Digital Marketing Checklist: Free Printable PDF

Work down this list in order. The sequence is the useful part: measurement sits above the channels because adding a channel on top of broken tracking multiplies the problem rather than the results.

Tick what is genuinely done and owned — not what was set up once.

The PDF covers both checklists: eight areas of marketing fundamentals, then a separate agency onboarding section.

Which checklist do you need?

If you are…	Use	Time
A small business checking the basics are covered	The marketing checklist below	30 min
An agency taking on a new client	Client onboarding checklist	20 min
Inheriting a setup and needing to know what to fix first	The scored audit instead	60–90 min

The marketing checklist

8 groups · 46 checks

Setup and foundations 5

Define the one business outcome marketing is responsible for this quarter
Write down who you are selling to in a sentence a stranger would understand
Confirm who owns each channel by name
Agree the budget and the reporting date
List the three competitors you will actually look at

Website 7

Every page loads over HTTPS on one canonical hostname
Homepage states what you do, for whom, and the next step
Primary conversion action is visible without scrolling on mobile
Contact details and business information are easy to find
Forms work and someone receives the submissions
Site is usable on a mid-range phone on a slow connection
A 404 page exists and points somewhere useful

Measurement 7

Analytics installed and firing once per page
Conversions defined as events, not just page views
Internal and agency traffic excluded
Google Search Console verified and sitemap submitted
Bing Webmaster Tools verified
One written UTM convention agreed and used
A named person checks the numbers monthly

Search 7

Each priority page targets one clear search intent
Title tags and meta descriptions unique and written for the query
One H1 per page that matches what the page delivers
Internal links point to commercially important pages
Images that carry meaning have descriptive alt text
Content has a visible author and an accurate updated date
Top pages reviewed and refreshed at least twice a year

Paid media 6

Break-even CPA or ROAS calculated before launching
Conversion tracking verified against analytics
Landing page matches the ad promise
Negative keyword or audience exclusion list in place
Search term and placement reports reviewed monthly
Budget reallocated based on measured cost per outcome

Email 6

Sign-up offers a specific reason to subscribe
Consent is explicit and recorded
SPF, DKIM and DMARC configured
Welcome sequence runs automatically
Every send has one primary call to action
Unsubscribes are honoured immediately

Only the channels you can sustain are active
Profile, bio and link are current
A response process exists for comments and messages
Each channel has a stated purpose

Reporting 4

Report goes to a named person on a fixed date
Report includes commentary, not only numbers
Each report ends with next actions and owners
Last month is actions were completed or formally dropped

The four items I would fix first

If you only have an afternoon, these four produce the most improvement per hour spent:

Exclude internal traffic. Ten minutes, and it changes every number you look at afterwards. A startling proportion of “traffic growth” is a marketing team refreshing its own site.
Verify one conversion end to end. Complete the form yourself and confirm it appears in the reporting where you expect. Configured is not the same as working, and the gap between them is where budget disappears.
Write down the UTM convention. One document, five minutes. Inconsistent capitalisation alone will split a single campaign into three, and you cannot retroactively merge them.
Put a name against each channel. Unowned channels do not fail loudly — they drift, and nobody notices until a quarterly review.

None of these are interesting and all four are cheap. They also decide whether anything else on this list can be evaluated at all.

Client onboarding checklist for agencies

A different question from the one above: not “is this set up correctly” but “do I have what I need to start”. Work through it before the first invoice rather than after the first problem.

5 groups · 27 checks

Access and accounts 7

Analytics access granted at the right permission level, in their account not yours
Google Search Console access, or a new property verified
Ad account access via a manager account, never shared logins
CMS or website admin access, with a named technical contact
Email platform and CRM access
Domain registrar and DNS access confirmed to exist somewhere findable
Access recorded in one place so it survives a staff change

Commercial and legal 5

Signed contract or scope document, not just an accepted proposal
Purchase order or billing contact confirmed
Who pays the ad platforms directly, agreed in writing
Notice period and term dates recorded in your own calendar
Data processing terms in place if you handle personal data

Baseline before you change anything 5

Export current analytics for the last 12 months
Screenshot or export current rankings and paid performance
Record the current conversion count and cost per outcome
Note the date you took the baseline
Confirm with the client which number you will both judge success on

People and process 5

Named decision-maker who can approve work
Agreed approval turnaround in working days
Reporting date and format agreed
Communication channel agreed, with an escalation route
Kick-off call held and the first 30 days written down

Brand and assets 5

Logo files, brand colours and fonts received
Tone of voice guidance, or three examples they consider on-brand
Product or service list with current pricing
Who is allowed to be quoted, and what cannot be said publicly
Existing creative assets and where they are stored

The section people skip is the baseline

Record where the account started before you change anything: twelve months of analytics, current rankings, current cost per outcome, and the date you took it. Miss this and you permanently lose the ability to show what you changed — which is precisely the evidence a renewal conversation depends on.

Small business or agency?

The eight-area checklist is written for whoever owns the marketing, in-house or not. Two adjustments worth making:

If you are a small business, ignore the channels you have no capacity to sustain. A checklist full of unticked social boxes is not a failing if you deliberately chose not to run social. Tick what applies and cross out what does not.
If you are an agency, run the eight-area checklist on the client in month one and the onboarding checklist on yourself. The first tells you what you inherited; the second protects you when something goes wrong later.

When to use the audit instead

This checklist tells you whether something is in place. It does not tell you what to fix first, because every item is weighted equally.

When you need a priority order — typically when inheriting a setup or planning a year — use the digital marketing audit. It scores each item and weights the eight sections by how much damage a gap causes, so the output is a sequence rather than a list of everything that is imperfect.