Skylark Team
Progressing ahead with a constant growth is not simple but if you have a strong social media marketing (SMM), entering new horizons won’t remain a dream for a long time. One can easily fathom the consequences of not having a proper SMM or social media application in this era as it’s the most promising platform that does justice to your promotional and expansion ideas. Moreover, it has become a real business on its own and people are willing to pay a good sum of money to make their idea or product successful. Somehow, keeping this in mind, the agencies hold their charges high and not everyone is able to afford them. Therefore, the only question that dwells in your head is: How much does social media marketing cost?
Before going into the in-depth information about social media marketing cost, it is more important to know the areas of your expenditure. Hence, allocating a budget for the marketing purpose is much needed and will help you understand which service provider can help you the most. Basic services that you require to turn social media marketing into a pool of emerging traffic and customers are listed below:
1. Content Generation
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In order to achieve your goals you need to put 100% of your efforts and the same rule applies with social networks. When a firm constantly posts and monitors the engagements and appropriate feedbacks are received, they grow along with their products and services. This is the most common KRA (Key Result Areas) of any SMM service provider.
2. Increase in the number of Audience
Content creation is a primary task that aids in increasing followers or likes on your account or page. However, you must have a service by the provider that emphasizes on the growth of followers. Before opting for a company, try to know how well they understand your target audience and what strategies they will use to engage your customers.
3. Advertising on Social Media
Gripping more people in a short period of time can only be done via advertisements and what’s a better way to advertise, if not through social media. It helps you deliver your message to the target audience and in turn, cut down your expenses. Furthermore, this section will help you find the more appropriate package. This is the most inconsistent area when we talk about service cost related to social media marketing.
4. Social Media Marketing Strategy Planning
To make the business more successful with the help of these platforms, a brand must have a strategy before diving into the vast networking business. This is the biggest reason why hiring a SMM service provider seems to be a necessity. Make sure that they are setting the right goals for the marketing of your business.
5. Assigned Employees
The price of the services accommodated is directly proportional to the number of employees working for the betterment of your business/brand. For example, if you hire a corporate marketing company which already has a team of content writers, designers, website developers, strategists, analytics, etc., they will be asking for a huge amount to fulfill your requirements.
Now that you have a basic knowledge about the services, you must know that you can employ interns/students, freshers, freelancers, full-time employees or marketing agencies. Partnering with any of these individuals or companies will result into a different consequence as all of them have some merits and demerits that may make you want to add or remove them from your list.
So, here’s the information that you are seeking:
1. Students seeking for internships
These amateurs are usually studying about digital marketing and finding a good internship program that helps them increase their knowledge in this field. Therefore, they will be willing to work for you for free or for a very less amount.
Merits
- Negligible cost
Demerits
- They may cost you time as they ask a lot of questions.
- These interns have no practical know-how or experience to expand business via social media.
- As they are still learning, students need supervision and a timely check on their work.
- Such interns may leave your job as soon as he/she learns enough for a better pay and exposure.
2. Freelancers
If you want to offer a delightful service to your brand without straining the economic balance of your company, hiring a few freelancers will do the job. As freelancers charge on an hourly basis, they are mostly hired as a consultant. Freelancers charge in respect to their experience:
The ones with less than 2 years of experience will cost $20-30/hr while the highly experienced ones will cost up to $80/hr. That establishes an average monthly wage of a freelancer at around $1000/mo.
Merits
- Economic
- Most often, freelancers are dynamic and flexible. They might be helpful in the strategy development and can easily adjust in various projects.
Demerits
- These freelancers may be inconsistent. It is not sure if he/she will be available all the time or the task assigned will be delivered on time.
- They cannot be supervised.
- There will be no transparency in the work.
- Freelancers are not fully reliable as if they get sick or have a reason not to work, your program will suffer.
- As they freelance their work, freelancers will not be loyal to your organization. They will tend to sell their services to the highest bidder.
Note: Make sure that you hire an experienced freelancer as an amateur one will work like an intern.
3. Full-time employees
Simply adding a new member without having a proper team for him/her is not an easy task. It takes a whole lot of planning and area of specialization to develop a new team. Although, the best part of having an in-house Social Media Manager is that you can supervise him/her, consult him/her and make the most of it. Slowly and gradually, you can lead to the creation of a good social media marketing team.
Talking about the salary of the employee, which will include all the taxes and benefits, will be around $40,000 per annum.
Merits
- There are no loose ends. They work according to the policies.
- Your employees are under 100% supervision.
- They have an assured commitment.
- Employees share knowledge and experience.
- They are dynamic and always available.
Demerits
- Full-time employees can cause increase in cost as salary goes along with employment taxes & other benefits.
- You cannot rely on him/her alone as if they don’t show up at work even just for one day, the work gets hindered.
- Another person will be needed who can help him/her grow or can be their leader.
4. Social Media Marketing Companies
There are a plenty of organizations or companies that are ready to handle your social media but there’s also a catch here. You have to either choose a small marketing company or a corporate marketing company.
A. Small Marketing Agency
They work with small business runners and offer a package that suits to the needs of the businessman and his pocket. They work hard in order to become a corporate marketing company. They understand that they will not be able to grow unless you flourish. Social media marketing pricing for small businesses range from $5000 per year to $20,000 per year.
Merits
- There are flexible budgets where package can be customized according to your needs.
- If chosen smartly, these packages can cost even less than hiring freelancers.
- They have the motivation and intention to grow.
- Your work won’t halt due to a single individual as there is a whole dedicated team working for you and your brand.
- As they are also connected to other small businesses, you can have some important information about the market that can help you grow accordingly.
- You don’t need to supervise them a lot.
- No extra payment related to taxes or other benefits.
Demerits
- On the whole, there is no transparency.
- You can never know whether the company is outsourcing the work or have an in-house team.
- They might ask you to have a contract/bond of at least 6 months.
B. Corporate Marketing Company
For other corporate companies that already have enough load on their shoulders, these giant agencies are always ready to do the impossible for them. Being a corporate giant means that these marketing firms will have all the required sources to plan and implement any kind of strategy to help the client grow immensely and quickly. Hence, they will have a long list of employees working for you and the cost of the package might be kissing the roof.
However, the social media marketing price packages for corporate marketing companies generally cost around $14000-$18000 per month. Hence, a small business owner or a start-up will not consider hiring corporate marketing agency.
Merits
- There is a dedicated team to serve the purpose.
- It is time effective to work with them as multiple people are engaged in the process.
- They know “how to do?” and “what to do?” as they have worked with other business entities too.
- They have a long-term commitment to your business.
- You get all the services needed for marketing your business through social media.
- You need to pay no extra money for employment taxes or benefits.
Demerits
- They offer packages on a contract basis of 1-2 years.
- The lead of the team will not be in your hands, which will also make it difficult to divert them from project to project swiftly.
- \You cannot supervise their work too much.
Points to consider before choosing your marketing partner:
1) As we all know that Time is money, handing over your social media for business purposes to an intern is an investment of time. Although, the cost of the intern will be lesser than any other options, it will consume a lot of your time.
2) An experienced freelancer is expensive but the level of his/her expertise can help you achieve and learn about the SMM a lot and in a short duration.
3) In-house employee can be a permanent hole in your pocket but their activities and work will be totally transparent and you can monitor each step.
4) Small Marketing Agencies offer you a dedicated team with a package that is flexible and won’t drill a hole in your pockets.
5) Corporate Marketing Agencies are highly expensive, but their resources are very beneficial. Experience counts.
