Consider your status check-ins, inquiries and of course, approvals. These everyday communications can make a huge impact on how your client understands your work. A few tweaks can completely transform a cumbersome process into an experience that positions your agency as a true creative partner.

Optimizing your internal and external processes will benefit your end-to-end social media approval workflows while still instilling confidence in your work. In this article, we’ll go over how these day-to-day interactions can strengthen agency-client relationships.

How approval workflows strengthen agency-client relationships

Some 92% of agencies offer social media management as part of their overall service package, according to Sprout’s Agency Pricing & Packaging Report. As social becomes a core part of agency offerings, you need to have the infrastructure to operate smoothly at scale.

Post approvals are a small but powerful step in any social media service offering. At their worst, they can involve a lot of follow-up, creating a time suck for you and your client. At their best, they can create client stickiness. Agency-client relationships get stronger when these processes become mini-opportunities for collaboration. Here’s how:

1. Demonstrate the value of social with a routine touchpoint

Social is your world, but for your clients, it’s just a fraction of their day-to-day. Approval workflows promote more active collaboration between you and your client’s teams.

Think of it this way: Your social performance reports summarize the results of all the hard work you’re putting in. Your social media approval workflow gives your clients a peek behind the curtain, providing a more granular view into your posting schedule without a heavy time investment.

This helps your client gain a deeper understanding of the strategy work you’ve put into developing their social presence. The more your clients understand your strategy, the better equipped they are to work as a creative partner to your team during content brainstorms.

2. Prevent mistakes with internal approvals

A good reputation is hard-earned and—given the speed of social—easily damaged. While successful client-agency partnerships are typically supported through your performance against deliverables, sometimes it’s what you don’t do that counts.

Maintain a strong foundation of trust by building quality assurance into your publishing process. In Sprout, this is done by adding an internal review step to your workflow to ensure your work is “agency approved” before its time for client review.

Adding an internal review step to your social media approval process can serve as a safeguard that prevents costly mistakes or off-brand messaging from reaching your client—let alone their social media profiles. These measures ensure your client only sees quality work which helps build trust and a positive rapport.

3. Communicate with external stakeholders fast

After your work has gone through quality assurance, it’s time to send it off to the client for feedback. Sprout’s external workflow feature enables seamless client communication.

Exchanging communication feedback on several channels like Google Docs, a spreadsheet or an email thread can cause important details or context to get lost.

When agencies and stakeholders are passing social content back and forth on these platforms, it’s easy context—like how a post will look with an image and copy once published—to get lost. But Sprout’s approval workflow shows network previews, so external approvers can see what posts look like once published.

Sprout also enables external stakeholders to review and give feedback on social posts directly in our platform—even if they aren’t a Sprout user. The external approver doesn’t need to learn how to use our user interface or log in.

They can simply verify their email address, review the posts, comment with feedback and approve/deny the posts.

If internal approvals and commentary are still underway, external clients can’t see the conversation, allowing agencies to only share relevant information that’s important to their clients.

Plus, Sprout will send external approvers automated reminder emails leading up to the deadline if an approval hasn’t come through yet. This not only saves time and effort, but it alleviates the common pain point of remembering to follow up.

Social media marketing agencies also benefit from this external workflow feature because it simplifies managing multiple clients and stakeholders. Instead of using multiple platforms to communicate and review deliverables, agencies have one source of truth for execution.

4. Promote collaboration in times of crisis

Typically, you’ll be working with a set approval and publishing schedule. But when a crisis strikes and your schedule is thrown out the window, post approvals help support sudden shifts in content production.

When COVID-19 shelter-in-place mandates took effect in March 2020, Communicators Group had to revisit all of its clients’ social calendars. The agency had to work quickly to establish a strategy for publishing timely updates, many of which were being announced by the hour.

To publish important updates quickly and accurately, their team used Sprout’s Message Approval Workflow to draft, review and schedule new content.

“For several months, we completed 100% of our posts directly through the Message Approval Workflow feature simply because I could no longer plan out a month in advance,” said Raven Gill, Social Media Manager at Communicators Group.

“We’ve gotten to a better position where I can go back to monthly planning. But for some clients, we’re still working out of approval workflows because of how consistently things are changing.”

Communicators Group was able to act as a true partner, simplifying an already stressful situation for their many clients. Designing your approval workflow with crisis prevention in mind can help you do the same.

With Sprout’s external approvals, agencies can get client feedback on crisis communication posts fast. After client approval, the agency can make the changes and publish without leaving Sprout’s platform. Workflows like this during times of crisis will strengthen your agency-client relationship because they eliminate any risk of crucial messages getting lost in translation.

5. Retain and grow your business

Some 67% of digital marketing agencies say the reason clients choose them is because they establish themselves as strategic partners. By promoting collaboration, efficiency and quality, your social media approval workflow can strengthen your client-agency partnership and your business.

Strong client relationships drive referrals. Word-of-mouth referrals are one of the most popular ways agencies drive new business. Having operations that streamline collaboration within your existing client relationships can ultimately fuel your new business strategy.

Well-designed processes strengthen agency-client relationships by showing you can scale social efforts without sacrificing quality or brand voice. It may seem simple, but it’s also incredibly effective.

Creating a workflow that supports lasting agency-client relationships

Opportunities for agency-client collaboration can be found in surprising places. Take routine processes and use them as an opportunity to showcase the true value of your agency.

Sprout’s Message Approval Workflow feature can handle every step of your process in one integrated system. And with external approvals, communication with clients–especially during times of crisis– is faster and easier because your clients can provide commentary even if they aren’t a Sprout customer.

Build your approval workflow and see how else Sprout can support your growing agency by signing up for a free trial today.

Start your free Sprout trial

The post Strengthen agency-client relationships with social approval workflows appeared first on Sprout Social.

Is it ways you could automate processes? Breaking down silos at your company? Promoting seamless cross-functional collaboration?

If you answered yes, your current project management strategies and corporate communications tools might need an upgrade. It’s time to invest in  project management software to help you plan, coordinate and execute your team’s work at a higher level.

In this article, we share why you should use project management software, what to look for as you consider your options and the 14 best project management tools for different teams.

The benefits of project management software

Project management software helps keep teams organized and on track. It streamlines processes and ensures they’re followed, empowering employees to work smoothly and efficiently.

From daily, ongoing tasks to larger projects, a project management tool takes the guesswork and frustration out of collaboration so teams can focus on doing their best work. With project management tools, multiple teams and departments are enabled to join forces, allocate work, illuminate timelines and simplify approvals.

What to look for in a project management tool

Ultimately, your ideal project management software should fit your company’s specific needs. Consider your budget, team size, file storage requirements, security demands and existing integrations in your tech stack when assessing options. For example, a tool that works for a growing team of five might not be appropriate for a team of 1,000.

The most common features of a project management tool include:

• Time tracking
• Reporting
• Scheduling and planning
• Budget tracking
• Document storing and sharing

Here’s our list of the leading project management software broken down by use case:

• Best project management software for cross-functional collaboration
• Project management software for agencies
• Best project management tools for enterprise companies

Best project management software for cross-functional collaboration

monday.com

monday.com is a standard tool that offers scalable workflows, processes and tasks. The software can accommodate a growing team, and their templates make setting up your projects time-efficient.

monday.com has the functionality to cater to projects and workflows in marketing, IT, software development, sales and CRM, HR and operations. Its specialized functionalities allow you to bring different departments together into one workspace and streamline the project management process.

Key features:

• 40+ integrations including HubSpot, Google Drive, Slack and Zoom
• Budget planning and management capabilities
• Cost: $10/month per seat (Standard package)
• Free project management tools available for individuals

Trello

Trello is a user-friendly project management software with customizable playbooks for marketing, product development, management, startups and remote teams. If you need all members of your department or company to work within one tool, Trello’s software makes it possible.

Their customizable workflow templates and calendars are suitable for both everyday to-dos and long-term projects.

Key features:

• 192+ integrations including Jira Cloud, Salesforce, Slack and Microsoft Teams
• Budgeting and time-tracking capabilities
• Cost: $10/month per seat (Standard package)
• Free project management tools available

Smartsheet

With Smartsheet you can build sophisticated sheets, forms, dashboards and reports. The customizable solutions make the project management software a fit for cross-collaboration between departments like marketing, IT and operations.

Smartsheet can be scaled for enterprise companies with advanced needs due to its elevated capabilities and security features.

Key features:

• 80+ integrations including Google Drive, Microsoft Suite, Adobe and Salesforce
• Easy-to-create WorkApps based on your business need
• Scalable options for enterprise companies
• Secure request management
• Cost: $25/month per seat (Business package)

Zoho

Zoho offers all the essential project management software features: task management, team collaboration, calendars, project templates and time tracking. Their tool also includes live chat and sophisticated automation tools.

