Before a client sees a creative, run an internal check in four passes: copy (spelling, names, prices, dates), brand (logo, colours, fonts, tone), legal (required lines, claims, rights) and technical (size, format, resolution, file name). Fix everything you find, then send one clean file with a clear question and a due date.
Key takeaways
- A client should never be the first person to find a typo, a wrong price or a missing legal line.
- Check in separate passes for copy, brand, legal and technical details, because the eye misses things when it looks for everything at once.
- The person who made the creative should not be the only person who checks it.
- Write the checklist down and reuse it, so the check does not depend on who is busy that day.
- Send the client one clean file with a specific question and a due date, not a folder and a hopeful note.
Nothing drains a client’s confidence faster than a typo in the headline. They stop looking at the idea and start reading every line for the next mistake. The review round that should have been about the concept turns into proofreading, and you spend the next week winning back trust.
The fix is boring and it works: an internal check before anything leaves the building. In my agency we run the same short checklist on every creative, every round. It takes minutes and it changes the kind of feedback clients give. This guide walks through it, with a table you can copy.
Why run a checklist before the client review?
A checklist moves the cheap mistakes to the cheapest moment to fix them. Catching a wrong date internally takes a minute. Catching it after the client does costs a revision round, a bit of reputation and sometimes a reprint.
It also protects the client’s attention. A reviewer only has so much focus. If they spend it on spelling, they have less left for the questions that matter: is the message right, will it work for the audience, is this the offer we agreed on. The goal is that every comment a client leaves is about judgment, not about errors.
Step 1: Pick a second pair of eyes
The person who made the creative should not be the only one who checks it. Makers read what they meant to write, not what is on the page.
If you have a team, pair people up: designers check copywriters’ work for layout, copywriters check designers’ work for words. If you work alone, put distance between making and checking. Step away for an hour, check on a different screen or on your phone, and read the copy backwards line by line so your brain stops predicting the next word.
Step 2: Check the copy
Read every word slowly, including the small ones: legal lines, button labels, image alt text in emails and the tiny print on packaging. Then verify every fact against the brief, not against what you remember.
The details that cause the most trouble are the ones that look right at a glance: a price with the wrong decimal, a date with the wrong weekday, a URL that is one letter off, a product name with the wrong capitalization. Type URLs into a browser and dial phone numbers if you have to. Check that headline and body copy match the latest approved version of the script or copy deck, not an earlier draft.
Step 3: Check the brand
Open the brand guidelines and compare, rather than relying on memory. Memory is how the slightly wrong blue ends up in a campaign.
Look at the logo version, size, clear space and placement. Check colours against the specified values, fonts against the approved families and weights, and imagery against the style rules. Then read the copy once more for tone: does it sound like the brand, and does it avoid any words the brand never uses?
Many of these checks are rule-based, which means software can help. Yesquill’s AI brand check, for example, lets an admin write the brand rules once (colours, fonts, legal lines, banned words, tone) and pins issues on each upload before a human reviews it. If you want to try that kind of setup, start with how to write brand rules an AI can check. A human still makes the final call.
Step 4: Check the legal items
Confirm that every required line is present, correct and legible: disclaimers, terms, trademark symbols, regulatory text for your industry, and contest or offer rules. Then check that every claim in the copy has been approved by whoever owns claims on the client side.
Rights matter too. Confirm the licence covers every stock photo, font, music track and piece of footage for this use, these placements and this duration. If a real person appears, confirm a release exists. I am not a lawyer and this is not legal advice. The point of the checklist is to make sure the question was asked and answered by the right person before the creative goes out.
Step 5: Check the technical file
A perfect creative in the wrong format still fails. Check each file against the specs for the placement it is going to, using the media plan or the publisher’s spec sheet.
That means dimensions, aspect ratio, file format, file size, resolution, colour mode (screen or print), bleed and trim for print, and frame rate and length for video. Open the exported file itself, not the working file, because export settings are where things go wrong. Finally, give the file a clear name that includes the project, the placement and the version. A good naming habit is covered in how to manage creative versions.
The checklist table
Copy this into your project template and tick each line on every round. Remove what does not apply to your work and add anything clients have caught in the past.
| Group | Check |
|---|---|
| Copy | Spelling and grammar read slowly, including small print and buttons |
| Copy | Product, brand and people’s names spelled and capitalized correctly |
| Copy | Prices, dates, times, URLs, phone numbers and codes verified against the brief |
| Copy | Copy matches the latest approved script or copy deck |
| Brand | Correct logo version, size, clear space and placement |
| Brand | Colours and fonts match the guidelines |
| Brand | Imagery matches the style rules |
| Brand | Tone fits the brand, no words the brand never uses |
| Legal | Required disclaimers and legal lines present and legible |
| Legal | Claims approved by the client’s claims owner |
| Legal | Licences cover all images, fonts, music and footage for this use |
| Legal | Releases on file for anyone who appears |
| Technical/file | Dimensions and aspect ratio match each placement |
| Technical/file | Format, file size, resolution and colour mode correct |
| Technical/file | Print files have bleed and trim, video has correct length and frame rate |
| Technical/file | Exported file opened and checked, and named with project, placement and version |
Step 6: Send one clean file with a clear ask
Once the checklist is clean, send the client a single place to review, a specific question and a due date. “Here are the three banner sizes for the spring offer. Please approve or request changes by Thursday at noon. We are mainly looking for your call on the headline” gets a faster, better answer than “let me know what you think.”
Make the decision options explicit. Approve, approve with small changes, or changes required covers almost every case and stops the vague “looks good, but” reply that leaves everyone unsure. If you need help structuring the rest of the process, this creative approval workflow guide covers the full flow from brief to sign-off.
How do you keep the checklist from becoming busywork?
Keep it short and make it earn its place. Every line should exist because a mistake of that kind has happened before or would be expensive if it did.
A few habits help:
- Review the list every few months and remove lines nobody has ever ticked as a problem.
- Add a line every time a client finds something you missed.
- Keep separate short versions for different formats (static, video, print) rather than one giant list.
- Record who ran the check and when, so there is no confusion about whether it happened.
Done this way, the checklist is not bureaucracy. It is the reason your clients spend their review time on the work itself, which is the only part of the review that should need them.
Questions people ask
Who should run the creative review checklist?
Ideally someone who did not make the piece, such as a second designer, a copywriter or an account lead. The maker knows what the file is supposed to say, so their eye fills in gaps. If you work alone, take a break before checking and read the copy in a different order.
How long should a pre-send check take?
For a single static ad it is usually a few minutes once the checklist is familiar. A multi-page brochure or a set of video cuts takes longer. The time is almost always less than an extra revision round caused by a mistake the client spotted.
Can AI replace a human creative check?
AI can catch rule-based issues like a wrong colour, a missing legal line or a banned word, and it does not get tired. It cannot judge whether the idea is right for the audience. Use it as a first filter so the human check can focus on judgment.
What if the client still finds mistakes?
Add whatever they found to your checklist so it gets caught next time. A checklist is a living document. Each missed item is a clue about which check needs to be more specific.
