Scope Creep Examples — SEO & marketing
A request for the full strategy playbook the contract doesn't include
The retainer delivers monthly reports and content. The client asks for the agency's internal keyword research files and process documentation — never part of the deal.
The retainer's deliverables are monthly reports, published content, and periodic strategy calls — a results-and-recommendations relationship, not a transfer of the agency's internal working process. The client then asks for the full internal keyword research spreadsheets, competitor-tracking templates, and process documentation "so our internal team can see how it's done," which is effectively a request for the agency's proprietary methodology, not the agreed deliverables.
Clause typically implicated
Clause typically implicated
Confidentiality clause→ — Often covers proprietary process and methodology as agency confidential information, separately from whatever the client's own data or results are.
Suggested change-order wording
Suggested change-order wording (illustrative, not legal advice)
Happy to share all the research and data specific to your account — that's yours. Our internal process templates and methodology are proprietary to how we operate across all our clients, so those aren't something we typically hand over. If your internal team wants deeper visibility into the strategy and reasoning, I'm glad to set up a working session to walk through it together.
How this usually resolves
A working session usually satisfies the underlying need (the client's team wants to understand the thinking, not literally run the agency's internal spreadsheets) without the agency giving away the reusable process it depends on for every other client.
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