How to choose a space marketing agency: 12 questions to ask first.

What does a space marketing agency actually do?

A space marketing agency helps space companies turn their technology into customers, funding and hires. A good one sharpens your positioning, builds your website and content, runs channels such as search, LinkedIn, trade shows and email, and sets up the CRM and follow-up that turn interest into qualified meetings and contracts.

I run a space marketing agency, so I know how this article could look. I wrote it anyway, because I want you to hire the right partner, even when that partner is somebody else. These are the questions I would want a founder to ask me before signing anything.

The work an agency does for a space company usually falls into four areas:

• Strategy and positioning. Who you sell to, what you say to each buyer and how you stand apart.
• Assets. Your website, datasheets, case studies, pitch materials and booth graphics.
• Channels. Search, LinkedIn, PR and trade media, podcasts, trade shows and email.
• Systems. The CRM, pipelines, forms and follow-up emails that capture and nurture every lead.

Some agencies cover all four. Many focus on one or two. Knowing which areas you need help with is the first step in choosing well.

Agency types: PR firm, marketing agency, fractional CMO or freelancer

"Space marketing agency" covers several different kinds of partners. Each one is good at different things.

None of these is better than the others in every case. The right choice depends on what is missing in your company today.

Do you need an agency yet?

Many early space startups do not need an agency yet. Before you have a clear customer, a working product story and a handful of real conversations, most of the value comes from the founder doing the selling directly.

At that stage, I would point you to a few simple tools. Set up a CRM, write your one-sentence positioning, and build a follow-up habit. The free Space CRM Kits give you ready-made pipelines and follow-up templates, and my guide to space marketing covers the fundamentals.

An agency starts to make sense once you have some of these signs:

• You have a product or service customers are paying for or actively testing.
• You know who your best customers are and want more of them.
• Your founders are spending too much time on marketing tasks and too little on selling and building.
• You have events, launches or milestones coming up and no plan to turn them into pipeline.
• Leads are coming in, and nobody owns the follow-up.

When you do start talking to agencies, talk to at least two or three. Use the same questions with each one, take notes, and compare the answers side by side. You will learn a lot about your own needs from the conversations, even before you choose.

12 questions to ask before you sign

Bring these questions to every agency you talk to, including mine. Pay attention to how clearly each agency answers and how comfortable they are when you push for specifics.

1. How well do you understand space and technical buyers? Ask them to explain your product back to you and describe who buys it. A good agency will ask you smart questions about your buyers before they talk about tactics.

2. How do you handle ITAR and export review? Many space products fall under export controls. The agency should have a process for keeping controlled technical data out of public content and for routing technical material through your export review. The FAA's Export Controls Guidebook for the Commercial Space Industry is a useful starting point for that conversation.

3. Who actually does the work? Find out who will write your content, run your campaigns and answer your emails. Ask to meet them before you sign.

4. How do you handle follow-up and CRM? Interest that nobody follows up on is wasted. Ask how they capture leads, which CRM they use or work with, and who is responsible for the follow-up emails.

5. What do you report on? Look for reports built around qualified meetings, pipeline and replies. A report full of impressions and likes tells you very little about revenue. Ask to see a sample monthly report from another client with the names removed. The format tells you what the agency pays attention to.

6. Who owns the accounts, data and content? Your website, ad accounts, CRM, email list and content should belong to your company. Make sure the contract says so. The agency can have access as a user, but the logins, billing and data should stay with you. That way nothing is lost when the relationship ends.

7. What are the contract length and exit terms? Ask how long the commitment is, how either side can end it and what you get to keep when it ends.

8. How will you learn our buyers? Good agencies interview your team and, where possible, your customers. Ask what their discovery process looks like and how long it takes. Space buyers have their own language, and an agency that skips this step tends to write content that sounds generic to the people you most want to reach.

9. Can you show examples of similar work? Space companies often keep client work confidential, so anonymized examples are fine. Ask what the problem was, what they did and what changed.

10. What does your first 90 days look like? A clear plan for the first three months tells you a lot about how the agency thinks. Vague answers here usually lead to vague results later.

11. How will you work with our engineers? Your engineers hold the technical truth about your product, and their time is limited. Ask how the agency will get what it needs from them without slowing down the program.

12. How do you measure trade show ROI? Events are a big part of space marketing. Ask how they plan a show, how they capture conversations and how they track meetings and pipeline that come from it. My guide on trade show lead tracking for space companies shows the process I use.

Red flags to watch for

Some warning signs show up again and again. Walk away, or at least slow down, when you see any of these.

• Guaranteed results. Nobody can promise a specific number of contracts or leads in a market with long sales cycles and many decision makers.
• Vanity metrics. Reports that focus on followers, impressions and likes and never mention meetings or pipeline.
• No follow-up plan. An agency that generates attention and leaves the follow-up to you, with no system to support it.
• The agency owns your accounts or data. Your website, CRM, ad accounts and lists should be in your company's name.
• One-size-fits-all packages. A fixed package built for every industry rarely fits the buyers, cycles and rules of the space industry.
• No questions about your buyers. An agency that starts pitching tactics before it understands who buys from you is guessing.
• Pressure to sign fast. A good partner gives you time to check references and read the contract.

What a good first 90 days looks like

A strong start follows the same pattern as a well-run operation: understand the situation, build the foundation, execute and then review.

Weeks 1 to 2: discovery. The agency interviews your founders, sales team and engineers, reviews your current materials and data, and talks to customers where possible. By the end, both sides agree on your target buyers, your positioning and the goals for the quarter.

Weeks 3 to 6: foundations. The agency fixes the basics. That usually means sharpening the website message, setting up or cleaning the CRM, building lead capture forms and writing the first follow-up emails.

Weeks 7 to 12: campaigns and review. The agency runs the first campaigns, such as content, LinkedIn, an event plan or an email series. At the end of the quarter, you sit down together for an after-action review. What did we plan? What happened? Why was there a difference? What will we do next quarter?

In the Marine Corps, the after-action review was where units got better. A good agency treats every quarter the same way.

How to know it is working

Give any new agency enough time to build the foundation, then judge the results against the goals you agreed on in discovery. Here are the signs I would look for:

• More qualified meetings with people who can buy, fund or influence a deal.
• Pipeline you can trace back to specific campaigns, content or events.
• Faster, cleaner follow-up, with every lead assigned a next step and a date.
• Better conversations, where prospects already understand what you do before the first call.
• Clear monthly reporting that tells you what worked, what did not and what changes next.

When those signs are missing after a fair amount of time, use the after-action review to find out why. Sometimes the plan needs to change, and sometimes the partner does.

For more on building the system behind these results, read my guide to space industry lead generation.

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