International brands allocate millions of dollars to work with online audiences, while small companies and private entrepreneurs can often afford to spend only a few hundred dollars (or even rubles) per month on SMM. However, the principles for allocating the budget most effectively are the same regardless of the amount invested.
First, determine what percentage of your income you are willing to invest in SMM. Specialists from the Duke School of Business analyzed the expense items of the most dynamically developing companies and saw that the share of SMM in their marketing budget is growing from year to year.
The formation of budgets depends on the segment, target audience and financial capabilities, so everyone has a unique budget, taking into account individual characteristics. However, there are a few basic principles to consider when planning your social media efforts.
If the entire budget is taken as 100%, then 60% should be allocated to creating content and maintaining pages on social networks (this includes preparing a content plan, copywriting, design, posting and working with comments). Direct 30% of budget funds to promotion and promotion (advertising on social networks, competitions, promotional posts from opinion leaders, etc.). Another 5% each goes to research and analytics, as well as training and development.
According to many years of research, good picture on social networks - this is the lion's share of a successful post. In addition to the well-known Photoshop, there are many online image editors with beautiful templates that will help you create bright and memorable images for your posts. For example, or.
Try, experiment, choose what suits you best.
Don't forget about video, it is the future. According to the Social Media Marketing Industry Report 2016, 73% of professionals intend to post videos more often in 2018, and every second will use live broadcasts.
If you think that advertising is not for you, you are mistaken. MarketingSherpa notes that the age category of Internet users from 18 to 34 years old is highly likely to subscribe to a brand on social networks (95%), although they do not accept other types of advertising.
Even those advertise themselves trademarks, which have been at the top for many years. In order to determine which social network is most effective for your product, you should spend 10–20 dollars investing in the most popular social networks: Facebook, VKontakte, Instagram, Twitter, and then compare the indicators.
This is what the IT research company WordStream came up with. Your results may be different.
Social networks are a wonderful resource feedback. The needs and desires of the target audience are visible from comments and reactions to a particular post. In order to accurately move in the right direction, you need to carefully monitor the mood within social media and respond to them correctly.
The educational plan involves adding (paid and/or free) to various groups and communities that deal with a common topic with you. This will help you grow professionally, increase your audience reach, and subsequently reduce costs on certain services in SMM promotion of your own product.
Main rule: all costs must be justified. A balanced and clearly prepared media plan will be the key to a successful SMM strategy.
Every entrepreneur who has decided to start promoting their business online has one interesting and pressing question - how much will it cost?
Everything is correct, because every person needs to calculate their budget and plan expenses. And when it comes to business, there is no question, you need to count every penny.
the site decided to help businessmen understand at least a little about pricing in the market for marketing services. Today we’ll talk about probably the most popular and relevant direction – SMM, or promotion in social networks.
How much does it cost to build a house?
The problem is that there is no single price. Each specialist will tell you his price - it all depends on the scope of work and his ambitions (in general, it completely depends on what - I’ll tell you a little lower). And what’s the problem - even if they tell you a high price for services, it is not a fact that these same services will be of really high quality.
The price range is large - from several thousand to several tens of thousands. A freelancer can write content for you and set up advertising for a price ranging from 5,000 to infinity. Agencies rate themselves an order of magnitude higher. A few eminent experts are even higher.
Don't go after cheap prices. But there’s no need to rush to shell out millions either. It is difficult to find a middle ground.
Here, rather, you need to think in this way - what will I get in return and whether I can afford it. Will the channel pay for itself and make a profit - that is the main question.
What you definitely don’t need to do is contact different specialists with the question “how much does promotion cost?” Because it, this promotion, includes a lot of aspects, and first you need to decide why you are actually starting all this.
Do you just want “to have a group, otherwise Vasya has it”, do you need sales, or do you want to promote the brand? Are you ready to write content yourself, or do you need a turnkey service?
The final price will depend on all these aspects. Let's look at them in more detail.
What does the price depend on?
The price of services in the field of SMM, as I already said, depends on many factors, first of all it – amount of work. If you only need to write content, and your marketer will set up advertising himself, then you need an SMM copywriter who will write content and prepare publications. The price of such work varies from 100 rubles per post, the market average (and again, everyone evaluates himself, it happens differently).
The second factor influencing the price is novelty of goods and services that needs to be promoted. It is somewhat more difficult to promote new products; first you need to create demand for it. Social networks are well suited in this regard (remember spinners and other little things, where do you think they were told to the general public?)
Third factor - number of social networks, in which work will need to be carried out. There are a lot of them now - VK, Facebook, Odnoklassniki, Twitter. Often a business wants to be present everywhere, but the amount of work with this approach increases significantly. The price for promotion is the same. By the way, you don’t have to be everywhere, but that’s another story.
