Before adding another campaign, brochure, landing page or social template to your 2027 list, take stock of what you already have. A marketing asset checkup can help you identify what still works, what needs attention and where the real gaps are, giving your team a clearer foundation for the year ahead.

Ready to check your list? Download our 2027 Marketing Asset Checkup and use it alongside the steps below.

Before You Create More, Look at What You Already Have

Planning for a new year often brings a familiar question:

What do we need to create?

A new campaign. A new brochure. New social graphics. A redesigned landing page. Updated presentation templates.

But before adding more assets to your marketing ecosystem, there is another question worth asking:

What do we already have, and is it still working?

Marketing materials accumulate quickly. A brochure gets updated while an older version remains in circulation. A landing page stays live after a campaign ends. Someone saves a presentation template to their desktop and continues using it long after the master file changes. Staff, programs and contact information change. Brand standards evolve. URLs get redirected.

Individually, these may seem like small issues. Together, they can create inconsistent customer experiences, duplicate work and unnecessary production.

That’s why 2027 marketing starts now. Before deciding what your organization needs to create next year, take time to understand what you already have.

Start With a Marketing Asset Checkup

A marketing asset checkup doesn’t need to become an exhaustive inventory of every file your organization has ever created.

Instead, focus on the materials your team and your audiences actually use. The goal is to determine whether those assets are still accurate, useful, accessible and aligned with your organization today.

Our 2027 Marketing Asset Checkup organizes that review around six areas:

• Brand & Messaging
• Templates & Collateral
• Digital Assets
• Visual Library
• Accessibility
• Organization & Asset Management

For each area, the checkup asks you to make a simple decision:

Keep. Update. Replace. Retire. Create.

The resource deliberately positions this as a quick review rather than a complete inventory, making the process more manageable while still identifying what is ready to carry forward and what deserves attention before 2027.

1. Check Your Brand & Messaging

Start with the foundation.

Review your brand guidelines, logo files, colors, typography, approved templates and core messaging. Then look beyond the official brand folder and consider what people are actually using.

Is your current boilerplate still accurate? Do your key messages reflect the organization today? Have programs, services or terminology changed? Are outdated logos or messages still appearing in presentations, emails or shared documents?

Your formal brand standards may be current while the materials in circulation tell a different story.

Reviewing both can help identify inconsistencies before they are carried into another year.

2. Review Your Templates & Collateral

Templates are meant to make marketing more efficient, but outdated templates can do the opposite.

Review the materials your team uses regularly, including:

• Presentation templates
• Document and report templates
• Proposal templates
• Social media graphics
• Brochures and fact sheets
• Case studies and one-pagers

Check branding, contact information, URLs, dates, statistics, program details and other frequently changing information.

Then ask a less obvious question:

Is anyone actually using this?

An asset can be perfectly current and still no longer be useful. If teams routinely create their own versions instead, or several pieces serve essentially the same purpose, it may be time to consolidate, replace or retire something rather than update it again.

3. Follow the Digital Trail

Digital assets are particularly easy to overlook because they can remain live long after the project that created them is complete.

Review your website pages, landing pages, forms, downloadable resources, email templates, automated messages and social profiles.

Then test the experience rather than simply reviewing the content.

Click the button. Submit the form. Scan the QR code. Follow the vanity URL. Open the downloadable PDF.

Look for:

• Broken or redirected links
• Outdated webpages or landing pages
• Forms routing to the wrong person or team
• Old downloadable files
• Expired campaign content
• Incorrect contact information
• Outdated email headers, footers or links
• Social profiles that no longer match current messaging

Following the same path your audience does can reveal issues that are easy to miss when reviewing assets individually.

4. Look at Your Visual Library

Having a large image library does not necessarily mean you have the images you need.

Review your photography, graphics, illustrations, screenshots and video assets. Look for materials that show outdated staff, products, technology, interfaces or programs.

Then look for gaps.

Maybe you have plenty of event photography but few images that support thought leadership. Perhaps a program has changed substantially, but the available photography still represents the old experience. Or your team keeps using the same handful of images because nothing else fits.

Identifying those gaps now turns a vague 2027 goal like “we need new photography” into a specific creative need that can be planned and budgeted.

5. Make Accessibility Part of the Review

Accessibility should be part of maintaining marketing assets, not something considered only when creating new ones.

As you review your materials, consider:

• Accessible PDFs and documents
• Alternative text for meaningful images
• Color contrast
• Heading structure
• Descriptive link text
• Reading order
• Form labels and instructions
• Keyboard navigation
• Video captions and, when appropriate, transcripts or audio descriptions

If reviewing everything at once isn’t realistic, prioritize the assets your audience encounters most often. High-traffic webpages, frequently downloaded PDFs, forms and recurring communications are good places to begin.

Building accessibility into your year-end review can help prevent known barriers from being carried into 2027.

6. Check Your Organization & Asset Management

Even the best marketing asset has limited value if no one can find the approved version.

Review how files are named, stored, shared and archived. Make sure staff, partners and vendors know where approved assets live and how to identify the current version.

And don’t stop at the official shared folder.

Outdated materials often survive on individual desktops, in email attachments and inside previously completed project folders. Those files can quietly re-enter circulation months or even years later.

A clear source of truth, sensible naming conventions and consistent version control can reduce duplicate work while making it easier for everyone to use the right materials.

Decide What Stays and What Changes

Once you have reviewed your assets, resist the temptation to turn every finding into a new project.

Instead, classify what you found using the same five actions built into the 2027 Marketing Asset Checkup:

KEEP

The asset is current and working. No action is needed.

UPDATE

The asset is still useful but needs a refresh or correction.

REPLACE

The need still exists, but a new asset would serve it better.

RETIRE

The asset is outdated, duplicative or no longer useful.

CREATE

A real gap exists and a new asset is needed.

This is where the checkup becomes useful for 2027 planning. Instead of beginning with a wish list of new deliverables, you have a clearer picture of what actually deserves your time and budget.

And don’t overlook what you marked Keep. Knowing what already works can be just as valuable as identifying what needs to change.

You Don’t Have to Fix Everything Before January

A marketing checkup may uncover more than your team can realistically address before the end of the year. That’s okay.

Start with issues that create the greatest risk or friction, such as incorrect information, broken links, accessibility barriers or customer-facing problems.

Then look for smaller updates that can realistically be completed before year-end. Larger replacements, new creative development, photography, website work or other budget-dependent projects can become defined priorities for 2027.

The goal isn’t to finish everything before January.

It’s to enter January knowing what actually needs to happen.

2027 Marketing Starts Now

The end of the year may be the finish line for your current marketing plan, but it can also be the starting point for the next one.

Taking time to review your existing marketing assets helps you understand what you have, what still works and where your resources will be best spent next.

It can reduce unnecessary production, prevent outdated materials from following you into another year and give your team a stronger foundation for 2027 planning.

Instead of starting January by asking:

“What should we create next?”

You can ask:

“What does our organization and our audience actually need next?”

That’s a much more useful place to start 2027.

Check It Twice Before the New Year

Before you start building your 2027 marketing list, take a closer look at what you already have.

The 2027 Marketing Asset Checkup gives you a quick, practical way to review your marketing foundation and decide what to Keep, Update, Replace, Retire or Create for the year ahead.

Need help turning your list into action? Explore our Creative Campaigns services or contact us to talk through your 2027 marketing priorities.