Are you a stud when it comes to growing social media accounts? It can be extremely profitable (and fun) for you to get your first clients under your belt.
Just imagine how your life would improve once you landed your first client.
If you have a 9 to 5 job, you’d generate a solid side hustle income or begin the process of transitioning to do this full time. If you’re a freelancer, this could develop into referrals and more leads for your other services. And if you’re a young entrepreneur, this could not only pay your bills but give you needed breathing room to continue working on your passion or building your business.
Extra money goes a long way regardless of the direction you take!
But I’m sure you know that step 1, getting the client, is easier said than done. Because you’re not the only one out there offering these services.
Working in the social media space is extremely competitive given the rich perks like:
- Getting clients results becomes extremely profitable
- Growing a following and engagement is a lot more fun than most types of jobs
- It’s location-independent work, all you need is Internet
- You get to express your creative side posting different text, images, and videos
- There are essentially zero costs of being in business
So how do you get your first paying clients?
That’s a great question and one I solved in 2015 when I got an individual to pay me to grow his Instagram account. And now I run a digital marketing company where I’m routinely managing clients’ social media accounts.
Here are the 3 best tips I’ve learned from my experiences that I want to pass on to you to help you get your first signed contract.
Tips To Get Social Media Clients
1) Believe in what you’re selling
This is the first building block you need to get right if you’re going to sell social media: believe in what you’re selling so you can be confident.
When you’re confident, it comes through in your communication (handshake, tone, smile, facial expressions, and body language) and leads them to believe you can generate leads from managing their social media account. That alone will push the needle from no deal to deal in many scenarios.
(Related: Is It Possible To Connect With Anyone)
And part of confidence comes with education. Be informed about why social media will produce these businesses more revenue, why social media is not going away, and how it protects their brand, how you will monitor social media campaigns and present them with the tangible results etc.
However, when you, the seller, aren’t confident then that also comes out and returns the opposite effect—no sale.
For example, a business owner I met with for lunch last Friday told a story of how a family friend of his is going door to door selling new utilities packages. He made the joke that no one is actively looking for a new utilities service and he could see it on the guy’s face that he wasn’t all in about his offering. Needless to say, the utilities seller didn’t close the deal.
Why? Because he didn’t even believe in what he was selling so he can’t convince the consumer to believe.
Always remember that confidence is contagious. Use it in your favor when pitching potential new clients.
(Tip: If you don’t believe in the power of social media marketing, then you need to educate yourself with articles like this one, this one and this one.)
2) Aim for small commitments
With a confident approach, it’ll still be difficult to get business owners to open their checkbook and give their hard-earned money to you. Except you can make this process easier by first asking for small commitments.
The persuasion tactic behind pitching a small commitment is you’re showing that you’re confident in what you do, you’re patient, and you’re willing to build the relationship through trust before signing a monthly contract.
This goes a long way to any business owner, especially the social media advertising skeptics.
Small commitments look like: a 5 minute meeting, a 30 minute meeting, and then a small trial to show them what you can do.
They’d have to be silly to turn down a trial where they don’t have to pay for your work and only have to pay for the Facebook advertising spend.
Take a look at something you could say below.
Hey, I’ve been a big fan of this clothing store for years and love the product you guys put out. Reason I’m reaching out is I’m confident I can bring you more customers through social media marketing. Tell you what, if you can run a small trial with me for $100-$200, I won’t charge you. I believe in earning business, not asking for it. What do you think?
It doesn’t need to be said exactly like that, but the formula of compliment, make your claim, and then go for a small ask works extremely well.
You’ll get nearly 99% more conversations compared to asking for a big deal when they’ve never seen you before, “Hey, I do social media marketing for businesses. My rate is $1,000 a month. Do we have a deal?”
Good luck if that’s your opening pitch!
Once you get the trial, all that’s left to do is produce results and you’ll sign them right away. It will be the easiest pitch of your life after you show social media marketing works.
Of course, when business is booming then you don’t need to ask for small commitments if you don’t want to anymore. Your approach can be a bolder “take it or leave it” which actually could convert better sometimes given the context.
Though asking for small commitments is how you’re going to quickly sign new clients in the beginning days of your business.
3) Always be hungry
As I said back in the introduction, a lot of people would love to manage social media accounts. The appeal of getting paid to work on the beach in Australia, with a drink in their hands, and the sun shining is dream-like.
That means you need to cut through the competition to get your own clients or someone else will grab them eventually.
How do you rise to the top? Be hungry at all times.
In my mind at least, being hungry means focusing on the sole mission of getting a new client regardless of other distractions.
It’s getting rid of your feelings of insecurity, tiredness, shame, and embarrassment, to go sell like your life depends on it. For some of you, it actually might.
You could be told no 100 times from Monday to Thursday, but if you stay hungry you increase the odds of getting a yes at 4 PM on a Friday.
Sales is a numbers game. The more effort you put into pitching clients, the more rejections you’re going to get. But at the same time, you’re going to get more clients signed.
Don’t let the rejections get to you, realistically they’re just road signs you’re closer to getting your next yes.
And hungry people get the lion’s share of the clients and money. Not to mention the peace of mind that they worked extremely hard that day.
So whether you have 0, 1, 10, 50 or 100 clients, always be hungry for more! That’s assuming you want to do this full-time, like I do 😉
All It Takes Is One
Just like getting accepted in college, receiving your first after college job offer, and finding a spouse who loves you, all it takes is one client to pay you to manage their social media accounts.
That should encourage you big time!
This means you’re one conversation away from meeting the right person who will take a chance on you running Facebook ads, posting from their profiles, and offering creative content ideas.
Just one man or woman who is positive mindset that day open for new opportunities. Maybe since they’re not technologically savvy and know they need to be on social media, they hire you. Or they respect your hustle and see a younger version of themselves in you so they give you a shot to prove yourself.
The list of possibilities goes on and on, but only if you put yourself out there.
Think about every business owner who you have a personal relationship with and reach out to them. Tell your family and friends what you’re up to and ask if they know anyone who might be interested. Email your previous professors and do the same.
Plus, you’re going to have to do the dreaded cold calling over email, the phone, or in person. I prefer to get as many in-person meetings as possible since I’ve found that’s the best medium to convert a deal.
And once that initial person or company takes a chance on you, then you can get the ball rolling and build your portfolio over time to land other clients (if you so choose).
You’re in the worst of it right now and it’s only going to get better going forward if you stay committed.
This has less to do with natural talent or skill, and everything to do with working hard.
Now go out there and land your first client already.
You can do this. I believe in you!
