Skip to content

SOP-MKT-content-approval-workflow-v0

1. Purpose

Define the approval flow for every class of marketing content produced by eco|monetize™ — who authors, who approves, at what stakes, under what SLAs — so content ships at the velocity its audience expects without drift in brand voice, category positioning, or trademark discipline.

This SOP exists to solve three problems:

  1. Approval-chain drift — without a single source of truth, approval flows get reinvented per content type. Nurture emails, LinkedIn posts, and investor decks each accrete ad-hoc routing that eventually costs time.
  2. Stakes-mismatched gating — a LinkedIn post requires different scrutiny than an investor deck. Treating them the same either over-gates low-stakes content (creating bottlenecks) or under-gates high-stakes content (risking brand or legal exposure).
  3. Brand drift in the wild — published content that deviates from canonical brand voice, category frame, or trademark usage undermines category positioning. This SOP builds the gate that catches drift before ship.

Structural principle: Approval flow is stakes-tiered. Awareness content (LinkedIn posts, Substack essays, blog posts) moves at content velocity. Revenue-facing content (email sequences, Briefing materials, Assessment collateral) moves at deal velocity. Identity-facing content (investor materials, category narratives, whitepapers) moves at commitment velocity. Each tier has its own approval chain and SLA.

2. Scope

2.1 Content types governed

Tier Content type Author (R) Approval chain Typical cadence
Tier 1 — Awareness LinkedIn posts, short-form social, Substack newsletters (non-canonical), blog posts category.positioning CMO only 2-5 per week
Tier 2 — Revenue Email sequence templates, Briefing deck content, Assessment collateral, Sales enablement one-pagers category.positioning CMO + CRO (stakes-bifurcated per Section 5) ~1-3 per week
Tier 3 — Identity Investor materials, category narrative whitepapers, pitchbook content, "About" and foundational website copy, long-form Substack essays intended to become canonical category.positioning CMO + CEO + council review Quarterly or event-driven
Tier 4 — Legal-sensitive Any content making revenue claims, customer names, competitive positioning with callouts, or contractual references category.positioning CMO + COO (legal.exec) + CEO Event-driven

2.2 Not governed by this SOP

  • Internal documentation, SOPs, agent contracts (governed by Section 10 of CLAUDE.md + owning department's SOP)
  • Code comments, technical documentation, changelog entries (governed by CDO's documentation.engineering SOPs)
  • Raw research artifacts (governed by SOP-MKT-research-to-positioning-handoff when that's authored; today, use council review triggers)
  • Ad-hoc Slack/email replies (no approval required; normal business communication)

2.3 Relationship to other SOPs

  • SOP-REV-marketing-to-sales-handoff-v0.2 Section 5.4 bifurcates the approval flow for email sequences specifically. This SOP is the general pattern; Section 5.4 of the handoff SOP is the specialization for email.
  • SOP-EXEC-council-review-v1.0 governs when council review is mandatory. Tier 3 content triggers council review under that SOP's Trigger Matrix row 3 ("Category and positioning changes"); Tier 1 and Tier 2 do not.
  • SOP-MKT-research-to-positioning-handoff (when authored) will govern upstream research-to-content handoff.

3. Universal Content Requirements

All marketing content, regardless of tier, must meet these standards before approval at any stage:

3.1 Brand voice compliance

Content reflects the canonical voice defined in brand guidelines consolidated draft-v2.2. category.positioning self-verifies; CMO approves at the first gate.

3.2 Trademark discipline

All 7 canonical trademarks used correctly: - eco|monetize™ (lowercase, pipe, trademark) - Ecosystem Revenue Intelligence™ (category) - Ecosystem Signal Fabric™ - Revenue OS 2.0™ - Embedded Architecture Framework™ - Ecosystem Leverage Architecture™ / Revenue Governance Architecture™ / Signal Intelligence Architecture™ (the three implementation domains)

Deprecated terms never appear: "Partner Sync Platform," "PSP." If category.positioning is uncertain whether a candidate term should be trademarked, flag to CMO before publishing — new trademarks require CEO approval per the CMO agent contract.

