The Questions to Ask Before You Pay Anyone for Marketing

I have lost count of the small business owners who have shown me an invoice for a monthly retainer and could not tell me what they got for it.

Not because they are daft. Because the whole thing was designed to be hard to check. Impressive dashboards, words nobody can define, a report full of numbers that go up while the phone stays quiet.

If you are about to pay somebody to market your business, ask these first. Anyone good will be glad you did.

1. What exactly will you do this month?

Not "manage your online presence". A list. Four blog posts, three location pages, monthly technical check. If they cannot tell you what they are going to do, they have not decided yet, and you are funding the deciding.

2. What will I have at the end that I own?

This is the one that catches people out. Some agencies build your site on their account, your ads on their platform, your list in their tool. Stop paying and it all vanishes.

Everything should be yours. Your domain, your site, your data, your customer list. Ask it plainly and watch how comfortable they look.

3. Which number should change, and by when?

Enquiries. Bookings. Calls. Pick one real number that matters to your bank balance, and get an honest estimate of when it should move.

Beware anyone who answers with impressions, reach, or engagement. Those go up while nothing happens. I care whether the phone rings.

4. Who is actually doing the work?

Often the person selling to you is not the person doing it, and sometimes the person doing it is halfway around the world on a rota of forty other clients. That is not automatically bad. Not being told is.

5. What happens if it does not work?

A good answer sounds like "we would look at why, change the approach, and here is when we would tell you". A bad answer is a guarantee. Nobody can promise you page one, and anyone who does is lying to close you.

6. Can I stop?

Notice period, minimum term, what happens on the way out. Real businesses have real terms and will tell you straight. If it takes three emails to get a clear answer about cancelling, you have learned everything you need.

7. Can I speak to a client like me?

Not a logo wall. An actual small business, roughly your size, in a similar spot. Someone worth hiring will have somebody happy to take that call.

Why this matters more than it should

I have a real problem with what gets done to small businesses in this space. Owners working themselves into the ground, handing over money they cannot spare, to people who send a report and do nothing. It is the same instinct behind taking money advice from people who never made any. Confidence gets mistaken for competence.

You are not being difficult by asking these questions. You are being a business owner. The good ones will respect you more for it, and the ones who go quiet have told you what you needed to know for free.

And ask me too

If you ever talk to me about work, ask me every one of these. I will give you straight answers, including telling you when you do not need me, which I have written about in whether an AI consultant is worth it at all.

If you want an honest opinion on what your business actually needs, get in touch. No pressure, no pitch. Or see how I work first.