How to Get Clients for Social Media Marketing Without Sacrificing Time

So you quit your 9-to-5 job and decided to start your own social media marketing business. You’re excited about facing the road ahead and enjoying the freedom entrepreneurship has to offer. While all of this is well and good, the biggest question that’s begging for an answer is “how and where do you get clients?”

Like any other huge endeavor, determining your first step will always be the toughest part. When it comes to business, landing your first client means the same thing. It’s a bit more crucial though because there’d be no business without clients in the first place.

The good news is that there are countless ways to get clients for social media marketing. Some of them won’t even take up a lot of your time, and below are a couple of them:

1.  Grow and tap into your network

It shouldn’t come as a surprise that the first (and probably the easiest) people we come to are our friends and family as well as their respective networks. It’s natural for us to tell the people closest to us about our new ventures. They’re our first line of support so immediately going to them makes perfect sense.

More than the expected support, the advice, tips, and ideas they can impart are invaluable. These are ideas that can help you grow your business and take it to the next level.

Coming to our loved ones also opens up countless opportunities, particularly when it comes to their networks. By knowing about the services you offer, they can easily introduce you to a friend who requires your skills, for example. As you continue to help people, these new clients can also introduce you to people in their networks, helping you grow your client list exponentially.

2.  Leverage the power of social media

As someone who specializes in social media marketing, you know very well just how powerful it can be when used the right way. With the amount of competition you have to contend with, however, it will take more than sharing posts to get in front of and land potential clients.

If you are going to land clients on social media, you must do something that would make you stand out. You have to smartly identify common issues and pain points and let people know how you can help.

While Facebook is considered the gold standard when it comes to social media platforms, finding clients for social media is best done via LinkedIn. Not only does the platform allow you to see a person’s skills and position held, but it also lets you view personal and company profiles. This will go a long way towards giving you some good insights about the business and the challenges it faces.

This doesn’t necessarily mean that you can totally take Facebook out of the equation, however. Having a Facebook page or group would be a good way to introduce yourself to the Facebook crowd. Share valuable content that highlights your social media skills. Engage with your audience by replying to comments and liking and sharing other people’s content back.

Though it may take some time for people to take notice and reciprocate your efforts, it’s a good first step towards landing clients for social media marketing. Building a social media presence, creating content, and doing daily outreach takes time. Though you have the skills to accomplish all these on your own, outsourcing these tasks to a freelancer may be the wiser choice. This is especially true if you’re just starting out.

3. Tap into the power of SEO

Every business today needs a website for it to have a chance at standing out over its competition. With most people spending a majority of their time online, you’ll be wasting a ton of opportunities by not having an online presence.

This is especially true when the services you offer are all online-based. By having a website that tells people what your business is all about, the next logical step is to tap into the power of search engine optimization (SEO).

Getting clients for social media marketing can be a lot easier with a website that’s SEO-optimized. There’s no question that increased visibility and discoverability puts you at an advantage, which is exactly what SEO brings to the table.

If prospective clients can find your business on the first page of search results, you have a better chance of getting picked over other similar businesses and get more clients in the process. This makes perfect sense considering how people are always on the go these days and won’t bother looking beyond the first page.

If you want to increase your chances of getting found, hiring an SEO expert would be a smart move. This will help you focus on building your business while a freelancer takes care of your SEO needs.

4. Invest in Pay-per-click advertising

Pay-per-click advertising is also an effective way of getting found. What makes it a worthwhile option is that it allows you to target people who are most likely to avail of your services.

By feeding ads to a targeted audience, you are effectively filtering out prospective clients over irrelevant ones. With PPC, you are one step closer to finding clients who need your social media expertise.

Let’s say you target new businesses for instance. There’s a better chance that most of the people who will see your ad will likely reach out and inquire about your services than sending an ad for the general majority.

PPC and SEO have a lot in common if you think about it. The only difference is that SEO is more for the long term while PPC is more of a short-term investment. If you want to make the most of your budget, you’d be better off hiring a PPC specialist who can put you in front of the right audience.

Crafting an attention-grabbing ad takes time and skills. Though this can be learned, you’ll be saving more time and money if you outsource the task to someone with proven expertise.

5. Be active in relevant groups, forums, and communities

Joining relevant groups and forums is also an excellent tactic if you want to get clients for social media marketing. The key is to pinpoint groups where business owners who need social media expertise gather.

