Running Clip Production for Clients

Clipping for your own account and clipping for clients look like the same job and are not. The editing is the easy half. What actually consumes the week is chasing source footage, running approvals, and keeping a dozen brands' preferences straight without mixing them up.

Getting the footage is the real bottleneck

Most delays trace back to a client not having sent the recording. The fix is structural rather than a matter of reminders: agree one place the footage always goes, and make it the client's normal habit rather than a request you make each time. A shared folder they already use beats a system they have to remember to log into.

Where the source is a public recording, a link is enough and you have removed the handoff entirely.

Approvals are where the days disappear

• Send a batch, never a drip. One message with twelve clips gets one review. Twelve messages get twelve delays.
• Ask for approval, not feedback. An open question invites redesign; a yes or no list closes.
• Set a default. If nothing comes back within an agreed window, the batch ships. Without this, one slow client stalls their own account indefinitely.
• Keep a rejected pile with the reason attached. After a month it tells you the client's actual taste better than any brief did.

Keep each brand's settings separate and boring

Caption style, aspect ratios, watermark, the platforms they post to, and their tolerance for strong language all differ per client. Storing that per brand, rather than in the head of whoever usually does that account, is what makes the work handoverable. It is also what stops one client's watermark appearing on another's clip, which is the kind of mistake that ends a retainer.

Report on what the client can act on

A monthly deck of view counts tells a client nothing they can do anything with, and invites the one question you do not want, which is whether the numbers are good. Report on which topics held attention and which did not, then tie that to what you plan to cut next month. That turns the review into a planning conversation rather than a defence.

Know what you are actually selling

Clients do not buy clips, they buy not having to think about posting. The agencies that keep accounts longest are usually not the ones producing the most polished edits. They are the ones whose clients never have to chase anything.