How To Run A Marketing Agency On AI Agents

---
name: how-an-agency-runs
description: Structures a small service agency into five departments (CEO, Marketing, Tech, Client Success, Media), writes an SOP under every seat, seats a draft-only reporting agent under every human with a cadence and a report, installs the daily / weekly / monthly rhythm, and writes the owner's reserved list plus the standing rules that let everyone else act. Trigger on "structure my agency", "org chart for my agency", "which agent under which person", "get me out of the day to day".
---

# How An Agency Runs

Five departments. A human owner and a written SOP under each. An agent under every
human that reads and drafts. One fixed weekly rhythm. A short reserved list of
decisions that only reach the owner. Everything else has a standing rule.

## Step 1: Interview

Ask, one at a time:
1. Who is on the team and what does each person actually do this week?
2. Which recurring jobs exist? (ads, onboarding, reporting, content, automations,
   intake, billing)
3. Which of those does the owner still do personally, and why?
4. Where do client numbers live, and is it one place?
5. What broke or embarrassed you in the last month?

## Step 2: Departments and seats

| Department | Owns | Typical SOPs |
|---|---|---|
| CEO | Strategy, offers, pricing, sales calls, final scale or kill | Scoreboard, monthly review |
| Marketing | Paid ads and lead flow, for clients and for the agency | Weekly ad management, intake funnel ops |
| Tech | Builds, integrations, infrastructure, the agent fleet | Infrastructure map, incidents |
| Client Success | Onboarding, reporting, retention, comms logging | Onboarding, reporting and communication |
| Media | Content production and publishing | Production and publishing |

Assign a human to each. An empty seat is marked "CEO covers, following the SOP".
Filling a seat: is there an SOP? Can an agent run it? If not, hire against the SOP.

## Step 3: An SOP under every seat

For each recurring job:

```
SOP: [name]
OWNER: [department] : CADENCE: [daily / weekly / monthly] : SYSTEMS: [tools]
PURPOSE: one sentence
STEPS: numbered, each with the exact place to look and what to record
GUARDRAILS: what needs the CEO, what never happens
DEFINITION OF DONE: a sentence a stranger can verify
```

If something is done twice and not written, write it the second time.

## Step 4: An agent under every human

One reporting agent per department, drafting and never sending:

```
AGENT: [name]  UNDER: [human]  CADENCE: [day, time]
READS: [exact inputs, read only]
POSTS: [report shape] to [one channel]
NEVER: sends, spends, edits a record, changes a budget
```

Reference roster: ads review Monday morning (under the media buyer, recommends
scale / hold / refresh / kill), CRM workflow audit Tuesday (under Tech), DM grading
daily (under Marketing), client health from the week's calls daily (under Client
Success), channel metrics Wednesday (under Media), CEO pulse Friday (for the owner).
Plus a morning brief that writes itself before anyone logs in.

## Step 5: The rhythm

**Daily, about fifteen minutes:** read the brief and act on flags; confirm overnight
leads landed in the CRM; clear or reschedule overdue tasks; review drafted replies.

**Weekly, about two hours, fixed day:** scoreboard against targets; a dated
scale / hold / refresh / kill line for every client account; every client logged
within seven days; one test lead end to end through the intake funnel; content
cadence check; project triage. Done when every account has this week's line and
nothing flagged kill last week is still spending.

**Monthly, half a day:** close the numbers; each goal advanced, killed or re-scoped;
client report calls delivered; thresholds recalibrated; the wiki brought back to true.

## Step 6: Client communication rule

Every client hears from the agency every week: numbers, one insight, one next
action, outcome first. Logged in the client note with date and channel. Monthly
scorecard on a call. Escalate to the CEO immediately when performance blows past
the kill threshold for two weeks or a client is unhappy, and bring a proposed fix.

## Step 7: The reserved list and the standing rules

**Reserved for the owner:** sales calls, content on camera, offers and pricing,
final scale or kill beyond standing rules, signing or terminating clients and
contractors, anything touching a medical or regulated claim.

**Standing rules (act without asking):** budget shifts inside an agreed percentage
and kill zone pauses; sending scheduled reports; publishing inside the content
strategy; fixing broken pipeline hops; updating the wiki.

**Ask first:** spend swings above an agreed daily amount outside the rules; any new
tool subscription; pricing changes, discounts, refunds; deleting data or changing
shared schemas.

Write the thresholds as numbers the owner gives you. Never invent them.

## Step 8: The delegation rule

Whenever the owner proposes a build task, classify it: owner work (revenue,
strategy, content) or delegate work (build, integration). Delegate work becomes a
ticket for Tech with outcome, inputs, definition of done and a deadline. Say plainly
that the owner should not build it because they can.

## Rules

- Roles and rhythms only. Never invent clients, counts, revenue or thresholds.
- Every agent is draft only under a human. Nothing client facing ships without a
  human yes.
- One source of truth for client numbers. If two exist, flag it before anything else.