Do you wanna start your own social media marketing agency and make it a success?

Starting a business takes guts and determination. While, it will take tons of time and effort, starting a social media marketing agency can be tricky especially when you have no social proof.

In our guide, we’ll take you through all the necessary steps to starting a successful agency.

This guide includes:

Identifying your niche
Create a business plan & structure
Determine your pricing
Establish social media credibility
Getting clients
Start hiring people
Improve productivity

So, Let’s get started.

1) Identifying Your Niche

Brands can’t afford to ignore social media as more and more people use the various networks.

According to Statista, the number of social media users is estimated to increase to almost 3.1 billion in 2021 around a third of the world’s population.

Before you open your social media marketing agency, you’ll have to identify your niches.

Your niche will be the focus of your agency. It’ll help you zero-in on what platforms and industries you’re comfortable working with.

Here are the three types of niches you should focus on:

Platform Niches

It’s a good idea to focus on a few specific social media platforms when you’re starting out.

For example, your agency can focus solely on Instagram marketing instead of handling Snapchat and Facebook too.

Why?

Understanding the nuances of just one platform is far simpler than trying to handle ten different platforms.

Remember, each platform has:

Different audiences.
Different kinds of content.
Different posting rules.
Different reaches.

By focusing on a single platform, you can thoroughly understand its nuances and give your clients the best possible experience.

Don’t worry. You won’t have to limit yourself to one platform forever. After you have some experience under your belt, you can always branch out into other platforms.

Industry Niches

You’ll also have to zero-in on which industries you want to work with.

Different industries need different kinds of campaigns, even if they’re on the same platform.

For example, an e-commerce site can’t use the same Facebook Ads as an insurance agency, right?

When you’re starting out, it’s a good idea to focus on niches that aren’t too technical. Avoid taking on fields that you have absolutely no prior knowledge of.

It’s going to take you tons of time to familiarize yourself with the ins and outs of the industry.

Instead, focus on an industry that suits your prior knowledge and skillset. This will minimize onboarding time and help you get up and running quickly.

Scopes

You’ll also have to zero-in on the scope of your services.

This will determine what you offer to your clients. It’s important to define this clearly because it guards against clients hiring you for tasks you’re not prepared to deal with.

For example, you can set up an agency that solely deals with uploading and scheduling social media posts.

Alternatively, your agency can deal with everything in social – strategizing social media campaigns, creating the visuals, writing the copy, working with influencers, and so on.

Ensure that your scope isn’t too broad to begin with. This might overwhelm you and lead you to work on projects you can’t handle.

Focus on a few specific tasks and branch out only after you’ve already mastered them.

2) Create a Business Plan & Structure

You’ll now have to create a business plan and decide on your business structure. This will help you develop the foundation of your business and create a roadmap for your future.

Here’s how you go about it:

Decide On Your Structure

The first question you should ask yourself is what kind of social media agency is this going to be?

Is it:

A sole proprietorship?
A partnership?
An LLC?

A sole proprietorship is usually the go-to option for anyone starting out solo. If you have someone else involved in this business, then maybe go for a partnership. Alternatively, if you’re looking to scale things up quickly, an LLC might work.

Remember, each of these business structures come with their own set of pros and cons.

Carefully go over what you’re looking to achieve and what resources you currently have before deciding on a business structure.

Create A Name For Your Business

Before you reach out to clients, you’ll have to decide on what you’ll be known as.

Choose a name for your business that’s unique and relevant to what you offer.

However, you also need to ensure that it’s easy to pronounce. If clients are confused about what to call you, they’re probably not going to hire you!

It’s also important to set up a website for your business.

Ideally, your business and domain name should go hand in hand. So, keep that in mind when developing your business name.

You might have some difficulty finding available domains, so shortlist a bunch of alternative business names when searching for this.

Go Over The Legal Aspects Of Your Business

Setting up a business involves tons of registrations, taxes, and other legal complications.

It’s important to go over your country, state, and local laws to ensure that your business complies with them.

You should also create a separate bank account for your business. This will:

Keep your finances ordered and make it easier on you once tax season comes.
Increase your purchasing power with higher credit limits.
Make your business look more legitimate when clients pay you.

In some cases, it also makes sense to register your digital marketing business.

There are a few distinct benefits to doing this:

Legal Benefits: registered businesses will find it easier to abide by corporate laws and comply with business regulations.
Tax Benefits: registered businesses benefit from tons of subsidies and government tax breaks.
Personal Liability Protection: registering your business separates your personal and business liabilities. Safeguarding your personal assets in case things go wrong.

However, registering your business isn’t always needed. Go over your business plans with an accountant to get a clearer picture of what suits your needs best.

3) Determine Your Pricing

Running your own social media marketing company can be costly.

You’ll have to cover:

Setup costs
Business overheads
Taxes
Salaries

But at the same time, you can’t price yourself too high.

