A pre-seed company with a small validation budget should not automatically receive the same playbook as a funded growth-stage company. Ask how the agency changes strategy by stage.
1. Do you understand my stage?
2. What business outcome are we targeting?
A good proposal should identify the commercial objective: qualified leads, sales, trials, purchases, retention or another meaningful outcome. “Grow your social media” is usually too vague to manage.
3. What will you do first?
Look for a clear first 30-day plan. The agency should be able to explain what it needs to learn before recommending major spend.
4. How will you measure success?
Ask for definitions. What counts as a lead? What counts as qualified? Which conversions will be tracked? How often will reporting happen?
5. Can you show relevant case studies?
Ask for examples similar in business model, audience or problem. Look for context and evidence rather than a collection of logos.
6. Who actually does the work?
Understand the team structure. Know who owns strategy, media, content, design, SEO and account management.
7. What is included in the fee?
Clarify media spend, creative production, landing pages, reporting, tools, revisions and third-party costs.
8. How do you handle experiments that fail?
A credible growth process expects some tests to fail. Ask how the agency documents learning and decides what to change.
9. Do you work on the website and conversion path?
Traffic cannot compensate for a confusing website. Ask whether the agency can diagnose landing-page and conversion problems or coordinate with the team that does.
10. Can you connect marketing to fundraising readiness?
If investor readiness matters to your business, ask whether the team can organize traction metrics and customer evidence into a coherent narrative.
11. What will you need from us?
Marketing is not fully outsourced. Ask what access, approvals, customer knowledge, creative input and turnaround times are required from the founder or team.
12. What happens after the first three months?
Look for a clear learning cycle: test, measure, improve and scale. Avoid contracts where the plan is fixed regardless of evidence.
If you are evaluating agencies, use these questions as your shortlist checklist. Inderpal Digital Club is positioned around the combination of growth execution, brand building and investor readiness.
