Last week, we discussed how most social media budgets were created. We also took a little peek into which factors of the social media strategy had more impact on them. Most of the time the numbers increased massively as a result of the cost of most outsourcing services. The most common question we receive after discussing this is: Are they ways to make help me manage my social media budget?
The short answer is yes but you need to keep the word strategy in your mind if you want this to happen.
Whether you are a startup with small investors or an established company, both struggle with their social media budget. Sometimes you nail it and sometimes you have to make adjustments. Although some may think about ditching all social media; this is a terrible mistake that can hurt your business in the long run. The right choice is to implement smart changes to adjust your planning phase.
Quite often the best point of action is not to reduce but to optimize what you already have. This also works wonders if you try to be as cost-efficient as possible in the near future. To achieve this, there are 3 main elements to evaluate when formulating your social media strategy, we will explore each step separately to shed some light on the process.
We also wish to remind you that we have a lot of options available in case you are facing issues. Our marketing experts know how to make a team work with a tight budget. They know about tools, alternatives for trials, and many other ways to help you save money. They also are experts in designing customized strategies that fit into your plan of action. Do not hesitate to reach out to learn more about it.
Decide which is your target audience: don’t overdo it
When discussing social media strategy, most people tend to believe that all platforms should be occupied 24/7 to attract new customers. This is the worst approach you can take when you want to save money. The first job is to define to whom you want to speak and how is the best way to do it is. An excellent example is: are you targeting teenagers or younger people? Visual content is the way to go, especially short videos.
This example shows how the ideal platforms for them are Instagram, YouTube, and Tiktok. This makes others such as blogs or Facebook irrelevant and an unnecessary expense for this specific audience. Choosing the proper audience allows you to choose the best platforms and the best tools to close the gap between you them and your brand. Social media budgets need to be focused primarily on constructing an overall identity rather than selling. When you do not have enough online presence, engagement is crucial to help you stand out.
Also, consider carefully which is the best approach, and try to construct an in-office team around this type of content. It is very likely that once you have established your social media strategy, you will want to optimize costs and times when it comes to content creation. The best way to ensure this is by having a strong inside team with a couple of virtual assistants filling in other kinds of content.
Track performance: spend time fine-tuning your platforms
When you have established goals in upon which to construct your social media budget, ideally you will look to see good results without altering this number. However, metrics are the only real way to measure impact and, sometimes, find out if something is not working properly. That is why companies that are on tight social media budgets should always prioritize constructing their social media strategy around the numbers (whether they are metrics or budgets).
Having experts examining the weekly and monthly performance of your profiles will let you know if some change is in order. Also, as we mentioned before, having an in-office expert in design or copywriting will make changes faster than looking for someone else. Virtual assistants can be extremely helpful as their remote work nature allows them to be present at different schedules.
Being in control of your metrics will also serve as a way to measure if your target audience is evolving or if they are any particular spikes of interest in the type of content they consume. We recommend our clients have a broader strategy rather than specific “calendar” events when it comes to economizing, this can help you recycle some of the work in the future.
Manage your Social Media Budget
When you have established your audiences and stabilized the metrics with the best average performance, it is just a matter of optimizing what you already have. One solid alternative is by looking for free software rather than sticking with the paid options. Canva and Visme are two strong choices for this. Recurring remote work strategies, such as virtual assistants, will also help greatly reduce some of the costs associated with administrative tasks.
Another common approach nowadays is to include both, your customers and small influencers into the mix. Consider them as helpers that can be recruited without having to necessarily invest money. Most of them can be incentivized by having special access to your products or partnerships with your brand's social networks. This will help you have fresh content that also is more interesting for your potential clients.
Finally, do not underestimate the power of old content. Sometimes it can pay off to reuse some old assets or topics with a fresh perspective. This needs to be done with extreme care as most loyal followers might notice if not careful. However, when planned properly, it can save not only money but an effort that might be required elsewhere.
Virtrify is home to designers, copywriters, managers, and many other professionals that help you create a solid social media strategy specially designed to cover your tight budget. We have experience handling social media budgets of different sizes and making the best with the tools available to each client. We also have vast experience doing remote work for different companies.
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