.png)
Starting a social media agency can be a great way to make extra money and help businesses grow their online presence and reach new customers.
With over half of the world’s population consuming their daily fix of Insta stories, Twitter threads, TikTok dances and everything in between, it’s no surprise that more and more marketers are fine-tuning their skills and taking the leap to set up their own agency.
If you’ve always dreamt of going it on your own, and are ready to make the plunge, our blog delves into the hows and the whys of doing just that.
So, how to start a social media agency?
Before we dive deep into the nitty gritty of all things agency, we’re stripping it back to the basics. Like all business ventures, a lot of research and life admin will be involved. You’ll be up against tough competition so it’s worth putting the time and effort into things like the type, the name and the look of your agency.
What type of business will it be?
Research into the structures that are available to you and choose the one that aligns with where your business is at and where you want it to go. Be sure to check out the national laws and tax implications each one has too!
STEP 1: Choose a Niche
A niche is the focal point of your business. When starting out, especially solo, it can be tempting to give everything a go but narrowing down your agency and its services is a good way to make your mark and become a specialist within that niche.
Whilst the vast world of social media can steer you in all sorts of directions, it’s a wise idea to break your social media marketing agency down into:
Industry
Think about the industries you’d like to work with. Align these with your interests, passions, skills and knowledge. If you take on an industry that you have no real interest or prior knowledge in, you’re 1) not going to enjoy working on projects and 2) going to spend a lot of time learning a new skill set.
Platform
Whilst you may consider yourself as an expert in all social media platforms (they’re the heart of your business after all), they all require different strategies, content and audiences. Try focussing on the platform that you have the most knowledge and experience, and one that is relevant to your client, their audience and their goals.
Services
Refining your services allows potential clients to know exactly what your agency does and whether your team will be the right people for the job.
Here are a few examples of the services you may offer:
- Strategizing social media marketing campaigns
- Scheduling and posting social media content
- Designing visuals
- Writing social media copy
- Influencer marketing
Of course, this is just a touch on the scopes of social media marketing but the key here is to not go broad so that you’re not too overwhelmed and take on tasks that go beyond your capacity.
This isn’t to say you can’t branch out into other industries, platforms and services once you’ve found your feet or expanded your agency (but more on that later!).
Step 2: Set Up Your Agency Website
When customers are looking for a social media agency to use, the first thing they’re probably going to check is your website. If your budget doesn’t quite stretch to professionally outsourcing your website-build just yet, it’s not impossible to create your own. In fact, websites like Wix and Wordpress make website creation simple with a variety of templates and design elements to make your pages pop.
It takes just seconds for someone to make a snap-judgment of your business from the website. Make sure that it is user-friendly, reads well and has all of the information any potential client will need to choose your agency; contact info, samples of your work, client testimonials, services, pricing and your values are all great examples of what you can work towards including.
Step 3: Create a Portfolio
Without a showcase of the work that you can do, customers don’t have a lot to go on when it comes to choosing an agency to look after their socials.
This could be a display of some of the social media work that you’ve done for past clients - from previous roles or freelancing gigs - or it could be a case of mocking up some examples of the services you’re offering.
Have a look at MixBlooms’ Social Media Examples Deck for some ideas.
Step 4: Market Your Agency
The reason you’ve set up your social media agency is to help other businesses reach their goals by growing their online presence, right?
Well during this stage, it’s time to focus on yours. Building a strong online presence in all the right areas* will help you reach potential clients. And seeing you on social media shows them that you’re good at what you do and that you’ve established a spot in their field.
*Remember your niches. If your platform is Facebook and your industry is the Arts, focus your energy on becoming a distinguished figure here rather than spreading yourself too thinly.
Step 5: Define Your Packages
Now the question on everybody’s lips… Is a social media marketing agency profitable?
Like all businesses, a social media agency will have its costs and overheads. To turn a profit, you’ll have to define what packages you’re going to offer clients and at what cost.
Let’s say:
Your bronze package offers 20 posts, one analysis and one consultancy meeting per month.
Your silver package is mid-level so 30 posts, two analyses, two consultancy meetings per month.
Your gold package is your top money-maker - the one that offers a higher level of service. 50 posts, three analyses and three consultancy meetings per month for example.