With an affordable price tag and basic capabilities, Zoho would work well for growing teams experimenting with project management tools for the first time.

Key features:

• 20+ integrations including Google Drive, Microsoft Suite, ZenDesk and Github
• Budgeting and time-tracking capabilities
• Live private and group chat
• Sophisticated automations with third-party integrations
• Cost: $3/month per seat (Standard package)

ClickUp

ClickUp is a strong choice for teams who require close collaboration in a distributed work environment. With live chat, whiteboards and editing features, ClickUp is a project management tool that replicates the experience of working in-person—a draw for hybrid and remote teams.

ClickUp’s time management tools are helpful for leaders who need to appropriately allocate and distribute work. The tools illuminate the productivity of individuals and entire teams.

Key features:

• 1,000+ integrations including Google Drive, Microsoft Suite, DropBox and Github
• Live chat, whiteboards and document editing
• Time management tools (tracking, estimates and reporting)
• Cost: $12/month per seat (Business package)
• Free project management tools available

Sprout Social

At Sprout Social, our expertise is in social media management, an essential part of your digital marketing toolbox. Sprout is an all-in-one social media management tool that allows businesses of any size to manage all aspects of their social media strategy and work together efficiently.

Our platform offers project management tools that streamline approval workflows and customer care, simplifying cross-collaboration between marketing and customer support teams.

Key features:

• Integrations with all major social media platforms, helpdesk, CRM and social commerce tools
• Social analytics, engagement, publishing, monitoring and listening
• Smart Inbox approval and response workflows
• Live activity and collaboration
• Cost: $399/month, $299 for each additional user (Professional plan)

Start your free Sprout trial

Best project management software for agencies

Teamwork

Teamwork is project management software built for agencies, creative teams and professional service providers to maximize their resources.

With free client users and billing software/integrations, Teamwork makes it possible to manage multiple complex customer relationships.

Key features:

• 80+ integrations including HubSpot, Slack, Outlook and Stripe
• Time-tracking and billing software
• Unlimited free client users
• Cost: $17.99/month per seat (Grow package)
• Free project management tools available for up to five users

ProofHub

ProofHub has workflows suitable for different agency departments, including marketing, HR and operations. The project management software addresses many business needs, from task management to streamlined client communication. ProofHub project templates and request forms make managing new projects easier.

Key features:

• 8 integrations including Slack, Box, Google Drive and Quick Books
• Time-tracking capabilities
• Live private and group chat
• Request forms
• Cost: $45/month per seat (Essential package)

Basecamp

Basecamp’s easy set-up and implementation make it an ideal fit for growing teams and boutique agencies. The project management tool is free for clients, contractors and outside guests, incentivizing communication and collaboration.

Key features:

• 400+ integrations including Adobe, Dropbox, Google Drive and GitHub
• Time tracking and reporting
• Live chats with team members and clients
• 500 GB storage capacity
• Cost: $11/month per seat

Wrike

Wrike’s project management software provides companies with project visibility, resource management and client collaboration tools. Wrike offers cross-functional features like cross-tagging, internal/guest approvals, plus live editing and proofing tools.

The simplified intake process and time tracking/budgeting capabilities make Wrike especially conducive for agency work.

Key features:

• 400+ integrations including Salesforce, HubSpot, WordPress and Google Drive
• Time-tracking and budgeting tools
• Security features like locked spaces, encryptions, two-factor authentication and single sign-on
• Cross-functional, live tools
• Cost: $24.80/month per seat (Premium package)
• Free project management tools available

Best project management software for enterprise companies

Asana

Asana provides company-wide project management tools for a variety of use cases—including approvals/feedback, pipeline projects and planning large-scale goals. With Asana, users can upload and create an unlimited number of projects, tasks and documents.

Asana Enterprise grants users access to their full suite of features and advanced security functionalities.

Key features:

• 200+ integrations including Adobe, Asana for Salesforce, Jira Cloud and DataGrail
• Unlimited projects, tasks and storage
• Scalable for enterprise companies
• Cost: $10.99/month per seat (Premium package)
• Free project management tools available for basic plan

Jira

Jira is a project management tool specifically designed for software, marketing, HR, legal, operations, IT, finance and incident response teams. The tool helps teams build new products, craft campaigns from start to finish and respond to issues quickly.

Jira’s advanced capabilities work well for enterprise companies with complex projects, timelines and security needs.

Key features:

• 3,000+ integrations including Figma, Adobe, Zendesk, GitHub and Trello
• Time tracking and reporting
• World-class security and compliance
• Suitable for large, complex projects
• Cost: $7.75/month per seat (Standard package)
• Free project management tools available for up to 10 users

Confluence

Confluence is a collaborative team workspace for creating and organizing your work/processes. It’s ideal for mission-critical, high-stakes projects that require formalized communication and operations. Confluence must be hosted on the cloud, in a data center or on a server.

Like Jira, Confluence is an Atlassian product. The products work well together.

Key features:

• Integrations including Google Drive, Draw.io, Lucidchart and Miro
• Unlimited storage, spaces and pages
• Complex project management functionality
• Security features like data residency, IP ranges and spaces permissions
• Test product sandbox and release tracks
• Accommodates 35,000 users
• Cost: $11/month per seat (Premium package)
• Free project management tools available for up to 10 users

Scoro

Scoro project management software is appropriate for company-wide collaboration across industries. The tool delivers business intelligence data including detailed financial reports and real-time KPI updates. Scoro has role-based access control and enterprise-grade security.

Time management tools and activity logs within the platform help leaders capacity plan and illustrate the impact of their team’s work across the company.

Key features:

• 1,000+ integrations including Slack, Asana, Jira, Basecamp and Trello
• Time management tools and activity logs for capacity planning
• Detailed, real-time financial reports and other KPI data
• Purchase orders and expense processing
• Role-based access and enterprise-grade security
• Cost: $37/month per seat (Standard package)

Create a culture of collaboration

Make silos, redundant tasks, messy email threads and frustrating collaboration a thing of the past. With this list in hand, you have all the information you need to find the right project management software for your team.

Project management tools are the key to unlocking efficient collaboration, streamlined processes and visibility.

Want to start encouraging collaboration between your sales and social teams today? Learn how you can work together to produce customer-centric content that impacts the bottom line.

The post Top 14 project management software and tools to level-up collaboration appeared first on Sprout Social.

“Ivanti manages and secures the ‘Everywhere Workplace,’” said Sal Viveros, the company’s Head of Global Corporate Communications. “Businesses depend on our technology to automatically manage, secure and service all of the on-premises and edge devices in their IT environment—from laptops to phones to virtual reality headsets.”

Part of Viveros’ role at Ivanti is to help increase brand awareness for the company and promote senior leadership’s expertise in how businesses can use technology and services to make the “Everywhere Workplace” possible. One of Viveros’ frequent collaborators at Ivanti is the Director of Social Strategy, Jamie Laliberte Whalen, whose responsibilities include shaping influencer marketing strategy and leading Ivanti’s newly reimagined brand ambassador and incentive program.

“The brand ambassador program is near and dear to my heart,” said Whalen, who joined the company in November 2021. “I wanted the program to be really successful. That’s why I reached out to our customer success team at Sprout Social to help us identify what we needed to do to improve it.”

Benchmarking brand ambassador program performance—with insight from Sprout

Whalen leads a social media team who deliver on Ivanti’s global social strategy with support from a system of internal stakeholders, like Viveros, and additional resources and tools, including Employee Advocacy by Sprout Social.

The assistance Whalen specifically sought from the Sprout Social team was twofold: First, she wanted to know what a best-in-class brand ambassador program looked like, especially for Ivanti’s industry. Second, she wanted insight into how Ivanti’s current efforts were stacking up against those top-tier metrics.

“In short, I wanted Sprout to tell us where we are and where we need to be so we could set reachable goals to move us toward becoming best-in-class,” Whalen explained. “I told the customer success team at Sprout, ‘Give me the key performance indicators and other metrics that we can hold ourselves accountable to, so I can bake that into our social strategy for the year.’”

Sprout’s team came back with a host of relevant data for Whalen to examine, including information on how similar programs by Ivanti’s competitors were performing and what tactics they were using. Whalen also received details on user adoption and engagement levels and signup rates for both best-in-class programs and Ivanti’s own program.

Whalen said, “We learned that our program had about a million in reach per month. Also, our adoption rate was just 17%. Some people would consider those numbers good, but in my view, they weren’t good enough. I also learned from Sprout that a best-in-class program has about a 30% adoption rate, and we obviously weren’t even close to that.”

After reviewing the data from Sprout, Melissa Puls, Ivanti’s senior vice president and chief marketing officer, told Whalen she wanted to challenge everyone in the organization to utilize the program. “I told her I’d already included it in our social strategy,” Whalen said. “I knew it would be powerful if we had a program that allowed everybody to access and share content at the right time, wherever they are. The voices inside our company are the strongest voices. They are on the front lines, working hard every day in our ‘Everywhere Workplace’ to make sure Ivanti’s brand is standing up.”

