If you want to make money with social media, you need to stop thinking about it as a job.
We have a lot to share about starting an SMMA, and to show that we have real-world experience in this, hear from the founder of Scaling With Systems, Ravi…
“When I was twenty-five years old and still living with my parents, I learned about social media. I saw people making hundreds of thousands of dollars every month—and most importantly, they were doing it from home.
I decided that if these people could do it, so could I!
That’s when everything changed for me.
I was twenty-five, making over $100,000 a month. I worked only a few hours weekly and lived in Colombia. And just one year before that, I was $10,000 in debt living in my dad’s basement and applying to law schools.
If you want to be the next person who makes over $100,000 a month working from home, this guide is for you. You’ll discover how to earn $100k a month with social media (Yes, I said $100k!)
I want to share with you the principles behind building a highly profitable social media marketing agency and removing yourself from it so you can enjoy the fruits of your labor.
This post will walk you through exactly how I went from being a law school dropout to running an advertising agency generating millions of dollars in revenue.”
There you have it – it’s not a pipedream to build out a social media marketing company from s scratch – it’s possible, and when you learn the right strategy, you’ll not only start an SMMA, you’ll succeed at it!
Start Your Own Social Media Marketing Agency: Key Steps
To keep things as simple as possible for you, we’ll break down into multiple sections what we believe the main principles for building an SMMA agency are.
1. Pick a Name and Incorporate
The most obvious first step is to pick a name for your business. You’ll want something short and memorable, like “Social Media Experts.”
If you’re unsure what name is best, check out Google Trends for inspiration.
You should also look up domain names and check for the availability of those domains, as sometimes winning names have already been snatched by someone else.
Once you’ve picked a name, register it as an LLC in your state of choice (this will cost anywhere from $100-$500, depending on where you live).
Once you have chosen your name and structure, register it with the state (if applicable) and create a website for your business.
This is where you will showcase what you do, how much it costs, who you serve, and why they should hire you instead of someone else.
Once you’ve completed the required paperwork and paid, you can use a service like LegalZoom to incorporate your SMMA.
2. Select Your Niche
Niche selection is one of the most critical steps in growing a successful SMMA business. It’s also one of the hardest things to do right. You can ignore this step if you wish; just know that it will definitely impact your chance of succeeding in this competitive industry. If you choose the wrong niche/s, it will be challenging for you to make money from them.
To succeed in this business, you need to have a specific niche.
You can choose any niche as long as it has a massive demand for social media marketing services.
You must consider your target audience and how you will reach out to them.
These questions will help you determine the niches you want to focus on:
- Are they business owners, marketers, or salespeople?
- Is it a specific industry? If so, what industry?
- Do they use social media? What platforms do they prefer?
- How many followers do they have?
3. Approach and Attract Clients
You need to approach clients. Over and over again! So getting comfortable doing this will make things a whole lot easier for you.
Take our example: “In just thirty days after introducing a new offer, we were doing five times the business. When we implemented a new offer to potential clients in our niche, we went from $10,000 to over $50,000 a month.”
We highly recommend networking and chatting with people in your industry who might be able to refer you to potential clients and find a mutual collaboration.
You can also use websites like LinkedIn to find people interested in your services and then reach out to them directly.
If you’ve never done this before, it can feel scary. But don’t worry – we’ll show you how!
– Reach Out Through Cold Calling
The first thing you need to do is start cold calling.
You need to find a way to reach out to potential clients, learn about their business and discover what they are looking for.
Cold calling is one of the most effective ways of doing this. Cold calling lets you get in touch with potential clients and tell them about your services.
Don’t be afraid of rejection!
If you do it right, people will be interested in what you offer them. And – part of doing it right is to also know that rejection will happen. But so will people being genuinely interested in what you have to offer.
You should also be able to show that you’ve done your research on the company or industry before calling them. So, make sure that when you approach a company that interests you, spend some time researching them beforehand.
When speaking with them about their business, you can show that you know what they do, who their competitors are, and why they’re different from everyone else in their field (if they are).
Keep in mind:
- Always follow up with them in a friendly manner.
- Make sure you have a good rapport with them before closing the deal.
- Always try to make it as quick as possible for them to understand what you are offering without making them feel like you are rushing them into anything they don’t want to do.
- If they don’t want your services at that time, don’t push them into anything else. Just ask if there is another time they will be ready for your services.
– Use Cold Emailing
Cold emailing is a great way to reach potential clients. It’s a great way to get your foot in the door. It’s also a great way to get ignored or rejected, but that’s part of the game, remember!
You can’t win if you don’t play.