3.3 Category frame alignment

Content frames Ecosystem Revenue Intelligence as a parallel governance axis to RevOps, never as a successor or "next evolution." Per brand guidelines Section 18 and the R16 parallel-axis ruling (ratified 2026-04-18). Drift phrases to avoid: "the next generation of RevOps," "post-RevOps," "what comes after RevOps," "RevOps 2.0," "we replace your CRM."

3.4 Factual accuracy

  • Statistics and quantitative claims require a source link or citation at time of authoring.
  • Customer names, revenue outcomes, or case specifics require CEO approval before publication (Tier 3 or Tier 4 content typically).
  • Industry patterns cited as "most CROs" or "companies at $100M-$750M" must reflect either direct research or published industry sources; no invented statistics.

3.5 Personalization standards (for outbound content)

Inherited from SOP-REV-marketing-to-sales-handoff-v0.2 Section 5.3 for email sequences. Summary: - Nurture: Company name + contact first name + one company-specific observation - Activation: Add engagement-trigger reference + one market timing hook - Post-Briefing: Fully bespoke

3.6 Regulatory compliance

  • CAN-SPAM: every outbound email template includes opt-out mechanism, accurate sender identification, physical address.
  • Truth in advertising: no claims of results we haven't achieved; no customer names without written permission.

4. Approval Roles

Role Approval authority Agent
Author Drafts content, self-verifies against Section 3 universal requirements category.positioning
Brand approver Approves brand voice, trademark usage, category frame alignment, factual accuracy on non-revenue claims CMO (Michelle)
Sales narrative approver Approves Tier 2 revenue content for sales accuracy and CRO strategic fit; GO/NO-GO on sales narrative, no line-editing of brand copy CRO (Marcus)
Legal/compliance approver Approves Tier 4 content for regulatory, trademark-claim, customer-reference, competitive-claim compliance COO via legal.exec (Morgan)
Identity approver Final approval on Tier 3 and Tier 4 content that commits the category, the investor narrative, or the company voice CEO (Rick)
Recipient list approver For outbound sequences, confirms recipient list matches ICP definition CRO (Marcus)

Single-R, single-A per gate. No role collapsing; no gate skipping. If an approver is unavailable, see Section 6 (SLA and escalation).

5. Tier-Specific Approval Flows

5.1 Tier 1 — Awareness content

category.positioning drafts → CMO approves (1 business day) → publish

One gate, one business day SLA. CMO reviews for brand voice, trademark, category frame. No CRO sequential approval; no council review required.

Exception: If a LinkedIn post or Substack essay explicitly positions a category claim or frames a trademark usage for the first time, promote to Tier 3 (see 5.3) for identity-level review. The promotion is CMO's call at the brand-approval stage.

Cadence expectation: 2-5 Tier 1 pieces per week.

5.2 Tier 2 — Revenue content

Bifurcated per stakes within the tier:

5.2.1 Low-stakes revenue content (Nurture sequences, Re-engagement sequences, non-pricing sales enablement):

category.positioning drafts → CMO approves messaging + brand (1 business day) → sales.ops / cro executes
                                                         ↓ (parallel, not sequential)
                                           CRO reviews recipient list (1 business day)

CRO reviews list, not content. Brand is CMO's call.

5.2.2 High-stakes revenue content (Activation sequences, Briefing deck content, Assessment collateral, pricing-bearing one-pagers):

category.positioning drafts → CMO approves messaging (1 business day) → CRO GO/NO-GO on sales narrative (1 business day) → sales.ops / cro executes
                                                                                        ↓
                                                                    CRO approves recipient list (1 business day, parallel with execution prep)

CRO is sequential gate on narrative (GO/NO-GO, no line-edit of brand-approved copy). If CRO rejects, returns to category.positioning with feedback.

5.3 Tier 3 — Identity content

category.positioning drafts → CMO brand + factual approval (2 business days) → Council review (external multi-LLM per SOP-EXEC-council-review-v1.0, 3-5 business days) → CMO + CEO final approval (2 business days) → publish / ship

Council review mandatory per SOP-EXEC-council-review-v1.0 Trigger Matrix row 3. Panel: minimum 2 external LLMs (Gemini + GPT-4o or DeepSeek) + 1 internal peer. Archive at /Claude/operations/reports/council-reviews/.

