward, Honest, Optimistic, Neutral, Objective, Chatty, Clever

 

3. What is your ideal email opening?

  • Hi, Hey, Hello,

  • Something more specific:

    • “Hey Amazing, [First Name],”

    • “Hello [First Name],Goddess”

    • “Miraculous [First Name],”

 

4.  Email Closing

  • What is the preferred sign off & signature?

  • Examples: sincerely, warmly yours, yours, respectfully yours, xoxo, with love, etc.

 

5.  FAQ's

  • IF you haven't already, create a document of answers to frequently asked questions for each department which can be used to answer the bulk of emails. 

 

6. What are the procedures for answering more specific/individualized questions?

  • Ask which specific team member first?

    • How does this team member like to contacted?

  • Which documents should be looked at to help gather information?

  • Other. Please outline.

 

 

 

 

 

bottom of page