Social Media Agency - Social Media Marketing

You would hire a social media agency to manage your social media presence with a specific goal in mind. We break it down into three specific goals, building an audience, lead generation, and sales. Hiring a social media agency means having all the tools for a successful campaign at your disposal, under one roof.

The first goal can be to create a community of brand loyalists by engaging with your existing followers and beyond. The purpose of this is to increase the longevity of your existing customer base. After all, your most cost-effective customers to acquire are your existing ones. A social media agency would create content on your behalf that promotes a conversation between you and your customers. Regular content is the key to occupying space in your customers’ minds and thus encouraging regular purchases. 

Another goal when hiring a social media agency is to generate new leads. This can be invaluable for businesses, especially in the service sector. Whether you’re a builder, freight forwarder, or lawyer, social media is a great way to reach new potential customers cost-effectively. An experienced social agency can draw from a depth of knowledge to build a successful campaign of lead generation ads. 

Lastly, e-commerce businesses are able to generate huge online sales by hiring the right social media agency. There is a reason why companies have spent over $114 billion (USD) on Facebook Ads in 2021. These stats from Statista show that there’s been a huge increase in Facebook advertising from 2009 to 2021. This goes to show that countless businesses throughout the world spend money on social media ads. Clearly, there’s a strategy to generate additional sales through social media. A Facebook ad agency, in particular, has the role of using Facebook’s platform to create profitable ads on your behalf.

The answer depends on your target audience and budget. The main social media platforms are Facebook and Instagram, Youtube, Snapchat, TikTok, and LinkedIn. 

Facebook and Instagram are by far the most used platforms by social media marketing companies and businesses alike. This is because of the huge and broad userbase within these Meta owned platforms. According to Statista, Facebook had 2.91 billion monthly active users as of Q4 2021. While Instagram reached a milestone of 2 billion in December 2021. Safe to say, a Facebook ad agency can establish and reach your target audience through engaging ads. Although these channels are used by most social media marketing companies and clients, you can get lost in the crowd. Facebook ad agency pricing also varies depending on industry competition, your budget, and ad performance over time.

YouTube is more expensive than Facebook and Instagram when comparing cost per reach. However, an advantage to advertising on YouTube is that you can target based on intent. Meaning you can target someone who is in the market for your product or service. A social media marketing agency can help you create ad content and manage your campaign through Google’s Ad platform.

Snapchat and TikTok are platforms with a younger demographic and fast user growth. As of 2021, TikTok reported 1 billion monthly active users, while Snapchat had approximately 428 million monthly active users. These newer platforms present an opportunity to reach a younger audience away from the crowds on Facebook and Instagram.

LinkedIn is “the world’s largest professional network with 810 million members”. Although comparatively expensive, a social media agency can help maximise your cost per acquisition through strategically crafted ads and targeting.

Twitter and Pinterest aren’t well established in NZ and thus we don’t offer social media marketing services on these platforms.

Social media marketing services can take many different forms, such as: 

• Strategy
• Content marketing
• Influencer partnerships 
• Social media management
• Paid ads
• Building your follower count
• Generating new reviews
• Engaging with people

A sound strategy is the backbone of your entire approach and decision on which social media marketing services you consider. To create a detailed plan, a social media marketing agency will spend time researching your audience and competition. Furthermore, propose a structured content calendar and content guidelines to follow. Ultimately, lay out a plan to carry out the strategy and achieve your goals.

Creating and publishing social media content on a consistent basis is far from easy. A social media marketing agency can generate new content while you take care of other important aspects of your business. Content can be educational or entertaining. It all depends on the target audience and social media channel. Content social media marketing services may include the creation of videos, photos, e-books, blog posts, and case studies. The focus must be on quality over quantity. You or your social agency must consider your brand values and audience demographic in order to connect with them.

Influence partnerships and paid ads are quick-fire tactics to increase your reach and awareness. An experienced social media marketing agency has the ability to connect you with relevant influencers and create profitable ad campaigns. 

Social media managament, engagement, and building your follower count are all closely related. Generally, by creating valuable content, you’re able to drive engagement and increase conversions in the long term. A good social media marketing agency sets clear and measurable goals for you to reach. 

Reviews are an underrated aspect of social media marketing. They’re a great way to social proof your brand in the eyes of potential customers with significant impact on conversions.

You may be surprised that hiring a social media marketing agency can cost less than employing someone full-time. In addition, you’re getting a team of specialists for less than the cost of hiring one.

Social media marketing is becoming more and more a pay-to-play channel. Platforms are making it increasingly more difficult to grow an organic follower base. Why? Well, because it pushes businesses to spend in ads to reach their target audience. 

Your business size, strategy, and budget are deciding factors on the cost of hiring a social media marketing agency. A large entity has the capacity and systems in place to scale at a quicker rate than a small business. Thus, their social media budget will be higher. The average cost of hiring a social media marketing agency in NZ ranges from $2000 to $20,000 per month.

For significant results and ROI, allocate a minimum budget of $3000 per month when hiring a social media marketing agency. This budget includes the allocated ad spend for maximum return and a smaller portion allocated to social agency fees. 

As a rule of thumb, campaigns with higher budgets generally outperform smaller ones. That is why we recommend you allocate at least $3000 per month to hire a social media marketing agency. This is because the paid channel can generate more data with a higher budget and maximise your return on investment. 

