My client took six days to approve a post and then asked why it flopped

I do the same thing now after a bad year of chasing approvals, put it in writing with a cutoff and if they miss it the post slides or it goes out next cycle

The timeline trick is what gets them, nobody can argue with dates laid out like that, plus they see their own thumbs up sitting there from Wednesday lol

Putting it in writing is the right move. One more thing that helped me with clients like this: include the approval date in the monthly report next to the reach numbers, e.g. 'approved 6 days after delivery, posted after the promo date'. It turns 'why did it flop' into a timeline they can see themselves, without making it an argument. Also worth building a fallback version of time-sensitive posts that works without the date, so a late approval still has something usable to run.

I’m still trying to figure out how Monday to Friday is 6 days lol

You seem to have a lot of issues with this client, judging by your post history.

Just as they set expectations with you, you have to set expectations with them.

Don’t ask for approval make it clear you’ll act in the best interests of the clients company and post. You’re hired for your experience and expertise in the field, if the client knew it better than you did they wouldn’t hire you.

Structure your agreements this way and you’ll do better

The emoji problem is the one worth killing first, because it lets the client believe approval already happened. Define it in writing: approval is the word approved from the named approver, in the approval thread. A thumbs up, a read receipt, a verbal yes on a call, none of those count. Once the definition exists, the six days stops being ambiguous.

The other move is splitting content into moment-tied and evergreen at briefing time. Your rule, where a late approval moves the date, works for evergreen posts. For a promo tied to a date there is no later date to move to, so the rule needs a second clause: if approval misses the window, the post gets re-cut or dropped, not shipped late. A promo announcing a date that already passed is not a weaker version of the post, it is confusing for their audience, and saying that up front is what gets a Friday-night approver to find twenty minutes on Tuesday.

And keep the timeline running even when things go well. The value is not winning the argument afterwards. It is that the argument never needs to happen, because the dates are already visible to everyone.