Thinking of starting a social media marketing agency? Knowing how big of an industry it has become right now would be one of the best business decisions that you can make in life.
You can begin the agency as a side hassle before you turn it into a full-time career. As you know, it takes a lot of effort and time to start a small business. Similarly, it is tricky to start a social media business.
However, with the right tips and tools, you will get up and running within a concise period. In this article, we are going to discuss how you can start a social media business in the current situation.
This guide is going to take you through all those necessary steps of starting a successful social media marketing agency.
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If you are planning to start a social media marketing agency, then you have landed on the right page. These are the basics that you have to follow to start a social media marketing agency.
You need to identify your niches before starting a social media marketing agency. The focus of your agency will be your niche. This will help you to narrow down to the industries and platforms that you are comfortable working with. There are three types of niches that you need to focus on:
When starting a social media agency, it is good to focus on just a few particular social media platforms. For instance, you can focus your agency solely on Instagram instead of handling Facebook and Snapchat marketing. The choice of a platform virtually depends on the demographics of your target audience.
It is better to concentrate on understanding one platform instead of trying to handle ten of them. Each platform has different reaches, posting rules, kinds of content, and audiences.
Some platforms are not ideal for certain audiences. When you choose a single platform, you will understand it in and out and give your audience the best experience.
However, you will not limit yourself to a single platform forever. Once you gain some experience, you can always spread it out to the other appropriate platforms.
It would help if you also chose the industries that you want to work with. The campaigns that industries require differ from one to another, even if you are using the same platform. For instance, the Facebook Ads that an insurance agency uses can never be the same as an e-commerce platform.
As you start, don’t focus on the niches that are too technical. Please don’t take on any fields unless you have prior knowledge of them. It may take you so long before you get to understand the ins and outs of that industry.
Focus on an industry that fits your prior skills and knowledge. It will reduce your onboarding time so that you can get up and running within no time.
The other thing that you need to choose is the scope of your services. The scope will determine what you will be offering your clients. You need to provide an obvious definition of this because it will cush you against customers hiring your social media agency for the services you are not prepared to offer.
For example, your agency can solely focus on scheduling and uploading social media posts. It is a great tip on how to start a social media agency with no experience. Alternatively, you can handle everything in social media; work with influencers, write the copy, strategize social media campaigns, etc.
Don’t choose a scope that is too broad for a start. It can be overwhelming, and you may find yourself working on projects that you can’t handle. Focus on a few specific tasks and only branch out after mastering them.
Customers use your prior working experience to hire your services. You can never show this experience unless you have customers to begin with. If you are prominent on social media, it will be easy to tell what you are doing.
You need social media accounts that are focused. After establishing a comfortable industry and platform, establish your presence there. For instance, if your platform niche is Facebook and your industry niche is fashion design, aim to become a prominent fashion design figure on Facebook.
It will make you one of the key influencers in that field. When potential customers come across your posts, they will know that you are good at online marketing. People want someone who has the right talent to handle their social media campaigns. You should be knowledgeable in the customer’s field and have the capacity to manage their target audience.
To decide on the structure, determine the type of social media agency that you will be creating. It could be an LLC, partnership, or sole proprietorship. The choice that you make will determine the structure of your business.
Get to understand the pros and cons of each structure before making a decision. You need clarity on this if you want to learn how to start a social media management company.
Creating a business name is the next thing here. Get to understand how customers will refer to you before you reach out to them. You need to have a catchy name for your agency that is simple and easy to recall.
If customers are confused about how to call you, they are less likely to hire your services. You also need to set up a website for your business. The domain and business name should go hand in hand.
The next thing is going over the legal elements of your business. To set up any business, you need tons of legal complications like taxes and registrations.
Go over your local, state, and county laws and ensure that your brand complies with all of them. Also, consider personal liability protection, tax benefits, and legal benefits.
It is not always a must to register your business. Go over the requirements with a professional to get a clear picture of what fits your business.
