5 Ideas to Convince a Client to Use Social Media

Marketers today are looking for specialized communication partners, and with an increase in the demand of social media in marketing plans today, there is a sudden spurt of talent in this space too. This has led to making it difficult to impress marketers.

It is clearly a business where only the best survives for the long run. There are a few things that social media agencies should keep in mind while preparing their pitch note. Here are five ideas that social media agencies can take a note of while making that big presentation:

1. Decode the big question, “Why Social Media?”

It is very important for a marketer to understand the relevance of a media platform. As a social media agency, it will be interesting to have a pre-made guide of sorts, that can be presented to every prospective client.

It is essential that a marketers understand how social media can add value to the brands associated with it. There is a common misconception that social media is slowly turning out to be a mass media vehicle, and it is time that marketers sit back and take lessons on what social media can bring to their table.

Every social media agency therefore should sit down for a social media training session with brand managers. At the end of a sit down meeting, an agency should be ready with a set of goals which go a long way to develop a stronger pitch.

2. Be open to integrated ideas:

Most brand managers deal with a bunch of specialized agencies for its day to day marketing activities. While building one big idea, what usually happens is that brand managers get lost handling various specialists.

Social media agencies should respect that the brand has other communication partners. Being open to suggestions and ideas from them should be an obvious willingness of a social media agency, considering a big idea can generate from any end of the communication spectrum.

Since this is a big worry for brand managers today, it is a must for all social media agencies to add meetings with other specialized agencies even before they are asked to do so. It will be an interesting move and could also help in sketching better ideas.

3. Discuss opportunities & be warned about the risk factors

As mentioned above, educating clients about social media is a basic move that all social media agencies should take up. It is also imperative that the clients are updated regarding the new features that each social media network announces.

Encourage them to experiment with various new branding opportunities, but insist they do so after detailed research. Agencies have to make clients understand the relevance of the advertising feature before investing money into it.

A push on social media does not always result into a positive response, nor can all activities cause an increase in the fan base of the brand’s social media community. There are always chances that an activity will backfire. Keeping these things in mind, social media agencies should warn clients about the consequences of every activity, and the risks it involves.

4.Talk about numbers

All of a sudden, there is a spate of all kinds of brands wanting to be on social media. This is primarily because of a misconstrued belied that social space on the internet is a free media platform. Social media agencies should break this misconception at the very beginning, even before getting on board.

Investments on social media are cost effective, but most certainly not free. It is advisable for an agency to prepare a spreadsheet that decodes what the investments will look like, starting from maintenance of the brand pages on social media to buying ads/sponsored spots, to even extra value added services for this space.

Shying away from talking about numbers might not be healthy in the long run, and a majority of clients will appreciate this move.

5. Under-promise and Over-deliver

‘Under-promise and Over-deliver’ is the golden rule of marketing. Social media agencies need to present themselves as smarties. Over enthusiasm is the downfall for most cases, making agencies fall flat on their faces. Set a target goal and make sure the set ideas are not cliche.

Social media agencies should work on how to create impressive ideas, with the end goal concentrating on growing the communities. The primary focus during the pitch presentation must be to create noise, and develop ideas which are cost effective, and yet exciting.

If everything goes well, clients may pick the agency, based on freshness over experience. So the key factor that agencies should keep in mind is to be extremely passionate about their work and drive newer ideas.