Ask the six questions, in writing

Today you send one email to your account manager. Not a complaint, not a notice. Six questions, with a polite note that you are reviewing the engagement and would appreciate written answers by the end of the week. In writing matters, because on a call the answers become a conversation and the conversation becomes reassurance. On paper, the gaps stay visible.

The questions: What changed on our listing in each of the last three months, with dates? Who, by name, wrote our current title and subtitle? What did organic search installs do in the four weeks after the last metadata change? Which keyword did we target that we did not rank for before, and where is it now? What will change on the listing next month, and why? When this contract ends, what will our team know how to do on its own?

Read the answers for specificity. A practitioner answers with dates, names and numbers. An account layer answers with process: ‘we continuously optimise’, ‘our team monitors’, ‘we take a data-driven approach’. Count the specific nouns. Count the dates. If the answer to the second question is a team name rather than a person, you have learned who is not on your account.

If the answers are genuinely good, you may have a good agency, and the rest of this course will help you get more from them. If they are process, keep reading.

Today’s task

• Send the six questions by email today.
• When the answers arrive, count dates, names and numbers.
• Save the email. It is the baseline for day 30.

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