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When you sell, a buyer audits your marketing.
Most owners fail before they start.
The Marketing Due Diligence Checklist is the exact list a buyer works through when they inspect your marketing: where your leads come from, what you actually own, and whether any of it keeps working after you leave. 6 categories. Score yourself before someone else does.
The problem
Buyers do not pay for a business that stops working when you walk out.
What buyers see in most businesses
- Leads come from the owner's personal network
- The phone rings because of one referral source
- No email list, no rankings, nothing that transfers
- Marketing lives in the owner's head, not in documents
- The brand is the owner's name on a truck
What a sale-ready business shows
- Leads from 3+ channels, none over half the total
- An email list and organic rankings the buyer keeps
- Documented playbooks, vendor list, and credentials
- Marketing that runs without the owner touching it
- A brand and reputation that stand on their own
What it looks like
A look inside the checklist.
Category 1: Lead Sources & Channel Diversification
- You can name every channel that produced a lead in the last 12 months, with a rough percentage for each.
- No single channel accounts for more than half of your leads.
- Leads keep coming from sources that do not depend on the owner's personal contacts.
- You can show a buyer a 12-month trend, not just last month's numbers.
- Paid channels have a tracked cost per lead, not a guessed one.
The full checklist runs through all 6 categories with 30+ check items.
Print it, work through it, and you will see your business the way a buyer does: asset by asset, risk by risk.
What's in the checklist
6 categories a buyer inspects in your marketing.
1. Lead Sources & Channel Diversification
Where leads come from, the percentage per channel, single-channel risk, and how much of it rides on the owner's personal network.
2. Owner Dependency in Marketing
Would the leads keep coming if you left tomorrow? Who holds the relationships, the logins, and the knowledge that makes marketing work.
3. Owned Digital Assets
Email list size and health, organic rankings and traffic, domain, social followings, content library, and what transfers versus what you only rent.
4. Documentation & SOPs
Documented marketing processes, playbooks, vendor list, and a clean handoff of access and credentials a buyer can actually take over.
5. Brand & Reputation
Review profile, ratings, branded search volume, and whether the brand can stand on its own or is just the owner's personal name.
6. Analytics & Tracking
GA4, conversion tracking, attribution, and reporting a buyer can verify instead of taking your word for the numbers.
Free download
Get the Marketing Due Diligence Checklist
All 6 categories, 30+ check items, copy-paste ready. Score your marketing the way a buyer will, find the gaps, and fix them while you still have time before a sale.
From checklist to sale price
Build marketing that survives the sale.
The checklist shows you the gaps. Closing them is what moves your multiple. An owner-dependent business sells at 3-4x earnings. One that runs without the owner sells at 7-8x. Strong organic rankings can add 10-30% to the price, and an email list adds roughly $1 per subscriber per year of value.
I help owners turn marketing from a personal habit into a transferable asset a buyer pays a premium for. Start free with the checklist, then go as deep as you want.
FAQ
Common questions
What is a marketing due diligence checklist?+
Who is this checklist for?+
Why does marketing affect what my business sells for?+
How long does it take to work through?+
Is this only useful right before a sale?+
What do I do after the checklist?+
Does an email list really add to valuation?+
Is it really free?+
More free resources
Read more before you sell.
Diligence
Marketing Due Diligence Explained
What a buyer actually checks in your marketing during diligence, and how to pass each test.
Valuation
What Is My Business Worth?
How multiples work, what drives them up, and where marketing fits in your number.
Planning
Business Exit Planning Guide
The timeline and steps for preparing a small business to sell, marketing included.
Questions about your own situation? Get in touch.
