You and 50% of marketers consider social media to be the most challenging tactic for execution. That doesn’t have to be the case! Hire one of the social media marketing companies listed below and make the first step towards online marketing success.
Taking into consideration the core meaning and the idea of the best social media marketing agency, analyzing hundreds of online materials and sites, and going through a large number of user reviews and ratings, we’ve defined the most crucial factors that play a role in determining whether an agency is worth hiring or not. You’re about to read a list of these factors, each of them explained in detail.
The first thing we looked for when analyzing top social media marketing companies was the services offered. We gathered this data by analyzing the companies’ websites and the services they offer to their clients. What’s also important here is just how good is each social media marketing agency in the services it provides. We analyzed this matter from various aspects:
Answers to these questions gave us a better understanding of whether a company is a social media-focused marketing company or one of the full-service digital marketing companies with a broad spectrum of services.
In the ever-changing digital world, creativity is critical for staying on top of the game. And at the same time, it’s our second most important ranking factor.
Again, mainly relying on clients’ reviews and their view of the solution the agency they hired offered them, we measured social media companies’ creativity and innovativeness in several areas:
In social media marketing, it’s all about delivering results and reporting them in numbers. Our research focused on getting data from users on the actual results provided by the social media agencies they worked with. Some of the questions we needed answered to gather the necessary data were:
We’d say that measuring the performance of the social media management companies based on user ratings comes down to 3 major factors: the improvement of the ROI for the client, the increase in online visibility, and the increase of conversion rates.
The online world is a tricky place - which is why we rely on quality reviews and user ratings to make decisions. For our ranking of the best social media marketing companies, we asked the listed organizations to remind their customers to leave reviews and rate them on our platform. We also made sure to reach out to previous customers of the listed companies and get a review from them.
For the ratings, we focused on getting information on the following essential aspects:
In addition to carefully designed questionnaires for clients, we also examined and verified the social media management agencies’ reputation across the web. This is done by ascertaining if the company has famous bloggers writing blog posts, case studies, and similar. Social profiles of key people in the company are also checked for existence and activity. In the online world, it’s highly recommended that owners and key people working in this industry are aware of the latest trends.
All data gathered from real users, competitor sites, and social media profiles of people in the company were aggregated to form one complete result.
Another important factor in ranking social marketing companies is the existence of case studies, certificates, and awards won by the agency itself. Here’s why:
Company culture doesn’t include just the internal organization and company lunches. It’s much more than that, and it has a considerable influence over the quality of social media consulting firms on the market. Company culture encompasses factors such as:
These aspects allowed us to create an overall impression of the company culture that rules on the subject we analyzed for this website.
Finally, one of the critical factors that influence the ranking on our list of social media marketing companies is how much they charge for their services, and the value for money clients get when hiring their chosen social media company.
How agencies define their pricing depends on which agency you choose, as there’s no industry standard at the moment.
We interviewed managers of the most significant SMM companies and analyzed their websites to be able to confirm the dominance of the following three social media marketing companies’ pricing models:
Agencies that use this pricing model exchange time for a set price. This model has many disadvantages, and many agencies in the industry often criticize it as it emphasizes agencies’ costs.
According to our research and performed analysis, the price per defined result is the fairest pricing model as it benefits both parties. Usually, the top social media marketing agencies that use this pricing model focus on the result entirely instead of focusing on their costs. They’re motivated by the shared risks and rewards as their client and, therefore, work towards achieving results they will charge for later.
Fixed fee or project-based pricing model is used mainly by large social media consulting companies that take on enterprise-level clients and are hired on a long-term basis. At the core of this collaboration is a relationship that both sides work on and nurture during an extended period. The client sets clear goals here, and how they’re achieved is up to the social media consulting firm’s professionals to work out. This is a lucrative pricing model and works perfectly well if you can acquire clients on whose accounts you’ll work regularly.
Our analysis won’t be complete without pointing out the essential aspects a social media advertising company must carry out.
In this part of our comprehensive analysis, after interviewing the managers of our subject companies, we concluded that there are five essential elements a social media ad agency must carry out to deserve and retain its place in this industry.
Interviewing managers of the best social media companies gave us the “not so surprising fact” that 99% of any SMM company’s success lies in creating a stable, thorough strategy for achieving their client’s goals.
But what exactly is included in this strategy? What are the elements of a good plan? Through our research, we found out that three elements constitute a grand strategy:
As a client, you need to work with your chosen social advertising agency to present your business goals as clearly as possible. The agency, on the other hand, must work to define how it can use social media to contribute towards achieving those set goals.
