The more specific your agency’s social media management packages are, the higher the chance of delivering better results to your clients.
Why?
Packaging your services by the type of work you do can help clients see you as an expert.
For example, if they’re looking for a specialist (like a video creation or influencer outreach expert), you’ll win their business if you have a pre-made package that suits them.
Promoting your social media management packages well also helps you meet and exceed client expectations. To make sure both you and your client-to-be are on the same page, we'll cover:
- What is a social media marketing package
- What does a social media management package include?
- How much should you charge for a social media package?
- 10 examples of social media packages
- How can Sendible assist in enhancing your service offerings?
What is a social media management package?
Social media packages are bundles of specific social media marketing services your agency offers to promote a brand on social media platforms.
Clients looking to grow their social media presence don't want to be worried about paying hourly charges every week or not knowing exactly what they'll be getting for the money they invest in your agency. Just like yourself - they don't appreciate uncertainty.
On the other hand, when researching and considering what social media marketing agency to hire, they most certainly will want to:
- Confirm your credibility by taking a look at your marketing portfolio and social media channels
- Be able to compare packages between different practitioners
- Know exactly what type of services you offer and their cost
How to Create a Memorable Online Marketing Portfolio for Your Agency.
As you see, having a clear presentation of the social media marketing services your agency offers plays an essential role in converting prospects to clients. So, let's see how to package them in the best possible way.
Bonus tip: Use Instagram Highlight Stories to promote your packages. And if you'd like more tips on how to improve your agency's presence on social networks, make sure to read our guide on how to promote your digital marketing agency on social media.
What does a social media management package include?
A social media management package is a curated set of services designed to help businesses effectively establish, grow, and maintain their presence on social media. These packages cater to businesses that lack the time, expertise, or resources to manage social media in-house.
Here’s what’s typically included:
1. Social media strategy development
This foundational service involves understanding the client’s goals, audience, and competition. Key deliverables may include:
- Audience personas
- Platform recommendations
- Posting schedules
- SMART goals for social media campaigns
2. Content creation and scheduling
Creating engaging, platform-specific content is essential. This may include:
- Graphics, images, and video production
- Writing compelling captions and calls-to-action
- Designing branded templates
- Scheduling posts using tools like Sendible for consistency
3. Engagement and community management
Social media thrives on interaction. This includes:
- Responding to comments and DMs
- Monitoring brand mentions and relevant hashtags
- Engaging with followers to build loyalty
- Managing crises or negative feedback
4. Performance tracking and reporting
Data-driven decisions improve results. Reporting services may involve:
- Tracking KPIs like engagement rates, reach, and ROI
- Creating detailed monthly or quarterly reports
- Using analytics tools to offer actionable insights
5. Account setup and optimisation
For new businesses or rebranding efforts, this service ensures a professional presence. It includes:
- Creating profiles
- Optimising bios and profile pictures
- Designing banners and story highlights
6. Campaign management
Seasonal campaigns and ad management can be included in advanced packages. Deliverables may include:
- Paid social ad creation and management
- Influencer collaborations
- Contest and giveaway planning
How much should you charge for a social media package?
Pricing your social media packages can depend on several factors, such as the scope of services, industry, and your level of expertise.
But before we discuss it, let’s iron out one thing:
The most important thing is to consider what your clients want by looking at your buyer personas.
What are your target clients struggling with?
If it’s cash (because they’re a startup), consider breaking your services into smaller packages; they likely don’t have a huge marketing budget to invest.
But if your ideal client is a large or midsize business, they might have more cash to spend on a social media agency, meaning you could create larger packages.
Along with cash, analyse your target client’s time and the likelihood of their in-house staff having expertise. Small businesses with limited in-house resources might appreciate a full-service social media marketing package, but if they already employ a small team, they probably won’t need the entire package.
Once you gather all the information, consider these six things as a guide to your pricing:
1. Understand the client’s needs and budget
Determine whether the client requires basic services (e.g., content creation and scheduling) or advanced support like ad campaigns or influencer marketing. Align your pricing with the value provided.
2. Evaluate the scope of work
The size and complexity of the project can significantly impact pricing. Ask yourself:
- How many platforms are being managed?
- How frequently will you post?
- Is engagement or customer service part of the package?
3. Choose a pricing model
Social media packages are typically priced in one of the following ways:
- Hourly rate: Ideal for freelance or ad hoc work. Rates can range from $25–$150/hour, depending on expertise.
- Monthly retainer: Most common for ongoing packages. Basic packages might start at $500/month, while advanced packages can exceed $2,000/month.
- Project-based: Best for one-off campaigns like account setup or seasonal promotions, often ranging from $1,000 to $5,000.
4. Factor in tools and resources
If you’re using social media tools like Sendible for scheduling and reporting, include these costs in your pricing structure. Additionally, if subcontracting services (e.g., graphic design), reflect that in your rates.
