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Home/How We Work
The Same 5 Steps · Every Engagement

Process is the
quiet part.

Most agencies will not show you their process. Ours is on this page, in detail. The deliverables, the people, the cadence, the artifacts. The reason our clients stay an average of 4.2 years is not luck. It is repeatable.

01
01Step 1 of 5

Discovery.

Week 1

We get inside your business. Goals, pipeline, P&L, current spend.

auto-cycling
Operating Principles

Four rules
we never break.

An agency is the sum of the rules it keeps under pressure. These four are the ones we kept when the work got hard and the relationship got tested. They are why our clients renew and why the team we hired stays.

01
01

Senior people, not juniors.

The strategist you meet on day one is the same strategist on month 24. We do not bait and switch to a junior account manager.

Your account is owned by a Managing Partner or Senior Strategist. Always.
02
02

Written strategy, not vague decks.

Every engagement gets a 20-page written marketing plan with channel allocations, target ROAS, and a 12-month roadmap. You can hand it to a new CMO.

If we can't write down the plan, we don't have one. Signed before spend.
03
03

Tied to your P&L. Not vanity metrics.

We do not celebrate impressions. We celebrate sold units, qualified leads, cost per acquisition, and ROAS. The metrics your CFO actually asks about.

Reports lead with sold units. Activity metrics are diagnostic, not goalposts.
04
04

Month-to-month after onboarding.

We earn the renewal every month. After a 90-day onboarding, you stay because it is working, not because you are locked into a 24-month contract.

Average engagement runs 4.2 years. We never had to use a lawyer to keep one.
The Five Steps · In Detail

Every engagement runs through these.
No exceptions. No shortcuts.

01

Before we write a single ad or pitch a strategy, we sit in your seat. We talk to your sales team, look at your DMS or CRM, walk through your dashboards, and read the room. Most agencies skip this. That is why most agencies guess.

Deliverables
  • Stakeholder interviews
    60-min sessions with you, sales lead, ops lead.
  • Tracking & access audit
    GA4, GTM, CRM, Search Console, ad accounts.
  • Performance baseline
    Where you are today, by channel, in plain numbers.
  • Competitive lens
    What your top 3 competitors are doing, and why.
Who is involved
  • Lead StrategistChris Wielinski runs every discovery, every time.
  • Channel specialistPulled in from week one for technical audits.
You get
Discovery Brief.pdf
Shared in Week 1

12-page document. Your situation, written down honestly. You read this before week 3.

02

Strategy is not a slide deck with a vision statement. It is a written document with channel allocations, target ROAS, tracked KPIs, and a 12-month roadmap. You can hand it to a new CMO and they would know exactly what we are doing and why.

Deliverables
  • Marketing plan
    Written, 18-25 pages. No fluff. No filler.
  • Channel allocation
    Where every dollar goes, with rationale.
  • Target KPI sheet
    Sold units, CPL, ROAS, by channel and quarter.
  • 12-month roadmap
    What launches when, with dependencies.
Who is involved
  • Lead StrategistOwns the plan. Presents it to your team.
  • Account DirectorTranslates plan into delivery cadence.
You get
Marketing Plan v1.pdf
Shared in Week 1-2

The document we will be measured against. Signed by both sides before we touch a dollar of spend.

03

This is where most agencies hand you to a junior. We do not. Your dedicated strategist stays on your account. You get drafts before they go live. You get Slack access. You get a weekly stand-up. We move fast because the strategy is written down. There is no debate every week about what to do.

Deliverables
  • Campaigns built and shipped
    Ad creative, landing pages, lifecycle flows.
  • Tracking in production
    Conversion tags, dashboards, lead routing.
  • Drafts shared 48hr early
    Every piece. You can veto, redirect, refine.
  • Weekly stand-up notes
    What shipped, what is shipping, what is blocked.
Who is involved
  • Dedicated StrategistOwns the account. Senior, not a junior.
  • Channel specialistsPaid, SEO, web, social. Pulled in as needed.
  • Project ManagerKeeps timelines honest and your inbox quiet.
You get
Live Campaigns.pdf
Shared in Week 2-6+

Real traffic, real leads, real reporting. Within 2 weeks of strategy sign-off, you are running.

