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When a small edit changes the whole job
A consultant sends a client an onboarding email. It’s for customers who’ve already signed up, and its job is to get them to open the setup guide.
A reviewer asks if she can make a small tweak. Could it go to people who attended the webinar and haven’t signed up yet?
I can see why that feels like a small request. Same company, same product, same document. But the person opening the second email still needs a reason to try the product. The person opening the first one is already in it and just wants to know where to start.
When a comment like that comes in, I go back to three things we agreed on at kickoff.
- Who’s going to read this?
- What should they do after reading it?
- What am I handing over?
You can change the wording of the setup guide link without changing any of those answers. You can even move the link to the top if customers are having trouble finding it. Turning one email into a three-email sequence changes the handover, even when the audience stays the same.
I’d say, “I can finish the onboarding email we agreed on, or I can estimate the webinar follow-up if that’s more urgent.” That gives the client a choice they can make in a reply. If they want to switch, write down what happens to the original draft, the new price if there is one, and the new date before you start.
One thing I’d check first. If I wrote “new users” in the brief and left it at that, I helped create the confusion. I’d clear up what the client meant and see what fits in the original time and price.
Before your next kickoff, find a project where an edit turned into more work. Write down the audience, the next action, or the deliverable you wish you’d specified. Put that one sentence where both of you can find it when the first draft comes back.