Marketing your social media agency is not just about pushing out endless ads and hoping your ideal customer will arrive at your doorstep. It involves meticulous planning, time, energy, and most importantly money. Now if you are someone who has a lot of the rest, but is short on the money aspect, then here we are to tell you how to market your social media agency on a budget!
Now, without taking too much time let us get started!
What is a marketing budget and How do you get started?
A marketing budget is money that a company allocates to promote its business. The amount of money your marketing budget requires depends on various factors, such as your size, growth rate, and niche.
When starting to create a budget, you need to ask yourself a couple of questions. These include:
- Who are your target audience?
- What do they like and which social media platform do they hang out on most?
- And how do you plan on reaching them?
With these questions and answers in mind, you can figure out a rough estimate of your marketing budget. Here is a deep dive into this concept to help you create a budget from scratch.
Three Steps to Create a Budget for Your Social Media Agency:
How to start a social media agency? You define a niche, and find your target audience. Creating a marketing budget from scratch can look a little bit similar to this process. And this is how you can start creating one:
1. Defining Your Target Audience:
Focusing on a specific target group and spending all your resources on that particular niche is a great way to make the best use of your budget. While dipping your toes in all the groups might seem like a good idea, a big chunk of your money can be spent in vain.
To avoid this situation, you need to identify your target audience and position your product in front of them. Now you might have this one sorted out. But if you are someone who is not clear on how to do it, check out this free buyer persona generator tool!
Now that you are armed with your audience preferences, you can figure out the social media platform that they are most likely to frequent.
For example, If you are targeting other businesses and senior-level executives are the ones who are most likely to purchase from you, then you should be focusing on LinkedIn. If you focus your strategies on Instagram or somewhere else then your efforts will be useless.
2. Factors affecting marketing
Creating a budget for your advertisement spend needs to be done with some factors in mind.
One such factor is the ultimate goal of your business. If your agency is trying to expand reach and bring in new customers then you have to figure out how to get it done with a limited budget. You can either partner with influencers in your niche or offer giveaways and free samples to customers who refer you. Therefore, based on the goal and your plan to reach it needs to be taken into account.
Another factor that you need to think about is a KPI called as Customer Acquisition Cost (CAC). Due to immense competition for ad space in the digital world, the CAC has gone up. Thus, keeping your ROI and CAC in mind when drafting up a budget can help prevent your agency from overspending.
There are many factors that influence your budget. It is always better to have a flexible budget where you can move funds around and focus on marketing strategies that are working best for your business.
3. Components in a Marketing Budget
When creating a social media budget, ads are not the only thing that needs to be taken into account. Multiple factors are under consideration and here are some for you to include in your budget:
Content Creation:
High-quality content can always elevate your business and brand. And when you want exceptional content, you must be willing to set aside a portion of your budget towards it.
When it comes to content creation costs, it all boils down to how you want to create your content.
Do you want to shoot your videos by yourself, or hire a videographer or maybe an agency?
Do you require any premium editing tools to create your content?
Remember there are many free AI tools that can help ease out your content creation process, that comes with capabilities such as scheduling and automating your social media management.
Content is always King and it brings 3 times the lead when compared against traditional marketing strategies. So including content creation in your marketing budget is crucial.
Paid Ads
Paid ads are a great way to attract more customers and widen your horizons, so it is a no-brainer to include them in your marketing budget.
When it comes to running paid ads, we do not suggest you dive deep in and spend thousands of dollars within the first month itself. It is not practical and sometimes it might be an outright loss.
If you are an expert in paid marketing, then by all means, go ahead. If you are a newbie and want to test the waters, then start small. Figure out what kind of ads work best for you and what brings you the most conversions, and scale from there.
Although a minimum budget might not get you many amazing features, it will still be useful in determining what works.
And paid ads are not that expensive too, so it is a great idea to dip your toes in early on in your marketing.
Tools and Premium Software
When diving into marketing, you will find that there are so many platforms to concentrate on and sometimes manually managing them all is a task. It can creep up into a full-time job if you are not careful enough.
So if you are a solopreneur or an agency owner, it is best to invest in a tech stack that can automate your marketing strategies and take a burden off your plate.
For example, Predis AI can take care of your social media post creation, ad designing, scheduling posts, tracking performance, and analyzing your competitor’s performance. This tool is also equipped with built-in AI capabilities to help you generate posts in a matter of seconds.
If you want to monitor the performance of your website, you can opt for Google Analytics which is free. Or if you want a more sophisticated setup then you can opt for Semrush, but keep in mind that it is a bit on the pricey side.
There are many more marketing automation and CRM platforms available in the market. So be informed about your options before making a choice.
In-house Team or Agency
If your social media agency does not have the time to experiment and wants immediate results, then hiring professionals is the best way to go.