04

Optimization is not staring at graphs. It is bi-weekly hands on the wheel. We reallocate budget the day the data justifies it. We rewrite ads when the creative fatigues. We A/B test landing pages every month. The strategy is the map. Optimization is how we make sure we are on it.

Deliverables
  • Bi-weekly CRO sprints
    Test, measure, ship, document.
  • Budget reallocation
    Moved to what is working, away from what is not.
  • Creative refresh
    Every 30-60 days for paid. Quarterly for organic.
  • Tracking improvements
    What we missed in week 1, we catch by week 3.
Who is involved
  • Channel leadsEach channel has a specialist running optimizations.
  • Lead StrategistReviews the moves before they ship. No drift.
You get
Optimization Log.pdf
Shared in Ongoing

Every change, with a hypothesis, a result, and a next step. Audit-grade record of why we did what we did.

05

Reports are not 60 pages of screenshots. Ours is 3 pages. Sold units sourced from marketing, cost per sold unit, what changed, what we will change next. The data your principal asks about, on page one. Every month. Quarterly we go deeper and re-baseline.

Deliverables
  • Monthly performance report
    Plain English. No screenshots of dashboards.
  • Live dashboard
    Custom dashboard. Refreshed daily.
  • Quarterly business review
    90 minutes. Strategic, not tactical. CFO can join.
  • Annual re-baseline
    Are we still working on the right problems?
Who is involved
  • Lead StrategistWrites the memo. Presents the QBR.
  • YouRead it. Push back. We expect you to.
You get
Monthly Memo.pdf
Shared in Monthly + Quarterly

Email-able. Forward-able. Three pages. The number that matters is on page one.

A Sample Engagement

The first 6 weeks.
Plotted, honestly.

This is what a real engagement looks like, week by week. We do not start with paid media on day one. We do not wait three months to ship. Strategy is in week one. Live traffic by week two. Your first monthly report arrives in week four.

Workstream
W1
W2
W3
W4
W5
W6
Discovery
Interviews + audit
Strategy
Plan drafting
Tracking & Setup
GA4, GTM, CRM integrations
Paid Media
Account build + creative
Live optimization
SEO & Content
Technical fixes
Content cadence
Website
Design + build
Reporting
Block of workMilestoneCross-team week
Week 1Plan signed off
Week 2Campaigns live
Week 4First monthly report
You · Us

Who owns what.
Written down on day one.

The fastest way to a bad engagement is unclear ownership. We split responsibilities at kickoff and put it in the SOW. Below is the standard split. We tailor it. We never skip it.

Area of work
TCThink Cre8tive
YouYour team
Marketing strategy & roadmap
Own
Approve
Channel selection & budget split
Own
Approve
Ad creative & copywriting
Own
Review
Landing pages & web design
Own
Review
SEO content production
Own
Review
Reporting & QBR
Own
Read
Tracking & analytics setup
Own
Access
Brand voice & key messaging
Co-own
Co-own
Lead qualification & follow-up
Advise
Own
Sales process & close
Advise
Own
Product & pricing decisions
Advise
Own
Internal team management
Stay out
Own
OwnDrives the work, accountable for outcomeCo-ownJointly accountable, decided togetherApproveFinal yes/no — but not in the weedsReviewSees drafts, can push back before launchAdviseProvides input — does not blockReadStays informedStay outNot our place
Cadence & Tooling

When you hear from us.
And on what.

Communication is a deliverable. We treat it like one. Below is the rhythm a typical client lives inside. Predictable. Documented. Forward-able to whoever needs to know.

Daily

Slack on, async always

We respond to your messages in business hours, often outside them. No 24-hour ticket queues.

Weekly

30-min stand-up

Same day, same time. What shipped. What is shipping. What is blocked. Notes always sent.

Bi-weekly

Optimization sprint

Internal at our shop. We review data, ship changes, then write up what we changed and why.

Monthly

Performance memo

Three-page email. Sold units, cost per acquisition, what changed, what we will change next.

Quarterly

Business review

90 minutes. Strategic, not tactical. Your CFO is welcome. We re-baseline targets.

Annually

Roadmap reset

Whole-day session. Are we still working on the right problems? What changes for next year.