Underscoring the value of employee advocacy—starting from day one

To increase utilization of Ivanti’s brand ambassador program and drive employee advocacy, Whalen and her team, with help from Sprout, examined how the current program was structured. “We looked at it holistically and examined its backend taxonomy,” she explained. “I wasn’t the first owner of the program, so I had to step back to understand how it was set up initially and determine how we needed to run and support it moving forward.”

One need Whalen identified was an internal communications plan that would “let everyone know how awesome the reshaped program was going to be.” She said, “It’s not my program, it’s everyone’s program. And I think a key reason we’ve had so much success in improving it is because we made the point to get people—including executive leadership—involved and excited about it early on.”

Whalen said her team prioritized creating content and posting it to an intranet site to help employees understand how to use Employee Advocacy by Sprout Social. “We developed new videos to explain what Sprout is, how to use it on a desktop, how to use the mobile app, and more,” she said. “We also created resources like blogs and how-tos.”

This information is now a part of Ivanti’s onboarding process for employees.

New hires are excited and want to be part of something big, and onboarding provides the perfect opportunity to get them on the Sprout platform and become a brand ambassador.

Jamie Whalen
Director of Social Strategy

The social media team at Ivanti also realized that many existing employees didn’t know about the program—or hadn’t been educated well about how to use the Sprout tool. “We had two different groups to educate, so we created a quarterly newsletter to help everyone know what content is available for them to use and offer tips to help them succeed,” said Whalen. “There’s been a lot of follow-up by email, too, to highlight wins and keep people engaged.”

Measuring results and telling the value story through Sprout’s analytics

Using contests like gift card giveaways and other special events as incentives have helped drive employee engagement in the brand ambassador program. That includes Invanti’s sales and BDR teams, who were among those unfamiliar with the program and initially uncertain about the value it could provide. “Let’s just say I had a ‘Jerry Maguire’ moment with them,” Whalen laughed. “I was like, this will help me help you. Let me show why this is beautiful, and why it’s worth your time to participate.”

The education and incentivizing Whalen and her team have provided has paid off—delivering a quick and impressive return on investment, in fact. “By the end of the first month of revitalizing the program, we had 17 million reach and an adoption rate of nearly 46%—which is well over the 30% benchmark for a best-in-class program,” said Whalen. “Also, after launching our incentive program, we went from 1,000 to 3,000 shares in the first month, and then up to 17,000 shares within the first quarter.”

The newly thriving brand ambassador program at Ivanti is also helping the company save about $500,000 in marketing costs this year through earned media. “That’s a lot of money that Ivanti doesn’t have to spend on marketing thanks to our brand ambassadors,” said Whalen.

Executive leadership at Ivanti is not only paying close attention to these results, but also is engaging with the brand ambassador program as well—including acknowledging employees’ efforts. Whalen shared this example: “After our first contest, our CEO reached out to the three winners to thank them personally for being brand ambassadors. He was so impressed by these individuals and what they were able to do for the company. I don’t think these folks had ever talked to our CEO before, but now they were all in a conversation because of something they’d done together.” 

“Social media is critical to building the Ivanti brand, and using our employees to help communicate with our customers is important because it’s more authentic and more credible,” said Viveros. “With help from Sprout, we can provide information to our employees to share easily with our customers through social media. It’s a way for our key messaging to touch our customers directly.”

Employee Advocacy by Sprout Social is also really easy to use. I’m posting two to three messages per day myself, and it takes me just seconds to do it.

Sal Viveros
Head of Global Corporate Communications

Whalen credits the wealth of data and insights and the partnership that Sprout Social has provided for helping Ivanti’s brand ambassador program quickly achieve best-in-class performance. “We’re up to 17,000 shares monthly with our brand ambassador program—which gives us a lot more reach and a lot more eyes,” said Whalen. “I think that through our partnership, we have created a beautiful effect.”

Analytics that help communicate the bottom-line value of social media efforts to stakeholders and the “business-to-human touch” the customer success team delivers are top reasons Whalen said she’d recommend Sprout Social to other marketers. “You’re not just working with a company—you’re working with people,” she said. “Sprout really wants the best for your company. They will create a plan for you to become a best-in-class program. That’s what they do. Many companies say they do that, but Sprout has actually helped us do it, and we have the results to show for it.”

We couldn’t have succeeded without the data, insight and partnership we got from Sprout. We’re up to 17,000 shares monthly with our brand ambassador program—which gives us a lot more reach and a lot more eyes. I think that through our partnership, we have created a beautiful effect.

Jamie Whalen
Director of Social Strategy

Learn how Employee Advocacy by Sprout Social can help extend your social reach. Request your free demo today.

The post How Sprout Social helped Ivanti quickly create a best-in-class brand ambassador program appeared first on Sprout Social.

Agencies will need to ramp up their skillsets and toolkits to meet the needs of their clients. Whether you’re a social media agency that’s stepping up its game or a brand that’s looking for the perfect agency, this guide is exactly what you need.

In this guide, we provide you with an in-depth look at the value social media marketing agencies offer. We also give you a breakdown of what agencies need to do to help clients achieve their goals. Let’s dive in.

Table of Contents:

• Why hire a social media marketing agency
• What services do social media marketing agencies offer
• Strategies for social media marketing agencies
• How agencies can prove the value of social media
• How agencies can collaborate with clients
• Sprout Social for agencies
• The Sprout Social agency partner program

Why hire a social media marketing agency

Modern marketers have access to a wealth of resources and information to manage their social media marketing. Comprehensive social media management tools (like what we offer at Sprout) further make their job easier. So why work with a social media marketing agency at all when brands could probably do it themselves?

Let’s find out the value that social media marketing agencies can bring. How can agencies help brands to fill gaps or level up their strategies?

Unparalleled experience

Agencies are capable of running campaigns and providing a level of knowledge that simply isn’t possible in-house.

Social media is so much more than just being present and posting the occasional photo. It also involves staying on top of the latest social algorithm updates. Not to mention the skills you need to navigate things like audience segmentation and social advertising. Again, that’s the benefit of hiring someone who’s been there and done that.

Agency professionals have years of real-life experience. They’ve also worked on an expansive range of client projects. These experiences have exposed them to social and marketing tactics that you just can’t learn through reading. As such, the expertise they offer isn’t easy to replicate in-house.

The same rings true when it comes to growing communities or engaging customers. Sure, you could do it yourself. But would it make sense in terms of your team’s time and energy? A campaign that might take months for brands to put together in-house might take just a few days for an agency.

Agencies have access to top-tier tools

Social media marketing agencies need to manage multiple campaigns at a time while doing so in the most efficient manner. That’s why they invest in the most powerful tools and analytics platforms in the market to achieve those results.

For example, let’s take the time to shine a light on success stories such as haarper. The Australia-based agency used Sprout’s tools to help their clients achieve impressive results. This included a 458% increase in Instagram engagement YoY.

Agencies can juggle multiple campaigns

Agencies have the bandwidth to run multiple campaigns at once that could otherwise bog down your team internally. By working with a social media marketing agency, brands can make better use of their team’s time and get more done with the people they already have.

What services do social media marketing agencies offer

Now another major question is what kinds of services can brands expect from a social media marketing agency. Based on our Agency Pricing and Packaging Report, let’s take a look at the most common social media marketing services.

Social media management

Agencies can manage a brand’s entire social media presence, allowing it to save time and stress. Agencies can help brands plan their entire social strategy–from deciding what to post to which channels to focus on.

Content development

Many agencies now offer content development services in-house. They produce content that aligns with a brand’s voice and social strategy. Agencies can help brands make sense of their social media performance, allowing them to take action accordingly.

Paid social media

With organic reach declining, more and more brands are turning to social advertising. Agencies help brands to create, execute and manage successful paid social strategies. Agencies constantly stay on top of the latest trends and algorithm updates. They use those skills and knowledge toward boosting social engagement for clients.

Community management

Creating engaged, active social communities can be rewarding yet time-consuming. For some brands, an agency is the only way to really make those communities possible.

7 strategies for social media marketing agencies

The following strategies will set your social agency apart from others and help your clients grow their business.

1. Analyze your clients’ audiences

Analyzing each client’s audience may seem obvious. Gone are the days of pure qualitative research and good old intuition. If you have access to data-driven insights, you should be leveraging them.

One thing to consider is the age of your clients’ target audiences. In fact, the 2022 Sprout Social Index™found a major difference in how different generations respond to brand marketing. For example, younger generations are more responsive to collaborations with influencers and celebrities. Meanwhile, only 9% of Baby Boomers value this type of content collaboration.

