When a marketing coordinator resigns, the business has to decide between backfilling the role and outsourcing it. Beyond staffing, the choice to hire or outsource marketing decides who holds the strategy, logins, and vendor contracts afterward.
Say her last day is Friday. She leaves with the plan in her head, the logins she set up, and the vendor calls only she remembers. Day 90 is when the goodwill runs out and the paperwork takes over. A plan has to outlive whoever wrote it.
What Four Things Should an Owner Hold After Anyone Leaves?
Four items form the foundation of any marketing program that outlasts its author. Each item does a separate job:
- The strategy document, so the plan outlasts its author
- The logins, so analytics, ad platforms, and business listings stay reachable
- The vendor contracts, so the next person knows what the business has committed to
- The reasoning behind decisions, so nobody repeats a failed test by accident
The first three exist as files, accounts, and signatures that a successor can open or read. The fourth lives in the coordinator’s memory until somebody writes it down, which makes it the easiest to lose. Without it, the next person inherits your results but none of the reasons that produced them.
A fractional marketer is an outside specialist who works part time for your business. Across hiring, a fractional marketer, and an agency, the defaults for these four items differ by who holds them. For written work, the default comes straight from copyright law.
Who Owns What by Default?
A hire owns the plan on day one. An agency owns it until a signature says otherwise.
Written Work and Copyright
From the start, federal law treats what an employee writes as part of the job as the employer’s. The Copyright Office calls this a work made for hire. According to Circular 30, the employer counts as both author and copyright owner.
An outside party is a different case. A commissioned piece counts as made for hire only if it fits one of nine statutory categories. In addition, both sides have to sign an agreement stating the piece is made for hire. Without both, the creator keeps the rights.
With the creator as author, ownership has to reach you through a transfer. Section 204(a) of the Copyright Act requires a transfer to be in writing and signed by the owner or the owner’s authorized agent. These points are general information and not legal advice.
Accounts and Logins
Control of a marketing platform sits with whoever holds its top role, whatever their job title or employer. In Google Analytics, an Administrator can add and delete users and assign any role. An Editor can’t manage users at all.
Google Business Profile follows the same pattern for listings. Only owners can add or remove users, and only the primary owner can transfer primary ownership. If the primary owner is the coordinator who just left, only she can hand over primary ownership. Until she does, the primary owner of your listing is someone who no longer works for you.
How Do the Three Options Compare 90 Days After a Departure?
Written work has a different default under each arrangement. Logins and contracts follow whichever name sits on them. At day 90, the result under each arrangement looks like this:
| What you hold | Hire | Fractional marketer | Agency |
|---|---|---|---|
| Strategy document | Yours, because an employee’s work within the job is made for hire | Theirs until a signed agreement assigns it to you | Theirs until a signed agreement assigns it to you |
| Logins | Yours if your name holds Administrator or owner access | Yours if your name holds Administrator or owner access | Yours if your name holds Administrator or owner access |
| Vendor contracts | Yours if your company signed them | Yours if your company signed them, theirs if they did | Yours if your company signed them, the agency’s if it did |
| Reasoning behind decisions | Notes are yours, and anything unwritten leaves with the person | Notes belong to the writer until assigned, and anything unwritten leaves with them | Notes belong to the writer until assigned, and anything unwritten leaves with them |
Written work and the reasoning behind decisions split by arrangement, since an agreement can promise to hand them over. Logins and contracts split by name instead, and no arrangement changes whose name is on them.
Before anyone signs, run one question against each option.
Could a stranger find the plan and open every account? Could that person read every contract and see why each choice was made?
Where the answer is no, you can close the gap in writing before the new person starts.
What Should You Put in Writing Before Anyone Starts?
Four terms close the gaps the day 90 test finds:
- Who owns the strategy
- Who holds administrator access
- Whose name goes on vendor contracts
- Where decisions get recorded
With a Hire
What an employee produces within the job already belongs to you. That leaves access and recording habits as the open items. On day one, set up each platform under a company email address and add yourself as Administrator or primary owner. Then add a decision log to the job description so the reasoning builds while its author is around.
With a Fractional Marketer
A part-time outside specialist keeps the copyright in what they write until a signed agreement assigns it to you. The agreement can list the strategy document, the decision log, and the account setup as deliverables. Each one comes due by the last day of service. From the first week, it can also require Administrator access for your company. The handover then never depends on goodwill.
With an Agency
An outside team carries the same default, so its contract has to assign those deliverables to you in writing. Add a line naming your company as the holder of every account opened on your behalf. Sign vendor contracts in your own name. For the fit and transparency questions to ask first, see our guide to choosing the right marketing agency.
Should You Hire or Outsource Marketing After a Resignation?
Either choice works when you hold all four items at day 90. Neither works when the defaults are all you hold.
On written work, hiring gives you the strongest default, so the open items are access and records. Outsourcing starts weaker on written work, and a signed agreement closes that gap before the first deliverable arrives. Before you decide, run the day 90 test on each option. Write down the answer for every item.
A hire who builds the plan and logs each decision beats an agency working under a vague contract. An agency bound by a tight contract beats a new employee who keeps the logins in a personal account. Our post on how too many vendors slow your marketing makes the same case for one point of ownership. The rule holds whichever option you pick.
Talk Through Your Handoff Plan With Our Team
Strategy that survives a resignation gets built before the resignation, while everyone who knows where things live still works for you. Bring your draft terms to a conversation with our team before the next person starts, and see what’s still missing.
