Do you want to start a social media marketing agency? Not sure how to or what tools to use? With over millions of users on social media, many business owners want to advertise online. They want to connect with leads interested in their services and to build relationships. More and more small business owners are shifting their marketing to social media instead of the traditional ways such as flyers, knocking on doors, newspaper ads, etcs…
Social media management can be overwhelming and many business owners simply do not have the time to learn it or do it themselves. Or perhaps they have tried but not gotten the results they expected. That’s why there is a strong demand for social media marketing services.
Service Offering for Your Social Media Marketing Agency
In this blog, I’m going to show you how to set up the business model and start a social media marketing agency that can quickly turn profitable. But you will need to put in the hard work to get the systems in place.
To begin, I recommend starting out by offering a single service such as Facebook Ads management because this can quickly bring your clients results and a return on investment. You will also not be spreading yourself thin by trying to do SEO, website design, Google Ads, Email Marketing etc… all at once.
Facebook Ads Management is great because you can get fast results for a client. Sometimes you get leads the day after launching the ad campaigns. On the other hand SEO might take months to get ranked up in Google searches.
1. Pick a Niche
Decide who you want to work with? What niche do you have interest, experience or resonate with? It can be difficult to cater to everyone, hence the importance of honing down on a niche that way you are focused on ONE niche and ONE business service.
Make sure the niche is a high-ticket niche. Meaning their services range at least $500-$1000+.
Here are some great niche ideas for inspiration:
- Kitchen Remodelers
- Roofing Contractors
- Bathroom Remodelers
- Flooring Installation
- Lawyers
- Landscapers
- HVAC
- Realtors
- Dentists
- Chiropractor
- Auto Repair
- Painters
Keep in mind that once you choose a niche, doesn’t mean you are stuck with it. I would just pick one and run with it. Some niches may not be high ticket like dentists but they have recurring customers so it may lucrative in the long run.
2. Create a Website
You do not necessarily need a fancy website or one at all but I will tell you that it certainly helps. The reason is because many times when you are reaching out to potential clients they will ask if you have a website or page where they can look at your content, services, email, testimonials, and linked social media.
I recommend creating it “landing page” style meaning it’s a simple page with the goal of getting people to book a consultation call into your calendar. You can view more about landing pages here.
To create a website, you can use a simple service such as Bluehost. There are hundreds of free templates and plugins with drag and drop builders to get a simple website up and running.
2. Prospect for Clients
Think about where your clients hangout? My favorite places to search for clients would be facebook groups for niches, instagram, and LinkedIn.
Some social media marketing agencies use automation tools to reach out to prospects. It can be a bit tedious to manually send messages out all the time.
LinkedIn Prospecting. Many business owners are on LinkedIn, it’s the largest professional network out there. I recommend LinkedIn Sales Navigator + DuxSoup. LinkedIn Sales Navigator let’s you search Keywords that match profiles with filters such as geographical location, industry, seniority, title and more!
DuxSoup is a browser plugin software that allows users to track and engage with leads. You can send an automated custom connection request message. This can save you tons of manual work.
Facebook Prospecting. Many business owners join ‘niche’ facebook groups with titles such as “Contractors of ___ city”, “Local Business Owners” or “Marketing for Realtors” etc… you can join these groups and connect with hundreds of prospects.
Try Pepper. Automatically target specific prospects inside of Facebook Groups based off of keywords your dream clients self-identify with. Have Pepper automatically send these prospects a friend request.
Pepper has been a game changer. Pepper lets you target prospects within a Facebook group with Keywords you ideal client self-identify with on their profile. Pepper will automatically send them a friend request and a custom message if they accept.
Other tools:
Calendly is also a wonderful FREE software for appointment scheduling. Clients can book directly into your calendar and you can set it up to send them follow up reminders.
3. Pricing
Get away from the mindset of an employee, that you are you paid for the amount of hours you put in. That is the whole point of creating a social media marketing agency right? To create your own business and give you the freedom to price your services however you want.
To give you an idea, many social media marketing agencies charge clients at-least $500-$1000+ on a monthly basis. Keep in mind this is separate from advertising budget, which I think a client should at least allocate $600 per month. Facebook does not let you advertise for free.