It’s a tricky business, cold emailing. You want to be successful but are not always sure what to do. Watch our YouTube video to see if you’re making mistakes that might be scaring your leads away.
Cold emailing is all about persistence and following up. The more emails you send, the better your chance of getting a response.
The best time to send cold emails is when you’re looking for clients actively searching for someone like you or when they’ve just posted a job listing (which means they’re already thinking about hiring someone).
Cold emailing is also ideal when someone tells you they need help but aren’t ready to hire yet (i.e., “I’m not ready for an agency yet but will be soon”).
You might wonder, “Why would I want to do something like that?”
While cold emails might seem intimidating at first, several benefits come from sending them:
- You don’t have to spend money on ads or other expensive marketing campaigns
- It’s an easy way to reach many people at once
- If done correctly, it can help you build rapport with potential clients before meeting them in person.
Check out this YT video of a Cold Email Template that we use to generate $10M in sales.
– LinkedIn and Other Platforms
LinkedIn is one of the best places to find potential clients for your business.
It allows you to create a profile of yourself and your company which will help potential clients know what kind of services you offer and how qualified you are for the job.
You can also connect with other professionals in your industry using LinkedIn groups or events where people share their knowledge through blogs, videos, etc.
LinkedIn has millions of users who visit this platform every day, so if you are active on LinkedIn, it will help increase traffic and generate leads for your business. Learn more about how you can use LinkedIn for business in our blog post after reading this.
If you’re looking for more leads, head to Facebook and Twitter. These platforms are great for generating leads but are not as effective in converting them into paying customers.
– Direct Messages
Did you know there are almost 3 billion people active on social media? And that number is multiplying. Hence why starting a social media marketing agency is such a great way to earn money online.
The good news is that Facebook and Instagram have made it easier than ever before to attract clients with their direct messages feature.
Instagram Direct Messages (popularly referred to as IG DMs) are an excellent way to promote your business or blog because they allow you to target specific individuals based on their interests and location.
Here are the steps you need to take to get guaranteed responses from your Instagram cold DMs.
Keep in mind!
In this stage, you need to focus on scaling your business and streamlining it, so you don’t have to work all the time.
When your SMMA is still small and new, it’s not unusual for you to work an average of 60 hours a week because of the long sales cycles that come with convincing people to let you take over their social media accounts.
If a business owner is going to entrust you with their social media accounts, they need to be assured that they can depend on you. It can be a pretty intimidating prospect. If you’re not careful, it can lead to sleepless nights, missed anniversaries, and empty bank accounts.
But with some planning, you can work your business around your life rather than the other way around.
Also Read:
How To Get Clients For Your Digital Marketing Agency
Social Media Marketing And Client Acquisition
The first question that comes to mind is, why would you use social media marketing for client acquisition?
The answer is simple: Social media is everywhere!
In fact, most people are on social media and spend a lot of time on these platforms. This means that you can reach a large audience at once and create brand awareness for your business.
Besides, using these platforms makes sense if your target audience is on Facebook or Twitter.
With social media marketing, your ads are placed directly in front of people who are already interested in what you have to offer.
For example: If someone follows an account on Instagram or reads a blog post on Facebook related to cooking recipes, they’ll see ads from brands like Pillsbury or Betty Crocker when they browse their feed.
It’s much easier to reach people who already want what you offer instead of starting from scratch and convincing them they need your product or service.
Social media marketing is one of the easiest ways to get started with advertising.
How Social Media Improves Customer Acquisitions
Social media marketing is a way to easily connect with your customers and potential clients. It’s the perfect channel to promote your products, services, and brand.
You can reach out to your target audience and build relationships with them by posting on social media channels and developing rapport with your followers. It’s a great form of social proof when you have high engagement rates. Plus, when you’re pumping out quality content, you’re seen as an authority,
Using social media in your marketing strategy can help you increase brand awareness, reach new audiences, and drive traffic to your website or landing page.
According to HubSpot research, the most popular type of content among social media marketers is content that reflects your brand’s values. It has the third highest return on investment (ROI) of any content type.
Here are some winning strategies to acquire clients for your social media marketing services:
1. Identify and Reach Customers
Social media is the perfect platform for companies to identify potential customers, especially those who are part of their target demographic.
Once you’ve found your target audience, you can reach out to them directly through targeted advertising campaigns on Facebook or Instagram.
This will greatly increase your chances of converting new customers into loyal ones.
2. Customer Segmentation and Targeting
Like any other marketing, social media marketing also requires a clear customer segmentation plan.
This will help you determine which channels are best suited for your target audience and how to target them effectively.
