BUSINESSES, HAVE YOU SECURED YOUR DIGITAL ASSETS?
The last 20 years have been the Wild Wild West of online business building. In the early days, many small businesses trusted a web developer or tech-savvy employee to set them up with the basic digital assets they needed to market their business. Since then, we’ve added on to this patchwork structure, even as digital giants like Google and Facebook have worked to standardize the process.
As the pandemic has pushed online marketing front and center, we’re seeing lots of inquiries from people looking to revisit their digital assets, and it’s not pretty. Many small-to-midsize businesses have no idea how their digital framework is set up, and switching agencies means starting over. They are missing out on the continuity of historical data, unlike larger companies who have managed their marketing data internally.
7 Digital Assets You Need to Own
1) Domain
2) Email Hosting
3) Website Hosting / CMS Access
4) Email Marketing Platform
5) Facebook Business Manager
- Facebook Page(s)
- Instagram Page(s)
- Ad Account(s)
- Pixel(s)
6) Linked In Company Page
7) Google Accounts
- Google Tag Manager
- Google Analytics
- Google Ads
- Google Search Console
- Google My Business (each location)
- YouTube
You need to make sure you have the log in and passwords for the above services. Ideally you should be paying for these services directly to a hosting provider and not through a webmaster or agency. When you’ve worked hard to build your online reputation, you don’t want to start over.
Other accounts you may have that you should get access to:
8) 3rd party website apps that may be embedded in your site like shopping carts, form generators, online scheduling
9) Online payment portals (PayPal, Square)
10) Online review sites (Yelp, Angie’s List, Vitals, TripAdvisor, etc.)
11) Other social media accounts (Pinterest, Twitter, SnapChat, etc.)
12) Other Content Hosting or Product Sales Platforms (SoundCloud, Vimeo, Amazon, Etsy, Google Store, etc.)
Agency Control vs. Company Control
There are some tools that agencies use to market you online. If any of these tools are central to your business and if it fits in your budget, you may want to purchase and pay for your own account that you give an agency access to manage, rather than have the agency retain control. These types of accounts collect data and connect to your other digital assets. By keeping ownership of these accounts, you make sure that data stays with your business no matter which agency you are working with.
Examples include:
- Social Marketing Campaign Generators (Wishpond, etc.)
- Online Market Research Tool (SEMRush, Moz, SocialMention, Trackur, etc.)
- Virtual Event Platforms (Eventbrite, etc.)
At IBA, we’ve always made it a practice to empower our clients in their marketing. We want your marketing budget to take you as far as possible, and we’re here to fill the gaps. If you need help getting your digital assets in order, we have quite a bit of experience detangling some messy setups. If it’s training you need, we do that too. Whether you want to be hands on or hands off, we’re happy to oblige. We’re here to help you understand your options, prioritize, develop and implement effective strategies to save you time, and money. Mostly, we want you to succeed!