5. Benchmark against competitors
Research what others in your niche and region charge for similar services. Offer competitive pricing, but emphasize the unique value you provide.
For example, others might not offer a safe client connection, which allows you to onboard clients to a social media management tool without sharing passwords. Or they might not give clients the liberty to share the content you created for them while benefiting from your tool.
6. Consider tiered pricing
Offer multiple package levels to cater to different budgets:
- Basic: Content creation and scheduling for one platform
- Standard: Content creation, scheduling, and engagement for up to three platforms
- Premium: Full-service management, including paid ads and detailed reporting
10 examples of social media packages
You’ve got a rough understanding of the clients you’re targeting, their budget, what they’re looking for, and their in-house resources.
How do you create a package that suits them?
You could create a custom package tailored to each client. However, that would take lots of time. You’d have to run a discovery session with each new enquiry and patch together a new contract each time a client gives the go-ahead.
But, if you'd like to speed things up, you could pick from one of these proven packages:
- The complete social media marketing package
- Social media advertising
- Platform-specific social media management
- Scheduling content and maintaining a social presence
- Community management
- Visual content creation
- Onsite content creation
- Influencer outreach
- Social media consulting
- Social media marketing training
1. The complete social media marketing package
As you could guess, this social media package includes everything your clients could possibly want - from creating (or curating) content for social media platforms, social listening, and growing brand awareness amongst the target audience, to engaging with followers across multiple platforms.
Take a look at Carrie-Ann’s service page, for example:
She mentions that her full-service social media marketing strategy includes everything a client needs to have their entire social media presence.
The best part?
Clients hiring you for a full-service social media management package want a completely hands-off approach. You’ll do everything that forms within a social media strategy—often meaning you can charge higher premium rates for this type of package.
2. Social media advertising
Ad spending is expected to show an annual growth rate (CAGR 2024-2028) of 3.86%, resulting in a projected market volume of US$255.8bn by 2028.
Why not help your clients take advantage?
You could offer a full-service advertising package, creating X (Twitter), LinkedIn, and Reddit ads for your clients. Or, you could offer advertising services for one particular platform like Facebook.
This is what Climbing Trees offer:
The best part about Facebook advertising is that you won’t need to plough thousands into ads. The cost per click (CPC) of a typical Facebook ad is around $0.26 – $0.30 per click, $1.01 – $3.00 per 1000 impressions, $0.01 – $0.25 per reaction, and $0.01 – $5.00 per install.
Simply add the standard 10-15% management fee to your client’s ad spend and help them drive more conversions through your social media advertising package.
3. Platform-specific social media management
Similar to the full-service package, this bundle gives your clients a hands-off approach to their social media management, but it focuses on one platform.
For example:
Social Media 55 offers separate packages for Snapchat, Facebook, Instagram engagement, and LinkedIn.
Offering a platform-specific package is a great option if your agency has invested time and effort in learning every aspect of the said platforms or is taking advantage of programs like Meta Business Partners.
Plus, you can craft your agency as a true social media specialist for whichever platform you choose. You will have tons of experience managing profiles for various clients and understand how to get the best results for that specific platform.
4. Scheduling social media content and maintaining social presence
Sometimes, clients still want to control their social media profiles. It makes sense; if something goes wrong, their name is attached to it—and more importantly, their reputation is on the line.
That’s why some clients like hiring social media agencies to schedule content and maintain a presence. These packages work by the client providing visuals, and your agency taking care of creating the calendar, then scheduling that content to their profile.
In a nutshell, your team will spend less time managing the account(s), and the client will still have some control over their social media activity.
5. Community management
Did you know that customers spend 19% more after joining a company’s online community?
Offering a community management package is a superb way to help skyrocket your client’s return on their investment in your agency. Should you launch and maintain a strong community that focuses on the client's target audience, it will generate more cash for your clients than they’re spending on you.
(Isn’t that what every client dreams of?)
Take a look at Ignite Social Media’s community management package:
Notice how they clearly communicate that this package helps the client engage customers, and encourage them to become brand advocates?
You could help build your client’s online community by including these activities in your package:
- Accepting requests to join the group
- Posting questions or prompts to encourage comments
- Commenting on member posts
- Running promotions
- Gathering UGC content
- Replying to customers via direct messages
Social media management and community management are not the same things. Make sure to read our ultimate guide to being a community manager in an agency to learn more about this role.
6. Visual content creation
It’s well known that
- Tweets with images receive 150% more retweets than tweets without images.
- Facebook posts with images see 2.3 times more engagement than those without images.
- Instagram Carousel has 5.13% higher engagement than a single-image or single-video post.
(It’s no wonder why 80% of marketers use visual assets in their social media marketing.)
Help your clients take advantage of this by offering a visual content creation package like Hurricane Media:
Notice how Hurricane Media have links to their portfolio on their service page. It’s a fantastic way to boost credibility and encourage website visitors to hire you for that package.
