The questions to ask an email marketing agency before you sign
What to ask, what a good answer sounds like, and what to have in writing before the contract rather than after it.
So you've got shortlist calls in the diary, and most of them will be an hour of somebody else's slides. The hour is worth more if you run it. These are the questions whose answers change what happens in month three, and you should ask us the same ones.
Work out what you're buying before anybody pitches
A shortlist call is a demo unless you turn up with a list. The list isn't a test to catch anybody out. It's how you find out whether two agencies quoting different money are quoting for the same job.
Write down what you want fixed first: the flows that don't exist, the campaigns nobody has time to send, the report you can't read. Every question below is easier to ask once you know which answer would change your mind.
- Your Klaviyo login, so anything claimed can be checked on the call instead of promised
- The last three months of sends, and who each one went to
- What you think email earns you now, and where that number came from
- The date something has to be live by, if there is one
- Who signs work off internally, and who will actually reply to proofs
Ask them to open a real account while you watch
The most useful question is barely a question. Ask them to share a screen, open an account and talk through what they see. Anybody who builds flows for a living can do that cold, with no deck and no preparation.
You're listening for whether they read the account or recite a service list. Somebody who's done the work says which flow they'd open first and why, and names the thing that looks wrong before you point at it.
Ask which window the number in the deck came from
Every figure in a case study is a number with no denominator until you ask two things: which attribution window the platform was set to, and what the shop turned over in the same period. Both are a click away inside the account. A delay in answering is the answer.
This isn't about catching anybody lying. It's about ending up with figures from three agencies that can sit in one column. Ours name the client, the period and the window. The Rebel Aromas write-up is the shape we think a case study should be, right down to the part where deliverability had to be fixed before anything else earned a penny.
Ask who does the work, and who answers on a Wednesday
Agencies are sold by their best communicator and delivered by somebody else. That isn't dishonest by itself. It only becomes a problem when nobody will tell you which is which, so ask it plainly and write the names down.
- Who writes the copy, and can I read something they wrote for a brand like mine
- Who builds in Klaviyo, and are they on this call
- How many accounts does that person carry
- Where does design come from when we need six emails in a week
- Who replies when something is broken on a Wednesday afternoon
The commonest complaint we hear about a previous agency isn't the work. It's that the person who sold it was never seen again, and the account went quiet in month four. Names given before you sign are the cheapest insurance against that.
Ask what leaving costs you
The exit questions cost an agency something to answer honestly, which is exactly why they're worth asking. None of them are rude. They're the terms, and terms belong in writing before anybody starts.
| Ask | A good answer | Worry if |
|---|---|---|
| Who owns the Klaviyo account | Yours, in your billing, with the agency a user you can remove | It sits in the agency's name and gets handed over later |
| Who owns the templates | They stay in your account, editable, on the day we stop | They live in the agency's own account or a tool you don't have |
| What notice do I serve | Thirty days, in writing, without giving a reason | A twelve month term signed before any of the work is proven |
| What happens to the flows | They keep running, because they were built in your account | They are paused or pulled at the end of the engagement |
Our version of that table is on the buyer's guide, including the thirty day rolling term, and you're welcome to score us against it before the call, not after the invoice.
What to listen for, and what to write down
Score the calls the same day. By Friday every agency sounds roughly the same, and the one you remember is the one that talked the most. That isn't the same as the one who'll build you a better welcome series.
One answer is worth more than the rest. Ask who the last three campaigns went to on any account they run, and watch whether you get a list of segment names or the word everyone. It's a screen, not a sentence, and it takes ten seconds to show you.
Then write two lines per agency: what they said they'd fix first, and what they refused to promise. The second line is usually the more useful one. An agency that won't guarantee a number before opening the account is telling you something good about how it works.
Theo Tziapouras
Founder and strategy at Engage Commerce, the ecommerce agency for 7 and 8 figure DTC brands.
FAQs
What should I ask an email marketing agency on the first call?
Ask them to open a Klaviyo account on screen and talk you through it, ask which attribution window their case study figures use, and ask who will actually write and build the emails. Those three answers separate agencies faster than any pricing conversation, and none of them need a second meeting.
Should I ask an agency to guarantee results?
Ask, then be suspicious of anybody who says yes. Nobody knows what an account will do before opening it, so a guaranteed figure is a closing tool, not a forecast. A better question is what they'd expect to see in the first ninety days, and what would tell you early that it wasn't working.
How many agencies should I speak to before deciding?
Three is usually enough, and more than five stops being research. Ask all of them the same questions in the same order so the answers can be compared, and book the calls close together while the wording of each answer is still fresh.
What should be in writing before I sign?
Scope, notice period, who owns the platform account and the data, who does the work day to day, and what reporting looks like and when it lands. An answer that was comfortable on a call is comfortable to write down, and the ones that suddenly need rewording are worth another look.
The questions are only half of it
Answers are easy to give and hard to remember, so get the important ones written into the scope: who owns the account, who does the work, what gets reported and when, and how either side leaves. We put ours in writing before the first invoice, because every one of these questions has been asked of us and the answers haven't changed since.
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What the money buys, what to ask before you sign, and what to walk away from.
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The order we open an account in, the five screens that tell you most, and the list to write while you are in there.
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Nobody publishes a price, so here is the shape of the deal: what is billed once, what is billed monthly, and what is extra.
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A project ships a thing. A retainer keeps a thing working. Most brands buy the wrong one first, and it costs them the build.
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Bring your Klaviyo account and the thing annoying you most. We will tell you what we would fix first, on the call, before you spend anything.
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