How Much Does Social Media Management Cost?

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How much will outsourced social media management in Sydney cost? This is a very broad question as it varies from provider to provider. In this post, we’ll talk about why you should invest in social media management, as well as roughly how much you should spend. We also break down some of the main costs involved, so you understand where your money goes.

Why Invest in Social Media Management?

Before we discuss the costs of social media management, you should understand why it’s a worthy investment. In short, it will provide your business with the following benefits:

• Increased brand awareness

• More targeted leads

• Better lead conversion rate (because they'll already understand your business)

• Increased website traffic

• Boosted community engagement

• Improved sales figures

When done correctly and over a long period of time, it tends to elicit a positive ROI. The money you pump in encourages the benefits above, leading to more money being made as a result. With that in mind, let’s look at what’s usually included in the costs of social media management.

What Are The Main Costs of Social Media Management?

The key things you’ll pay for as part of social media management include:

• Cost of launching on a new social channel - This includes creating new content, coming up with template designs, building and running the social media profile, developing a content calendar, and much more.

• Cost of creating content - As well as launching and running social media profiles, you must consider the cost of creating ongoing content. Social Media teams are engaged to write social media posts, develop ideas for short-form video content and edit reels and imagery, but the raw content still needs to come from the business itself. This can be facilitated by photographers and videographers on your behalf, but content creation, such as a product or business shoot is one of the larger expenses.

• Cost of social media ad campaigns - Social media advertising spending has increased by 25% since last year alone. It’s a growing industry, so you need to consider how much money it will cost. You have to remember the cost of actually setting up your ad campaigns as well as the cost-per-click across each social media platform.

• Platform management costs - Social media management involves using different platforms or tools to look after your social accounts. This could include subscriptions to software, or other tools used for management. You'll need tools for both planning and creating your posts and the corresponding assets.

• Cost of analytics software - Similarly, you’ll need analytics software to track progress and monitor your results. This can also set you back, especially if you’re trying to manage things in-house.

Overall, you’ve got lots of things to think about if you want to attempt in-house social media management. There is also the cost of hiring suitable resources, training them, providing employment benefits and briefing them on the strategy with which you want them to work.

Instead, most small to medium-sized businesses are encouraged to look into outsourced social media management. This involves either working with an outsourcing agency or hiring freelancers.

Comparing Outsourcing Agencies and Freelance Social Media Management

When you outsource social media management, especially to an agency, some of the previously mentioned costs disappear because instead of paying for 100% of those costs, you will only be paying a portion of them as they will be a cost of business to an agency who have multiple clients for which they use the same resources.

You will still need to pay for your own content creation and ad spend, as this is unique to you, but you will benefit from shared resources in other areas. When you pay an agency or freelancer to handle everything for you, it can lead to significant cost savings when compared to building an in-house social media team.

How do outsourcing agencies and freelancers compare in terms of social media management costs?

Generally, paying for a freelance social media manager on their own will be cheaper than picking an agency. However, you’re unlikely to get the full capabilities that an agency provides. A consultant is just one person, yet social media management requires the skills of a strategist, conceptual creative thinker, copywriter, designer, photographer, videographer, video editor, and technical wizard!

You'll need to determine whether the freelancer will create content for you, or are they simply managing your accounts and engaging with customers? Ultimately, it's rare to find quality resources that can lend themselves to all aspects of social media management, and you may find if you are not clear on specifically what they will be able to do that you'll need to hire additional resources in other skillsets to get a full remit of capabilities to manage everything effectively. Pretty quickly, the costs ramp up and are more expensive than if you opted for a full-service outsourced social media management agency in the first place.

On average, you can expect to spend between $2,000 to $8,000 a month on outsourced social media management, depending on the extent of services included within your package, and not including your ad spend. This is what most agencies in Sydney are currently charging. Look into exactly what the team will be doing for the price they are charging, and their level of expertise and experience - it’s often worth spending a bit extra to get a more experienced company and avoid a false economy from trying to cut costs.

At The Change Starter, we advise businesses to spend a total annual marketing budget (to include all aspects of your marketing, not only social media) of 7-10% of your annual revenue based on global benchmarks. Within your marketing budget, look to spend anywhere between 10-30% on social media.

From a broader perspective, social media is just one part of the total marketing mix for your business and it may have more or less relevance depending on the nature of your business. Often, social media is simply about have a credible presence to assist in warming up prospective customers, and may not therefore have a direct, or immediate effect on sales, unless you are running an eCommerce business.

To get the most out of your marketing budget, we recommend working with a team of outsourced social media management in Sydney or across Australia. At The Change Starter, we work with established small and medium-sized businesses, helping them achieve social media presence and engagement. Our packages are tailored to the needs of your budget and marketing strategy.

Book a free consultation today and find out how outsourcing your social media management can help you free up your time to run your business!

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