Here are two common pricing models:

(i) Packages

Packages are great when you’re starting out because you clearly state what you can and can’t do for the client.

As you’re outlining this at the start, you won’t have to deal with clients asking you to do things you’re not prepared to.

However, packages are an expensive pricing model and most clients prefer not to make an upfront, large payment to a new company.

(ii) Hourly

You can also bill your marketing services at an hourly rate. This is great because you’re getting paid for the work you actually do.

For example, if a client gives you an incredibly tough assignment, you can bill them for more as it took you more time.

Unlike packages, where the price is already set, hourly models give you a more honest return for your effort.

4) Establish Social Media Credibility

37% of marketing agencies say getting new clients is their biggest struggle:

So imagine how tough it is to land your first client when you’re starting. But there are ways and means of building credibility and showcasing your talent.

Announce The Opening Of The Agency To Your Network

Where better to start spreading the word that you’re open for business than among your network.

We’re talking first-degree connections on social media, contacts from previous employment, plus friends and family.

Seriously, you can’t under-estimate the power of your closest connections. These are the people who already know, like, and trust you, and will either engage you or happily recommend you to their network.

Build A Credible Website & Add Client Testimonials

Potential clients are going to take the time to check you out before they even contact you. And one of the places they’ll check first is your website.

They’re not checking your design skills, although your website should load quickly and be easy to navigate.

Instead, they’re more interested in reading your content and checking what previous clients have said.

One place to start is your ‘About’ page.

Prospective clients want to know who they’re dealing with, and more importantly, what you can do for them. This is where you can expand on that and include testimonials from clients to support your claims.

But what if you’re just starting, and don’t have any client testimonials?

It’s a fair point, but you have previous experience before starting your social media agency that you can use.

For example, passion projects, unpaid jobs, and work you’ve done for a non-profit could all potentially be used if they’re relevant.

Aside from your ‘About’ page, you’ll want to create a page where you can showcase your work and include case studies.

Some agencies create a dedicated ‘Portfolio’ or ‘Testimonial’ page, while others intertwine examples on other relevant pages.

Whichever option you choose, make sure you include:

The client’s brief
The work you did
The measurable results you saw
And a testimonial from your satisfied client

Case studies and testimonials provide powerful social proof to prospects and are a great method for gaining credibility as a new social media marketing agency.

Demonstrate The Expertise Of Your Social Media Marketing Agency

If there’s one thing you absolutely have to nail, it’s acing your own social media marketing as an agency. This is the place where you can demonstrate what you could do for clients in real-time.

And let’s face it, prospective clients are going to check your social media accounts as well as your website.

5) Getting Clients

Getting clients is probably the hardest part of setting up a social media marketing agency.

When you start out, clients aren’t going to come to you. You’re going to have to reach out to them.

Luckily, there are a few tried-and-tested ways to boost your chances of getting some clients:

(i) Work In A Social Media Agency For A While

A great way to get clients is by laying the groundwork for it super early.

Instead of searching for clients after you set up your business, start work on it before it’s up and running.

Work as an employee or freelancer in a social media firm before you start out on your own. Here are a few benefits of doing this:

Boosts Your Credibility
Lets You Know How The Industry Works
Helps You Build A Network

(ii) Reach Out To Your Second & Third Degree Network

LinkedIn is a great place to source new clients for your social media services/agency.

Assuming you have your current network as first degree connections, you can see second and third connections.

And because LinkedIn profiles show job titles and seniority levels, you’ll be able to pitch your message appropriately.

(iii) Follow & Engage With Brands You’d Love To Work With

Prospecting, reaching out to potential clients, and sending cold emails can all seem too much to do at once.

Since it’s proven people want to work with people who understand them, your best bet is to create genuine relationships with your prospects.

You can start by simply following a handful of brands whose content or products you genuinely enjoy.

Engage with them on a weekly basis and connect with business owners directly or the members of their marketing team.

Once the time is right, send them a message to see if they are looking for any help with social media or invite them to a free discovery call.

Once you work out this process, you can purposefully look for new, lesser-known brands that fit your niche.

(iv) Use Facebook Groups & Other Social Media Forums

Facebook Groups offer a good way into the industry and niches you’re targeting.

While it’s okay to join social media marketing groups to get support from peers, it’s more beneficial to join groups where you can offer value and demonstrate your skills and experience.

You can also find other social media communities and forums like Reddit and Quora where you share relevant knowledge and promote your brand.

(v) Network At Co-working Spaces

When you’re starting your agency, it’s more than likely you’ll be working from home to keep costs to a minimum.

One way to bridge the gap between home and office is to use a coworking space for a few days a week.

As well as mingling with like-minded entrepreneurs, you might find you can offer your services to a coworking partner.

Additionally, these spaces usually run free workshops and you could host one to gain more exposure for your agency.

