The site is technically done but can't launch: the texts, photos and a usable logo are missing, so you can't invoice either. It's rarely laziness. Your client doesn't know exactly what you need or in what form, and your request sits in their inbox between twenty other things.
1. Say exactly what you need, and in what form
“Send us some photos” gets no answer for a week. Add one line of guidance to every item:
- Logo: ideally SVG, or PNG with a transparent background. Send whatever you have.
- Photos of the business: 5 to 10 landscape shots, a phone is fine.
- About us: a few paragraphs on who you are, what you do and for whom. It doesn't have to be perfect.
- Contact details: address, phone, email, company ID.
“It doesn't have to be perfect” matters more than it looks: clients often send nothing because they're afraid to send something unfinished. Ready-made lists are in our checklists, for example the company website checklist.
2. One list in one place
When texts come by email, photos over WhatsApp and the logo through Messenger, you both lose track. Agree on one place where the client puts everything and can see what's sent and what's still missing.
3. A real deadline, not “when you have time”
Without a date, content has the lowest priority of the week. Name a day, like “by Friday, 10 October”, and if it slips, move it on purpose and say what it means for the launch.
4. Let clients deliver bit by bit
The texts are in the client's head, the photos on their phone and the logo with whoever designed their business cards. If they have to send everything at once, they wait until they have everything. Let them send pieces and save their drafts so they can come back.
5. Reminders that don't annoy
Send them on day 3, 7 and 14 and list only what's still missing, not the whole list again:
Hello Jane, we're still missing the About us text and the photos of the salon. You can add them through the same link as before. Whatever you have is fine, we'll polish it together. Thank you.
6. When the client really doesn't respond
No tool makes a client act who doesn't care about the launch. Your contract helps here: a deadline for content, and what happens when it's missed. Usually the launch moves and part of the price is invoiced for the finished work. If three reminders get no reply, pick up the phone.
Do it without the back-and-forth
In Podklado you pick a ready-made checklist, adjust it and send your client one link. They fill it in and upload files without signing up, on a phone too, and drafts save automatically. They see the deadline, reminders go out on their own with only what's missing, and you approve each item or send it back with a note, then download everything at once. Try it as your client would or start for free.