This type of pricing can be justified because of the value you bring. For example, a kitchen remodel can cost thousands of dollars ranging from $12,000-$35,000+. If you brought them 1 lead and they close them, this will justify a monthly retainer of $1000 or more a month. The return on investment can be huge.
Here is a sample pricing package:
Monthly/Retainer Fee: $1500
Advertising Budget: $1000/month
The goal is to keep the client on for as long as possible so you can have recurring income. Once the client sees that you are sending them leads, they will be more inclined to keep you on.
4. Sales
Congratulations! You found some business owners interested in your services. It can also be nerve wrecking to get on calls with business owners especially if you don’t have a background in sales. However you don’t need to have a script at all! You are a problem solver. Figure out if they have a problem with their marketing and getting leads. This is where you step in and provide a solution.
Landing your first client can be hard but exciting because after you have a few clients under your belt, and become familiar with the process, it just gets easier from there on out.
When someone is interested, try to schedule them into a call to learn about their business and what their goals are. You want to make sure you both are a good fit. Try to gather as much information about them as possible.
- What is their current revenue and where do they want to be?
- Who is their ideal client?
- What have they tried for marketing in the past?
- What is their pain points in the business?
Tips:
- Make sure they have some sort of sales system down. You can send them all the leads but if they don’t have somebody taking the calls or contacting the leads, then it would go to waste.
- They need to have at least some budget (recommend at least $500 per month).
- If they are just starting out, there might not be much of a budget allocated to advertising and have their system down.
Explain your services and what you can do to help them. Address all their concerns about bringing on a social marketing agency. Tell them what makes you different or unique. Make them an offer that they can’t refuse. (can be money back guarantee or other incentives) This will depend on creativity on your part.
Once you have a few clients, you can use them as case studies. This will make your pitch even stronger.
5. Onboarding
Make sure you have collected payment before starting any work and have a contract signed.
Important things to go over with a client:
- Service area and location they would like to run Ads in.
- Offers that have worked well to attract customers. Use this in your ads!
- Where to send the lead information?
- Payments and deadlines.
- Expectations of services.
- Communication and hours of availability.
Tools to use:
Great now that you have secured a client and gotten most of the logistics taken cared of, it’s time to bring your client great results!
6. All in One CRM for Sales and Marketing
GoHighLevel is an amazing all-in-one Sales and Marketing platform. It helps you keep track of your leads and everything centralized and organized. Capture leads with landing pages, surveys, forms, calendars and an inbound phone system. Nurture your leads with email marketing and SMS templates. Finally close your clients, collect payments and schedule further appointments!
Give GoHighLevel a try. It is reasonably priced based on the many features included in comparison to subscribing to multiple software individually. You can test it out with a 14 day free trial.
Pros:
I believe running a social media marketing can be very lucrative. Whether you want to do this full time or part time, you can work anywhere in the world! Your clients can be all over the world, don’t necessarily need to focus on local service area.
The startup costs are very low. This online business model can minimize a lot of overhead costs you’ve seen in traditional brick and mortar businesses. You can purchase more expensive software later on such as email and text message for lead nurturing, CRM or even bring on an appointment setter to contact the leads for your client! So many different ways to expand on your services when you are ready.
When the time is right, consider outsourcing the fulfillment side by partnering with a trustworthy white labeler for Facebook Ads. This way you can just focus on sales and getting more and more clients to scale up. You want to work on the business not in the business. Otherwise you’ve just created another job for yourself.
Cons:
Many say starting a social media marketing agency is easy but not everything is sunshine and rainbows. Many struggle with their sales pitch and getting business owners to see the value you bring. People will ghost you, not show up to appointments, think the leads are bad but in reality they are not contacting them asap. Some people will want to know all the details of running the Facebook ads, micromanage and some will be more laid back. That’s why it is important to set realistic expectations to avoid conflicts down the line and get sense if it will be a good fit beforehand. You will find the different intricacies between niches and which one you click the most with.
Final Thoughts and Takeaways
After reading through this high level guide on how to start a social media marketing agency, do you believe this is something you can do?
All in all, if you are serious about starting a social media marketing agency, just give it your best shot! Don’t over think it and get trapped by paralysis by analysis. I’m not sure if there are many online business models out there that can quickly generate profits while keeping expenses low. Put in the work and you will reap the benefits.
Thank you for reading my guide on how to start a social media marketing agency! Feel free to share, comment provide any feedback or ask any questions.