A social media marketer provides ideas and content for their clients. Some owners may specialize in a particular type of platform (e.g., Facebook only), but most work with all platforms to create a cohesive strategy for a business. Owners may work with one particular type of business (e.g., social media for real estate only) or with a variety of businesses or causes.
Start a social media marketing business by following these 10 steps:
Plan your Social Media Marketing Business
Form your Social Media Marketing Business into a Legal Entity
Register your Social Media Marketing Business for Taxes
Open a Business Bank Account & Credit Card
Set up Accounting for your Social Media Marketing Business
Get the Necessary Permits & Licenses for your Social Media Marketing Business
Get Social Media Marketing Business Insurance
Define your Social Media Marketing Business Brand
Create your Social Media Marketing Business Website
Set up your Business Phone System
There is more to starting a business than just registering it with the state. We have put together this simple guide to starting your social media marketing business. These steps will ensure that your new business is well planned out, registered properly and legally compliant.
STEP 1: Plan your business
A clear plan is essential for success as an entrepreneur. It will help you map out the specifics of your business and discover some unknowns. A few important topics to consider are:
What are the startup and ongoing costs?
Who is your target market?
How much can you charge customers?
What will you name your business?
Luckily we have done a lot of this research for you.
What are the costs involved in opening a social media marketing business?
Most people can get started with a computer, Wi-Fi, and small advertising budget. If you’re planning on incorporating graphic design skills into your business, you may need additional equipment to maximize your impact. There is no need to rent out a professional space though unless you’re planning on offering full agency services.
What are the ongoing expenses for a social media marketing business?
Owners will have to account for administrative costs (including computer equipment), as well as advertising and travel. They may also want to invest in ongoing education. As consumer preferences change, so too do platform algorithms and configurations.
Who is the target market?
The target market is anyone who wants to advertise themselves or their cause. This could be commercial companies, non-profits, or even private parties. You may end up working for an up-and-coming socialite who becomes the next Kim Kardashian!
How does a social media marketing business make money?
Social media marketers charge for their services in a variety of different ways. They may charge per post, per campaign, per hour or per project. For those who are just getting started, they may even consider charging on a commission-only basis. Start-up and incidental costs in this profession are low, so marketers are typically charging their preferred rate based on the scope of the work.
How much can you charge customers?
A full-time social media specialist will earn an average of $50,000 a year. Owners will want to structure their rates so they can pay for all relevant business expenses (including healthcare, transportation costs, etc.), plus additional compensation for their time. It’s not unusual to see people charging between $5 and $10 for a single post, or up to $75 an hour for a full campaign.
How much profit can a social media marketing business make?
Top-paid social media consultants easily make more than $100,000 a year. But the amount you make is highly dependent of the amount your clients make. The more success you bring to them, the more you can demand from both new and existing clients alike.
How can you make your business more profitable?
Social media marketers may want to consider branching out to become full advertising consultants. Or they may choose to start their own social media consulting business on the side where they let other hopeful social media marketers know how to get started.
What will you name your business?
Choosing the right name is important and challenging. If you don’t already have a name in mind, visit our How to Name a Business guide or get help brainstorming a name with our Social Media Marketing Business Name Generator
If you operate a sole proprietorship, you might want to operate under a business name other than your own name. Visit our DBA guide to learn more.
When registering a business name, we recommend researching your business name by checking:
Your state’s business records
Federal and state trademark records
Social media platforms
Web domain availability.
It’s very important to secure your domain name before someone else does.
How to promote & market a social media marketing business
Most companies need social media to thrive, but that doesn’t mean that all companies care about social media. A CEO may recognize that his services need to be advertised on Facebook, but they may have no interest in learning about the platform’s features or benefits. Social media marketers will need to be able to work with all types of populations in order to be successful.
Besides social media, marketers can turn to paid Google ads to get the word out about their services faster. Quality content is always going to be the best type of marketing, but it can also take months or years to develop (and most startups don’t have the luxury of time.) And like all every other kind of business, owners should be prepared to network whenever they can. This includes scheduled events but also cold-visiting companies in your area to drop off business cards or set up meetings.
How to keep customers coming back
Meeting deadlines, creating creative campaigns, and maintaining a professional attitude are all excellent ways to keep customers coming back. However, the best way to inspire return clients is to increase their ROI based on your social media strategy.
Another good way to keep your customers is to build trust; to do that, you can get your Instagram account verified. What this means is that you are proving to your customers that you are the original owner of your Instagram business account, which will help build trust and notability. Check out our How to Get Verified on Instagram guide to learn more.
In conclusion, to retain your customers, stay relevant and be trustworthy! Know where your market is going before it gets there. Use relevant hashtags. Find out what your customers have to say and prove to them you are a reputable business.
Create your business website
After defining your brand and creating your logo the next step is to create a website for your business.
While creating a website is an essential step, some may fear that it’s out of their reach because they don’t have any website-building experience. While this may have been a reasonable fear back in 2015, web technology has seen huge advancements in the past few years that makes the lives of small business owners much simpler.
Here are the main reasons why you shouldn’t delay building your website:
All legitimate businesses have websites – full stop. The size or industry of your business does not matter when it comes to getting your business online.
Social media accounts like Facebook pages or LinkedIn business profiles are not a replacement for a business website that you own.
Website builder tools like the GoDaddy Website Builder have made creating a basic website extremely simple. You don’t need to hire a web developer or designer to create a website that you can be proud of.
What are some skills and experiences that will help you build a successful social media marketing business?
Those who have a lot of experience studying social media will do well in this business. A marketing degree may help, but it doesn’t guarantee success. What companies are really looking for is someone with proven success when it comes to engaging their audience.
Most people love social media, but very few understand the nuances behind it. They may puzzle over why one campaign succeeded on Twitter but failed miserably on Instagram. Marketers must have an innate sense of how audiences are interacting with individual posts in order to determine their marketing strategy on a larger scale.
What is the growth potential for a social media marketing business?
The forecast is excellent for social media marketing, especially considering its popularity is only proliferating. While individual platforms may rise and fall, the base audience of social media users is only skyrocketing worldwide. This mass adoption means huge opportunities for those who can find ways to connect with an ever-jaded population. People want less advertising and more substance, and they’re looking toward social media to get it.