While some of us grew up in the #hashtag era, other’s cringe at the thought of creating content solely for obtaining likes, comments, and a bigger following. Welcome to Social Media Marketing. By no means is it necessary that businesses grow a social media following, but doing so can help a business flourish.
Between the mix of in-house marketers, agencies, and freelancers, there are roughly 50 million social media marketing companies worldwide. Each of them claiming they know how to grab and hold your audience’s attention better than anyone else.
While this tells us just how easy it can be to start a social media marketing agency, we know succeeding with one is another story. I want to get clear – and make it simple – for agency owners wondering how they can successfully do the latter.
“Isn’t it just a matter of building branded content and setting up a 3rd party scheduling tool?”
Sure, that will save your team a few hours a week. But social media requires social interaction. Monitoring and building connections on a daily basis. If you’re an agency owner running six different accounts in varying industries, the chances of getting your customer stellar results becomes slim.
Below are three things you should seriously consider to effectively grow your agency.
Pick a Niche
Fear of missing out has one to many agencies trying to be the go-to source for every business. In reality, a lack of focus doesn’t just means that we’re scattered and unoptimized.
A common rebuttal we’ll hear is agency owners want to move forward, get started, and “see what niche finds them.” Instead, you should pick a fairly narrow niche and pivot if it’s not the right one.
Not convinced? Put yourself in the shoes of the customer. Would you go with an agency who seems like they’d take money from anybody, or one who specializes in that industry?
For example, take an agency that serves car dealerships and attorneys. Two different industries with vastly different knowledge requirements. You’re going to make your life a lot easier when you commit to becoming the industry expert in just one of these. By studying the communication channels and motivations of the target audience, you’ll know how to attract audiences through each social channel.
Accept you can’t be all things to all people. It’s true, there are riches in the niches.
Productize
Productize is simply a verb for taking service-based tasks, such as running a social media agency and turning them into specific products.
When a client asks what you do the answer is never, “I run social media accounts.” Rather, you’re giving them specific packages based on their problem, budget, and solution.
Look around to any scalable business and you’ll see that products or packages can be purchased by the buyer. It allows agency owners to create SOPs that create cohesion throughout the entire process.
This also helps the customer make easier decisions. Remember to keep your customers’ needs in mind when creating packages as wells. It specifies the deliverables and avoids buyer confusion.
Find a White-Label Partner
The main difference between hiring freelancers and partnering with a white-label provider is that with a white-label provider you should be considering long-term partnerships. Freelancers come in handy for one-off projects, but if you want to grow a reputable agency, finding a fulfillment provider is a necessity.
So what do you want to consider when evaluating white-label partners? Top of the list for us? Communication. More specifically, you’ll want to find a provider that can communicate with your clients on all levels. From customer service to reporting to creative direction, a fulfillment provider should be an extension of your team. It will also play huge dividends to your social media agency’s growth.
In All Things, Simplify
Discover your niche. Become an expert in that field and build the relationships that will last.
Next, create products from your services. Think of it as a Starbucks menu; tall, grande, or venti. Easy for your client to read and easy for you to execute on. Lastly, find a trustworthy white-label provider that can do it all – with your brand name on it.
Your social media agency will scale if you find ways to implement protocols and standard operating processes. After that, all you have to do is execute on time. Just remember to set a high standard of work for your clients and the rest will take care of itself.
Check out this video on our Youtube channel. Let us know what you’ve found useful and other tactics to close clients and finally kick your agency into high gear!
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Reach out to our team where we’ll get on a discovery call to assess your agency’s needs and see if we can be the partner that can help you reach your goals.
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