So, what does a visual content creation package include? Here are some of the activities you could offer in this bundle:
- Designing social posts from scratch
- Photographing happy customer reviews
- Creating promotional banners
- Building custom infographic
- Filming short videos for Stories, Reels, and TikTok
Since short-form videos are a leading social media trend, you could also consider offering video content creation as a separate package. Either way, clients will have a stunning library of social media-worthy content if they hire you for this package.
7. Onsite content creation
Do you work with clients whose offices are within a reasonable distance? Consider offering a package that involves visiting their offices and taking photos or videos for their social media accounts.
I spoke to social media expert Helen Bridal, who offers this service to nearby clients. She said:
Making time to go on-site does pay off.
Being face-to-face with a client creates greater insight into their business, and sparks new ideas for content that might not be explored just sitting in the office.
I also think a more hands-on, collaborative approach strengthens working relationships.
This type of content can help clients humanize their social media profiles. Showing behind the scenes helps to build trust in their audience—something proven to be just as important to consumers as price.
(Again, helping your clients get ROI.)
You are also giving them a dedicated account manager which is a great bonus point for any package.
8. Influencer outreach
Working with influencers can massively benefit your clients. One report found that 69% of consumers depend on influencer recommendations, but finding and reaching out to influencers can be tedious.
Why not take that off your client’s plate and offer a social media influencer package?
Help them take advantage of influencer marketing by offering a package that includes:
- Finding and engaging with influencers relevant to the brand
- Reaching out to influencers
- Organizing the process behind promotional collaborations
- Managing long-term relationships
- Reporting on influencer collaborations
Gough offers blogger outreach as a single service on their website:
You could specialise in influencer marketing on a specific platform (like Instagram, for example), or offer to help your clients collaborate with well-known profiles across various platforms.
9. Social media consulting
Clients might want to hire you but don’t have the budget to invest in a monthly contract—especially if you’re targeting small businesses.
A full social media audit is perfect for this situation.
Offer to spend a day combing through their social media accounts, giving them a document full of recommendations for them to implement in their own time.
FlexxCreative offers audits as one of their social media packages:
Social media audits work perfectly because you don’t have to spend much time doing the work. Once you’ve performed the audit, create a document that:
- Outlines and explains your strategy
- Lists the reasons for your recommendations
- Showcases the best examples (preferably ones that your agency created)
- Includes a pitch for your services at the end of your audit
You never know—they might see how savvy you are when it comes to social media marketing, and decide to hire you to carry out the changes!
10. Social media marketing training
Similar to a consultation or audit, you could teach your clients how to use social media marketing to their advantage by delivering training.
You could charge a day (or half-day) rate and hold a workshop at their office to bring their in-house team up to speed. Teach their staff everything you know—from the best times to post to the type of content to publish—and let them put it into practice.
Little Media Agency offers social media training as a standalone package:
Again, you can often charge higher rates for social media marketing training packages. The client is hiring you to be the expert, train their entire team, and answer all of their questions.
You’re basically their lecturer - only your training sessions should be more fun!
How can Sendible assist in enhancing your service offerings?
Are you feeling more confident about how you're going to package your social media services?
Remember to always check your buyer personas before deciding on a package! And, for an extra layer of security, take a look at what clients are currently hiring you for.
Sendible has a variety of features that can help you stand out and close a new client by resolving their pain points immediately. Let's go over a few of them:
- Onboard your clients securely with Client Connect. Client Connect helps you build trust from the start. This handy feature allows your new clients to share social media credentials without making you an admin by adding their social media profiles to your Sendible dashboard for added security.
- Permission management via Content Library. Empower your clients or junior team members with access to your social media content creation. No need to worry about mishaps—introduce them to Content Library roles.
- Create access tiers for users. Not every user needs to access all functionality. With our custom user permission groups, you can decide who gets access to what. For example, you might want to charge your clients more if they want to add more profiles or build custom reports.
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Send approval requests in bulk. Save your and your client's valuable time by sending the approval requests in bulk. While Sendible allows you to assign tasks and send individual approval requests, our Bulk Importer enables you to send them an entire campaign or month's worth of content for approval at once.
- Empower clients with Share Button. Focus your attention on enriching your website with social media content that caters to your clients' industries and target audiences. Use our share button to empower your clients and team members with effortless social sharing directly from your website to their desired social channels.
- Never miss a report deadline with Automated Reports. Automating reports eliminates the need for manually sending out reports or missing reporting deadlines, freeing up time for marketers to focus on strategic tasks.
- Improve trust with a white-label solution. Attract new clients and generate more revenue for your digital marketing agency with customisable social media management software under your own brand.
These are just some of the features that can help you enrich your packages. If you'd like to learn more about advanced possibilities, don't hesitate to schedule a free consultation with our experts. Alternatively, you can start your free 14-day trial and explore it on your own.