Fourth - how many publications will come out. It’s one thing if it’s one every other day, another thing if it’s several pieces a day.
Geography of promotion– another factor that affects the final price. But not because it is more difficult for an agency or freelancer to set up advertising - no, there will be a larger advertising budget.
Does the company have problems with its image? what about reputation?– another factor. By the way, not everyone will take it if they know you as a bad company or if you sell, excuse me, crap.
The experience and competence of an agency or freelancer is also an important factor in pricing. A beginner will learn from your business (and it’s not a fact that the result will be bad), and will take it cheaper. An experienced, reputable agency will charge many times more. By the way, neither the first nor the second will give any guarantees.
What does the final cost of promotion consist of?
In general, if you look at it, the price of promotion on social networks consists of three components.
Actually the work of a specialist.
You can order all this from different people. Hire a copywriter, hire a targetologist who will set up advertising and develop a strategy (by the way, a copywriter can also think through a content plan for the public, I do this myself - I draw up a plan and write articles). The advertising budget will be calculated by a targetologist, but no one can tell you anything right away - you need to test it.
That is, you will need money to pay for setting up advertising, transfer money to the advertising account and pay for the work of a copywriter. And you also need someone who will supervise all this work and direct it in the right direction - preferably a full-time marketer. Or you, if you understand anything.
Agencies take responsibility for content and work - developing a strategy, setting up advertising, working with audiences, etc. Some include advertising costs in the final cost, some do not. Please check.
Do you want specific numbers? I won't name names. I’ll just look at a real example from my current practice.
The public is promoting in a highly competitive niche. For the work of a targetologist, they pay 30,000 rubles per month. He develops a strategy, creates creatives, sets up targets, and works with subscribers.
The content for the public is written by a copywriter. One post – 500 rubles. Three posts a week. Take a calculator and calculate...
The result is that the client has no end to clients (sorry for the tautology). But the targetologist is cool, the client is cool, all the guys are great.
Would you like to be told at least an approximate cost right away? You should come to a specialist with a clear understanding of what you actually want:
Increase coverage;
Increase sales;
Create a specific brand image.
Specify in which region (or how many) you need promotion. Describe your target audience (if you know). Indicate how long the product or service has been on the market.
And always ask to explain what is included in the price. It must be justified.
Good luck with your promotion, and may your advertising costs pay off many times over!
Two years ago we launched our project. This is a single subscription that provides access to one-time training sessions and visits to various fitness rooms and studios. Initially, we did not set aside a large budget for marketing; we immediately decided to make maximum use of various useful services, of which there are a lot now.
Services for
This is a tool with which you can easily find out what is being written about your company, competitors, or any topic on blogs, social networks, or news. The search returns results based on keywords or topics.
You respond to their requests, and the more interesting your answer is, the more likely it is that it will be selected and published. There is a convenient subscription to queries, we track “fitness”, “startups”, “healthy lifestyle” and so on.
Analytics services
Survey builder, very easy to use. Easily integrated into your website or blog.
You can choose different blocks and ready-made designs. With the help of such a survey, it is easy to collect customer opinions.
Helps with website and platform analytics. The service is very useful if you want to work with media. You can view traffic and its sources, track seasonality and the influence of other indicators. It’s easy to predict how useful publications on different resources will be.
You can check absolutely any site, but the service will not display very low traffic. The downside is that the data is not always reliable.
Specific requests are also easy to check. For example, enter “yoga butovo” and the service will show you who is already making progress on this request.
Another service that analyzes competitors’ search advertising.
Services for designing the visual component of a brand
As for the design, we were looking for resources where you can find something original and “uncluttered”.
The service was a wonderful discovery. For 10 dollars a month – huge selection photos, templates, flyers, icons and much more. We use this resource all the time (and are very happy with it).
If you don’t have a designer, ordering work from one freelancer is not the best good idea. Our experience has shown that with such cooperation, some kind of failures often occur.
This is a designer exchange where you leave your request, complete technical specifications, and set the cost of the work. Then the designers compete and offer you different options. So instead of three options from one designer, you can get about 100 from different people.
Few people use it, although it is a tool where Google itself tells you why your page loads poorly, is poorly indexed, and what needs to be changed to make it more satisfied with your site, from a search point of view.
This service sometimes helps out well, but you need to use it with caution. Read reviews and check artist ratings.
Basics
Here I would like to mention tools that seem to be known to everyone, certainly to Rusbase readers. But when I spoke at an industry event in November, it turned out that for most they were completely unfamiliar. Therefore, it would not be superfluous to remind about them.