Are you wondering how to grow a social media agency and make it stand out in a highly competitive market?
We get you.
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Over 70% of Americans use social media, making it a great platform for brands to promote themselves. And this has led to the rise of numerous social media agencies, creating a lot of competition for you to stand out.
Image via Pew Research Center
But don’t worry.
We’ll show you how you can grow a social media agency and stand out from your competition using these 9 marketing strategies.
9 Tips on How to Grow a Social Media Agency
Here are a few easy and effective tactics on how to grow a social media agency.
1. Maintain an Active Lead Generation Strategy
A common challenge in learning how to grow a social media agency is finding a lead generation strategy that works for you.
A good lead generation strategy can attract potential customers who:
- Are genuinely interested in your agency
- Can afford your services
- Are facing challenges in their social media promotions
Here are some strategies that you can implement to go about your lead generation process.
Create Irresistible Lead Magnet Offers
Not many people can turn down a free tool or a resource that can help them.
Offer something that can be helpful to most business owners, such as a webinar (using a webinar software), whitepaper, or free consultation, in exchange for their information.
Use email list management software to segment these leads and send personalized emails showing how they can benefit from your social media services.
Here’s an example of how to grow a social media agency by offering a free analysis in exchange for an email address.
Image via Socialistics
Attract Leads Using Content
Content that is optimized for SEO has a great potential to attract quality leads through organic traffic.
When executed well, SEO helps you get your content to rank higher in the search engine results pages (SERPs). This, in turn, can help you generate more leads.
But how can you improve the SEO of your social media agency?
Start by researching keywords that can help attract your audience to your website.
An SEO tool like Semrush can help with your research. Once you have the right keywords, create engaging and evergreen content around these keywords. Make sure you use the keywords in the content well too.
Use the content to present your agency as a possible solution to the prospects’ social media problems.
Remember that at this point, the lead is not yet ready to pay for your social media services. So you can end with a CTA like ‘Book a Free Consultation’. The key is to position your agency as the go-to destination for customers.
Use Chatbots
You may not have the human resources to dedicate a team to lead generation. But chatbots can help you generate and nurture leads.
The best thing about chatbots is that they’re available 24/7 for this purpose too and can communicate with multiple website visitors at once.
HubSpot, for instance, uses chatbots to engage website visitors the moment they land on their CRM tool page. You can do the same with your social media agency.
Image via HubSpot
Test Your Methods
To ensure that your lead generation strategy is well-optimized, you should consider testing it regularly.
Identify the methods and sources bringing in the best-quality leads, and double down on them. Similarly, cut off the channels bringing in cold leads as you’d end up wasting your budget there.
A tool like HubSpot can provide reports on how your prospects are progressing through the sales cycle. With insights on lead generation, you can follow up on the sources of these quality leads and accordingly optimize your campaigns.
Image via HubSpot
2. Work on Your Social Media Profiles
Some potential clients might opt to evaluate your expertise in social media management by looking at your social profiles.
If they’re not impressed, they’re unlikely to engage your services. And every effort you’ve put into getting the lead will go down the drain. And that’s why it’s important to grow your social media agency’s reach on social platforms too.
Make a better impression by dedicating time to:
- Building a following
- Keeping your profiles active
- Maintaining the highest level of social media engagement
Use your profiles to show potential clients that you know what social media management is and are capable of delivering results.
So, make sure you don’t forget about your brand’s social profile.
Here is what you can do: Treat your brand like your first client, and allocate time and resources to it as you do with other clients.
3. Establish Yourself as a Social Media Expert
The key to getting leads and customers on autopilot is to position yourself as a social media expert. When you position yourself as an authority figure in the industry, it directly improves your credibility.
This will help you attract high-value clients.
And these are the kind of clients you seek, right?
But how can you establish yourself as an authority figure?
Here’s how you can go about it:
- Regularly create original content related to your industry
- Solve problems of your target audience through your content
- Share content from other authority figures and give your opinions on the same
- Talk about trending topics in the social media industry
- Partner with influencers to further boost your credibility
In addition, you can launch virtual events as a lead generation tool to improve your authoritativeness.
Your attendees will provide you with their info when registering for the event or joining the conference. And you can later reach out to them through email marketing.
Back these events with high-quality social profiles and creative assets, and you’re sure to have high-value clients.
