Five things worth knowing before you commit to a marketing partner.

1. The price should be visible before the first conversation.

If you cannot find what something costs without picking up the phone, that is a deliberate choice. Pricing that requires a call to unlock is pricing that has not been decided yet. Or pricing that changes depending on how much they think you will pay. Neither is a foundation for a working relationship.

A marketing partner confident in the value of their work publishes what it costs. You should be able to arrive at the first conversation already knowing the number. That way the conversation is about fit, not about what you are about to be asked to spend.

2. The scope should be fixed before work begins.

Scope that is defined after you have paid is scope that can be expanded at any time. The conversation that starts with "we'll figure out the details once we're underway" is the one that ends with a much larger invoice than you were expecting.

Fixed scope means you know what you are getting before a single hour is spent. It means the work is bounded, the deliverables are named, and additional requests are quoted separately rather than absorbed and billed later. It also means the partner has thought carefully enough about what you need to commit it to writing. That rigour shows up in the work.

3. The person who takes the brief should do the work.

Know who will actually be working on your account before you commit to one. Not the title, not the team. The specific person. What they have built before. What they are working on now. Whether they are the right fit for your sector and your stage.

The quality of the relationship at the start of an engagement is not the same as the quality of the delivery in month three. The only way to protect against that gap is to establish from the outset who is responsible for your account and hold them to it throughout.

4. Everything built should belong to you.

Your domain, your ad accounts, your CMS, your analytics, your brand files. All of it should be set up in your name with you holding full access from day one. Not transferred to you at the end of the contract. Yours from the start.

Access that lives with a third party is leverage. It means leaving costs more than it should. Confirm ownership of every asset before the engagement begins and confirm what happens to each one if it ends. The answer should be simple: you take everything with you. If it is not simple, keep asking until it is.

5. You should be able to leave without a fight.

Rolling monthly after a minimum term. No penalty clauses. No 90-day notice periods. A marketing relationship should be worth continuing because the work is delivering, not because the exit is too painful to contemplate.

The commitment that needs a long contract to hold it together is a commitment that does not hold together on its own. The right partner earns continued work every month. That is the only structure worth entering.