Scope Creep Examples — SEO & marketing
Extra strategy training, beyond what onboarding included
The retainer included one strategy walkthrough session at kickoff. The client's marketing team keeps requesting repeat sessions as staff turns over.
The retainer included one strategy walkthrough session at kickoff, explaining the keyword approach, reporting metrics, and how to read the monthly report — delivered to the marketing team in place at the time. As that team has turnover over the following year, each new marketing hire's manager asks for the walkthrough to be repeated for them, treating it as a standard onboarding step the agency should keep providing indefinitely.
Clause typically implicated
Clause typically implicated
Deliverables clause→ — The kickoff walkthrough is a one-time scoped session — repeating it for every new hire on the client's side is a different, ongoing ask.
Suggested change-order wording
Suggested change-order wording (illustrative, not legal advice)
The original walkthrough covered our strategy and reporting approach for the team at kickoff. I can put together a short recorded explainer your team can share with any new hire going forward, at no extra cost. For anything more hands-on, live onboarding sessions for new team members would be [X] each — let me know if that'd be useful instead.
How this usually resolves
A short recorded explainer usually becomes a genuinely useful internal onboarding asset for the client, not just a way to decline extra sessions — it often gets reused more than a live session ever would, since it doesn't depend on scheduling.
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