Total elapsed time: ~7-12 business days. Plan identity content at quarter boundaries or against event timelines (fundraise, conference, category launch), not rushed.

5.4 Tier 4 — Legal-sensitive content

category.positioning drafts → CMO brand approval (1 business day) → legal.exec compliance review (2 business days) → CEO final approval (1 business day) → publish

legal.exec specifically reviews: - Revenue/results claims — evidence-based vs aspirational - Customer names — written permission obtained - Competitive claims — accurate + defensible - Regulatory compliance — CAN-SPAM, truth in advertising, trademark claims

Council review optional at CMO discretion; add it if the content is also identity-scoped (e.g., competitive whitepaper is Tier 4 for claims AND Tier 3 for positioning — use the stricter tier's flow).

6. SLA and Escalation

6.1 Approval SLAs

  • Tier 1: 1 business day per gate (single gate, so 1 day end-to-end)
  • Tier 2 low-stakes: 1 business day (gates run parallel)
  • Tier 2 high-stakes: 2 business days (sequential gates)
  • Tier 3: 7-12 business days (council review dominates timeline)
  • Tier 4: 4 business days

6.2 SLA misses

Condition Action
Approver misses 1-day SLA category.positioning files a single reminder to approver; 24-hour soft extension granted
Approver misses 2-day SLA Escalate to chief.staff; chief.staff reaches approver or auto-reassigns per Section 6.3
Repeated SLA misses (>2 in a rolling 7-day window) Capacity review — approver's load assessed by chief.staff; content queue may need rebalancing

6.3 Approver unavailability

  • CMO unavailable: chief.staff may approve Tier 1 brand on a 24-hour emergency basis. Tier 2+ content waits.
  • CRO unavailable: sales.ops may approve Tier 2 low-stakes recipient lists on a 24-hour emergency basis. Tier 2 high-stakes narrative approval waits.
  • legal.exec unavailable: Tier 4 content waits; no emergency override (legal/compliance is not time-pressured).
  • CEO unavailable: Tier 3 + Tier 4 ship approval waits unless CEO has pre-authorized a class of content in the agent contract.

6.4 Content incident escalation

Incident Severity Action
Published content contains incorrect trademark usage SEV3 category.positioning fixes + resubmits through full tier flow; CMO files Section 6E SOP Delta
Published content contains factual error affecting revenue claim or customer SEV2 CMO pulls content immediately; legal.exec reviews exposure; CEO notified
Published content contradicts CEO-approved positioning SEV2 CMO pulls immediately; category.positioning + CMO rewrite; council review before republish
Published content sparks public complaint or competitor response SEV1 Immediate CEO notification; full incident report per Section 6E

7. Approval Log and Audit Trail

Each piece of content that moves through approval has an audit trail:

  • Draft stage: file location in /Claude/content/drafts/ with frontmatter (tier, author, date, intended approval path)
  • CMO approval: CMO posts approval in Monday.com Comments OR #cmo-updates with content link + approval date
  • CRO approval (Tier 2+): same pattern in #cro-updates
  • Council review (Tier 3): archive at /Claude/operations/reports/council-reviews/YYYY-MM-DD-{content-id}.md
  • Final approval + publish: content moved to /Claude/content/published/ with frontmatter updated to include approval log (who approved each gate, dates)

Chief of Staff audits the approval log weekly; any content published without a complete approval trail is flagged as SOP breach per Section 10 of CLAUDE.md.

8. Acceleration Protocols

Marketing operates under time pressure — conferences, competitor moves, breaking industry news. Accelerated paths exist when speed matters:

8.1 Pre-approved template sends (Tier 2)

Once a sequence template has passed initial approval, subsequent sends to new recipients require ONLY: - CRO approves recipient list (1 step, 1 business day) - sales.ops executes

Per SOP-REV-marketing-to-sales-handoff-v0.2 Section 5.4.3.