Additionally, Facebook still sees significant usage from consumers as a whole. TikTok has also surpassed Snapchat as one of the top platforms consumers prefer to use.

If you’re unsure of the demographic makeup of your client’s audiences, you can easily find out with social media analytics software.

Another way to analyze your client’s demographic audience is through social media listening. This will show you the demographics of your client’s social media followers. It also gives you a demographic breakdown of the people on social media who are actively discussing the brand.

Additionally, you can also find their most engaged followers and get an overview of their profile. This information is invaluable to research when trying to determine not just who follows the brand, but who engages with it.

Using a tool like Sprout’s Twitter Trends Report, you can even see which topics and hashtags people frequently mention with the brand. This can give you a better understanding of what the target audience is interested in discussing.

2. Coordinate with other agencies

The world of agency marketing is incredibly competitive, but that doesn’t mean you shouldn’t collaborate with your peers. Agency marketers who team up with other social agencies reap benefits over those that seclude themselves.

Your inter-agency team may be your best bet for optimizing your social media efforts. What with social being the glue that holds disparate channel campaigns together? For instance, you may not be your client’s activation agency. But coordinating with whoever is allows you to collect and repurpose user-generated content (UGC) from your client’s events.

Let’s face it, your agency won’t be a perfect fit for every single client. Or maybe you have a contact at a social media agency whose specialty is exactly what you need to make your client’s social media strategy better. Or, by passing leads that you can’t take on or that aren’t a good fit to a different agency you strengthen the relationship and chances they return the favor.

Looking for some agencies to team up with? Check out the Sprout Social Agency Directory to find some of the leading organizations in the space.

3. Join partner programs

Joining partner programs is a great way to connect with brands that can help you scale your business. In many cases, these brand partners may even be able to get your agency in front of potential clients. The Sprout Social Agency Directory, for instance, consists of companies that are part of our Agency Partner Program.

Sprout Social’s Agency Partner Program offers exclusive benefits to help you scale your agency. Some cool perks include:

• Access to co-marketing opportunities with established brands
• Hands-on training and custom reporting to ensure happy clients
• Introductions to other agencies around the world
• Specific resources created to help you succeed on social media

Look around for all the programs relevant to yours and if it seems like a good fit, try and join.

4. Pull data for case studies

To close a deal as you’re pitching a client, it’s essential that you showcase past successes. So, it’s important that you have something to show for your expertise. Start by featuring a list of clients on your website, organized by name or vertical in so it’s easy to digest at a quick glance.

From there, build out case studies and customer videos, featuring as many of your top clients as possible. An effective case study tells the story of your agency’s project with a client. It highlights the challenges the client faced and your strategy for addressing them. Eventually, it shows how your agency provided a tactical solution and shares data points around the results of your efforts.

Keep in mind when creating case studies to include as much data as possible. Your potential clients want to know how you helped others succeed and the results that came with that success. If you’re using a social media tool it should be simple to pull data to show how you improved social presence month over month.

Sprout’s Cross-Network Reports, for instance, makes it easy to visualize your clients’ performance over time. You can extract these Reports and include them in your case studies.

5. Co-market with other companies or agencies

If you have an “in” with a large company or agency, look for co-marketing opportunities to tap into each other’s audiences. You could work with them on a piece of content that both organizations can promote for a mutually beneficial lift in reach.

Here at Sprout, we always make it a point to work with our agency partners to create joint content that we then share with our audiences.

Once we’ve co-created a piece of content with our agency partners, both organizations get to work promoting it.

6. Scale content with your clients

Some agencies may spend a good deal of their team’s time coordinating with clients on what to post on social channels. This is often the case if your agency offers services for strategy and content development. Stay ahead of your content calendar with these two strategies.

Get Pre-Approved Content in Bulk
Work with your clients to identify a cache of approved creative assets. You can then look for opportunities to repurpose that content when creating a content calendar. This content can live in an Asset Library for quick access to appropriate imagery.

Give Clients Access to Your Social Tool for Approvals
Use the right social media tool to invite your client stakeholders into your account. This gives them visibility into your content publishing workflow so they can be a part of it.

7. Get clients into the reports

Clients want to keep their finger on the pulse of what’s happening with their social media campaigns and to have easy access to the data. So, it helps if you can give them direct access to social media reports by inviting them into your social media tool.

How agencies can prove the value of social media

Social media marketing agencies need to establish value by showing their clients real results that matter to them. So how exactly will you prove the ROI of social media?

The first conversation to have with your clients is ideally about their social marketing goals. You can then assess the feasibility of those goals and what social success looks like.

No campaign can (or will) succeed if you don’t know what success looks like, and you will never be able to scale your agency if you can’t satisfy client goals. Now, this may sound harsh but bear with us as we walk you through an ideal process to start your client relationships and campaigns on the right foot.

If you can’t determine what your customers will achieve from your efforts, then you won’t be able to prioritize those strategies. You’d be merely throwing spaghetti at the wall to see what sticks.

That’s not how you create a great Italian dish, and that’s not how you create a strong agency-client relationship.

Table the ROI discussion

“What is the ROI of social media?”

It’s a question all agencies and in-house marketers inevitably face, but one that is incredibly complicated to answer.

Other digital channels like paid search, SEO or email may have a clear path to revenue generation. Meanwhile, telling that story with social is more complicated.

If you’re frustrated with having conversations around ROI with your clients just know that you’re not alone. According to the 2022 Sprout Social Index™, proving ROI is the second biggest challenge for social media teams.

Don’t get us wrong, social media is definitely a channel you can generate leads and revenue with. It’s also one of Sprout Social’s strongest channels for driving growth.

But know that social media is so much more than a place to blast messages. Marketers struggle to quantify ROI on social media because as a channel it plays so many roles.

How can you successfully navigate the question of “What is the ROI on social media?” Start by defining your client’s goals and then discussing what impact those goals have on their organization as a whole. Ask them: What do you want from social?

Choose goals with your clients

We say that social media is more than a place to blast messages and hope for revenue. So what else is it for? Your clients may want to build their presence on social to increase their brand awareness. While most clients may focus on sales and lead generation, others may also want to build an engaged community.

Get clarity on what your clients want to achieve through social. More importantly, provide a guiding light on what goals might be relevant to them based on their overall business goals.

Choose key performance indicators based on goals

Key performance indicators (KPIs) vary depending on the goals of the campaign. For example, a campaign to raise brand awareness will need different KPIs from one that aims to generate new sales and leads.

Here are some solid goals and the KPIs you can optimize for.

• Increase brand awareness: Impressions, reach, audience growth
• Increase community engagement: Inbound messages, replies sent, audience growth
• Increase web traffic: Clicks, website visits
• Generate sales and leads: Clicks, website visits, use URL tracking to track social traffic
• Distribute content: Messages sent, potential reach, responses, clicks
• Increase brand advocacy: Following, social trends reporting, reach, clicks
• Support customers: Response rate, response time
• Grow influencer marketing: Following, social trends reporting

Once you’ve chosen the metrics that indicate success you can set more quantifiable goals. However, those goals should also depend on historic values and a baseline. A client may tell you they want a million new impressions. But if you don’t know how many impressions they typically see, then you have no idea if that goal is realistic and achievable.

Pro Tip: Use a social media analytics tool to audit your client’s social media performance. This will include past impressions, clicks, growth rate, response time, response speed and more. Only then will you be confident in accepting, negotiating or rejecting a proposal.

Navigating competitive benchmarking

Throughout the relationship, clients may ask you to benchmark their performance to others in their industry. This can be a challenging discussion if you’re not an expert in the specific industry they serve, but there are some things you can do.

1. Look to industry standard reports

Find reports that pull information on social media performance by vertical. This may not be as specific as comparing a client’s social presence directly to that of a competitor. But it gives enough information to compare their presence to the industry as a whole.

Ideally, you’d want to look at industry standards on the following metrics:

• Response rate: The percent of consumer messages needing a response that actually get one
• Response time: How long brands take (in hours) to respond to consumer messages that need a response
• Response percentage: How many messages brands receive on social that require a response
• Posts per replies: How many promotional messages brands publish vs. how many responses they give
• Brand engagement ranking: How responsive brands are to consumers
• Consumer engagement ranking: How vocal consumers are with brands

     2. Use deep listening tools

Powerful social media listening tools can look through social media data to pull competitive insights. You can find data on how often each brand gets a mention, the impression volume, the general sentiment around the brand and more.

   3. Use social media analytics

Once you’ve secured a client and set them up with social media analytics, you can start making a side-by-side comparison. Stack up things like audience growth, message volume, response rates and more.

Stay flexible and adjust your approach

As your campaigns take flight make sure to consistently review your social reports. Look closely at clients’ KPIs and gauge whether or not they’re on track to miss, hit or exceed your clients’ expectations.

