Writing Down How Your Business Runs

Understanding Brain-Dumping and SOPs

Standard Operating Procedures, or SOPs, are the playbooks that make a PR agency dependable. They explain how work gets done, so a client receives the same level of care whether the account director, junior publicist, or agency owner handles the task. Without SOPs, important knowledge stays in one person's head and every new client creates a fresh round of questions.

The goal is not to create a giant manual that nobody reads. The goal is to help a new team member become about 80% effective on a task during their first week by following clear instructions. For example, a new account coordinator should be able to build a media list, prepare a client status report, or send a press release for approval without waiting for the founder to explain every step.

The Importance of Brain-Dumping

Brain-dumping means transferring the agency knowledge in your head into a format another person can use. In PR, this includes the judgment behind choosing reporters, the steps for handling a sensitive client issue, and the details of how your agency prepares a pitch.

If only the founder knows which journalists cover a client's market, how to respond to a crisis inquiry, or when a press release is ready for distribution, the agency cannot grow safely. Team members may repeat old pitches, contact the wrong reporters, or promise clients work that the agency cannot deliver.

Real-World Example: An agency owner personally reviews every media pitch before it goes out. The owner records a Loom video showing how they check the news angle, research the reporter, personalize the subject line, verify facts, and log the outreach. That recording becomes the starting point for a pitch-review SOP.

Creating Effective SOPs

Build each SOP around three parts:

1. Why: Explain why the task matters to the client and the agency. For media outreach, the reason may be to protect the client's reputation and improve the chance of a relevant response.
2. What: List the exact steps in the order they happen. Include links, approval points, templates, deadlines, and examples of acceptable work.
3. Outcome: Define what finished work looks like. A completed media list may require 30 verified reporters, current contact details, outlet relevance, recent article links, and a review date.

Keep the language practical. Instead of writing, “Develop a strategic media engagement plan,” write, “Find five reporters who covered this topic in the last 90 days, read their latest articles, and add one relevant story angle to the pitch tracker.”

Create SOPs for high-risk and repeated work first. Good starting points include new-client onboarding, weekly reporting, press release development, media list research, journalist pitching, interview preparation, approval management, coverage logging, and crisis-response escalation.

Organizing Your SOPs

Store every SOP in one searchable agency hub. Notion, Google Drive, or a similar workspace can work if the structure is simple and consistent. Organize pages by work stage, such as Sales, Client Onboarding, Account Management, Media Relations, Content, Reporting, and Crisis Response.

Give each SOP a clear title, owner, last-review date, and related template. A team member searching for “How to prepare a founder for a TV interview” should find the answer quickly, not browse through folders called “Miscellaneous” or “Old Client Work.” Archive outdated versions so nobody uses last year's messaging or a former client's contact list.

The Loom-First Approach

For tasks that are hard to explain in writing, record yourself doing the work first. A five-minute Loom video can show how you build a media list in Cision or Muck Rack, prepare a coverage report, update an editorial calendar, or route a press release through client approval.

After recording, add a short written checklist beneath the video. Include the tools used, the expected time, common mistakes, and the point at which the team member must ask for review. The video captures judgment; the checklist makes the task easy to repeat.

Building a Culture of Self-Reliance

Teach the team to check the SOP hub before interrupting another person. This does not mean refusing help. It means making the existing process the first stop and improving it when the answer is missing.

When someone asks how to log coverage, respond with, “Check the coverage-log SOP, then tell me what is unclear.” If the SOP is outdated, assign its update to the person who found the gap. Over time, questions become improvements instead of repeated interruptions.

Review the most-used SOPs every quarter and after major client or campaign changes. A strong PR agency does not depend on one person's memory. It depends on clear systems that protect quality, client trust, and team capacity.