Now, if you choose to make this decision, you have 2 options. You can either hire an in-house team that can manage your content creation, ad management, and website management process and present you with the ROI. Or you can hire an agency to get all these processes done for you.
7 Free and low-budget marketing ideas for you to implement
Now that you have gone through the works and created the budget that is apt for your agency, it is time to put those resources to good use.
So here is a run-down of the list of low-budget marketing ideas that do not skimp on the results. Let’s get down to business!
1. Email Marketing Plan
This might seem like an ancient technique to pursue but it is still a sure-shot way of gaining new customers and converting them without being too salesy.
- All you need is a good hooking content/template/resource that will be appealing to your target audience.
- Do a social media campaign where you are highlighting this offering. When potential clients find this, they get intrigued and sign up with their email ID to get the hook content.
- Now, that your audience is in your marketing funnel you can carefully convert them into paying customers with a good email marketing strategy and that is it!
The major advantage of an email marketing strategy is that you are not dependent on any social media platforms for it. LinkedIn, Facebook, and Instagram can change their engagement algorithms. But your email subscribers cannot be whisked away from you!
2. Content Marketing
Good content can speak for itself and bring a positive impression to the brand. Better yet, you can start working on this tactic without a massive budget too. And there are some added advantages to creating content:
- When creating content, you not only divulge useful information but also exhibit your expertise and knowledge. So when a potential client sees your blog, they can see that you know what you are talking about. (This is also why you should put out high-quality content that is valuable to the reader. It is a double-edged sword.)
- You get to see what your customer pain points are. By answering their questions and reading their feedback, you get a deeper understanding of what makes your customers tick.
- You can start content marketing without needing to spend a lot of money.
- Although this type of marketing does not start producing results immediately, it is kind of like do and forget. If you keep putting out valuable content, then it is going to bring you clients even when you sleep. Think of this as an investment for your future.
3. Leverage videos
Videos are by far the best source of tools for marketing because of their high engagement rate when compared to other mediums. And we know what you are thinking, creating a high-quality video can put a huge dent in your budget.
But this does not have to be entirely true. Video making and editing have never been easier, all you need is a good-quality camera and a creative mind.
Videos can be a vital part of your content creation process as it is easy to follow along, and highly engaging. But make sure to keep in mind that, you need a strong CTA at the end of your video that will prompt your user to take action immediately.
4. Word of Mouth
Never underestimate the power of a good referral. When someone suggests a good product, your trust in the said product is bound to increase. And your inclination to purchase also increases.
And you do not have to search far and wide for said ambassadors, you can ask your employees to help out. With employees turned into brand ambassadors, you are sure to widen your visibility and bring in customers from unlikely places.
Encourage them to share about your business with their personal and professional circle. Maybe offer them some sort of incentive for getting the word out!
5. Host Webinars
This is another cost-effective way to market your business – which is to host webinars.
Think about it, you are an expert in your field and there is a boatload of information you can teach. On the other hand, some customers do not understand how to solve a particular problem. When you both meet, the magic happens.
The customer has proof of your expertise and when you contact them to get their business, they are more than willing to hire you.
Hosting a webinar is not expensive either. You can use Google Meet to set up your meeting, promote the webinar through your social channels, and voila you are done!
6. Have a Customer referral program
Did you know that customers referred by a friend are four times more likely to convert?
Almost many businesses have a customer referral program, where an existing customer can get great benefits when they refer his or her friend. Why not use this strategy for your business too?
If you are someone who is just starting out and have only less number of customers then this can be a great way to get new leads. What is more, when existing customers refer you, this adds credibility to your business and also helps you convert these leads faster.
7. Run an ad campaign on Facebook
Even if you are struggling with a meager budget, Facebook ads can still be within reach for you. With an average click-per-cost of $1.72, you are bound to get more eyeballs for your business while staying within budget.
Note that this click-per-cost is just the average and can be less or more than this for you, which totally depends on your niche.
Conclusion
There is no one-size-fits-all marketing strategy for any business. Each business is unique and your perfect strategy is based on your budget and growth rate. Even when you are working within a budget, with the right creativity you can make it work. The evolution of the Internet and AI has made it possible for businesses of all sizes to make their marketing work with a small budget too.
The rise of AI content creation tools and marketing tools has paved the way for cost-effective marketing. All you have to do is go out and find the right tool for you!
FAQs:
It is possible to market your agency within a small budget by utilizing low-cost marketing strategies such as creating content for blogs and social media. You can also conduct relevant webinars and offer hook content to garner attention from your potential clients. Then you can slowly but surely convert them to customers by using a well-curated email marketing strategy.
When coming up with a budget for your marketing strategies, you need to think about everything from production costs for content creation, paid ads, collaborations, and premium software and tools.
When creating content for social media, create shareable ones. Go on live from time to time and show the people behind your brand. Consistently engage with your commenters and nurture relationships with them. Also, keep an eye on the type of content they ask for and formulate your content strategy based on that.
