The onboarding checklist: what to gather before anyone runs your marketing

Part 1: accounts to check

For each account, answer three questions: does it exist, is it in your company's name, and can you log in today? Write the answers down. A simple spreadsheet is enough.

Domain and website

• Domain registrar. Where your domain name is registered, and in whose name. This is the most important item on the list. Whoever controls it controls your website address and, often, your company email.
• DNS settings. Sometimes managed at the registrar, sometimes elsewhere. Note where.
• Hosting. Who pays for it, and who has the login.
• Website admin. The login for your website's content management system, if it has one.

Google

• Google Business Profile. Check who is listed as primary owner. Your company should be; agencies should be managers.
• Google Ads. If you have run ads, find out whose account they ran in. If it was the agency's account, the history may not come with you.
• Google Analytics. Check that your company has administrator access to the property, not just viewer access.
• Google Search Console. It shows how Google sees your site. Make sure your company owns the verification.
• Local Services Ads, if you use them, and the Google account they bill to.

Meta and other platforms

• Meta Business account, covering your Facebook page, Instagram and any ad account.
• Review and directory profiles you rely on, such as industry directories or local listings.
• Call tracking, if you have it: whose account, and which numbers are in use where.
• CRM or dispatch software: whether it can share booked-job numbers, which make reporting far more useful.

What "good" looks like

Every account above should be registered to a company email address that you control, such as one on your own domain, rather than a personal Gmail belonging to someone who might leave. Agencies and contractors get their own logins with the lowest access level that lets them do the job.

Part 2: business details to prepare

An agency can write your marketing, but it can't invent your business facts. Having these ready saves a week of back-and-forth.

1. Services, ranked. The jobs you want more of, in order, and any you would rather not do.
2. Service area. Towns and neighbourhoods you cover, and how far you will drive for different jobs.
3. Job values. Average ticket for a service call, a repair and a replacement, and rough gross margin.
4. Capacity. How many installs and service calls you can handle in a week at peak.
5. Hours, honestly. Including whether you take emergency calls, and when.
6. Licences and credentials you want shown, exactly as they appear on your documents. Licensing is set provincially; each of our region pages links the relevant regulator so you can confirm wording at the source.
7. Warranties and service promises you offer customers, in your own words and as you actually honour them.
8. Brands you install, and whether you hold any manufacturer dealer status.
9. Photos of real jobs, with customer permission and no addresses visible.
10. Financing options, if you offer any, with the lender's name and the exact terms you are allowed to advertise.

Part 3: customer data and consent

Customer lists are valuable for marketing, and they come with rules. In most provinces, personal information used in commercial activity falls under the federal privacy law, PIPEDA; the Privacy Commissioner's overview explains how it works. Alberta, BC and Quebec have their own similar private-sector laws, summarised on the Commissioner's privacy laws page.

Sending commercial emails or texts brings in the anti-spam law as well. The government's guidance on getting consent to send email is the place to start. In practice:

• Share only the customer data a specific task needs.
• Know whether you have consent to message each customer, and how you could prove it.
• Ask any agency how it will store, use and delete your data.

We are a marketing service, not lawyers. Treat this as a prompt to check the official guidance, and get legal advice for anything unclear.

Part 4: recovering accounts you don't control

If the checklist turns up an account held by someone else, recover it before anything new is built on top of it.

• Ask first. Most former agencies and designers will transfer an account if asked politely and in writing.
• Use the platform's recovery process if they won't or can't. Google and Meta both have ownership-request routes for business profiles and pages, though they can take time.
• Don't start from scratch unless you have to. A new Business Profile loses its reviews and history. A new Ads account loses its data.
• Keep a record. Note what was recovered, when, and who now has access.

Recovery is the slowest part of many onboardings. Starting it during the free trial week, before the first month officially begins, can save two or three weeks.

Part 5: the hand-off meeting

Once accounts and details are gathered, a single meeting of about an hour should cover the rest. Use this agenda:

1. Walk through the account spreadsheet together and confirm access levels.
2. Agree on the ranked service list and the service area.
3. Confirm job values and the capacity limits campaigns must respect.
4. Name one person in your office who can answer questions within a day.
5. Agree how booked-job numbers will be shared each month.
6. Set the date for the first update and confirm the plan's reporting rhythm.

Common mistakes

• Using a personal email for business accounts. When that person leaves, access often leaves with them.
• Giving out passwords. Invite users instead.
• Letting the agency create new accounts "to save time". It saves a day and can cost you the history.
• Skipping job values. Without them, no one can tell a cheap lead from an expensive one.
• Forgetting to remove old access. Former agencies and staff should come off every account once the new arrangement is in place.

A printable summary

If you only do five things before your marketing starts, do these:

1. Confirm you control the domain registrar account.
2. Make your company the primary owner of the Google Business Profile.
3. Get administrator access to Google Ads, Analytics and Search Console.
4. Write down your ranked services, service area and job values.
5. Remove access for anyone who no longer works with you.

With those done, the first month of any service can go into marketing rather than detective work. If you would like help with the list, the contact page explains how to reach us, and the FAQ covers how ownership works on our service.