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The Cost of Social Media in 2020
Jan 31, 2020
Organic Social Media - Calculating The Cost
After researching the cost of hiring a marketing agency, we realize it is important for small business owners to understand what goes into each marketing tactic and what to factor when calculating your investment. This series will begin by reviewing organic social media - one of the first tactics companies outsource to external agencies. Now remember, this is only our take on each of these services and we may not have considered additional hours and needs other agencies have - so be sure to ask the agency you are hiring!
You will ALWAYS hear the phrase “it depends” when asking for organic social media quotes from reputable agencies. This is because organic social encompasses such a wide range of platforms and services.
Social Media Strategy Pricing
You should always have a strategy when hiring an agency for organic social media. This will allow you to create content that fits your marketing goals as well as your audience’s needs. Posting without a strategy in mind leads to a waste of time and effort. Why even have social media if you don’t have a plan for using?
In terms of cost - this varies as you are paying for the person/agency’s knowledge. Expect to pay at least $1000 for a robust social media strategy.
Specifically, they should come back with a plan showing objectives, strategy, tactics and KPIs for each channel. You should understand the plan for the social platform as well as which audience you are targeting.
What we mean by “having a plan” is that you should not focus your time and money being on Pinterest if your target audience is males between the ages of 45 - 60 years old (unless your goal is to capture their wives). Oftentimes, we see businesses trying to be on every platform without a set strategy. This is why it’s best to hire an agency to build your strategy - as it will drive success for you down the road.
Social Media Calendar Creation Pricing
This will depend on a few factors:
Do you have content already?
Do you have images?
Are you providing copy?
Or, are you a company starting from scratch with no blogs, videos, images or even customers yet?
If you have content, quality images and copy, then you shouldn’t pay more than $500
for this to be created monthly. Wait! Don't run to your agency and yell at them yet. Below are two scenarios:
- The agency provides you with a content calendar with placeholders for copy and images. Your team provides the photos, drafts the copy and provides the blog posts/videos. The agency does NO editing for you. This scenario fits the above quote.
- The agency provides you with a content calendar for you to capture images/videos/etc. Then you pass this content to the agency to edit in Photoshop and draft new copy or optimize your copy. This scenario does not apply to the above quote. You have to factor in the cost for designers, copywriters and proofreaders.
If you do not have content, you should expect to pay at least $2000 a month
as you are diving into added costs on the agency (image sourcing, graphic designer, copywriter). This is the minimum - some content is very difficult to produce and may wind up costing $10-20K a month.
If you don’t have the assets but are willing to put in the effort on your end, a good agency will put together a content plan that you can execute and ultimately lower your costs.
Social Media Content Creation Pricing
Expect to pay high-dollar for these services - especially if you do not have any product images, original content or have a service-based company. Of course, you can always find someone cheaper - just factor in the quality when making the final decision.
Here are some examples:
- Blog Post ($45 to $1000)
- GIF ($200 to $600)
- Photoshopped Image ($100 to $500)
- Video ($200 to $10K)
- Testimonial Sourcing ($200+)
- Designed Post ($50-$100)
- Topic development and copywriting are also added fees
Social Media Scheduling
You’re probably thinking - this is only scheduling, so it can’t be that expensive…right? Well, are you scheduling Instagram Stories? Pinterest Pins? Tweets? There are also software fees on top of the basic service - as many do not even allow for auto-publishing for Instagram Stories. Even when using top software like Sprout Social, Instagram Stories requires a person to manually publish once the notification is sent. An agency will charge you the software fee + any additional fees accrued by staff spending time on manual scheduling via their phone.
If you are tight on budget, then consider scheduling yourself or using a free scheduling service like Later.com.
Social Media Engagement Pricing
Cha-Ching! This is a HUGE expense and one that most business owners don’t understand. For instance, it’s easy to think that social engagement is just when you like people’s posts. If an agency tells you that is what they do for social engagement - run!
Engagement includes liking, commenting and watching stories, responding to stories, Snapping, pinning and re-pinning, reposting, having Twitter conversations, engaging in group conversations, responding to DMs, sourcing new followers and engaging with them to build loyalty, etc.
Social media never stops, so your agency will not either - and these costs can get out of hand in a hurry. If you have time as a business owner to take this on, then do it as you will quickly see your fan base grow and your relationships thrive. If you cannot shell out the monthly maintenance fees (they will be costly - starting at $600/month for the bare minimum) then work with your agency on building an engagement checklist for you to use.
The Cost to Run Social Media Contests
These are great to have, but not a must-have. When contests are well-run, they can drive awareness, leads and engagement. However, you will need followers to create the contest or you will need to allocate advertising dollars to build initial reach. For example, you can spend $400 for an agency to run a contest and it can generate a better ROI on awareness than running a social ad for a month. This is because users are often tagging a friend or reposting to their Instagram Stories rather than being interrupted by an ad from an account they do not recognize. Note that this pricing is for a small contest and doesn’t represent large-scale contests that can run thousands of dollars depending on the software and landing pages needed.
Social Media Influencer Campaigns Pricing
This is another high-cost service - as there’s a lot of legwork required to build and implement these campaigns. There are a few variables that agencies use to quote these projects: How many influencers? Are they past customers? Do you have a following on Instagram to source? Are you wanting to work with top influencers in your industry? What are you wanting these influencers to do?
Generally, it will cost at least $1000 to manage influencers.
If you want a full-service influencer strategy with implementation, you will need to invest 10x that amount.
By now, you’re probably asking...why?!
Here is the breakdown for influencer pricing:
Past Customers:
Auditing customer list, reaching out to customers, building strategy, developing landing page and instructions, providing assets/toolkit, creating a nurturing plan to keep these influencers engaged, tracking them on social media and helping them develop content that is beneficial to the brand.
No Customers:
Skimming current social media followers and people engaging with the brand, skimming hashtags, direct messaging or emailing with influencer offer, sending the product, directing influencer on creative, engaging and managing relationships, negotiating payment/terms.
Top Influencers:
Working with their agency to negotiate a contract or working directly with the influencer to negotiate a contract, developing a content plan and scheduling photo/video shoots, managing the relationship and ensuring the terms of the agreement are carried out. These can run $1K to $100K depending on the influencer.
Step-by-Step Guide to Build a Monthly Social Media Calendar
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