Find ways to constantly optimize your strategy and take these lessons back to the client but go beyond just telling them what works. Show them how to keep evolving with each interaction and soon enough, you’ll be ready to set your next goals.

How to collaborate with clients

Maintaining collaborative relationships will increase a client’s trust in your work. It will also streamline your social media marketing and earn you loyal customers.

Figuring out methods for better collaboration is an agency pastime. But true collaboration can be tricky between juggling multiple clients, tools and social accounts.

These solutions can help improve collaboration across multiple channels and touchpoints. It will also keep you from scrambling to catch up with clients.

Get the clients involved

Many agencies are used to being the “doers”—doing the publishing, the community management, the reporting. But as an agency scales and brings in new business, being the doer for every client isn’t always an option. There are only so many days in the week.

Moreover, there’s a risk of disconnects and miscommunications when you’re the one handling everything. It’s important to get your clients involved with a strong communication strategy. Keep them informed about important updates and progresses. You could even get them to jump in on some of the more exciting conversations that are going on.

The clients will love to see the happy customers they have, and you’ll love not having to answer every single message that requires attention.

For example, let’s say you notice someone is frequently using a client’s branded hashtag. You can nudge the client with a message like, “Hey, here’s a good opportunity to interact.”

It’s an easy step that lets your clients know you’re right there with them and constantly seeking out opportunities for them. It allows you to provide them with actionable expertise, even in times when you’re unable to be the doer.

Take full advantage of a shared asset library

A shared asset library is a library of client-approved content that you can easily repurpose and publish. It minimizes the hassle of gaining client approval for each piece of content you publish on their account. You can do this with anything from Dropbox to Google Drive or a social tool with an asset library like Sprout.

The benefit of a social tool is that you can:

• Sort by media type
• Sort by tags
• Sort by authors
• Give different levels of access to different individuals

An asset library really simplifies collaborative publishing. It helps to create a collaborative workflow between client and agency. An asset library also lets you customize the experience of asset management.

Sometimes a client just needs to see what they need to see. So, you can sort different assets within a unique hierarchy to avoid overwhelming them. This could be with the help of folders or permissions.

A joint asset library makes social media publishing seamless and will inevitably save you tons of time on social media.

Align on customer communication with tasking

What do you do when you come across a message from a disgruntled customer? Perhaps that message needs a carefully crafted response or it needs immediate escalation. Regardless of the case, you need to establish a workflow with your clients for when these situations arise.

Create a process wherein you can submit problematic social messages to the client as a task to align on healthy, on-brand responses easily.

It’s not lazy to send things to your client. In fact, it automates and streamlines the sometimes tumultuous and lengthy process of manual damage control. Just make sure the client is set up to handle that message and include your suggestions for a response. Anything as easy as an email with your note can suffice.

Without fully handing over the wheel, you can ensure you and your client are making decisions together as a team.

Stay ahead of client requests and showcase value with reports

Clients seek different things when it comes to reporting. Some like to know how their audience size is growing. Others want to see how quickly their service teams are responding to requests. Regardless of what the client wants, there’s no limit to the amount of data you can pull from social media.

Carve out time within your week to create or update these reports for your clients and send them over before they even have to ask. You can also use social media reporting tools to automate the process. This would allow you to automatically send presentation-ready reports to your clients at a specified time.

It’s normal to automate processes during particularly hectic times for your agency. But to still have control in an automated process with customization is a real win/win.

Sprout Social for agencies

Maybe you’re providing full-service social solutions or stepping in for a specific campaign or project. No matter the range of services, agencies understand how to deliver results. And within a sole social agency, each client engagement can call for a distinct setup. While some may require one-to-many, others may need many-to-one or collaborative setups.

When agency teams need tools to implement these social initiatives for their clients, they use Sprout Social. With Sprout’s publishing, engagement and reporting tool sets, agencies can utilize one or combine all to meet their needs. In addition, Sprout offers a flexible account structure and custom permissions. This makes client management more scalable. You can customize your plan as client portfolios grow and objectives change.

Let us show you the different ways Sprout can accommodate your agency’s working style.

Agency use case 1: Full-service solutions

• Agency type: Full-service social media marketing
• Client engagement: One-to-many
• Agency set up: A mid-sized agency with a client portfolio of local and regional brands. Works in teams of social strategists and Community Managers. Each Community Manager is responsible for fully managing social programs on behalf of four client brands each.
• How Sprout powers the agency: Managing social media for all your clients is easy using Sprout. Your team can publish, engage and analyze all from one platform.

Community Managers use the Scheduler to publish time-sensitive messages at a specific time. This allows you to get the most out of published content. Or use ViralPost to ensure your client’s audience sees content at the optimal time for engagement.

Monitor and engage with incoming messages across all client profiles and networks using the Smart Inbox. Filter the inbox to concentrate on certain profiles, networks or message types. Then mark messages as complete as you work towards inbox zero.

The mobile apps enable each Community Manager to stay connected even while on the go; team members can publish and engage right from their phones.

Agency use case 2: Campaign solutions

• Agency type: Campaign marketing / Campaign management
• Client engagement: Many-to-one
• Agency set up: A large global agency with a client portfolio of international brands. Works in teams that are responsible for managing social campaigns on behalf of each client.
• How Sprout powers the agency: Sprout enables teams to gather strategic insights during the planning phase. It helps them manage customer engagements during execution and analyze results post-campaign.

The analyst uses the Twitter Listening Report to measure keyword volume. This helps to inform the campaign’s hashtag and creative strategy. It guides the ideation process for a client campaign. The Message Approval workflow helps to streamline client approvals. This allows stakeholders to approve or reject with feedback.

During campaign execution, the team makes use of tools such as the Asset Library, Message Tagging and Content Calendar. These tools allow them to plan and organize outgoing social posts. Throughout the campaign, the team also categorizes incoming messages with Message Tagging.

Once the campaign wraps, the analyst uses the Tag Report to track volume and determine sentiment. It also helps them analyze overall campaign performance to report back to the client.

Agency use case 3: Content strategy solutions

• Agency type: Content marketing
• Client engagement: Collaborative
• Agency set up: An agency with a client portfolio of national brands appoints a content marketing team to each client project. Teams help to plan and execute content marketing strategies for clients.
• How Sprout powers the agency: Content, context and audience are the keys to a successful content strategy. Sprout’s publishing toolset enables agency teams to create and publish content effectively. It allows them to tailor the content according to specific platforms and audiences.

As your content team starts to create content, they use Compose to draft messages. From here, they can add imagery from the Asset Library. Further, applying audience targeting helps to ensure the client’s messages reach the right audience.

The Message Approval workflow helps to streamline client approvals. This allows stakeholders to approve or reject with feedback. After approval and scheduling, the team can identify publishing gaps using the Content Calendar. They can then repeat the process to fill those holes.

The Sent Messages Report enables the team to analyze the content’s performance and adjust the content strategy as needed. Export the report to PDF for a presentation-ready version for your client. You can also select the CSV file to further analyze specific KPIs and data points.

Agency use case 4: Community management solutions

• Agency type: Community management and engagement
• Client engagement: One-to-many/Collaborative
• Agency set up: A niche agency that focuses on multi-location businesses and manages a portfolio of 25 franchise brands. These brands maintain hundreds of local, regional and national social profiles. Each project team is responsible for managing customer care on behalf of the client’s entire portfolio of social properties.
• How Sprout powers the agency: Reactive communication and customer care is vital to building and maintaining social relationships. Agencies use Sprout’s engagement toolset to discover, manage and address incoming messages on behalf of their clients.

The Smart Inbox is where your account team will monitor and engage with incoming messages across profiles and networks. Set up Brand Keywords so Community Managers can find and engage in conversations that are important to its client. This may include campaign hashtags, location check-ins or even competitor names, but not direct mentions.

As messages stream into the inbox, Community Managers collaborate with each other or with the client. They assign messages as Tasks to ensure the right person is responding to the message. Community Managers mark messages as complete as the account team works towards inbox zero.

Analysts use the Engagement Report to track response rates and times to meet the client’s engagement KPIs, as well as report on those efforts.

Agency use case 5: Analytics solutions

• Agency type: Social analytics
• Client engagement: Many-to-one
• Agency set up: An agency with a client portfolio of national brands appoints one team of analysts per client account. Each team is responsible for setting and analyzing social strategy on behalf of each client.
• How Sprout powers the agency: If your agency drives social strategy and execution for your clients, you need data to enforce its effectiveness. Sprout’s suite of reports enables your agency to prove its worth and use insights to tweak your strategy.

The Group Report is a high-level overview that provides aggregate data across social networks. This gives your client a better understanding of social efforts as a whole.

Pair the Group Report with the network profile reports for an in-depth look at specific social channels. Use these reports to demonstrate growth and audience behaviors across all channels and profiles.

