Grow through the stages by headcount 21 of 23 in this group
SOP 176
Install a compliance process for marketing
What this page is for. Use it once the business is somewhere between 250 and 500 people and advertises through a great spread of channels at once. At that size, keeping your marketing inside platform rules and the law turns into a problem of its own, and part of getting through the stage is a compliance process that every piece of marketing passes before it goes out. This page covers how the risk is weighed, the rules offered, who reviews the work, the two kinds of risk to tell apart, and the checklist habit that turns into culture. The whole stage, one function at a time, is laid out on SOP 175 — Capitalize the business at 250 to 500 people.
SOP-176-Install-a-compliance-process-for-marketing.md
1. The constraint and what graduates it
| Item | At 250 to 500 people |
|---|---|
| The part of the constraint this page takes | Platform and regulatory compliance become an issue |
| The part of the graduation this page takes | On top of the change in how you advertise, you install a compliance process |
The rest of the marketing constraint, leads you can no longer credit to a channel, and the rest of the graduation, advertising led by the brand across every channel, are on SOP 177 — Go brand-first, read blended return and cost a permanent customer.
The process is introduced as about the most yawn-worthy thing there is, and later called so, so boring: to a marketer it feels like the worst, and it is simply one of those things you have to do at a certain point.
2. Rank the risks before you act on them
All advertising carries risk. The case given. A founder had an attorney lay out every place the business carried risk, and came away saying that, if they did all of it, it was going to be so hard; the rest of the complaint trails off. The reply was a ranking:
- The number one risk is that you go out of business.
- Second to that come all of the other risks.
So the first job is to keep looking after risk number one: making sure you stay in business. There is an exception. If the way you do business itself puts the business at risk, in a big way, then that becomes the biggest risk. But for most businesses, if you cannot sell anyone, you will not be in business. Every advertisement carries risk; the largest risk of all is having no business because you never advertised in the first place.
The same trade-off, between the risk of acting and the risk of standing still, is weighed for putting staff on the books on SOP 147 — Make new customers consistent — advertise, section 9.
3. The rules offered
These are given as the big rules in one practice, and as rules said to recur in every piece of its guidance on marketing:
- State the facts and tell the truth.
- Give people their money back when they ask for it.
As long as you do both, it is said, you are usually going to be okay. Alongside the rules: substantiate your claims, and create a compliance checklist.
That statement about staying okay is carried as it is given. Advertising law is not covered on this page. Backing a claim with data before it goes into an ad is SOP 110 — Claim your proof from the data.
4. Put someone on review
When a business reaches this point, sometimes you have to hire one person full-time to handle compliance. That person looks at every piece of advertising material that goes out:
- emails;
- content;
- ads;
- phone scripts.
The phone-script review looks at whether people are making promises they cannot deliver.
Why it matters now. At this size you become a target, fundamentally. You have money, you are a big business, and people, in this view, just want to sue, because they would like an easy way to get money. That is a view, offered as the reason for all of this.
5. Tell platform risk from regulatory risk
The last point given is to tell platform risk and regulatory risk apart. Some platforms have rules that may be stricter than the rules of the country, city or state you operate in. So for each risk, be clear which it is: is the danger that your account gets shut down, or that you go to jail? A fine is named as a third outcome.
6. Build the list, and make it the gate
The process is offered as a suggestion, in this order:
- Have legal counsel go through everything you have and audit it.
- From that audit, create a list your team can use.
- Before any piece of marketing is deployed, the team checks off each box on the list, to make sure the piece complies with it.
- The list goes in to the team member's manager before the piece can be deployed, to show it has passed the compliance test. This last step is called the best way it has ever been done in one practice here: a habit of that practice, not a requirement stated for everyone.
It turns into culture. What happens in practice, it is said, is that the list ends up as culture: these are the rules we play by. Over time, if it gets reinforced, it becomes kind of unspoken: of course this is how we advertise, to stay compliant.
7. What this page does not decide for you
- What goes on the compliance list. Counsel's audit of everything you have comes first and the list follows from it. Not established on this page.
8. The checklist
| Question | The answer |
|---|---|
| When | At 250 to 500 people, once platform and regulatory compliance become an issue |
| The ranking of risks | First, going out of business; second, all of the other risks |
| The exception | If the way you do business puts the business at risk in a big way, that becomes the biggest risk |
| The rules | State the facts and tell the truth; give money back when asked; substantiate your claims; create a compliance checklist |
| Who reviews | Sometimes one person hired full-time, looking at advertising materials, emails, content, ads and phone scripts |
| The two kinds of risk | Platform rules, which may be stricter than those of the country, city or state you operate in, against regulatory rules; account shut down, jail, or a fine |
| The gate | Suggested: counsel audits; the team works from the list; every box is checked before deployment; in one practice, the list goes to the manager |
| What it becomes | Culture: of course this is how we advertise |
9. What this page does not cover
Advertising law and each platform's advertising policies are not covered on this page. How to recruit the reviewer and how counsel runs the audit are not covered on this page.
Terms defined on this page
- Compliance process
- A review that all marketing passes before release, including emails, content, ads and phone scripts, set up at 250 to 500 people once platform and regulatory risk matter. A list drawn up after counsel's audit is ticked off before anything goes out.
- Platform risk and regulatory risk
- Platform risk is breaking a platform's own rules, which may be stricter than the law, and risks losing the account; regulatory risk is breaking the law, and risks jail. A fine is named as a third outcome.