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Send the weekly client update

A short weekly email keeps a retainer visible between monthly reviews. Here is what to put in it and what to leave out.

The weekly update is not a small monthly report. It answers one question: what changed this week, and did we do anything about it.

What you'll learn

  • How the weekly cadence differs from the monthly report
  • What belongs in a weekly update
  • How to keep it a five-minute job

Weekly versus monthly

WeeklyMonthly
AudienceThe working teamLeadership
Report typeWeekly updateMonthly executive
JobKeep momentum visibleProve the quarter
LengthA screenA document
NumbersMovement onlyLevels and movement

Set the frequency to weekly and the report type to the weekly update on the client's schedule. See schedule client reports.

What goes in

Four lines, and nothing else:

  1. One movement. The biggest one, with direction. Not a table.
  2. One change. What you shipped or approved, and its tier. "Approved the comparison page rewrite, control captured."
  3. One piece of evidence. A verbatim sentence from Proof with its date and surface, or a new rival that appeared in the landscape.
  4. One thing coming. What you are doing next week.

What to leave out

  • Every number you have. A weekly full of levels reads as filler and trains people not to open it.
  • Exclusions and empty states, unexplained. If a surface is excluded this week, either explain it in a clause or leave it out. Do not show a gap without a sentence.
  • Projected lifts as promises. The estimate is a prioritisation aid, not a forecast.
  • Anything you would not say on a call. The weekly is a relationship instrument.

Keeping it a five-minute job

Work from the same three places every week, in the same order:

  1. Ask the assistant "What did you find overnight?" for the week's findings.
  2. Open the ledger and look at what moved tier.
  3. Copy one sentence from Proof.

That is the update. If a week genuinely has nothing in it, say so in one line rather than padding. Clients trust a sender who is willing to report a quiet week.

Pausing per client

Not every client wants weekly contact. Disable that client's schedule, or set the frequency to monthly, and leave the configuration in place. Do not simply stop writing them: a schedule that silently stops looks like neglect rather than a decision.

Try this in Outercite

Write next week's update now, from this week's data, in four lines. If it takes longer than five minutes, you are including things that do not belong in a weekly.

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