Client Intake for Agencies: What to Ask Before Project Kickoff

TLDR: Agency intake is not freelancer intake — you are juggling multiple stakeholders, broader scopes, and longer timelines. Break intake into three phases (pre-kickoff form, kickoff call, asset collection) and ask the right questions in each phase so your team hits the ground running instead of spending the first two weeks chasing basics.

Agency intake is a different animal.

You’re not onboarding a single client with a simple deliverable. You’re coordinating between multiple stakeholders, managing expectations across departments, and gathering enough information to fuel a team of specialists. Get the intake wrong at an agency, and the entire project pays for it.

Here’s what agencies specifically need to ask, and how to structure the intake process so your team hits the ground running at kickoff.

Why Generic Intake Forms Don’t Work for Agencies

Most intake form templates are built for solo consultants or single-service providers. They ask surface-level questions that work fine when one person is doing the work.

Agencies have different problems:

• Multiple team members need different information from the same client
• Scope is broader, covering strategy, creative, media, development, or all of the above
• Stakeholder dynamics are more complex, with multiple approvers and decision-makers
• Timelines are longer, meaning the intake information needs to hold up for months, not weeks

A generic form that asks “what is your budget?” and “what are your goals?” won’t cut it. You need specificity.

The Agency Intake Framework

Structure your intake around five categories. Each one feeds a different part of your team.

1. Company and Brand Intel

• Company name, website, and industry
• Year founded and company size
• Brand guidelines document (upload)
• Logo files in vector format
• Brand voice and tone description
• Existing style guide or design system
• Core brand values or positioning statement

Your creative team needs this before they touch anything. If the client doesn’t have formal brand guidelines, that’s useful information too. It means you’ll need to establish them or work with more creative latitude.

2. Stakeholders and Decision-Making

• Who is the day-to-day point of contact?
• Who has final approval on deliverables?
• Are there other stakeholders who will review work?
• What does the internal approval process look like?
• What is the expected turnaround time for client feedback?
• Are there any internal politics or sensitivities we should be aware of?

That last question is bold, but agencies that ask it avoid landmines. A CMO who hired you might have a CEO who’s skeptical. Knowing that early changes how you present work.

3. Current State and History

• What marketing or creative work have you done in the past 12 months?
• What’s working well right now?
• What’s not working?
• Have you worked with an agency before? What was that experience like?
• What tools and platforms are you currently using (CRM, analytics, CMS, ad platforms)?
• Can you provide access to your Google Analytics, ad accounts, and social profiles?
• What is your current monthly marketing spend?

Previous agency experience is critical intel. If the last agency was fired for slow communication, you know responsiveness is a priority. If they were let go for poor creative, you know the bar is high.

4. Project Scope and Objectives

• What specific services are you engaging us for?
• What are your top 3 business objectives for the next 12 months?
• What KPIs or metrics define success for this engagement?
• Are there specific campaigns, launches, or initiatives planned?
• What is the total budget for this engagement (monthly and/or project-based)?
• What is the expected start date and contract duration?
• Are there hard deadlines tied to external events (trade shows, product launches, fiscal year)?

Tie every question to something measurable. “What are your goals?” gets vague answers. “What KPIs define success?” gets numbers you can actually track against.

5. Assets and Access

• Shared drive or asset library location
• Login credentials for relevant platforms (shared securely)
• Existing content calendar or editorial plan
• Photography or video assets available for use
• List of past campaigns with performance data
• Competitor URLs and any competitive analysis that exists
• Legal or compliance requirements for content or advertising

This section saves your account managers from weeks of drip-feed asset requests. Get everything in one pass.

For a broader list of questions you can pull from, check out our 50 intake questions guide.

Structuring the Process

Don’t dump all of this into a single form. Break it into phases.

Phase 1: Pre-Kickoff Form (sent immediately after contract signing) Covers sections 1 and 2: brand intel and stakeholders. This takes 15-20 minutes and gives your team enough to prep for the kickoff call.

Phase 2: Kickoff Call (scheduled within one week of signing) Walk through sections 3 and 4 live. Project scope and current state are better discussed in conversation, where you can ask follow-up questions in real time.

Phase 3: Asset Collection (deadline: 3 business days after kickoff) Section 5 is an asset checklist. Send it as a task list with clear deadlines for each item. Automated reminders help here.

This phased approach keeps the client from feeling overwhelmed while ensuring your team has everything they need by week two.

A Real Example

A 20-person marketing agency was losing an average of 11 days between contract signing and project start. Their intake was a PDF questionnaire emailed to the client’s main contact. Responses were incomplete 70% of the time, and the kickoff call was spent asking basic questions instead of discussing strategy.

They rebuilt their intake using the phased approach above. Pre-kickoff form completion hit 95%. Kickoff calls became strategic instead of administrative. Time to project start dropped from 11 days to 4. The same team, the same clients, just a better process.

For more agency-specific onboarding strategies, read our marketing agency onboarding case study.

Don’t Lose Momentum After the Close

The gap between “signed contract” and “project kickoff” is where client excitement dies. Every day of silence or disorganized requests erodes the confidence that made them hire you.

A structured intake process tells your clients: we know what we’re doing, and we respect your time. That’s the impression you want before a single deliverable ships.

For broader onboarding strategies beyond intake, read our guide on client onboarding best practices for small teams.

OnboardMap helps agencies build phased intake workflows with branded client portals, automated reminders, and team handoff tools. Get early access and onboard your next client in days, not weeks.