It happens in a small business more often than anyone plans for. Someone gives notice, or simply doesn't come back, and the person who ran your marketing is gone. The posts stop being the first problem. The first problem is that the keys might be in their pocket.
This guide covers the first two weeks: week one is about getting control back, week two is about what can't wait.
Week one: get control of every account
Start with ownership, not content. For each account, answer one question: is it in the company's name, or in a person's name?
Google's help pages explain the roles for a business profile. Owners have full control and can add or remove users. Managers can do almost everything else but can't add or remove users. If the departing person is the primary owner, Google has a process to transfer primary ownership, and a newly added owner or manager can't delete the profile, remove users or transfer primary ownership for the first seven days, so add yourself early.
Meta works the same way: only a person with full control of the business portfolio can add people. Meta recommends having more than one person with full control, so the business keeps running if one person leaves.
For your website's Search Console, only owners can add or remove users, and removing a person doesn't cancel the verification tokens they left on the site. Google's help says to delete those tokens too, or that person could still verify again.
Use this table on day one:
| Account | Who should own it | What to check today |
|---|---|---|
| Google Business Profile | You, in the company's email | Owners and managers; any pending invites |
| Meta business portfolio and Facebook page | Two people with full control | Who has full control; connected ad accounts |
| Ad accounts (Google, Meta) | The company, with a payment method you control | Active campaigns and daily budgets |
| Search Console and analytics | You, as verified owner | Users list; old verification tokens |
| Website, domain and hosting | The company's email | Who can log in; where the domain renews |
| Email marketing, scheduling tools | The company's email | Scheduled sends and posts |
If an account is only in their name, ask politely and quickly. Most people leaving on good terms will help if you ask in the first days, before their access ends.
Week one: stop what keeps spending
Campaigns don't stop because someone resigned. Open every ad account and look at what is active. For each one, decide on purpose: keep it, pause it or change the budget. An offer that already ended should not be paying for clicks.
Week two: cover what can't wait
Once access is safe, make a short list of what has a clock on it:
- Reviews. New reviews need a reply, and an unanswered one reads as silence to the next customer.
- Messages. Questions that arrive through the profile, Facebook or Instagram.
- Hours. Holiday hours or storm closures need to reach your Google profile.
- Anything scheduled. Posts and emails already queued for dates when your business may have changed.
A simple rule: whatever a customer can see this week gets covered this week. A redesign, a new campaign or a content plan can wait.
Don't lose the three things that disappear together
When a handoff goes wrong, the access, the voice of the brand and the calendar tend to be lost together. Access you've now secured. For the voice, ask the person who is leaving for five posts they're proud of and two review replies that sound exactly right. For the calendar, ask what was planned for the next 60 days and why.
If the person is on maternity leave rather than gone, this guide on covering marketing during a leave has the same logic with a return date.
Then decide who runs the work
You have three common options: split it among the team, hire someone temporary or bring in an outside team for a fixed term. The right answer depends on how many channels must keep running. Whichever you pick, keep the accounts in the company's name and have one person on your side approve the work.
What to say to your customers
You don't need an announcement, but you do need a plan for what a customer sees. If messages will be answered more slowly for a few days, say so in your automatic reply. If a post or promotion was scheduled by the person who left, read it before it goes out. And keep your tone the same: customers notice when the voice of a business suddenly changes.
It also helps to tell your team who to forward questions to. Someone who sees a review or a message and isn't sure who handles it will usually leave it for later, and later is how a week goes by.
Write down, even on one page, what you learned in these two weeks: which accounts were in whose name, what was running and what you decided. That page becomes the start of your handoff checklist, so the next change in your team is easier.
Questions to ask before you hand your marketing to someone new
- Will the accounts stay in my company's name the whole time?
- How will you learn our voice before you publish anything?
- Who approves each piece on our side?
- What do we receive in writing when the work ends?
- What happens in the last week: do we get a handoff call?
The short version
When your marketing person quits, secure the accounts first: Google profile, Meta, Search Console, ads, website. Pause or confirm every campaign that is spending. In week two, cover reviews, messages and hours. Save the voice and the calendar before they walk out. Then choose who runs the work.
If you need cover while you hire, see our interim marketing team.