Are you looking to hire a social media marketing agency? This article will help you get well prepared.
There is no doubt that social media marketing is helping businesses of any size to grow. Through social media, you can interact with your consumers, promote your offers, get feedback on your services or product and so much more. Social media marketing is affordable and anyone can do it. It’s not that hard. But sometimes things can get complicated if you are a business owner with a busy schedule. You may not get time to create, post and engage with potential buyers. This is where you need to consider hiring a social media marketing agency. Hiring a social media marketing agency will help you concentrate on other important matters of your business. They will create, post, engage and manage your business’s social media presence. This way you get more time to focus on other issues.
But what should you do before hiring a social media marketing agency?
Today we will share a few things you need to do before deciding to hire a social media expert. Doing these things will help you to make sure everything you need is being taken care of by the social media agency you look to hire.
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Things you need to do before hiring a social media marketing agency
Understand your social media marketing goals
Outline your social media marketing needs
Have your sales team ready
Decide on your budget
Have a social media marketing contract
Understand your social media marketing goals
What do you want to achieve when you hire a social media agency? Is it more sales or brand awareness? Knowing exactly what you need can help you communicate well to the social media agency you look to hire, this can help them understand and develop strategies that will align well with your goals. I personally have had so many cases where business owners ask you about why arent they not getting sales while before starting they only wanted brand awareness. It’s always key to understand your goals before hiring a social media marketing agency.
You need to understand that different goals require different social media marketing strategies. Being aware of what you need can help social media agencies prepare to execute the right strategies. If you can’t figure out what you want, you can always give us a call. We offer free social media marketing consultation.
Outline your social media marketing needs
While understanding your goals can also fit in this second point but I separated it for a purpose. The needs I am talking about here are the challenges you are currently facing and you look forward to hiring a social media marketing agency to help you with them. Are you struggling to find time to post? Is your time limited to creating content, do you have enough time to engage and answer comments? Such things need to be well outlined before hiring a social media marketing agency. This way you can look at what they offer and see if it fits with what you need. Never assume things, say what you exactly need. And outlining your social media marketing needs earlier can help you speak with confidence.
Have your sales team ready
Is your sales team ready to handle leads coming from social media? One thing that business owners don’t consider when hiring a social media manager is having their sales team ready. They think that social media agencies can handle that too. Wrong. Social media agencies work with different clients. They won’t have time to sit down and call all your leads to tell them about your offer. Do you need someone to do that? Hire a salesperson or get your sales team ready for that.
Another reason why you need to get your sales team ready is that they know more about your services or products. They can easily talk about your services and give your leads the right information, which can make the sales process easier and easily convert your leads. Your social media managers should be focused on making sure your sales pipeline is always active with leads ready to be handled by your sales team.
Decide on your budget
Any digital marketing or marketing activities require investments at a certain point. This investment may mean money, if so, it’s good to decide what you can spend. This will help you to find the right social media agency to help you. There is no sense in having meetings with social media agencies that charge higher than you can afford. Deciding your budget can help you save precious time when hiring a social media agency.
Sign a social media marketing contract
Just like any other business contract, signing a social media contract can help you make sure things are well-aligned between you and your future social media marketing agency. Have it clearly state what they will do, what they will help you achieve, and what will be the costs. Many times I see business owners agree with word of mouth only to come to realize what they agreed is not implemented. At this point, you start pointing fingers at each other. To avoid this, have everything documented and signed. In my point of view, when a business owner asks for a contract, I take them seriously. This is because they value what they are investing.
My final advice to you.
Hiring a social media marketing agency may seem a very easy task to do, but it can backfire if you don’t set yourself ready. There are a lot of social media agencies with no experts, don’t let your business fall into the hands of these people. I believe you have seen many graphics designers who have turned into social media experts just because they can design awesome graphics posts. Well, these are not social media managers you can trust. You need people with proven skills otherwise you will waste your good time and money. That’s why we encourage you to take time when hiring a social media agency. Knowing what to do before approaching any social media marketing agency, can help you in hiring the right social media agency.