The key to success for any entrepreneur is adroit delegation of routine tasks. In a book I co-authored with my partner Tim Rowan last year, Entrepreneurial Insanity in the Home Care Business, the thrust is about systems that are designed to make the owner of the agency the least depended-upon person in the organization. The result is greater freedom for the owner and greater value of the enterprise.
There are, however, certain marketing tasks that should not be delegated. They require your personal attention to both protect certain valuable assets, but to make sure of continuity should those to whom you have delegated tasks move on to other jobs, thus eliminating access to them.
#1: Never Delegate Buying Domain Names
Always buy the domain name and hosting of your sites personally. Do not have anyone who is developing your website do this for you. Unless the ownership of the URL is properly transferred (more complicated than you might expect), someone else owns your most valuable named property and there is little you can do to get it back without their cooperation. And, sometimes people who leave your employ or contracted relationship do not leave happy. While the term “extortion” is a bit dramatic, it has happened.
#2: Never Delegate the Control of Your Google Account
Always maintain personal control of the Google account used to create your Google My Business page. The rationale is exactly the same as #1 above. This should apply to the dozens of other accounts in which your business can be listed like Facebook, Yellow Pages and Yelp. Rowan Reputation Resources has a service that clams over 65 sites in your name. It takes about eight weeks to complete the process, but it will save you dozens of man-hours having it done internally by people who may not keep the listings consistent (vital) and who do not know the structure of all the forms that have to be filled out. Get more information by clicking HERE.
#3: Never Delegate the Collection of Reviews to Outsiders
Nobody outside of your company can or should be tasked to ask customers for reviews. Determine who inside your agency should “own” the process. It should be someone in a supervisory role which creates the (true) impression that it is important, or, depending on an appropriate level of interpersonal skill, the caregiver who delivers the service. Collecting reviews from an elderly population brings its own challenges. Rowan Reputation Resources has developed some software tools and strategic approaches that make the task achievable with senior clients or their family members who may not live close by. Get more information by clicking HERE.
#4: Never Delegate the Task of Confirming Listings Phone Verifications
In #2 above I mentioned that there are dozens of sites you can claim. There are a key handful (about eight) that require telephone verification. It is quite easy and quick, but if delegated to someone who did not set up the account, all your work could be for naught.
Those few sites require someone who works at your company to pick up the phone at the number you use for your local listings and enter a spoken PIN into the site where you’re trying to create/claim your listing. Take the 30 minutes (total) required to accomplish this task yourself. Even if you get help from us to do the heavy lifting, do the few necessary verifications yourself. We will give you full, easy instructions.
#5: Never Delegate the Content of Anything Put on Your Site
While that does not mean you have to write everything that goes on your site, but you do have to read everything that is published under your agency’s name.
You want to make sure that your contracted writers do not develop keyword-stuffed hogwash that is chocked full of anchor text which could ultimately earn you a slap from Google. While it may be difficult to tell, you want to watch for obvious plagiarism, copyright violations (who owns the images?) and will not produce copy that is bad enough to make readers hit the “Back” button.
Delegation is the ticket to freedom for any agency owner. Abdication is a ticket to heartache.