8.2 Rapid-response content (Tier 1)

When industry news, competitor moves, or Rick's own speaking engagements create a publishing-moment window, category.positioning can draft and publish with same-day CMO approval (4-hour target) instead of 1-business-day. CMO must explicitly accept the rapid-response scope at initiation.

8.3 Pre-authorized content classes

CEO may pre-authorize category.positioning to publish certain Tier 1 content types without case-by-case CMO approval (e.g., "respond to direct replies on Rick's LinkedIn posts with on-brand content"). Pre-authorization is documented in category.positioning's agent contract and scoped tightly.

No pre-authorization exists for Tier 2+ content.

9. Quality and Calibration

9.1 Content performance metrics (monthly)

category.positioning reports to CMO monthly:

  • Tier 1: Impressions, engagement rate, comment sentiment, MQL attribution (from SOP-REV-marketing-to-sales-handoff Section 6.2)
  • Tier 2: Email open rate, reply rate, sequence completion rate, SQL attribution
  • Tier 3: Engagement on investor materials, download rates, specific conversation references in meetings
  • Tier 4: N/A (approval-gated, not performance-gated)

9.2 Drift detection

If published content over a rolling 30-day window shows drift (trademark usage errors, category frame misalignment, brand voice deviation), CMO triggers a calibration review with category.positioning. Output: updated brand guidelines section or drift-detection checklist addition.

9.3 Quarterly approval-flow review

Every quarter, CMO + CRO + chief.staff review: - SLA compliance rates per tier - Volume per tier vs planned cadence - Failure modes observed (where did drift happen? where did bottlenecks form?) - Whether tier thresholds need adjustment (does a content type belong in a different tier?)

Output: SOP amendment if any tier logic changes.

10. Relationship to Existing SOPs

SOP Relationship
SOP-REV-marketing-to-sales-handoff-v0.2 Section 5.4 of that SOP is the specialization of this general pattern for email sequences. When they differ, the marketing-to-sales SOP wins for email sequences (it's more specific); this SOP wins for all other marketing content.
SOP-EXEC-council-review-v1.0 Tier 3 content triggers mandatory council review under that SOP. Tier 1 and Tier 2 do not. Tier 4 triggers optional council review at CMO discretion.
SOP-MKT-research-to-positioning-handoff Upstream of this SOP (not yet authored). Research artifacts become positioning artifacts become published content; this SOP governs the last step.
SOP-MKT-website-update Governs the website-publishing mechanics; this SOP governs the content-approval layer before the website-update handoff.

11. Open Items for v0.1

These items are flagged for v0.1 after initial CRO cross-review + council review:

  • Real-time signaling integration: once SOP-REV-marketing-to-sales-handoff-v0.2 ships live, the attribution view (Section 6.2 of that SOP) should feed back into Section 9.1 content performance metrics here. Mechanism TBD.
  • CEO pre-authorization scope: Section 8.3 is placeholder. Needs CEO input on what Tier 1 content he's comfortable auto-authorizing.
  • Tier 3 cadence: "quarterly or event-driven" is loose. Refine to a target number of Tier 3 pieces per quarter based on Q2 paid Assessments target and investor cadence.
  • customer.success feedback loop: Assessment delivery findings should inform Tier 2 and Tier 3 content. Mechanism TBD pending customer.success activation and first quarter of data.

Change log

Version Date Change
v0 2026-04-21 Initial draft by CMO (Michelle). Closes dependency noted in SOP-REV-marketing-to-sales-handoff-v0.2 Section 8. Follows bifurcated-approval-flow pattern established in that SOP's Section 5.4. Pending CRO cross-review, council review, and CEO approval before promotion to v1.0.

Owner: category.positioning (execution), cmo (governance) Executive sponsor: cmo (Michelle) Co-sponsor: cro (Marcus) for Tier 2 sales-facing content types Chief of Staff governance: chief.staff (Eva) — audits approval log weekly; SLA compliance tracked in CEO Daily Summary Approved by: pending Effective: TBD Version: 0