Social media advertising agencies must set clear and SMART (specific, measurable, achievable, results-focused, time-bound) targets that will guide the way from point A to point B (the expected results). These objectives are also parameters that define when a goal is considered as achieved. They make goals measurable and tangible.
your social marketing agency of choice must be able to conduct a complete competition analysis and gain insight into the market you’re competing in. This is a critical element in designing a solid strategy that will drive results and maximize your ROI. If the agency doesn’t offer such a service, there are plenty of market research specialists they can outsource to.
Content is at the core of social media marketing. Without reliable, on-point, and customized content, any effort is useless. A top social media marketing company will have strong creative abilities in the form of a well-prepared team of creative people: content writers, videographers, photographers, graphic designers. Beyond checking the boxes from our custom criteria for content marketing agencies, we assessed the social media marketing specialists for the following three crucial elements:
The content, social media advertising agency creates is nothing if it’s not targeted to the perfect customer for the goal you’re trying to achieve. If you know the ideal customer well, you can create the type of content he/she wants to consume.
According to most interviewed managers, a great social media strategy agency should be ready to create and deliver all kinds of content at any time. So blog posts, longer content assets, video content, animated content, photos, etc., of the highest quality should all take place in an agency’s content arsenal.
Based on what the ideal customer wants, the frequency of delivering content should be in accordance. Social media marketing agencies would examine the best times of the day for posting and how often materials should be displayed so that the target persona is satisfied.
If you already know your target audience well, then you know where they hang out most on social media. Top social media agencies should recognize this and be proficient in using the correct channels for proper and targeted distribution of content.
At this point, an agency should be able to design a solid distribution plan based on the analysis of your target audience and develop a strategy around the social channels your buyers frequently visit. For example, Facebook advertising experts should also cover other essential platforms, including Twitter, Instagram, YouTube, Snapchat, and more.
Furthermore, social media marketing firms will have to assign roles for different tasks that need to be done on different channels.
According to our research and analysis, a good strategy is successful only if the activation tools are both appropriate and adequately used. Tightly connected with the defined budget and the strategy execution fees, tactics must be prioritized to produce results within the specified time frame. According to our research, social media marketing companies’ tactics fall into one of two groups:
These are activation techniques that produce the fastest ROI. They are performed at the beginning of every strategy. These tactics include advertising and social referral.
For more significant and attainable ROI, long-term activation tactics include fan acquisition, quality content creation, engaging paid influencers (or establishing a solid collaboration with the top influencer marketing companies to do so), and long-term engagement with your audience.
The social media marketing agency’s services are only as good as the results they bring to clients. Goal measurement and analytics reports are tools that any agency must be able to provide and, moreover, base their work on explaining them well.
When it comes to measuring goals and tracking progress, a good analytics report provided by SMM companies should include a few elements:
The report should consist of numbers on the desired effects such as form submissions, downloaded materials, email newsletter signups, online purchases, video views, social interactions, etc.
if your social media agency uses different platforms to achieve your social goals, then the report should include analytics from each platform. How well are you performing in followers numbers, social interactions, and other desired actions on each platform?
Social media companies should also provide reliable reports on the campaigns they run as well. Here, the report should include metrics like time spent, cost of ads, ROI on ads, as well as activities performed to launch the campaign.
Hiring a social media agency to take care of social marketing endeavors for you isn’t easy. It’s an investment, and as such, needs to be done right. We’ve researched many online materials and conducted many interviews with key people in the industry to create a list of things that any business owner needs to consider before and after they hire an SMM agency.
Before you go into hiring a social media firm, it’s advisable to know what you want to achieve. It’s important to know if you're going to have a well-managed online presence for your business and utilize social media only to raise brand awareness or you wish to turn social media into a sales channel?
Depending on your business goals, you’d have to choose from the different types of agencies out there. As online marketing is a broad area that includes many different niches, there are many types of agencies. You can choose between:
Another classification method that is also worth considering is the type of service the social media company specializes in:
Finally, what you want to look into, is whether the agency’s primary area of expertise matches your goals and marketing objectives. If so, that would mean that the agency in question can contribute towards reaching your goals, therefore making it a suitable choice. The best social media agencies often offer the whole package but ensure that you need the bundle because it may hurt your budget.
The bottom line is, you must have your marketing goals defined internally before you start narrowing down options and deciding which type of agency to choose.