The last thing here is to make sure that you have the right tools in place. It is one of the key requirements on how to start a social media marketing agency.
The key tools here include a scheduling tool and a banner/infographic/image-maker. All these tools are paramount if you want to succeed in social media marketing.
It can be quite costly to run a social media marketing agency. You will need to cover the cost of salaries, taxes, business overheads, and setup costs.
The other thing is that you cannot price yourself too high, especially when you are beginning. You don’t want people to run away from your services.
You can even offer some free products to your customers. Therefore, they will have nothing to lose as they give you some paid work. The free services will help you demonstrate your level of expertise and show customers how talented you are.
If the pilot project succeeds, the customer will not have a problem paying you, even if you are new in this field. It is one of the most crucial tips for starting a social media marketing agency.
Packages are the best for a startup because you will state what you can do and what you can’t do clearly. Therefore, customers will not tell you to do things that you are not capable of doing. Besides, most customers avoid upfront payments, especially when dealing with a new company.
Billing social media marketing services hourly is great because you will receive payment for the work that you actually do. It is a good way to get an honest return for your effort.
It calls for a time-tracking tool to ascertain the amount of time you spend on the project. Customers will definitely accept the quote as long as you serve them with accurate records of the work done.
The hardest part of how to start a social media agency is probably getting customers. As you start, customers will not get to you, and you have to reach out to them. However, some techniques will boost your chances of getting customers.
The first tip is to work in a social media agency for some time. It will help you to prepare the groundwork early enough. Therefore, you can work as a freelancer or employee in a social media agency before building your own firm.
As you do this, make sure you are using each opportunity that comes your way to boost your credibility. You will also be able to understand how the industry operates.
From here, you now need to look for the connections that you already have. Reach out to the connections that you already had as an employee of a social media agency.
It is easier for such people to give your new business a shot. As you complete their project and they leave reviews, you will be able to get more customers.
You also need to source customers from online social platforms. For instance, you can look for companies that are searching for social media marketers on LinkedIn. Freelancer websites such as Upwork can also give you great social media marketing opportunities.
However, since these people don’t know you, they will hesitate to give you business without prior experience. Therefore, you need to go the extra mile to get business.
You can manage your operations on your own, but this is not sustainable. If you are too busy, it will be hard to onboard new customers and grow. You will have to draft proposals, create reports, organize your finances, and manage campaigns.
To grow your business and move, you need to hire people. The challenge with most new businesses is that they don’t have enough resources to employ a highly-trained team from the onset. It is better to begin with a virtual marketer, accountant, or assistant.
The virtual assistant may handle administrative duties such as maintaining reports and drafting proposals. The accountant will handle the billing process and business finances. The marketer can focus on email lead generation, content marketing trends, and SEO.
Therefore, you will only focus on the social media management of your clients. When you begin to make some money, hire more people to help you expand your business.
By now, you have a niche, a team, and some customers. However, you still have some more work to do. You need to show customers that it was an excellent choice to hire your company.
The best way to do so is to run a social media campaign. If they are happy, they will refer their networks to you to help you grow your customer base.
You need to look for the best way of delivering consistency in your services. Use a hard-working team and track your progress. It will not be hard for you to grow and reach your goals if you can maintain your social media market agency’s productivity.
A time tracking tool like the Time Doctor can serve you perfectly at this point. The most important thing is to make sure that you keep your customers happy all the time.
It is a daunting task to start your own business, but it is not impossible. All you need are the right strategies and preparation. It will not be hard for you to set up a strong base to build on your agency. The tips above will teach you how to start a social media agency in 2021.
A self-proclaimed Swiftian, Instagram-holic, and blogger, Subhasree eats, breathes, and sleeps pop culture. When she is not imagining dates with Iron Man on Stark Tower (yes, she has the biggest crush on RDJ, which she won’t admit), she can be seen tweeting about the latest trends. Always the first one to break viral news, Subhasree is addicted to social media, and leaves out no opportunity of blogging about the same. She is our go-to source for the latest algorithm updates and our resident editor.