(vi) More Ways To Market Your Agency

Network at social events and social meetings in the local pub.
Attend semi-related events and meetups (Startup Meetup, PR Meetup, Design Meetup).
Help run events rather than just attend e.g: run a local ‘social media for small business’ type meetup or speak at larger conferences.
Make guest appearances on Podcasts, Webinars, Twitter Chats, and Facebook Lives.

6) Start Hiring People

While it’s possible to manage all your operations by yourself initially, it isn’t sustainable.

Think about it.

How will you grow and onboard new clients if you’re busy:

Managing campaigns.
Organizing your finances.
Creating reports.
Drafting proposals.

If you want to grow your business and get to the next level, you’ll have to hire people.

However, most new business owners don’t have the resources to hire a fully-fledged team from the start.

What you could do instead is start off with a virtual assistant, accountant, and marketer.

Your virtual assistant can handle all your administrative tasks, like drafting proposals and maintaining reports.
Your accountant can handle your business’ finances and billing process.
Your marketer can then focus on SEO, content marketing trends, and email marketing for lead generation to grow your business.

As all your other activities are taken care of, you can focus solely on your client’s social media management.

Once you start making more money, you can hire someone to help you with the assignments and gradually expand until all your operations are handled by employees.

7) Improving Productivity

There’s always room for improvement, and as your new social media marketing agency starts to grow, one area to focus on is productivity.

Here’s a selection of tips and tools you can use to improve productivity.

7 Time-Saving Social Media Management Hacks

Running your social media agency involves balancing your time so you can serve existing clients and pitch to new ones.

But how do you prioritize your time?

Here are the main takeaways for agency marketers to manage their time effectively:

Create a routine that works for you
Focus on the best platforms for your client’s business
Plan your content in advance
Batch your tasks
Automate tasks
Outsource some of your tasks
Invest a little time every month to experiment and do more

Business Admin Tools You’ll Need To Run Your Marketing Agency

As well as social media management tools, you’ll also need some business admin tools to run your agency.

Here’s our selection of the essential admin tools and services to help you run your business more efficiently, so you’ll have more time to grow your agency and win new clients.

(i) The Complete Office Suite

Most likely, you’ll need access to standard office applications, including email, word processing, spreadsheets, and presentations.

Google’s G-Suite or Microsoft Office covers all these options and more.

(ii) Business Email

If you don’t need the whole office suite, you’ll definitely require email, so try Google’s Gmail for business.

(iii) Video Conferencing

Having one conference call to discuss your proposal or review performance can save time with email exchanges.

Zoom and Skype both offer video calling, screen sharing, and call recording.

(iv) Project Management

Organizing and managing tasks for you, your team, and your clients is an essential part of running your agency.

Two of the best tools available to create, assign, and categorize tasks are Trello and Asana.

(v) Appointment Scheduling

Tools like Calendly or HubSpot’s Meeting Scheduler allows you to share your available time slots for invitees to book a mutually convenient time.

Both sync with your Google or Office 365 calendar, so colleagues, clients, and prospects can always check your current availability and easily book a meeting.

(vi) Customer Relationship Management (CRM)

Capsule CRM or HubSpot’s free CRM lets you organize, track, and nurture your clients and leads in one convenient dashboard.

Plus, when you sync with Gmail or Outlook, you can capture every call, email, or meeting as it happens:

(vii) Accounting & Finance

Managing your agency’s finances is an essential part of running your business.

There are plenty of cloud-based apps like Wave, Xero, and FreeAgent to help ease the burden.

(viii) File Backup & Storage

Although most computers have ample built-in storage, it’s wise to back up and store your files in other places.

Cloud storage services like Google Drive or Dropbox allow you to store selected files online so you can share them (internally or externally) and access them whenever you wish.

Backup apps like Backblaze or Carbonite allow you to back up all your computer files and quickly restore them if your computer is lost, stolen or malfunctions.

(ix) Time Management

When you’re working on client projects, you need to track how many hours you’re spending on each activity so you can see what’s making you money, and what’s costing too much. Try Time Doctor for time management.

(x) Password Management

Online password management tools like LastPass and Dashlane are invaluable for generating and storing all your passwords.

Plus, you can also safely share passwords with anyone without revealing the details, which is ideal for keeping clients’ social media accounts secure.

(xi) Scheduling

Scheduling tools allow you to schedule your social media posts in advance.

They’re essential to running perfectly timed social media campaigns.

As you can set up a posting schedule, you won’t have to manually upload a post every few hours or so.

Some good scheduling tools to explore are Later, Buffer, Planoly, and Hootsuite.

Conclusion

While starting your own business can be daunting, it isn’t impossible.

With the right preparation and strategies, you’ll have no trouble creating a strong base for your agency to build on.

Once you’ve started your agency and landed your first clients, you’ll learn a lot about what works and what doesn’t.

And sure enough, as you build a strong foundation, your next thoughts will be how to grow and scale your social media agency.

In the meantime, follow up with social media news when you can, and keep focusing on serving others and solving problems for your prospects.