Set Up a Claude Project for Your Biggest Client

1. Go to claude.ai and sign in (or create an account)
2. Click Upgrade to Pro and complete the subscription — you'll be billed $20/month
3. Once upgraded, look for "Projects" in the left sidebar — it's a folder icon below your conversation history
4. Click "New Project" to create your first one

What you should see: A new project screen with a name field and an area to add project instructions.

Troubleshooting: If you don't see Projects in the sidebar, make sure you're on the Pro plan — Projects is not available on the free tier.

1. Name the project after your client (e.g., "Metro Healthcare System")
2. Click into the "Project instructions" area — this is where you write everything Claude should know about this client before any conversation starts
3. Write your instructions using this structure:

You are assisting the account manager for [Client Name], [brief company description].

BRAND VOICE: [3-5 adjectives that describe their brand tone, with 1 example sentence each]

CURRENT WORK: [1-2 sentences describing the current campaign or engagement]

KEY CONTACTS: [Client primary contact name/title; how they prefer to communicate]

BRIEF TEMPLATE: [paste your agency's standard creative brief section headers here]

PREFERENCES: [anything specific — "client hates jargon", "always cite data sources", "they prefer bullet points over paragraphs"]

GOAL: Help me write briefs, client emails, status reports, and other documents for this client that match their brand voice and reflect their history with our agency.

What you should see: A growing block of text in the instructions field — this is your client context that Claude will load for every conversation in this project.

Troubleshooting: Keep instructions under 2,000 words — too long and Claude may not retain everything. Prioritize the most important context: voice, current work, and preferences.

1. Look for a "Add content" button or "Files" section within your project
2. Upload your client's brand guidelines PDF (if under 5MB)
3. Upload your agency's creative brief template as a text or Word document
4. Optionally upload a recent campaign summary or past brief for reference

What you should see: Document thumbnails or file names listed in the project's knowledge area. Claude will be able to reference these in every conversation within this project.

Troubleshooting: If a PDF is too large, copy the most important sections (brand voice, visual principles, messaging hierarchy) into a text document and upload that instead.

1. Click "New Conversation" inside your project (not the general Claude chat)
2. Make sure you can see the project name at the top — this confirms you're working within the project context
3. Give Claude a real brief-writing task: "I just got off a briefing call with [Contact Name]. Here are my notes: [paste 5-6 bullet points from a real call]. Write a creative brief using our template."

What you should see: A complete brief that already uses your brief template format, references the client's brand voice, and doesn't require any re-explanation of who the client is.

Troubleshooting: If Claude doesn't seem to know the brand guidelines, check that your uploaded documents are visible in the project files list. Try asking directly: "What do you know about [Client]'s brand voice?" to verify it's retained the context.

1. Within the project, create a "saved prompts" conversation where you store your most-used prompts for this client
2. Build a prompt for each common task: brief writing, status reports, performance narratives, client email templates
3. Label each prompt clearly — you'll copy-paste from this list every time you need a task done