The Stack
We use yours when it makes sense. Otherwise these are ours.
Slack
Day-to-day chat, shared channels
Google Docs
Strategy docs, playbooks, the SOW
Asana
Project management, sprint tasks
Figma
Creative review, design hand-off
Custom Portal
Your live performance dashboard
Zoom
Stand-ups, QBRs, working sessions
Loom
Async walkthroughs when video > text
Email
Memos, the audit trail, the records
Lines We Will Not Cross

What we will
not do.

An agency is also the work it refuses. Our boundaries are how we have stayed sharp for fifteen years and how our team has stayed for an average of nine. Read these and decide if we are the right fit. We do that math too, every time.

We will not take you on if we cannot help you.

If our discovery shows your channel mix is fine and you just need a better internal sales process, we will tell you that. We have walked away from a six-figure retainer because the agency was not the answer. That is the bar.

We will not bait and switch you to a junior.

Some agencies sell you on the founders, then hand your account to a 23-year-old on day 30. Your strategist is the same on month 24 as on month 1. If we ever change it, you sign off.

We will not lock you into a 24-month contract.

After a 90-day onboarding, you are month-to-month. We earn the renewal every month. We have never used a lawyer to keep a client.

We will not hide behind agency-speak.

If a report needs a glossary to read, it is a bad report. We write everything in plain English. If you cannot explain it to your CFO in one minute, we rewrite it.

We will not run unmeasured campaigns.

If we cannot tie a dollar of spend to a real outcome, we do not spend the dollar. Branding plays included. Every campaign has a measurable hypothesis, even when the unit is awareness.

We will not work for anyone, on any product.

We say no to industries we do not understand, products we cannot believe in, and clients whose teams treat ours poorly. Life is too short for the wrong fit on either side.

Process Questions

The questions we get
before every kickoff.

Strategy is signed off in week 1 to 2. Tracking and campaigns are live in week 2 to 3 for paid. SEO and content compound from week 3 onward. Your first monthly performance report arrives in week 4. By week 6 we have a real performance baseline and an optimization log of everything we have changed.

The Managing Partner or a Senior Strategist owns your account from kickoff through renewal. Channel specialists (paid, SEO, web, social) plug in for their workstreams. A Project Manager keeps your inbox quiet. No matter how big your account grows, the strategist you met on day one stays the same person.

We will not pretend you do not. If you have a written plan that holds up, we use it as the starting point and add to it where it needs depth. If it is a vague deck with no targets, we will say so honestly and propose a rewrite. Either way, you see the diff before we touch a dollar of spend.

Yes. Copy, design, motion, web build, ad creative, landing pages, lifecycle emails. All in-house. For specialty production (large video shoots, hand-illustrated work, voice talent), we coordinate with vetted partners and stay accountable for the result.

We range from $1,500/month for focused single-channel work (paid alone) or $2,500/month for managed SEO, up to $25,000+ for multi-channel retainers with Fractional CMO hours. Pricing is tied to scope, not seat-time. After a 30-minute discovery call we send a written proposal with options.

We agree on KPIs during strategy. For dealer clients, it is usually sold units sourced from marketing, cost per sold unit, and ROAS by channel. For service businesses, it is qualified leads, cost per acquisition, and pipeline contribution. We do not move the goalposts. The KPIs you sign off on are the KPIs we report against.

Yes, with 30 days notice after the initial 90-day onboarding. We transition tracking, accounts, and assets to you (or your new team) at no charge. We have never been the agency that holds your Google account hostage on the way out.

Yes. We have a separate Fractional CMO offering where a Senior Strategist sits inside your team for 10 to 25 hours per month, owning strategy, hiring, and reporting at the exec level. Often a Fractional CMO retainer sits on top of a marketing services retainer. Sometimes it replaces one.

Let's Talk Strategy

Are you ready
for results?

Tell us what you are trying to grow. We will reply within one business day with whether we are the right fit. No pitch decks. No discovery meetings just to qualify you.

Call
(817) 431-6700
Mon–Fri · 9am to 5pm CT
Email
hello@thinkcre8tive.com
Replies within one business day
Visit
129 S. Main Street, Suite 260
Grapevine, TX 76051 · By appointment
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