AI Publisher for WordPress: Agency Checklist for Client Draft Handoffs

A client draft handoff should give your reviewer everything needed to make a confident editorial decision. Include a readable article, the context behind its direction, evidence for important claims, and a clear explanation of what happens after approval.

For agencies managing several WordPress clients, a shared checklist creates a consistent delivery standard while preserving each brand’s voice. Use this workflow to prepare one draft at a time, with checkpoints for your editor, account manager, and client.

Prerequisites: Gather your handoff essentials

You’ll need access to the client’s WordPress site, familiarity with its editor, approved brand guidelines, a content brief, and a named client approver. Gather current product details and permission to use any customer examples.

AI Publisher generates English-language WordPress content and requires your own OpenAI API key, with API usage billed separately. Agree on account ownership and billing responsibility during client setup. Keep credentials within your approved secure access process.

Planning estimate: Reserve 30 to 45 minutes for an initial handoff review, with additional time for technical claims or specialist approval. This is a suggested agency planning allowance. Actual review time depends on the subject and the client’s requirements.

What should an AI Publisher for WordPress handoff include?

A complete handoff includes the current draft, its editorial objective, confirmed review status, checked metadata, reviewed imagery, source references, and a specific approval request. Identify the person responsible for revisions and the person authorized to publish.

BrandifyIT AI connects saved strategy, keyword guidance, drafting, automated quality checks, featured images, and editable social copy inside WordPress. Your agency supplies the client-specific evidence, editorial judgment, and approval process around those capabilities.

Working rule: Treat handoff readiness as a documented editorial milestone. Complete agency review before asking your client to resolve the decisions assigned to them.

Steps: Prepare the draft for client review

1. Confirm the client’s saved strategy

Check the audience, tone, positioning, and messaging in the Content Strategy Builder against the latest approved client guidance. Those editable guidelines inform content generation, connecting the approved brief with the article your client receives.

Translate broad preferences into observable writing choices. For an illustrative software client, “helpful and technically precise” might mean explaining setup requirements before benefits, using approved feature names, and placing a practical example beside each major recommendation.

Record who approved the guidance and when. A short reference in your project workspace lets another agency editor identify which version governed the draft.

Checkpoint: Point to the approved audience and voice guidance, then identify where both appear in the article. For related workflow context, see Turning Brand DNA into Posts with Content Strategy Builder Workflows.

2. Set the default post status to Draft

In AI Publisher’s General Settings, choose Draft as the Default Post Status and save your selection. After generating or opening the relevant article, check its actual WordPress status before sharing it.

AI Publisher supports Draft, Pending Review, Private, and Published settings. Define how your agency uses each status. For example, Draft can represent preparation, while Pending Review can signal completion of internal editorial checks. Publishing follows the configured settings.

Access note: Post status and user permissions serve different purposes. Match reviewer access to responsibilities using the official WordPress roles and capabilities reference.

Troubleshoot: If an article has an unexpected status, inspect the saved default and the individual post. Resolve the discrepancy before continuing, then verify the next generated draft.

3. Match the article to the approved brief

Read the draft alongside the agreed topic, audience question, and intended next action. Confirm that the opening establishes the reader’s task and that each section advances it.

Check the client’s existing content library for overlap. AI Publisher uses existing pages, posts, categories, and tags to inform planning. Your editorial review should also establish the specific value this article adds.

For example, a software implementation guide might cover initial setup, while a client checklist addresses approval ownership and launch readiness. Explain that distinction in the handoff note so your reviewer can assess the article within the wider content plan.

Compare the complete draft with relevant published articles, including their examples and explanations. If your review process uses an originality comparison tool, examine substantial matches manually and retain the results with the editorial record. A distinct title establishes a useful starting point; checking full article bodies provides stronger evidence of a distinct contribution.

Checkpoint: Summarize the article’s purpose in one sentence, name its intended reader, and identify the practical decision it supports.

4. Verify factual and commercial claims

Check consequential claims against appropriate sources. Give special attention to feature availability, pricing, integration requirements, performance figures, customer quotations, and security or compliance statements.

Maintain a compact evidence record in your project workspace. Capture the claim, its source, the verification date, and the person responsible for confirming it. This lets your client review sensitive statements alongside their supporting material.

Label illustrative scenarios clearly. A hypothetical onboarding example explains a workflow. An approved customer story can substantiate a real outcome. Make the evidence supporting each example clear.

Route specialist claims to the right reviewer

Assign product behavior to the product owner and contractual language to the appropriate client specialist. Give each person the exact passage and a focused question, such as whether a requirement applies to every plan or only a named configuration.

Checkpoint: Resolve claims affecting purchase decisions before handoff. Record the evidence and any specialist confirmation so the client can inspect both.

