Six Questions You Should Be Asking Your Marketing Vendors
If you’re spending thousands of dollars on marketing, your vendor should be able to tell you what that money is doing. Before I recommend a strategy to a client, I do an audit of their digital marketing: website, search, social, email, online listings and anything else that may be driving people to the business.
That includes areas I may never touch myself. I work alongside web developers, SEO specialists, paid media firms and other marketing partners all the time. I’m not looking to replace them. I need to understand how the pieces are working together before I can give a client good advice about where to go next.
And sometimes I discover things that are interesting and, honestly, maddening. Two different clients recently ran into essentially the same problem with two completely different digital vendors. One was paying for Google Ads. The other was paying for ongoing website management and optimization. Neither was receiving regular reporting. When we started emailing those vendors questions, neither could give a clear picture of what was working, what wasn’t or what had changed along the way.
It was the email equivalent of a shrug. The clients had been spending money, but their vendors couldn’t tell them what they were getting for it. I completely understand how that happens. We all, myself included, hire experts because we don’t have the time or expertise to do everything ourselves. I’m not a pest control expert, so I’m probably not going to ask my pest control company what data proves my pests are under control. As long as I don’t see a rat, I assume things are going pretty well.
“Sometimes you don’t know what questions to ask because that’s exactly why you
outsourced it in the first place."
Here are six questions to ask anyone you pay for marketing:
What goals are we setting for this work?
How will we know if it’s working?
What data will you share with me, and how often?
What happens when something isn’t working?
Who owns my accounts and data? If the partnership ends, do I keep access?
Can I see what you see, including reporting, planning and account activity?
Google Ads, SEO, websites, social media, email, PR. It applies to all of it. If a vendor can’t answer these questions or won’t share the information with you, pay attention. You don’t need to become an expert in every marketing channel. But you should know what you’re paying for, what it’s supposed to accomplish and whether it’s working. That information is part of what you’re paying for.