4. Grow Your Online Coverage
According to a survey of marketing leaders, 83% of the respondents reported using social media in their marketing strategy.
This means over 15% are yet to dip their toes in social media marketing.
Some of these marketers and other business owners do not know the potential social media carries for their businesses especially if you choose the right platforms.
Here’s how you can grow your social media agency by reaching out to these groups:
- Publish guest posts on websites that these marketers and business owners might visit when they’re searching for digital marketing advice such as SEO and PPC advertising.
- Take part in discussions, conferences, and webinars tackling digital marketing in general and build a case for social media marketing
These actions will pique their curiosity and help you drive lead generation for your social media agency.
5. Build a Portfolio
Ask any successful agency how they grew their brand online, and you’ll find that showing off the projects you’ve handled in the past will top their list.
It shows a potential client what you’re capable of achieving.
Create detailed case studies highlighting your achievements and publish them on your blog and social media accounts.
How do you put together a case study?
Follow these steps.
Step 1: Choose a success story: Identify which campaigns you’d like to highlight through the case study. Ideally, pick customers from different industries.
Step 2: Identify the points you want to highlight: Spotlight the key achievement in the headline, such as the % increase in traffic, and base your case study around it.
Step 3: Weave your key points into an exciting narrative: Include the challenges you helped them resolve, stating the results in numerical form.
You can also show off past successes by displaying logos and names of companies you’ve worked with on your website. But only if the customer or non-disclosure agreement allows it.
6. Leverage the Power of Testimonials
According to a survey, about 32% of people say review rating is the most important factor that determines if they’ll purchase a product.
Image via Bizrate Insights
It’s significantly higher than the 22% who feel a coupon or discount is the most important factor.
What this means is that most people will rely on the experiences of past customers to decide if they’ll invest in your services.
In addition, about 90% of people will believe what a customer like them says about your business than what you say about yourself.
If a lead sees a positive comment by your past or current customers about your agency, they’ll be willing to hire your services.
Wondering how to grow a social media agency using testimonials?
It’s simple.
Ask your clients, especially those you’ve worked with the longest or had the most success with to write a testimonial for your agency. You can then publish that on your site or social media accounts.
Make it credible by adding the name and title of the customer, the company they work for, and their picture.
7. Invest in a Powerful Tech Stack
As your social media agency grows, your client base will increase and it’ll become harder to stay on top of all your responsibilities.
This could lead to missed deadlines and unsatisfied customers.
You can avoid this mess by automating tasks with social media tools like Sprout Social, Hootsuite, Zoho Social, etc.
Automating repetitive tasks will also free up your time, allowing you to focus on the creative part of your projects and the expansion of your agency.
Here are a few examples:
- BuzzSumo: It helps you find content ideas for your website and trending topics in the industry.
- Hootsuite: Can be used to schedule social media content on multiple platforms.
- Visme: Can create stunning and professional graphics.
8. Learn From Your Competitors
There’s nothing wrong with learning how you can grow your social media agency from the best in the field.
Carry out a competitor analysis.
Check things like:
- The services they sell. Some agencies offer extra services like social media listening
- Their pricing
- The kind of content they produce
- Who their customers are
- Their social profile. Check the visuals and language they use
- The keywords they target on their websites
- Their CTAs
Monitoring your competitors will help you understand the various strategies that you can implement to grow your social media agency.
9. Network Extensively
Want a strategy on how you can grow your social media agency? Start networking.
Join relevant social media groups and be active in virtual networking events. This is a great place to spot potential clients and networking with them could help you convert them into customers.
Instead of directly contacting these prospects with promotional messages, share high-quality content with them and offer free advice and insights in matters concerning social media marketing.
It’ll give these potential clients a reason to follow and reach out to you. And then you can send them your business proposal.
Key Takeaway on How to Grow A Social Media Agency
There you have it, 9 marketing strategies on how you can grow your social media agency easily.
Let’s do a quick recap.
Attract leads and encourage conversions on your website by using:
- Chatbots
- Lead magnets
- Case studies and testimonials
Attract clients and establish your agency as an expert in social media matters by:
- Holding virtual events like social media webinars
- Maintaining an active social media profile for your brand
- Participating in relevant social media groups and virtual networking events
Finally, invest in:
- Social media tools to automate tasks
- An SEO agency to create content that attracts leads to your website
Put these strategies into practice and you’re sure to see massive growth of your social media agency.