5. Complete the agency’s editorial review

Review the article for useful detail, recognizable voice, coherent structure, and readable formatting. AI Publisher’s automated quality checks examine title relevance, keyword use, categories, tags, brand alignment, structure, and formatting. Human review adds subject expertise and client-specific judgment.

Read transitions between sections closely. Check that examples support the surrounding advice, terminology stays consistent, and headings describe the content beneath them.

Use Google’s guidance on helpful, reliable, people-first content as an editorial reference. Ask whether the article gives its intended reader enough information to complete the promised task.

Checkpoint: Explain how the draft meets the brief and identify passages where the client’s expertise strengthens its usefulness.

6. Check the saved metadata

Inspect the title, excerpt, permalink, categories, and tags in the saved WordPress post. Align the title with the article’s promise and write an excerpt that describes the reader’s practical benefit.

Select categories and tags from the client’s approved taxonomy. Review their fit with the article, especially when the site covers several products or audiences.

As part of this readiness check, open each linked destination and confirm that it supports the surrounding sentence. A commercial next step should reach the intended client page. Revisit destinations after substantial revisions, because changes to scope can affect relevance.

Checkpoint: The saved metadata describes the current draft accurately, and linked destinations support its recommendations and intended next action.

7. Inspect the featured image and preview

Review the featured image for visual relevance, brand fit, and accurate representation. Check visible text, interface details, and product imagery carefully. Confirm permission for supplied assets.

Write alternative text according to the image’s purpose and the information it conveys. The W3C Web Accessibility Initiative image tutorial explains how to distinguish informative and decorative images.

Open the article preview on desktop and mobile. Inspect heading hierarchy, image cropping, paragraph spacing, any tables, and the final action. Review the actual presentation your client will approve, including the effects of the site’s theme.

Troubleshoot: If a client cannot open the preview, confirm their login and permissions or use an approved review method. Test that method from a reviewer-equivalent account before sending the handoff.

8. Assemble a focused review packet

Give your client one authoritative review location and a short decision brief. Keep the draft in WordPress when practical, with evidence and feedback collected through your agreed project process.

Include these items in the review packet:

• Draft reference: Identify the post, current version, status, and tested review route.
• Editorial purpose: State the audience, reader question, and approved direction.
• Agency review: Summarize completed checks and substantive changes.
• Client decisions: Name passages requiring confirmation and assign each decision.
• Approval details: Specify the deadline, time zone, feedback location, and publishing owner.

Use a full date and explicit time zone for globally distributed teams. Ask one client contact to consolidate feedback before sending it to your editor, giving your agency a coherent revision request.

Process note: The review packet and approval record described here are agency practices. Maintain them in your chosen project system alongside the WordPress workflow.

Use a handoff note that makes the next decision clear

Adapt this example to the actual draft and approval arrangement. Replace every placeholder before sending, and describe only checks your team has completed.

Subject: Client review requested: [article topic], [version]

Your draft is ready at [approved review location]. It addresses [reader question] for [audience] and follows the brand guidance approved on [date].

Agency review is complete for structure, voice, metadata, links, and visual presentation. Please confirm the product statement in [section] and the proposed next action in [section].

Add consolidated feedback in [location] by [date, time, time zone]. [Named owner] will apply agreed revisions and request approval of the updated version. The post remains in [status] until [named approver] authorizes [publishing owner] to proceed.

Tailor the request to the client’s responsibilities. A product expert may validate technical detail, while a marketing lead confirms positioning and the intended conversion path. Give each reviewer a defined question so their response can resolve a specific decision.

Verify the approved version before publishing

Record explicit approval against a specific draft version or timestamp after revisions are complete. If later edits change product claims, positioning, or the proposed action, route those passages through the appropriate review again.

Complete this final validation before the publishing owner proceeds:

1. Confirm approval: Match the approval record to the current article and featured image.
2. Recheck presentation: Inspect the saved preview and revised passages on desktop and mobile.
3. Validate destinations: Test the final links and confirm the intended commercial next step.
4. Confirm release details: Verify the publishing owner, post status, release time, and applicable time zone.

Align social preparation with the approved article. AI Publisher creates editable promotional copy for LinkedIn, Facebook, and X. Review that copy for current claims and destinations before it enters your distribution process.

Success criteria: Your client can access the draft, understand its purpose, find the requested decisions, and identify who controls publication. Your agency can trace the published content back to the approved version.

Make the next client handoff easier to review

Save this checklist in your agency’s delivery process and apply it to one client draft first. Track review turnaround, substantive revision rounds, and repeated clarification requests. Use those observations to refine your brief and handoff note.

Carry recurring voice feedback into the client’s approved strategy so future drafts benefit from the same editorial learning. This connects brand guidance, production, and review while keeping creative decisions with the people responsible for the client’s message.

For help discussing AI Publisher’s fit within your client publishing workflow, Contact Us with your current review stages and the handoff questions your team wants to resolve.