Another aspect of choosing from a list of SMM companies accordingly is whether you want to expand your reach globally or locally. If you’re more interested in conquering the local market, you may want to go with a local marketing agency for two reasons:
If your goals are to expand your reach globally, you may want to move forward with a more popular social media company with resources to push your brand to the global market. Mainly, here we refer to the professionals that are part of a particular agency’s team and have the knowledge and insights to achieve your goals on that scale.
You don’t want to choose the first social media management company that meets your goals. Remember, this is an investment of time and money, and you want it to be as correct as possible. Investigate all the potential social media agencies you want to hire. One of the best ways to do so is if you read customer reviews.
Customer reviews are your free insight into your chosen agency’s quality of work, company culture, productivity, and overall reliability. You can read quality reviews on our website and reliable business directories.
Another good way to get information on whether a social media management agency is worth hiring is by reading case studies. While reviews give insights into aspects like quality of work and company culture, case studies tell you how an agency works, the work organization they have, strategies and outcomes so far, and methods the social media management companies use to achieve their goals.
When you create a shortlist of companies, the next step is to discuss their strategy and outcome expectations. As you’re hiring an agency to work on your social media presence, you want to know how to create the plan, execute it and what outcome you should expect. When discussing results, you want to know how they will drive them to realization, whether they can do it within your budget limits and within a previously defined timeframe.
For instance, if you’re dealing with real estate, social media marketing companies can develop a successful strategy to popularize your business. Likewise, you can check the outcome and see if their campaign has brought any results in increased sales or whichever your goal was.
To confirm what you agreed on during your strategy/outcomes discussion, you want to ask for a sample report from the social media consulting firm to see if you’ll get what you asked for. This sample report should include metrics like reach, growth, engagement, traffic, and lead generation.
Budget is something you want to define before you hire a social media advertising company. This factor refers to how much you want to invest in social media marketing services to reach your objectives and goals. Your chosen agency will then give you a rough estimate of whether your budget is sufficient for achieving what you expect, drawing from their experience, of course.
Having this in mind, don’t always rush into accepting what the agency suggests regarding the budget; in social advertising and media management, the good thing is that you can still change the budget you want to spend.
At this point, you also want to discuss social media marketing companies’ pricing for the services they’re offering. As discussed before, there are different pricing models agencies in this industry use, so make sure you clearly define what they expect you to pay.
Also, when looking at pricing as a selection element, don’t always assume that the more expensive the service, the better the quality. On the other hand, running and managing social media is a long-term relationship that requires a lot of time, money, and trust invested. Consequently, if the proposed offer is way too low, you may want to reconsider your choice as well.
If you’re not on social media, it’s like your business doesn’t exist. Social media marketing companies exist because it’s that important to have a well-managed social media presence. There are many more reasons why social media presence is a must for businesses in today’s world, and we’ll emphasize just a few:
Since it’s of such importance to have a social media presence, SM agencies do precisely that: they promote your business online, on social media platforms and channels. Furthermore, top social media companies use various tools and strategies to put your business in front of as many competitors as possible.
If done right, everyone can benefit from social media, as the basic concept of social media is to serve the audience who searches for answers with suitable solutions that your business may be offering.
Therefore, with the right strategy conducted by top social media agencies – you can benefit as a company, and the audience can find great use of your success as well.
You, as a company, will benefit as you’ll have your products and services put forward to a broad audience who has shown interest in what you have to offer by actively searching online for those exact or similar products and services. You’ll also get reviews from satisfied customers who will raise brand awareness about your business and give you a chance to change and become even better in the future.
The audience will also benefit from your cooperation with one of the best social media companies, as people will find what they are searching for and encounter an experience that they’d be happy to recommend.
The best way to learn about a company’s experience and customer satisfaction is to go online and read materials that offer proof, like customer reviews and case studies by the company itself.
Case studies and the company’s portfolio are the best indicators of their experience, while customer reviews are your gateway into quality customer satisfaction insights. If you’re using Google as your tool to source the best social media agencies, you’ll end up on websites like our own and read many quality customer reviews that will help you make a decision effortlessly.
Case studies and customer reviews aren’t just good for businesses looking to hire the best social media agency but also for professionals looking to get into that industry. If you have your entrepreneurial spirit up high and wondering how to start an SMM agency, checking how other agencies work and where they fail may be a good start.
Finally, since many different social media marketing companies focus on various advertising aspects, choosing the agency that will work on your social presence is an extensive process. Make sure you check all the boxes before you decide to make this investment.