Win more of your leads · Every business
Ten Questions to Ask a Small Business Marketing Consultant Before You Sign
The right questions show within one conversation whether a consultant will measure booked customers or busy-looking activity, and who will own the work when the contract ends.
Before signing with a marketing consultant, ask how they will measure success in booked customers, what they will look at before recommending anything, who owns the accounts and content they create, and how the engagement ends. A good consultant answers all ten questions below plainly and in writing, and the answers that matter most concern your numbers, your accounts and your reviews.
The ten questions
| # | Ask | A good answer sounds like |
|---|---|---|
| 1 | What will you look at before recommending anything? | "Your inquiries, how fast they're answered, how many book and where your current customers came from." |
| 2 | How will we measure success? | Booked customers, cost per booked customer and repeat visits, with a starting count taken in the first weeks. |
| 3 | What will you need from me each week, and for how long? | A specific number of hours and a named person, so the plan fits a working week. |
| 4 | What is included in the fee, and what costs extra? | A written scope that separates the consultant's fee from ad spend, software and outside services. |
| 5 | Who owns the accounts, content and data you create? | Everything sits in the business's name, with the consultant added as a user and removed at the end. |
| 6 | How do you handle reviews? | Ask real customers, reply to every review and never write, buy or filter them. |
| 7 | If you use influencers or creators, how do you choose and disclose them? | By engaged local audience rather than follower count, with every paid or gifted post clearly labeled. |
| 8 | What will you change in how we answer and follow up? | Specific steps for missed calls, estimate follow-up and rebooking, not only new campaigns. |
| 9 | Can you show results from a business our size, with the numbers? | Before-and-after figures from a comparable owner-run business, with consent to share. |
| 10 | How does the engagement end? | A notice period, a handover of accounts and documents, and a plan the team can run without the consultant. |
The same questions work for a "small business online marketing consultant" or a "digital marketing consultant", since whatever the title, the answers that protect the business are the same.
General information, not legal/tax/financial advice; talk to a licensed professional about your situation.
Why it works
Questions 5 and 6 protect the business from the two problems that are hardest to reverse, losing access to its own accounts and inheriting a review history it can't defend. Under the FTC's rule on consumer reviews, in effect since October 21, 2024, advertising agencies and reputation firms "are not immune from liability" for fake or purchased reviews, the business itself can be liable when it knew or should have known the reviews were fake, and knowing violations of FTC rules carry civil penalties of up to $53,088 each, so a consultant's answer on reviews is worth hearing before anything is signed.
Sources
- Federal Trade Commission. Consumer Reviews and Testimonials Rule: Questions and Answers. 2024.
- 16 CFR § 1.98, Adjustment of civil monetary penalty amounts.
- Federal Trade Commission. Disclosures 101 for Social Media Influencers.
- Wies, S., Bleier, A. and Edeling, A. Finding Goldilocks Influencers: How Follower Count Drives Social Media Engagement. Journal of Marketing, 2023. 802 campaigns, 1,738 influencers.
Related reading: Marketing Agency or Consultant? What a Small Business Should Fix Before Hiring One · What a Digital Marketing Agency Can and Can't Do for a Home Service Business · What Small Businesses Spend on Marketing, and Which Channels Bring Customers Back
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