Now, what is the ideal social media marketing agency pricing?
To define your packages, you have to make sure that you know how much capacity you have and for how many clients. From here, set your pricing structure by working out how long it will take you to offer each service and put an hourly rate on it.
Make sure to strike the right balance between not overcharging your clients and not undervaluing yourself.
Step 6: Find Clients
This step is a biggie. Your social media marketing agency is going to be pretty pointless (and not very profitable) without the clients to offer its services to.
Whilst we make no suggestion that it will be plain sailing, we have a few tips to kick-start your client onboarding.
Never underestimate the power of word-of-mouth. Shout loud and proud about your agency to friends and family. Spreading the word to your close circle can open up doors - they might know a guy, who knows a guy who needs exactly what you’re offering. It might not necessarily bring in tons of business but it’s a good start and can help build up that all-important portfolio.
Network! Depending on your industry, traditional, in-person events are a fantastic way to go around and spark conversations with industry leaders and ultimately pitch what you do and what you can do for them.
This can also be done through Facebook pages and Twitter hashtags. Join in with conversations in local or industry-specific Facebook groups and dedicate the time to build relationships.
Be direct. If you have a list of your dream clients, approach them via email or their social channels - introduce yourself and your portfolio and explain why you’re getting in touch.
Everybody loves a freebie - offer part of a service or a trial to potential clients free of charge. This will not only give them a feel for your agency and what you do but it’ll also give you an indication of what they’re like to work with and whether you both want to continue the working relationship - it’s a two way street.
Step 7: Delegate the Work
A big part of running a social media marketing agency is deciding which areas and services you can do in-house and which areas you could benefit from using third-party tools.
When it comes to outsourcing some of the social media work, why not consider a white label solution like MixBloom?
MixBloom offers a social media marketing service that enables your agency to provide a content creation service to your clients that you can resell as your own without the need to hire more people - dedicated Social Media Managers take the content creation side off your hands and create custom content for your clients. MixBloom's white label social media marketing solution helps agencies handle scheduling, approvals and feedback, with a platform they can brand as their own. All feedback and requests for changes get directly to MixBloom's team, who takes care of all edits.
This is a great way to cut down the costs and the stresses of hiring internally and scaling up (or down) your clients and the work.
Step 8: Scale Up and Build a Team
So your agency has proved itself - the work is flooding in, the results are showing and the clients are happy. It’s time to take your start-up to the scale-up stage; investing in the growth of your business.
Scaling up can be the investment of the recruiting employees, moving to new premises or even mixing up your niches.
We’re going to focus on building a team.
As the agency owner, it’s easy to fall into the trap of taking on everything. But, this can often cause burn-out and be counterproductive when it comes to the growth of your business.
So you can continue delivering top-quality social media results for your clients, it’s a good idea to start building your team from other areas of your business. For example, hire an accountant to look after your finances, or an admin assistant to take care of enquiries, proposals and reports.
Covid-19 has completely changed the landscape of the modern working world and the beauty of it is that you can hire people from all over the world to work remotely. So, when your social media marketing agency is in a position to hire people to take on the projects, there’s a very large talent pool waiting!
Step 9: Track Your Progress and Generate Leads
To retain your clients, you’re going to have to prove to them that you’re worth their money. Do this by tracking and analysing the results from social media campaigns and giving your clients timely reports.
Client work aside, it’s important to track your agency in general. What’s going well and what’s not going so well? Looking at your progress will inform the next steps of improving and growing the agency.
After analyzing your progress, use it to re-strategize the marketing of your agency to generate leads and take your agency to the next level.
Leads are the people who have an interest in your agency’s service. After scaling up your business, you can start executing your newly-instructed strategy to generate more interest and leads for your agency.
For example, you could introduce new methods of marketing. Perhaps you could try content marketing. Create an informative blog series to educate potential clients on a spectrum of relevant topics with a strong call to action; a good way to gauge an interest and show that you know your stuff too!
We’ve established that starting a social media marketing agency is no walk in the park but by using informed strategies and third-party organizations like MixBloom, it’s absolutely possible to create one that’s successful and profitable. Why not give it a go?