Moreover, there are underlying costs associated with content creation. While smaller businesses and campaigns perform well with stock images and videos, large entities invest in custom content. A large corporation can hire a social media agency and allocate $500,000 to produce a custom video and social campaign at a larger scale. This is because, for them, it is still significantly cheaper than traditional media campaigns (TV commercials).

Here are a few key elements to look for in a good social media marketing agency:

1. Proven Track Record

A great way to spot a good social media agency is by looking for a proven track record. Therefore, reading through their case studies and client reviews will give you an idea of their social media marketing services. It’s important to select a social media company with credibility and expertise that knows exactly what your requirements are.

2. Custom Social Media Strategy
It is also key that you find a social marketing agency that doesn’t pitch you a cookie-cutter service. Take note on their proposal and how in-depth they have tailored it to your specific target audience. A custom social media strategy unique to your business objectives and customer profile is really important. 

 
3. Refined Expertise Over Broad Service Offering
There are hundreds of social media marketing companies in New Zealand alone. Naturally, it can be difficult to select between them. Take note of how broad their service offerings are. Typically, an agency specialising in only a handful of services will focus on raising their levels of expertise. Alternatively, you have social marketing companies that try to be everything to everyone by offering print, radio, digital, and TV. IM Creative is a digital marketing agency that specialises in digital only. We have perfected our craft by creating impactful and successful digital campaigns through refined expertise and experience. 

 
4. Clear and Quick Communication
You want to deal with a social media company who are 100% invested in your business. They should always respond in a timely manner and take initiative by keeping you up-to-date with your campaign. You should be fully aware of the overall strategy, content schedule, and performance results. 

Often times, business owners can feel overwhelmed by the fast paced social media environment and fast changing trends. IM Creative is a social media agency that can attribute alot of its growth to Instagram and Facebook advertising. Therefore, we have first hand experience as to how you can grow your business through social media marketing services. Here are a few things to think about before starting your campaign: 

Knowing your audience can make or break your success via social media marketing. You can spend endless hours and money on content creation that may fall on deaf ears. Spend some time thinking about who your audience is and what they care about. More often than not, these platforms are centered around entertainment. Hiring the right social marketing agency to create relevant content for you can be the key to engaging your audience. 

Engagement is king. Give your audience more of what they want. Take notice of the content that performed well and analyse why that happened. More often than not you will find that leisure and entertaining content performs the best. We often found that posting content of our team culture and fun trends got much more attention than educational content. Thus, we decided to stop being preachy about social media company insights and knowledge and instead focused on light-hearted content. Engagement grew 320% over the next month. 

Be consistent and establish a posting schedule. Social media marketing companies will often tell you it’s all about momentum in regards to digital success. And, it’s true. Find the best time to post for maximum impact and post content regularly. There are great resources available like Hootsuite that have tracked the best time to post on each social media platform. Hootsuite is a preferred scheduling platform for many social media marketing companies. 

Digital ad placements have become prominent across most social media platforms with any significant user base these last few years. Any company from small to large can benefit from social media marketing services. Normally, business-to-customer industries have it easier to get quick and positive results from working with a social media marketing agency.

Financial Services

Google Ads management can be very expensive in the financial sector. Thus, many companies, from mortgage brokers to insurance, and personal finance will invest with social marketing companies.

Real Estate & Property Developers

The real estate industry has found a lot of success working with social marketing companies. Targeted reach has enabled quicker sales and cashflow to catch up to New Zealand’s overall need for more housing.

Healthcare & Fitness Industry

In the health and fitness industries, which are very competitive, businesses must make the most of every marketing opportunity. By partnering with a social media agency, they can connect with potential customers and set themselves apart in the market.

According to statistics gathered in 2019, 93% of healthcare businesses used digital marketing. Pfizer’s spending on advertising in the United States represented 2% of the company’s overall sales in 2018, reaching more than $1.2 billion.

Retail Industry & E-commerce

The retail sector is one of the highest spenders in terms of the proportion of marketing expenses to total revenue. In this sector, marketing budgets are spread over various platforms, with a particular emphasis on social media. 

Many e-commerce brands have been able to grow and flourish by partnering with a facebook ad agency and other platforms. With online purchases becoming more popular, it’s safe to assume that there will be plenty of growth opportunities to come.

Clothing is the top-selling industry in nearly every country. From major brands to small retailers, advertising with a social media company can be very profitable. Even with the difficulties of selling products online that come in different sizes and colours. 

The compound annual growth rate of the online fashion business is projected to reach 14.2% between the years 2017 and 2025. This market is expected to achieve a worth of $672.71 billion by the year 2023. The improvement in returns policies has mainly brought about a sudden increase in demand in the fashion industry.

People have traditionally been wary of making online purchases without knowing what they’re getting. Now, returns are generally free, and customers can try something with the return easily taken care of.

The travel industry is another that has adapted well to the online revolution. Previously, we all used travel agencies, but now we can organise trips with a smart device and a few clicks. 

Even though COVID-19 has had an effect on this industry, it is coming back stronger than ever. The overall contribution of travel and tourism to global GDP went up by 21.7% in 2021 compared to the year before. 

Hotels, cruises, and tour packages have all benefited from working with social marketing companies. 

The tech sector also performs very well through social media advertising. From earbuds to phone cases, there is an increased demand for tech products. Working with a social marketing agency helps you get in front of your target audience before your competitor does.

Although some sectors convert easier than others, working with the right social media agency can help you maximise your success. IM Creative can draft a full marketing plan and analyse whether our social media marketing services are right for you.