Export the reports to PDF for a presentation-ready version for your client. You can also select the CSV file to further analyze specific KPIs and data points.

Agency use case 6: Customer service solutions

• Agency type: Customer service
• Client engagement: One-to-many
• Agency set up: A mid-sized customer service agency with a client portfolio of national brands. Appoints Customer Advocate teams to manage customer care around the clock for each client.
• How Sprout powers the agency: Creating a wonderful customer experience is important for agencies focusing on customer service. Sprout’s customer service toolset enables you to execute and analyze your efforts.

The Smart Inbox is where advocacy teams monitor and engage with incoming messages across profiles and networks. As messages stream into the inbox, the Customer Advocate Lead collaborates with the Customer Advocates or the client. They assign messages as Tasks to ensure the right person is responding to the message.

Account Directors use the Task Performance Report to analyze Tasks usage and completion. They use the Team Report in conjunction to track their team’s social performance. They assess performance based on reply metrics by individual. They also look at performance across all profiles and specific profiles.

Export the reports to PDF for a presentation-ready version for your client. You can also select the CSV file to further analyze specific KPIs and data points.

The Sprout Social partner program

Partner with Sprout Social to define and validate social ROI to your current clients. Be on the path to win new business for your digital marketing agency and connect with strategic social marketers.

Agency business is tough. While it’s rewarding work, #agencylife can sometimes feel like being on an island of your own. That’s where our Agency Partner Program sets out to bridge the gap and make things a little easier.

Everything’s better with a partner

This is a fast-paced industry and keeping a finger on the pulse of the latest and greatest isn’t always effortless. But there’s power in partnership. Doing so enables agencies to reduce inefficiencies by leveraging resources. With Sprout in the picture, they gain full-suite access to enterprise-level social tools.

“[Partnership programs] are a great investment for your agency,” Jared DiVincent, Founder of SocialCompass Marketing, said. “It provides you with invaluable resources, keeps your team on the cutting edge of what’s happening in your industry and puts you on a platform to speak to that many more prospects.”

Agency partners get early access to Sprout’s newest product features. They also enjoy the ability to voice opinions on product development. This allows an agency to get to know the product inside and out. It helps not only our agency partners, but Sprout’s own team.

Lucas Vandenberg, Fifty & Five Managing Partner, thinks the biggest value of being a Sprout Agency Partner is in having that extra access.

“For us, giving additional feedback on new tools that are coming out is hugely valuable in understanding that the tool is really created and customized specifically for our needs,” Vandenberg said.

Being a part of a program like this gives agencies like Fifty & Five a model for scalable pricing. They also have access to a whole team at Sprout who can really understand the intricacies of the agency business model itself.

A connected community

The Agency Partner Program goes beyond leveraging resources and beta-testing product enhancements. Partnering through a program like this boils down to growing together. It involves leveraging one another’s experiences as a community. It also enables you to gain insight into what others like you are doing in the industry. In short, it’s a relationship.

An open opportunity to interact and idea-share with other marketers like yourself is one community benefit. But Brooke Sellas, Founder and CEO of B Squared Media, feels it’s more the nurturing nature of the program that lends itself so well to creating a community.

“I can call [Sprout Social] on the phone and ask them how to do something for the 50th time and they’re not annoyed,” Sellas said. “They just honestly care about how we’re doing, where we’re going and solving things for us.”

But Sellas stresses that it’s not just about getting on the phone to talk product or roadmap.

“It’s also the camaraderie,” Sellas said. “Meeting other people, forming those relationships, getting to know what Sprout’s all about and really just forming that bond with your software partner, which I don’t know that very many people can say that about their tool.”

Building your business and growing your agency

Fifty & Five’s Vandenberg explains that his agency has gained exposure to new and great opportunities in the last year. This is all a result of being a Sprout partner and building brand awareness as a vetted agency.

“One of the ways the program has helped us grow is by giving us access to new leads and new prospects,” Vandenberg said.

DiVincent feels similarly: “Saying that we’re an agency founding partner and a Sprout Social partner definitely helps our prospects and helps us gain more clients. It helps us pitch easier and it just builds that layer of trust that we couldn’t do on our own.”

The Agency Partner Program believes that partnerships depend on mutual, sustainable growth. And it is Sprout’s goal to continually support that.

Sellas sums it up best: “Before joining the Agency Partner Program, I loved Sprout. After joining, I want to marry Sprout.”

Advance your agency with Sprout Social

Great ideas get clients in the door, but your ability to execute is what builds trust.

The building blocks of a successful agency-client partnership are similar to those of any great relationship: communication, flexibility, transparency, trust and attention. Sprout’s agency tools can help you meet those needs and exceed client expectations.

Try Sprout Social for free with a 30-day trial.

The post The social media marketing agency and services guide appeared first on Sprout Social.

Agencies are expanding their services and teams to keep up with the ever-changing social media landscape. And creators and influencers are working with larger clientele, creating ad-hoc agencies to keep up with the demand.

In this article, we’ll give tips for those looking to create an agency and agency veterans looking to grow and hire top talent.

Starting your own social media marketing agency

If you’re looking to create an agency, this section is dedicated to you. If you already have an established agency, skip to the next section.

Here are five tips for starting your own social media marketing agency:

1. Define your niche and services

Before you move forward, you need to determine your niche. Tailoring your niche will help you define your service offerings and your potential clientele. Your agency can be industry specific (B2B, tech, beauty etc) or platform-specific. For example, many TikTok marketing agencies specialize in creative productions and talent management.

Once you confirm your niche, begin thinking about the range of services you want to provide. Modern agencies offer services that include creative, strategic and tactical support across social channels.

Publishing, strategy development, social media contest management, performance reporting and advertising campaigns are just a few examples of social media marketing agency services. Since agencies can offer a variety of services, specialization is very common.

According to our Agency Pricing and Packaging Report, 33% of agencies describe themselves as full-service:

Defining your social media agency services will also determine the tools you want to use and your pricing, which leads us to our next tip: set your prices.

2. Set your pricing

As you grow, you’ll be able to charge more and adjust your business margins, but here’s a glance at average monthly pricing based on our data:

Think about how you want to charge your clients as well. You can offer a la carte services, value-based pricing, packaged services or standard pricing with customized add-ons. You can also change per client.

3. Create a business plan

As they say, a dream without a plan is just a wish. The same goes for creating your social media marketing agency. You need to create a business plan to lead your decision-making as an agency owner. More importantly, you need a solid financial foundation to get started and continue operating.

4. Build and nurture your clientele

This is one of the most important parts of building your marketing agency. Note that the amount of clients an agency can service depends on its size.

Here’s a quick glance at the average number of clients by agency size, according to our report:

• Nearly 40% of SMB agencies average between 5-10 clients, and an additional 32% average 1-5 clients.
• Mid-sized agencies most commonly (31%) average 5-10 clients, followed by 28% that average 10-20 clients.
• A quarter of enterprise agencies average 10-20 clients, 19% average 20-40 and 16% average more than 40 clients.

There are several methods you can use to help grow your brand. Here are a few ways to build your clientele when you’re starting your agency:

• Pitch to clients within your niche
• Use your current network to secure clients and projects
• Attend conferences so you can network and create connections in person
• Pay attention to freelance websites for potential clients/projects
• Embrace social selling and use online communities like LinkedIn to identify prospects
• Run events like webinars to increase brand awareness
• Volunteer pro-bono or discounted services for a non-profit to show your brand values and earn experience

5. Hire employees

As you grow, you’ll need more employees. You won’t have a full team starting out and that’s okay.

You might only be able to handle a team of two to three people at first because your hiring relies on your financial resources. If you already have a team, evaluate the skills they encompass, then consider which roles are non-negotiable for you at the moment. A content writer, graphic designer, lead generation marketer and an accountant are some examples of good roles to help launch your agency.

6. Track your growth and improve your portfolio

Learning how to start a social media marketing agency won’t happen overnight. You’ll need to track your high and low points to determine the next steps for improving and scaling your business. Even the biggest social media marketing agencies evaluate their performance, so get into the habit of reviewing and tracking your growth.

Along with tracking how far you’ve come, make sure to continue adding to your portfolio. A good portfolio will illustrate why potential clients should work with your agency. Whenever your agency closes out a project, add it to your portfolio. Consider adding testimonials or case studies to strengthen your experience even more.

A case for growing your social media marketing agency services

Social media has quickly matured over the years, requiring marketing professionals to create more sophisticated strategies with efforts tied to business impact. Brands are looking to agencies to help them tackle complex challenges and stay ahead of their competitors.

Modern agencies are also grappling with the challenges of more brands shifting their marketing functions in-house. Thus, the range of services offered by social media marketing agencies has exploded over the past two years, becoming more specialized to meet the needs of today’s clients.