Once you have identified your target customers and their location, you can start building your social media presence by creating profiles on platforms such as Facebook and LinkedIn that are relevant to your industry.
You can also create custom profiles on each platform to target people more accurately based on their interests and preferences.
The most crucial step in social media marketing is to know your target audience.
To reach the right people, you need to know who they are. This allows you to customize your content to appeal to your target audience.
For example, if you are selling luxury products, targeting people with a high-income level would be more beneficial than targeting those with a low-income level. Likewise, if you want to promote an event or giveaway, knowing your target audience will allow you to create a buzz around it.
3. Engaging with Customers
Social media channels make it easy for you to engage with customers on a personal level.
You can respond to their questions and comments in real-time or help them resolve issues with your product or service. 82% of consumers expect a response from brands within an hour when they ask questions on social media.
By interacting directly with your audience, you’ll understand what they want and how they want it delivered. This will give you valuable insights on how to serve them in the future better.
Social media allows you to build trust with potential customers by sharing valuable content that they find useful and exciting.
For example, if there is a trending topic related to your niche or industry, share it on social media platforms and engage with people who comment on it so that they get an idea about how well-informed or knowledgeable you are!
You can also share videos of yourself speaking at conferences or events, which shows that other people value your opinion too! This builds credibility among potential clients.
4. Personalization of Data
Followers on social media sites give you a great opportunity to connect with your audience personally. They are already familiar with your business and have probably interacted with you in at least one way.
And the best part is that these interactions are right in front of them—you don’t even have to put any effort into finding them.
You’ll automatically start building relationships by posting relevant content, asking questions about their interests, and replying to comments.
If you want to improve your relationship with followers and get even more engagement, you need to ensure that you’re paying attention to all aspects of their online experience.
With data from social media sites, you can understand how prospects interact with your brand and what moves them to action.
Once you identify which factors influence your target audience, you can craft your interaction strategies to speak directly to them. Targeted customer acquisition campaigns on social channels allow you to reach out to prospects with the right message at the right time.
5. Personalized Customer Service
71% of consumers feel frustrated when they don’t feel like they’re getting personalized service.
Personalized customer service is a practical approach to long-term customer satisfaction.
With the help of social media, brands can now have personalized interactions with their customers by providing them with on-demand support and feedback. That makes it easier to connect with customers, analyze their behavior and anticipate their needs.
In fact, companies that use this strategy are twice as likely to get a positive reply from customers than those that don’t.
6. Creating Opportunities
Customers are accustomed to shopping on Amazon for convenience, but they are also becoming more comfortable buying directly from brands.
This makes Facebook and Instagram so powerful regarding marketing: they allow brands to interact directly with their customers without having first to visit a brand’s website or Amazon listing.
By starting a social media marketing agency now, you can position yourself at the forefront of these new channels before they mature.
7. Automate, Monitor, and Manage
In this step, you’ll have a team who will do all the work for you.
When you delegate tasks to your team, ensure they are working correctly, and give them new projects when needed, you can put your energy into where it matters.
You’ll spend most of your time on strategic decisions, such as planning the next steps for your business.
You should also monitor everything that’s going on in your business behind the scenes so that nothing goes wrong or gets missed. If you do find an issue, fix it immediately.
The benefits of having a team include focusing on more important things like strategy and planning.
- Your team will learn from the experience and become better marketers.
- You can work with people who have skills that you don’t have (social media experts, SEO experts).
- They’ll help with difficult or time-consuming projects for you (like sending out emails).
- You’ll have more time to focus on higher-level tasks like strategy and planning.
Custom Niche-Specific Offer To Capture Clients
Creating a custom offer is one of the essential steps in starting a social media marketing agency.
You can’t just create a generic offer and hope it will work. You need to create something that is tailored to your specific audience.
This is where you’ll want to get creative. You can make up your niche or focus on an existing industry (for example, health care, real estate).
If you’re struggling with an idea, try looking at your interests and hobbies. What do you love? What do you spend time doing?
Once you’ve decided on what niche you want to focus on, look for companies that may need your services.
Research Google using the keywords from the last step (keywords related to the type of business you’re trying to sell).
Once you have an idea of who might be interested in your services, send them an email explaining what they’d get working with you, how much it’d cost them, and the insane results you can produce for them.
Once you have your first client, you can start building a portfolio of work and gaining more clients in your niche. You’ll also need to create a website that showcases your services and shows people why they should hire you.
How does a client-specific offer get you multiplied results?
You may have heard of “the power of niche marketing” and how it can help you earn more money than the average marketer.
