Business Owners Must Control their Essential Digital Assets
written by Digital Expert Alan Fair
Who is in control of your most vital online digital assets? You, or the several digital agencies you might work with?
If your answer is, “I don’t know” or “I’m not sure”, consider these five tips on how to get, and keep, your digital house in order.
Domain Name(s)
This is vital to the consistent and reliable operation of your website and emails. And while there is quite a bit of technical wizardry making them all work, you need not be familiar with that degree of detail. Just make sure you own and control your domain name. Hold on tight to the ability to access it.
Google Analytics
Such data is vital to understanding what is happening on your website from all your digital marketing activities. Accordingly, it should also be entirely under your control. When you move digital agencies be sure to remove the former agency’s access permissions. If you fail to do so, others, perhaps a competitor, could gain access to your historic and future data.
Google Ads
There are still agencies that set up your Google Ads on their own accounts. Do not permit this. Such Ads should always be on your account and securely under your control. Give your agency permission to access. That way, should you change agencies, you maintain not only your Ads but also all your historic data.
Social Media
Ensure that your business’s social media accounts are under your control. Put a clear social media policy in place to ensure agency staff are fully aware of what they can and cannot say online. One wrong post can crush your business and cause PR nightmares.
Website
This is your very own 24/7 sales tool that invests your business with trust in the marketplace. Make sure you own the full site and have full administrative access whether you use it or not. It should be capable of being moved to an alternative hosting package should that ever become necessary.
Summary
Never forget that having control over these digital assets adds tangible value to your business, especially if you are planning an exit strategy. Even when undertaking a marketing campaign, you need to be nimble, not hindered by questions of who owns or has access to what.
Alan Fair is MD of Contact Digital www.contact.digital
