SOCIAL MEDIA CONSULTING

How much should you charge for social media marketing projects?

By our News Team | 2023

Charge as if you’re employing a small team. It’s not deception, it’s the money you will use to start hiring and scaling the business.

For many African marketers, starting or growing a career as a social media consultant – whether full time or as a side hustle – has many challenges. Not least is what to charge clients.

In an article published on the Marketers Association of Zimbabwe (MAZ) website, marketing consultant and Director at No Walls Media advertising agency, Innocent Mushamba, provides a number of key pointers. Among them:

Social media consulting

Image by Gerd Altmann from Pixabay

Determine your deliverables

When a client asks you for social media management, you have to determine what they actually want. You should bill for deliverables. Here are a few:

  • Strategy (platform audit, plan on how to meet business goals, creative campaign direction).
  • Community management (posting, responding to enquiries, engaging audiences with business account through comments and direct messaging, page growth).
  • Content Creation (graphic design, photography, video shots and editing).
  • Paid Media (Budget to boost posts and run paid ads. This money goes to platforms like Facebook, so include an ad management fee which can be a percentage of the total ad budget, or a flat fee that you determine).

Have standard rates for each, and create a cost sheet or rate card. When you do work below your rates, include the fact that there’s a discount, or include that piece of information on a contract. It’s good for record keeping when you’ve shown your value and are ready to charge more.

Determine your overhead expenses

Phone bill, internet, software, transport (events, photoshoots, client appointments). How much do you need to actually do the work and meet your deliverables comfortably? If you are doing everything yourself (which is often the case), you need to account for the work as if you are managing a small team, if the client budget allows for it.

While every dollar does count and sometimes you just need something to get by, always have the mindset to scale. Charge as if you have a small team. It’s not deception, it’s the money you will use to start hiring.

Think about it. If you were to outsource, how much would the people you can work with be charging for their services? What is the minimum amount for good quality workers? You have to know enough about social media marketing to know what to expect, then include that in your budget.

Make sure you know your base costs. This will help you see if a client is worth pursuing.

You can read the full article here. Marketers Association of Zimbabwe is a founder member of the African Marketing Confederation (AMC).

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