According to our data, over half of agencies have added new services in the past 12 months and more than a third have prioritized core services. Those that haven’t already created new services plan to do so within the next 12-24 months.

To keep up with the landscape, many agencies are expanding their services from traditional executional work to more strategic advising and consulting. Although there’s still a need for executional work, three of the top five most offered social media marketing services lean toward strategy.

The most popular agency services include social media strategy (97%), content creation and publishing (94%), social media management (92%), paid social (87%) and social media analytics (86%). Hands-on services like social media engagement and community management are less popular compared to 2020.

However, expanding your services isn’t possible without the right staff on board. Once you have a talented team secured, your agency can grow and develop more social media marketing services.

Staffing your agency: 5 best practices to find and retain top talent

According to our data, during times of economic uncertainty, agencies focus on client retention and growth, refining agency expertise and lowering fixed costs. A whopping 80% of agencies say retaining clients is the #1 focus during economic uncertainty as well.

This is why retaining your current employees is so imperative. Your team can retain clients because they already have the experience required to do so. And strong, established relationships with clientele drive referrals—90% of agencies rely on word-of-mouth or referrals to drive new business.

Along with retention, staffing your agency with top talent is just as important. Expanding your team could help you address the growing amount of services clients expect and many agencies are incorporating. Plus, dispersing a workload across a large team can widen bandwidth and help your team avoid burnout.

Here are five best practices to help your discover and retain top talent:

1. Write relevant job descriptions

The good thing about hiring for a social media marketing agency is that your future employees are already online. The hard part? Crafting a job description that will attract ideal candidates and make your brand stand apart in the sea of applications.

A straight-foward, thoughtful job description will attract qualified talent because it shows you’re able to understand the requirements of the role. It also shows your brand has transparent communication.

Also consider if and how the job description includes inclusive language. We all have implicit biases that can sneak into the hiring process. Having a diverse team isn’t just about representation—it’s about having a diversity of thought, experience and skills necessary to build your brand. An inclusive description can encourage applicants from marginalized groups to submit their applications.

2. Take advantage of social recruiting and employee advocacy

Again, meet potential teammates where they are and utilize social recruiting. Job seekers are already following companies on sites like LinkedIn to find opportunities. Social media allows recruiters to find qualified candidates faster and can help narrow down the applicant pool too, so take advantage of it. Check out our guide on creative hiring post examples to learn how to set your brand apart in the marketplace.

Plus, if your agency implements social recruiting effectively, you give prospective candidates a glimpse into your company’s culture. Sprinkle in some employee advocacy content and you’ve increased your recruitment reach significantly. A current employee sharing a job listing while raving about working for your agency goes a long way.

3. Consider flexible working hours

Today’s job seekers are looking for positions that will allow them to work from home or work flexible hours. It’s the new norm in our post-2020 world and it isn’t going anyway. Potential candidates will be attracted to the flexibility, but it’s a win for your brand too. Widening working hours allows brands to cover different time zones, targeting a more diverse location range and hopefully more clientele.

4. Hire for specialized roles

The days of the jack-of-all-trades, master-of-none professionals are fading away. Clients are requiring more specialized services and your team will need to follow suit to keep up in the current landscape. Agencies are notorious for high-stakes, fast-paced environments, but this type of culture isn’t effective or sustainable, which leads to our next tip: help avoid burnout.

5. Help current teammates avoid burnout

If you’re interested in retaining your top talent, this tip is very important. If your current teammates feel frequently overwhelmed with their workload or feel unheard, they’re at risk of burnout. In extreme cases, they could even pursue quiet quitting.

Only 29% of social media marketers say they’re comfortable talking about burnout with a direct manager. Creating a culture of transparency, trust and support can motivate your current team to continue doing great work.

Elevate your social media agency services with social listening

Understanding the current agency climate and how to attract and retain top talent is just the beginning of scaling your brand.

To learn more ways to grow your business, read our guide on how to grow a digital marketing agency using social listening.

The post How to start and grow a social media marketing agency appeared first on Sprout Social.

“The content we produce has tangible impacts on the healthcare industry. We provide educational resources to healthcare professionals that help them stay informed,” says Elida Solis, Social Media Director at Vizient.

When the COVID pandemic began, Elida and her team jumped into action. They refocused their content on the emerging needs of the healthcare community. To amplify their message, they tapped into the power of employee advocacy and tripled their impressions in the first six months.

Their strategy proved so effective they were awarded “Best Use of LinkedIn” by PR News.

In two years, Vizient turned their employees into brand advocates, gained thousands of new followers and increased their awareness and engagement with the help of Employee Advocacy by Sprout Social.

Tapping employee networks to make thought leadership accessible

Before the pandemic started, Vizient was in the early stages of developing their employee advocacy program. After lockdown measures were put in place and their work went virtual, they accelerated their advocacy project plans and launched with a small pilot group.

Employee advocacy is a new initiative for us. During the pandemic, our Member Performance team—like everyone else in the country—couldn’t travel to meet their clients. It was a critical time. They had our COVID resources, but they struggled with how to share them. They didn’t know what to say or how to share the messages broadly.

Elida Solis
Social Media Director, Vizient

Sprout’s Employee Advocacy solution provided Vizient team members with streamlined access to company content and pre-approved social messaging, which made them feel more confident sharing posts with their network.

By posting prepackaged content on LinkedIn, I have been able to reconnect with former colleagues, expand my network and engage in interesting conversations with my community. If you’re looking for an easy way to help your team stay current on relevant information and expand your brand’s influence in the market today, I would recommend Employee Advocacy by Sprout Social.

Richard Ponder
Assistant Vice President Pharmacy & Care Delivery Product Strategy, Vizient

Soon, the initial results were in and the pilot far exceeded Elida’s expectations. Within three months, Vizient saw double the engagement compared to their traditional organic social channels and gained thousands of new followers.

Vizient leadership decided it was essential to expand the program to other teams. One-by-one other departments were onboarded, and Vizient continued to see record-setting impressions.

Elida and her team were determined to make Employee Advocacy implementation as user-friendly as possible.

She says, “It was a commitment to our employees. We are giving them a tool that’s easy to use. It’s a straightforward, time-efficient way to reach their networks.”

Elida and her team provided support, including an internal advocacy resource hub that houses a product demo, instructional guides and on-demand webinars. The resources equip Vizient employees with personal branding tips to elevate their social presence and maximize the advocacy program.

Providing value to customers and team members alike

Vizient’s employee advocacy success is rooted in their commitment to providing value to their audience and team members.

For example, at the onset of the pandemic, Vizient immediately halted all ongoing content development efforts to refocus their entire strategy on COVID-related educational resources.

As Elida says, “We, as a company, made the decision to make a lot of our content available to healthcare professionals outside of our membership program. We knew it was a critical time to share timely updates in an efficient, accessible way. Social media played a key role in helping us do that.”

By putting the needs of their audience at the forefront of their strategy, Vizient saw significant performance improvement—from their engagement rate to follower count.

To maximize the effectiveness of employee advocacy, Elida knows their content must resonate with Vizient team members as well. She makes it a top priority to provide them with 10 to 15 insightful content stories they actually want to share.

She advises team members to, “Share what’s most relevant. Don’t think of it as ‘promoting content.’ Consider what your network wants to learn more about. When you share a post, customize the copy to infuse your experience and make it relevant for your audience.”

Above all, Elida and her team want the content to make a positive impact on healthcare and the lives of professionals in Vizient’s community and beyond.

Elevating the value of social and advocacy

When Vizient first started using Sprout’s platform of social management tools, they made it clear they needed to communicate social performance results with executives and other departments on a regular basis. Their most important key performance indicator (KPI) was engagement.

Using customized versions of Sprout’s performance reports, Elida and her team create monthly and quarterly reports that elevate the value of social across their company.

At Vizient, we’re really fortunate because our senior leaders get it. They really understand the importance of social. They see the results in our performance reports and they’re actively engaged and participating in our social initiatives.

Elida Solis
Social Media Director, Vizient

As Elida says, “We’re able to view the metrics and the results from the number of active employees—the amount of shares, the resulting impressions and engagements. About 85% of our employees in the system are active, and that’s a big win for us.”

But equally important is their employee satisfaction, which is the ultimate value of the program. In every internal survey they’ve conducted, their Employee Advocacy satisfaction score was 98% or above. On average, 67% of employees reported receiving greater network engagement because of the program.

Since we started using Sprout’s Employee Advocacy solution, my network has become more engaged. I get asked about my company more than ever and people comment on how active I am on LinkedIn. It makes it easier for me to interact with my connections on social. I would highly recommend Employee Advocacy by Sprout Social to other companies considering it.

Carl Taggart
Vice President, Zone Leader NE & SE US—Spend Management Services and Delivery, Vizient

Elida points out that although employee advocacy is voluntary, the Vizient team shares posts because they find it beneficial and enjoy celebrating company culture.

