“Done-for-you marketing” covers everything from a $195/mo blog-writing subscription to a $5,000/mo agency retainer — and providers at every price point use nearly identical language. This checklist is how to tell them apart before you sign. Work through it in order; the early questions disqualify the most vendors.
The 10-point checklist
1. Match the scope to your actual gap
List the channels you need covered: content, SEO, social, email, ads, analytics. Then read the service's deliverables against that list. Content subscriptions (BKA Content $195–$960/mo, ContentFly $375–$3,000/mo, Content Cucumber $599–$2,400/mo) cover writing only. A full agency retainer ($3,500–$5,000/mo) or a flat automated department (~$2,900/mo) covers the spread. Paying for one channel when you need six is the most common mistake.
2. Ask who actually does the work
Senior humans, junior humans, AI, or AI with human review? Every model can work — but a provider that's vague about it is telling you something. At agencies, ask who handles the day-to-day after the pitch team leaves. For AI services, ask where the human approval sits.
3. Demand a published price
Services with public pricing (Content Cucumber, Thryv, MarketerHire, a flat department) can be compared; “book a call” pricing usually means the number depends on you. Anchor yourself with real figures before any sales call — our competitor worksheet lists 22 services with their actual published or widely-reported prices.
4. Check the contract terms
Month-to-month means the service must keep earning its place. Annual contracts (common among SMB platforms — Podium, for example, prices on annual terms) mean you're betting a year on a demo. Prefer monthly; treat “12-month minimum” as a price increase in disguise.
5. Confirm you own everything
Content, images, email lists, ad accounts, social profiles — all of it should be created on accounts you control and remain yours if you leave. Ask the question explicitly and get the answer in writing.
6. Understand the approval workflow
Do you see work before it publishes? Can you edit, reject, or set standing approvals? A done-for-you service without an approval gate is a brand risk; one that requires you to approve every social post individually is a part-time job. Look for both modes.
7. Pin down reporting
Monthly reporting should be standard, human-reviewed, and tied to leading indicators (output shipped, rankings, list growth, engagement) — not just a dashboard link. Ask to see a real past report with the client's name removed.
8. Test the grounding
Generic content is the failure mode of both cheap agencies and raw AI tools. Ask for a sample produced about your business before you commit — a provider confident in its process will show you. (That's what our onboarding preview does: it builds a real plan for your business before any payment.)
9. Do the total-cost math
The subscription price is not the cost. Add the tools you still pay for (Jasper $69, Hootsuite $99, HubSpot Marketing Hub $890…) and the hours you still work. A $600 content subscription plus your own social, email, and analytics labor can cost more than a $2,900 department that runs all of it. The pricing brief's cost calculator lets you add up your would-be stack and compare.
10. Run the exit test
Ask: “What happens the day I cancel?” The right answer is boring — you keep the accounts, the content, and the data, and nothing breaks. Any other answer is lock-in.
Red flags that end the conversation
A few signals are worth treating as automatic disqualifiers, whatever the price. Guaranteed rankings or guaranteed revenue — nobody controls Google or your buyers, and a vendor who claims to is telling you how they'll report, too. No approval gate — if work publishes under your brand without a human yes (yours or theirs), you've outsourced your reputation, not your marketing. Pricing only after a discovery call combined with pressure to sign the same day. And a portfolio that reads interchangeable — if their samples for a dentist, a SaaS company, and a landscaper sound alike, yours will sound like that as well.
Conversely, a fair trial is a good sign: a short, cheap (or free) first unit of real work — one article, one week of posts, one preview plan — produced about your business, before a subscription starts. It costs a serious provider little and tells you almost everything.
The short version
Scope matched to your gap, a public price, month-to-month terms, your name on every account, a human approval gate, and honest reporting. Score any vendor against those six — and walk away on any red flag above — and the decision usually makes itself. Start with the numbers on the pricing brief, then see a department built for your business.