But what exactly is it, and how can you use it to grow your business?
Niche marketing is the art of targeting specific groups of people within a broader market. It’s all about finding a specific need or problem that many people in your target market share and making yourself an expert in solving it.
The idea is to create a product, service, or offer that solves a need for one specific group of people instead of trying to create something that works for everyone.
In other words, you want to create something that will appeal to your target audience and make them want to buy from you over anyone else out there.
Here are some examples:
- Real estate agent specializing in short sales
- A personal trainer who works with seniors
- Wedding planner specializing in destination weddings.
This is how you create offers tailored to each client’s specific needs. And this is how you multiply results!
For example, If you have a client whose main problem is getting enough new customers or leads, your offer should be about creating a customized plan for them to get more leads.
If another client’s problem is that their socials aren’t converting well, then your offer should be about finding ways to get more people to convert to their Social media profile.
Create A Virtual Client Acquisition Machine
What is a Virtual Lead Generation Assistant?
A lead generation assistant is tasked with finding and qualifying leads on behalf of the company, so they’re basically in charge of all things sales.
Virtual assistants can save businesses up to 78% in operating costs. Virtual Assistants can help you improve your business’ online marketing by defining goals, creating lead magnets and landing pages, and setting up an efficient lead generation funnel.
What Does a Virtual Lead Generation Assistant Do?
Their responsibilities include:
- Answering incoming calls (phone-based lead generation).
- Investigating leads by email, phone, or live chat (email-based lead generation).
- Updating the CRM system with new information about a lead (CRM integration).
- Follow up on opportunities and leads that require additional research (sales follow-up).
Benefits of Hiring a Virtual Lead Generation Assistant:
- You can have a team of virtual assistants working for you 24/7 – no holidays, no sick days, and no weekends off! (Yes, even when you are sleeping)
- You can hire from any country and pay them in their local currency. This makes finding and hiring high-quality talent easy without spending thousands on recruiting agencies or headhunters.
- Hiring virtual assistants is much cheaper than hiring full-time employees. Some VAs ask for as little as $5 per hour.
- Virtual assistants don’t require office space or equipment (phone, computer, etc.). All they need is an internet connection, and they are good to go!
Outsource, Automate, And Systemize Fulfillment
The main problem of most entrepreneurs is that they are so scared of delegating and letting go of their business.
They are so attached to it they don’t even want to let their employees do their job. As soon as something goes wrong, they jump in and try to fix it.
But this approach only leads to burnout, frustration, and stress.
You will end up working 24/7 without getting any results for your business because you’re just putting out fires all day long instead of implementing new strategies and growing your business.
If SEO isn’t your thing, but your clients expect monthly updates and rankings reports, outsource them! If graphic design isn’t your thing, but creating new ads is essential to get new leads, outsource them!
Don’t try and take on everything yourself—you’ll just end up frustrated, stressed, and overworked. Instead, focus on what you do best and outsource the rest.
- Use technology to automate tasks
The more time you spend on repetitive tasks and small details, the less time you have for strategic thinking and growth.
If your business is growing and needs additional resources on the front or back end, automation can help make this happen without adding more people to the payroll.
Starting An SMMA FAQ
How do I start a social media management agency?
Decide on your SMMA niche, gather a winning team, delegate tasks effectively, create a client acquisition strategy, and follow the best practices outlined in our blog to get started with a social media management agency.
What does an SMMA do?
An SMMA (Social Media Marketing Agency) helps clients succeed in their business by creating winning strategies to market their brands, services, and products. The agency works with creating content for its clients, coming up with strategies for posting, engagement, and more on different social media platforms.
How do I get clients for social media marketing?
There are many ways to find new clients for your social media marketing agency. Cold outreach (done right) is a great way to get clients for your SMMA agency. We have a whole section on how to approach and attract clients in this article.
Wrapping Up: Social Marketing Agency Expert Tips
As Ravi mentioned at the start – this stuff works. He went from making only $3,000 to making over $100,000 gross income in the first eight months of business, working only a few hours a week.
And that was because he had an unbeatable offer and was getting many clients. More than others were calling, and he was charging more for people because of it.
He removed himself from lead generation and outsourced and systematized the fulfillment process so his virtual assistant could do those things for him.
We’re not saying you will have the same success with this exact thing, but we do hope that you’ve been inspired to see what is possible.
Want to grow your company’s client list? If you already have a social media marketing agency or online company and want to help it grow, we can help. You can instantly create a stream of 20-50 new clients every month with the help of this proven system.’
If you want to learn more about how to develop a profitable client acquisition system, book a free consultation call with one of our advisors.
