How to find a social media marketing agency.
10 questions to ask when looking to appoint an agency for your social media marketing.
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A social media marketing agency is an important outsourced role for many businesses, across myriad sectors. Here, we share what you need to know when appointing an agency to strategise and implement your business’ social media activity.
Social media marketing services that agencies provide range from strategy, to content planning and creation (where the designers come out to play!), from posting the content to performing engagement tactics to share content and grow your following.
You may choose to employ their services for the full range of activity or rely on the agency for just one or two parts of this, in a support role to your in-house team. No matter in what capacity you engage the agency, you must always be certain they are a good match for your business needs and social following.
Do I even need a social media marketing agency?
Start with do you even need social media. We would argue yes. It may not be the activity that draws in thousands of new customers or generates your top source of revenue, but it’s a wonderful way to connect with your audience on their terms. Think of it as great brand awareness, potentially even community engagement.
With this in mind, you’ll need to allocate several hours every week to keep on top of social media. From content creation to posting and monitoring, commenting and sharing. It all takes time. If you can afford the time internally, great. If not, that’s when you should consider outsourcing to an agency.
Where do I start with finding an agency?
Search for a social media marketing agency online (trusty Google for starters). Reach out to your network for recommendations. Even research the agencies behind the social media accounts you’re attracted to.
Does the agency need to be in my neighbourhood to understand my business needs?
Not at all. For instance, at pepperit, we have clients based all over Australia who we connect with virtually and are able to spend more of our time creating content and making the right connections with their audiences on their dedicated social platforms.
How do I know the agency is a good fit for my business?
Meet with them (in person or virtually). Chat, get to know one another. Review their portfolio of past and current work. Be up front about your expectations and ask as many questions as you can think of to assure yourself that this partnership will work.
Sometimes negotiating a trial period makes it a more risk-free venture. However, it is difficult to gain immediate traction with social so be fair with the time you give for the agency to prove its worth.
What objectives should we set for social media?
This will depend on the type of business and accounts you run. However, a good place to start is engagement. Most people think the number of followers is the best metric. We’d argue that this is a superficial number – could be bots in some cases.
Engagement really tracks who and how people interact with your brand on social. Are they liking, sharing, commenting? How long are they watching your videos, stories and so on? Talk to your agency about how this can be best tracked.
How do I brief in my social media marketing agency?
Ask the agency for a brief template that you can complete.
Sharing your expectations up front is helpful. Be sure you discuss what you’re expecting, how many hours activity will take and who will be responsible for your account.
Ensure you are open with your assets (logos, fonts, colours, imagery). This will ultimately save a lot of time in content creation and curation. Time that can be better spent on engagement!
Which social media platforms should they use?
Again, this will depend on the type of business you operate. Business to business operations may find LinkedIn, Facebook and YouTube more valuable platforms. While consumer facing businesses will often opt for Instagram and likely Facebook.
Don’t forget to incorporate the management of Google My Business and other relevant directory listings into this arrangement. There are so many derived search benefits from maintaining these.
What’s the best split between strategy, content creation, posting and engagement?
This is entirely up to you. If you are performing some of these functions in house, perhaps strategy should be the area the agency focuses on. If you are outsourcing this completely, we’d argue the creation of appropriate content and engagement are better priorities.
How much should I be paying a social media marketing agency?
Agency rates and fees are all different and calculated differently for that matter. You should budget for at least 15-20 hours a month for social media management services. Pepper’s social media services start at roughly $2,000 per month. But we can work with any sized budget.
Also be aware that if you want to undertake paid social media marketing, you will need to budget a separate amount for the ads.
Should I do paid advertising on social media?
This can support your organic social media performance. However, we’d caution against putting all your funds into paid social media. There are a great many gains to be made without paying for ads. Having said this, paid ads are a fantastic way to target certain audiences, trial different offers and drive additional website traffic.
Where to from here?
Pepperit is a Sydney based full-service marketing agency. This means we can be your digital marketing agency, your social media marketing team, or a place to come to discuss a way forward for marketing your business. Get in touch, your way, to chat further about how we can support your business.
Social Media: Connecting People
As a business, when it comes to marketing, you must be where your customers are. 72% of the Australian population are on social media. So, as part of your marketing mix, social plays a very important role in connecting with the right customer.
Elevating the Conversation
Think of us as an extension of your team. We’re invested in your business and as devoted to your brand as you are. With carefully researched and crafted copy and imagery, we will create an on-brand look to your social media content. Then, start conversations with quality new customers.
A Digital Strategy Pillar
We understand the social media landscape and the range of firms and businesses within it. So, we’re confident we’ll choose the right social platforms for your brand and audience that will drive local interest. Your business deserves a team of local ambassadors. And with up to date knowledge and experience in their field.
Part of the Community
Marketing managers and business owners often don’t have the time for community management on social. No time to personally invest in tracking activity, having individual conversations and creating engaging moments. That’s where we come in, giving you time back to focus on other important tasks.
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