Sprout Social helps Vizient extend brand awareness

For Elida and her team, employee advocacy has increased brand awareness, supported recruitment and generated lead opportunities. It’s also giving Vizient employees the ability to amplify content through their own voice and perspective.

Learn how Employee Advocacy by Sprout Social can help extend your social reach. Request your free demo today.

The post How employee advocacy tripled Vizient’s social media engagements appeared first on Sprout Social.

And with consumer preferences leaning towards short-form video, the demand for agencies who specialize in TikTok marketing remains high. In this article, we’ll walk through case studies from top certified TikTok marketing agencies to show how they use TikTok to grow their clients’ brands, building a business case for more agencies to expand their services.

5 top TikTok marketing agencies (with case studies)

Before we get started, here is a tip: learn from the agencies who’ve already branched into TikTok by looking at TikTok’s official marketing partners directory. The directory features a range of marketing agencies and other companies that provide a variety services, including popular ones like creative, commerce, sound and campaign management services.

To narrow down your research, we’ve created a list of some of the best TikTok marketing agencies and share how they’ve approached building successful campaigns with clients:

1. Byte/Dept

Who they are: Byte/Dept is a marketing technology agency based in London, New York and Berlin. Byte was acquired by Dept in February 2021.

They provide a variety of services for analytics, technology, creative and media services. Some examples of Byte’s services include chatbot creation and augmented reality. They are an official Snapchat Lense Partner as well.

Case study: ASO

Byte/Dept worked with ASOS to create the British online fashion retailer’s first TikTok campaign. The branded hashtag challenge #AySauce encouraged users to show off their outfits in the United States and the United Kingdom.

The three-week campaign featured a branded TikTok sound, in-feed ads, an interactive augmented reality experience and a diverse trough of talent including Holly H, the Neffati Brothers, Michael Le, Jordan Fisher and Luke Trotman from Love Island to name a few.

The #AySauce campaign resulted in 448,000 user videos and over 1.2 billion views in just three weeks. The challenge increased the brand’s engagement rate by 15.79%, which was well above the set benchmarks.

2. Incubeta

Who they are: Incubeta is an international digital marketing agency that provides solutions including consulting, media services and creative production.

Case study: Fantastic Furniture 

Fantastic Furniture is an Australian retailer that’s a favorite for furniture and bedding. The brand wanted to use TikTok to drive traffic to their website and increase their reach to a more engaged audience.

Fantastic Furniture worked with Incubeta to create TikTok influencer content. The agency collaborated with content creators @brookestyless and @georgieandzac to create DIY room transformation videos. Thanks to their unique content approaches, Fantastic Furniture could use these sponsored videos to reach a new, younger audience.

The TikTok videos were also repurposed for TV commercials, but proved to be more effective on their native platform. When both pieces of content were compared, the TikTok videos’ click-through rate was 8% higher. The highest-performing TikTok creative earned an impressive view-through rate increase of 108%.

When compared side-by-side, the influencer content cost per click was 10% lower than the television ads, allowing Fantastic Furniture to reach their target audience and drive more traffic to their site while being cost-effective.

3. Dash Hudson

Who they are: Headquartered out of Nova Scotia, Dash Hudson is a social entertainment marketing software company. Their digital and creative solutions help global brands optimize their social entertainment and commerce strategies.

Case study: Mecca

Australian beauty retailer Mecca wanted to identify long-term, high-performing TikTok content that would authentically connect with their current and prospective audiences to increase their ROI.

Mecca collaborated with TikTok and Dash Hudson to learn trend traction and craft a holistic, data-based content strategy for organic and paid creative campaigns.

The beauty retailer used Dash Hudson’s TikTok insights to pinpoint the highest-performing creators and content pillars to guide the direction of the videos. They then used this information to inform their content creation process.

With Dash Hudson’s data, the brand discovered using both organic and paid TikTok content within a campaign influenced its overall success.

After their first campaigns, Mecca saw incredible growth across several metrics including followers, video views and engagement. Followership increased by 64% and the creatives reached over 12 million views. Some 147,000 engagements were earned as well.

4. Whalar

Who they are: Whalar is an award-winning creator commerce company based in Australia, Germany, Spain, the United States and the United Kingdom. They offer services including talent management and brand partnership.

 Case study: Chupa Chups

Chupa Chups aimed to use TikTok to build a strong brand association between Halloween and the Spanish lollipop brand for a new audience in the United Kingdom.

Chupa Chups partnered with Whalar to create ads during spooky season and the outcome was delightfully frightful. Their Halloween campaign provides a great example of what can happen when content successfully aligns with a community or strong theme: brand recall was 42.6% and brand association was 5.7%, proving the campaign successful.

5. VMG Digital

Who they are: VMG Digital is an international creative services company that specializes in sponsored video ads and video content. They focus on using existing brand assets for repurposed content or mobile optimization, and also provide full-funnel marketing support.

Case study: Samsung

Samsung aimed to promote their new Galaxy Z Fold3 | Z Flip3 to Millennials and Gen Z in the Vietnamese market. The global smartphone brand sought to scale its exposure and engage with younger generations to show what their new foldable phone could accomplish.

Along with a series of ads, Samsung created a branded hashtag challenge, #VuDieuGapMo (Folding Dance). Popular TikTok creators like @hoaa.hanassii were used to drive more visibility to the campaign and encourage users to participate. To encourage participation further, Samsung offered chances to win prizes including the Galaxy Z Flip3.

The results of the campaign were astounding: in only two weeks, #VuDieuGapMo became the fastest TikTok campaign to reach 1 billion views in Vietnam. Over 259,800 videos were created for the challenge. Most benchmarks for the campaign were exceeded and Samsung saw a 14% increase in sales compared to its campaign target as well.

What TikTok marketing services can agencies offer?

TikTok marketing agencies typically offer services that can be split into two categories: strategy and content creation/execution. Here’s a brief summary of the two:

TikTok strategy

Agencies can help brands create a holistic TikTok marketing strategy. This can include defining a target audience and goals, performing competitor analysis, running analytics and reporting.

To carry out these tasks, it’s common for agencies to use social media management software like Sprout Social. We don’t mean to toot our own horn, but we’re an official TikTok Marketing Partner. And we’re one of the only social media management software companies that offers a TikTok integration. You can use Sprout Social’s TikTok management tools to manage, analyze and optimize your campaign.

Along with video scheduling, you can manage comments in our Smart Inbox and share presentation-ready analytics reports.

TikTok content creation and execution

Agencies can also help manage full content creation and campaign execution. Along with video production, this can include building partnerships with content creators and influencers.

There are also a variety of TikTok business solutions agencies can offer their clients, such as paid strategies using TopView and In-Feed Ads, or engagement strategies harnessing branded effects and hashtag challenges.

Next steps for TikTok marketing agencies

If you’re an agency looking to grow current services, expanding your offerings to TikTok marketing is a great place to start given its popularity and effectiveness.

And if you want an hands-on experience to learn more about how Sprout can help manage and analyze your new campaigns, sign up for a free one-month trial.

The post 5 best TikTok marketing agencies in 2023 appeared first on Sprout Social.

In 2023, a solid social strategy will only do half the work. The key to wins is all about using data thoughtfully and with intention to paint a complete story of the relationship between your customers and your business. 

So, how can you gather this data and become a go-to for critical business insights? Tune in to hear our experts share how they leverage social data to inform not only how a business markets itself, but also what it makes, who it’s made for and how it’s sold.

You’ll learn:

• Best practices for identifying and sharing data that drives impact
• How to create internal and competitor benchmarks so you know exactly where you stand
• Why your brand needs to capitalize on social insights, and the risks if you don’t

The post How to Make the Most Out of Your Social Data in 2023 & Beyond [Webinar] appeared first on Sprout Social.

As more brands understand the impact social media can have on business outcomes, agencies need to reevaluate how they work with clients.

To understand how agencies are adapting to the changing digital landscape, we surveyed 228 agencies about their service offerings, client pricing and packaging and how they’re planning to build agency resilience in 2023 and beyond.

What you’ll find in this report:

• The most common agency pain points
• The evolution of agency service offerings
• Agencies’ approach to pitching and packing services
• Where to focus during times of economic uncertainty

Download this report to learn how to effectively price and package your agency service offering.

The post The Agency Pricing and Packaging Report appeared first on Sprout Social.

Agency expert and founder of Chatterkick, Beth Trejo, walks us through her agency’s journey, from inception to execution of offering TikTok as an agency service. Tune in to hear first hand experience on how to successfully:

• Spin up TikTok as a service
• Pitch TikTok to clients and prospects and
• Execute strategy on fast paced networks

The post TikTok as a Service [Webinar] appeared first on Sprout Social.