10 Questions Small Business Owners Should Ask Before Hiring a Marketing Agency written by John Jantsch read more at Duct Tape Marketing
Listen to the full episode: Overview In her first ever solo episode of the Duct Tape Marketing Podcast, Sara Nay—CEO of Duct Tape Marketing and author of “Unchained: Breaking Free from Broken Marketing Models”—shares the questions every small business owner should ask before hiring an agency, consultant, or freelancer. Drawing from her 16 years of […]
10 Questions Small Business Owners Should Ask Before Hiring a Marketing Agency written by John Jantsch read more at Duct Tape Marketing
Listen to the full episode:
Overview
About the Host![Sara Nay (5)]()
Sara Nay is CEO of Duct Tape Marketing, host of the Agency Spark Podcast, and author of “Unchain: Breaking Free from Broken Marketing Models.” She helps small businesses and agencies build ownership, transparency, and strategic clarity into every marketing engagement.
- LinkedIn: Sara Nay
- Book: Unchained: Breaking Free from Broken Marketing Models
- Duct Tape Marketing: ducttapemarketing.com
Actionable Insights
- Small business owners are too often locked into expensive, long-term marketing contracts—with little clarity on results or account ownership.
- Always ask: Who owns my marketing assets and accounts? (Spoiler: It should be you, not the agency.)
- Demand transparency in reporting, regular reviews, and ongoing education—don’t settle for reports you don’t understand.
- Insist on strategy before tactics; don’t hire a vendor who just wants to “do SEO” or “run ads” without understanding your business.
- Avoid long-term contracts and “handcuff” clauses; month-to-month and clear exit paths are healthiest for all sides.
- Meet the real team you’ll work with—not just a charismatic salesperson. Ask to speak with the actual day-to-day contacts.
- Ask how agencies use AI and what remains human-led; look for “AI + human” answers, not “AI instead of human.”
- Ensure your team stays informed and involved; agencies should empower, not gatekeep.
- Ask for a sample report, a clear plan for strategy, and specific examples of what the agency will teach you along the way.
- The best agencies leave you better educated, more empowered, and with true ownership—never dependent or in the dark.
Great Moments (with Timestamps)
- 00:01 – Why Small Businesses Get Stuck with Bad Agencies
Real-life stories of businesses trapped by contracts, lost assets, and confusing reports. - 04:16 – The 10 Essential Questions to Ask Before Hiring an Agency
Sara’s practical checklist for choosing the right partners. - 06:45 – You Must Own Your Assets
Why account ownership is non-negotiable for small businesses. - 08:42 – Strategy Before Tactics (Always!)
How to connect tactics to your bigger business goals and avoid wasted spend. - 10:53 – The Danger of Long-Term Contracts
Why month-to-month is the gold standard in today’s marketing landscape. - 13:20 – AI, Human Touch, and the Future of Agency Work
What to look for in agencies navigating the new marketing tech landscape. - 15:38 – Involvement, Education, and True Collaboration
How agencies should keep you informed, empowered, and ready to grow.
Insights
“You should always own your website, accounts, and assets—never let an agency hold them hostage.”
“Great agencies start with strategy, not just tactics—they want to understand your business, not just sell you what’s in their toolkit.”
“Transparency, collaboration, and education are non-negotiables—if you’re not getting them, find a better partner.”
“Marketing is complicated, but you shouldn’t be kept in the dark. The best agencies leave you smarter, more empowered, and in control.”
Sara Nay (00:01.218)
Hello and welcome to another episode of the Duck Tape Marketing Podcast. This is your host, Sara Nay, taking over for John Jantsch today as host and also doing my first ever solo podcast because I am fired up about a specific topic right now.
So to give you a little bit of backstory, about a week ago on LinkedIn, I posted a couple stories of conversations that I had had with small business owners recently. And I led the post saying that I am sad and mad and fired up all at the same time. And so the conversations I had with two separate business owners, the first one was with a small business owner who has been paying an SEO company $8,000 a month and is locked into
three-year contract with him. On top of that, he had no idea if he was getting any results from the efforts and he didn’t know how to get out of the contract because he signed this three-year commitment.
Another story that I told on LinkedIn was another conversation I had with a different business owner, and he has been paying $10,000 a month for Google Ads to an agency. But the issue is the agency owns the Google Ads account, and on top of that, he doesn’t have access to it, and he has no idea how much of the money that he’s paying every month is going towards the agency’s management fees or the actual ads.
In both of these scenarios, the business owners were receiving reports from the agencies every month. They had no idea what the reports actually mean. It looked like foreign language to them. And so they’re spending money on marketing. They’re not really getting a return and they’re locked into these situations, both a bit stuck. The SEO scenario, he’s stuck because he signed a three year contract. The Google ads scenario, he’s stuck because this agency owns
Sara Nay (02:00.457)
his ads accounts. And so these stories fire me up. I’ve been speaking with, interacting with small businesses for about 16 years at Duct Tape Marketing and I wish that these were unique stories but unfortunately I hear things like this all of the time. And I think it comes from two different areas. think there’s, marketing is hard, it’s complex. A lot of people get into business because they’re passionate about something or they see an opportunity and all of sudden they need to start
understanding and learning marketing because that’s how you spread the word about your business. And so there’s a lot of people in the small business space as business owners that haven’t been properly educated about marketing and so they don’t really understand how to go about or purchase marketing from partners that are out there.
There’s also unfortunately some agencies that I believe take advantage of small business owners. I actually wrote a whole book on the topic. It’s called Unchained Breaking Free from Broken Marketing Models. We’ll add a link to the show notes. But I believe the best path forward for small
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