By answering their questions and providing helpful tips, you are, in a way, showcasing what you can do for them. This helps position you as a person of authority or someone they can go to for answers. By gaining people’s trust by showing them what you’re capable of, it won’t be surprising if some of them eventually become your clients.

If you don’t have the time to do all these, you can always hire a virtual assistant to cover these tasks on your behalf. Allow them to reach out to the group’s members and interact on your behalf. The more relationships they can build, the more prospective clients you stand to get.

6. Publish explainer videos

When it comes to landing clients, letting them know what you can do and how you can help are sometimes not enough. Since they will be shelling out money to enjoy your services, it’s natural for people to want to at least get a sneak peek of what it is you have to offer.

There’s no better way to show people a glimpse of what you can do than through explainer videos. It doesn’t have to be something elaborate. Just get in front of the camera and talk about anything that relates to social media marketing. Address common pain points or answer some of the questions business owners ask before they invest in social media marketing.

How can social media help my business? Do I have to have a presence on each of the social media platforms? How often should my business share content on social media?

Though these questions can be addressed via forums or blogs, answering them via videos is the better choice. This is because most people don’t have the time or patience to read articles. Videos are easier to consume. If they find your videos useful, people will likely take time to watch each of them.

Explainer videos are a good way of giving prospective clients a preview of your skills and expertise. It’s an excellent way to show them how you can help them grow their business through social media marketing. To make the videos much more pleasing to the eyes, hiring a freelance video editor would be ideal since editing videos takes time, too.

7. Hold a free webinar

This tactic is similar to an explainer video, only this time, you’re going to give a full-fledged live session. Though a lot of work goes into organizing a webinar, it allows you to show people what it’s like to have a social media marketer in their fold. It’s the best way to showcase what you can do because it’s more comprehensive and it covers a lot of topics.

It’s no secret that giving away freebies is an effective way of attracting attention. By giving away free information via a webinar, you are giving prospective clients a reason to attend. If they find you convincing enough, they will likely hire you to take care of their social media needs.

Get a freelancer to help you promote the webinar either via social media or ads to ensure maximum attendance. Have a VA on standby during the webinar itself in case you need assistance. Not all of the attendees are guaranteed to become clients, but in the end, a webinar is more of a numbers game. The more people witness your skills, the better your chances of landing more clients in the future.

8. Start a Blog

Another effective way of getting clients for social media marketing is to start a blog. Like a webinar, a blog is a good way of showing people your vast knowledge of social media and how they can use it as a tool to grow their business.

Unlike a webinar, however, blogs are not one-time events. If you are going to successfully land clients through your blog, it needs to be done on a regular and consistent basis. Blogs can do more than showcase your talent, though. A blog also provides you the opportunity to interact with readers.

By including thought-provoking calls to action at the end of each blog post, you are effectively opening the gates for future conversations. Replying to comments and answering questions can help you gain your readers’ trust, putting you in a position of authority.

If writing isn’t your ball of wax, this won’t be a problem because you can always outsource this task to a freelancer. The freelance market is filled with prolific bloggers who can help you create and publish posts regularly. This will help you save more time that you can use for higher-value tasks.

9. Use the power of word-of-mouth referral

Some consider it the oldest trick in the book, but word-of-mouth referral is still one of the most effective tactics you can consider using. This is not surprising considering how it has withstood the test of time. Even with the advent of social media, one can’t deny that it gets clients on board.

It may not deliver results immediately, however, especially if you’re just starting out. You will likely enjoy the benefits of word-of-mouth referral after landing a couple of clients who have their own networks of people they can refer you to. If your social media work made a huge difference for their business, it’s fair to say that they will gladly refer you to someone who has the same business needs. The more clients you please and impress, the more referrals you’re bound to get.

Final Thoughts

Getting clients for social media marketing is not as simple as we would like it to be. Like any other business, it takes time and effort to get the ball rolling. It doesn’t have to be complicated, though. This is especially true when you have freelancers who can help put your business in front of more eyes and get more clients in the process.

If you have a social media marketing business or is planning to start one, the tips mentioned above should help get you started. If you’re struggling to get more clients, we recommend you do a quick check on the tactics you currently have in place. Verify which of them are generating results and which ones aren’t.

If you haven’t tried any of the tips mentioned, we suggest you give them a shot. If you need help implementing the said tactics, you can always hire competent freelancers by becoming a FreeUp client.

If you loved the information provided above and find it useful, we would appreciate it if you can share this blog post via social media.