10 Questions Every Small Business Should Be Prepared To Answer When Hiring Marketing Agencies

Patrick McFadden

When you hire a good marketing partner who specializes in tactical implementation (SEO, social media, website design, digital advertising, print, email marketing, etc.) they will ask you to complete some type of intake or questionnaire form to better understand your business.

From over 10 years of small business marketing experience, I have noticed that most owners and CEOs aren't prepared to answer these questions, and if they are, not effectively.


Below are ten questions when answered intentionally and addressed constantly, will keep you rooted in the place where small business marketing success occurs – in the realm of the customer.

1. Briefly describe your business?

This is a good baseline question for marketing agencies to understand the industry or category your business plays in. It can get at how your business benefits customers and what place your business has in the market.


2. Describe what your company offers (products/services), prioritizing the top profitable offers?

This question helps a marketing agency focus in on the services that really drive profitability not solely revenue, which is the key to growing a business.


3. Who are your main competitors or competitive solutions?

On the surface this question could be looked at as a competitive market question, and it may be, but the true gold in this question is when an agency can discover people are already spending money on a product or service because two-thirds of their work is done. Smart marketing agencies employ some form of competitive research in an effort to better understand what products and services, pricing models and value propositions their client's are up against.


4. Why a customer would choose you over competitors?

In this question you are trying to convey a differentiation that your marketing agency can work with as a true differentiator. Prospects need a way to differentiate your business from others – if you don’t give them a compelling reason to choose you, they’ll opt for the lowest price option.


5. What problem(s) do you solve? What are your customers' pain points?

Every successful marketing agency knows people aren’t looking for your products and services, they’re looking to get their problems solved. The brand, company or provider who can define the problem the best quite often is not only the one that gets the business but in many cases is paid a premium as well.


6. What goals do you help accomplish? What are your customers' desires?

This question is for your marketing agency to get the specifics around what you, your solution or brand help customers get, achieve, dodge, avoid, gain, or acquire from buying what you sell. This is a question you’ll need to work on to describe the transformation your client's want.


7. Where is your target audience located geographically?

This is a great question for your marketing agency to know what areas of town or geographic areas to show up on the first page of search results on Google, Bing or Yahoo. Appearing in the top local search engine results is especially important to businesses trying to attract nearby customers.


8. What is the occupation(s) of your target audience?

In this question your agency is trying to uncover the makeup of your ideal customer. This is probably the question you’ll need to work hardest at getting specifics. You want to look for titles and professions and actual customers that buy from you.


9. What words/phrases do you consider people will be using to look for your products/services on Google?

This is the new lead generation question, but understanding what it implies is very important. If your agency wants to get very, very good at being found online, around the world or around the town, they have to know everything they can about the actual terms and phrases your customers use when they go looking for companies like yours.


10. What are some common misconceptions or frustrations in your industry, if any?

Every industry has something that's common from a misconception or frustration standpoint. Arming your marketing agency with this insight give them the ability to marketing your company more effectively.


If you say you provide quality services or that you offer the best customer service, your marketing agency knows that’s not enough. Everyone says that! Better is only better if you’re different. But keep in mind that being different for different’s sake is not enough. That difference must be of value and speak specifically to your customers.

Your difference must solve a frustration for your clients, eliminate one of their key problems, enhance what they experience, or dramatically alter a well-worn industry given with a unique solution only you can provide.


Conclusion

The answers to the questions above aren’t found in tactics such as Advertising, LinkedIn, SEO, or Web Content – these are strategy questions and they can only be addressed with strategy answers.


Contact Your Marketing Consultant at Indispensable Marketing

If you’re a small service based business that needs help with developing the answers to these questions above or your business’s online presence on Google and other search engines, at Indispensable Marketing we can help. We offer marketing strategy consulting, marketing audits, monthly marketing packages, consultations, exploratory calls or monthly local SEO servicesContact us for more information.


By Patrick McFadden 26 Jan, 2024
CEO, marketing consultant, speaker, and author Patrick McFadden, founded the Indispensable Marketing Process to help owner and CEOs of small businesses have a logical or process way to understand, buy, and implement small business marketing services. McFadden acknowledges that marketing can be challenging for small to mid size organizations, who are often working with limited time, money, attention-spans and resources. In 2023 - 2024 McFadden started engaging with LinkedIn Collaborative Articles. A place for unlocking community knowledge in an all new way. It starts with an article on a professional topic or skill, written with the help of AI — but it’s not complete without insights and advice from people with real-life experiences. They invited experts to contribute and here are his insights and advice:
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