Have you ever caught yourself in the depths of a TikTok scrolling session and thought, “I could totally do this better?”
There’s nothing worse than watching a brand you love fall flat when it comes to social promotion, especially if they have the ability to shine. While every brand wants to be the next Duolingo on TikTok and rake in as many followers as Molly-Mae on Instagram, it can be challenging to stand out from all of the noise without a well-placed social strategy.
If we ask ourselves who knows the most about TikTok’s algorithm, Instagram’s hottest content trends and the posts still scoring engagement on Facebook, it’s the content creators themselves, right in the thick of it.
As a content creator, you know how tough it can be to secure a spot on the For You Page and foster a following from the ground up. This puts you in a unique position to run a social media marketing campaign in a way that an in-house marketing team cannot match.
The question is, can you start a social media marketing business without a corporate background? The answer is absolutely. With the right set of skills, tools and a compelling value proposition, there’s no reason you can’t share your social knowledge with brands across the globe.
If this sounds like something you’d be interested in, look no further. We’ve put together a guide on how to start a social media marketing agency as a creator and build up a client base using your real-life experience. Not a corporate degree in sight.
So, if you’ve got the strategy of Haily Bieber and the hustle of a 2014 daily vlogger, we’ll have your social media agency up and running in no time.
What Does a Social Media Marketing Agency Actually Do?
A social media marketing agency’s priority mission is to help brands grow their presence in an online marketplace.
Using various social media channels to their advantage, social media marketers aim to engage with their client’s target audience, promote products and services using a myriad of content formats and manage online communities on behalf of the brand.
Here are some of the key services social media marketing agencies offer in 2025:
- Content Creation: Social agencies create, refine and deliver written, image and video-based content on behalf of a brand that is constructed with their target audience in mind.
- Social Strategy: Social marketers often run long-term social campaigns for their clients on multiple channels, connecting them to build a powerful online presence for a brand.
- Engagement: Social media marketers are experts at identifying the best social platforms for engagement for their clients, dedicating hours to social listening and competitor research for the best results.
- Advertising: Over half of the social ads you see online are generated by social media marketers and placed strategically on platforms for optimal engagement.
- Analytics: Social media marketing teams also frequently track social media growth for their clients using a number of different analytics tools. This data is then used to adjust a brand’s social strategy for the best outcome.
Social commerce is projected to grow by 31% annually, forcing more brands than ever before to enter the social sphere. It’s no wonder that every second scroll on TikTok is now a paid advertisement when global ad spending on social media is projected to reach $433.28 billion by 2030.
As the demand for social media marketing grows, so does the amount of social agencies promising brands the chance of virality online.
Running a successful social media marketing agency in 2025 requires some epic branding skills. As a creator, you must convince potential clients that your knowledge of the social sphere is their ticket to success.
You’ll also need to develop a foolproof business plan, establish a portfolio and create a compelling value proposition to stand out from established agencies already in the market.
Eager to launch your agency, but not sure where to start? Let’s get into the basics first.
Who Are Your Clients?
As a social media marketing agency, your clients tend to be small businesses, personal brands, and even other creators.
You’re unlikely to score Gucci or find yourself in charge of the viral Ryanair TikTok account. This is because most large companies have their own in-house social media team that takes care of their presence on multiple channels.
As a startup social media marketing agency, it’s essential to first align yourself with clients who naturally fit into the same industry as you. Leverage your own demographic as your selling point.
At the end of the day, if you already know how to create content that hits your targets in all the right places, you’ll have plenty of evidence to show clients in the same industry targeting the same leads.
What Skills Do You Need to Get Started?
Getting started as a social media marketer is the most challenging part of the process. While you will need a small budget to set you off, you’ll already have most of the skills required if you’re already an established or aspiring content creator.
Some of the key skills include:
1) Content Creation
This one is probably the most obvious but the most suited to your current set of skills. To run a successful social media marketing agency, you must be proficient in video production, graphics, caption creation, and any other factors that contribute to creating an engaging piece of content.
2) Platform Fluency
You need to know your social platforms like the back of your hand. Social media marketing agencies are expected to be fluent in all social media channels and the trends surrounding them.
This means you’ll need to know about the winning content formats for each channel. For example, on TikTok, your winning formula is likely to be a snappy, 30-second video that draws the viewer in. On the other hand, if a client wants you to grow their exposure on LinkedIn, you’re looking at a long-form piece of content that establishes your client as a thought leader within their demographic.
3) Basic Marketing Skills
While you may not need corporate experience to start a marketing agency, you must know the basic marketing principles.
As a social media marketing agency, you must be familiar with managing and analysing a client’s audience, know how to refine a value proposition and be an expert at including a call-to-action in your content campaigns.
4) Client Management
Your client management skills will make or break your business. In order to retain client relationships in the long term, your communication skills must carry your agency.
Social media marketers must regularly engage with their clients, host strategy meetings and take their feedback into consideration when taking them on board
It’s important to remember that you’re in charge of their campaign. You don’t have the same level of free will as you would do as a content creator for yourself.
Early Steps to Launching Your Agency
Now that we’ve covered the basics let’s start your agency journey. Even as a beginner, there are plenty of ways to make your social media marketing agency stand out.
While the process can be lengthy, here are a few early steps you can take as you start to launch your social media marketing agency as a creator.
1) Define Your Niche
Start by defining your niche. We touched on this earlier when we mentioned that drawing from your own content creation journey is the key to your success.
If you choose a specific industry or content style to focus on, you establish yourself as a unique, targeted agency. This sets you apart from your competition.
For example, if you’ve risen through the ranks as a local creator for the food and beverage industry, you could market TikTok growth for local cafes or Instagram advertisements for small restaurants looking to gain exposure.
When you begin your journey, going as niche as possible is the key to becoming an early competitor in your field. You can expand your offerings as your client base grows.
2) Set Up Your Brand
Next, it’s time to choose a name. The most challenging decision you’ll make. Remember, this brand name sticks with you, so don’t base it on a trend or something hard to remember.
If you’re an established creator, why not use your own name as your brand? This way, you’ll be easily searchable and recognisable for your current followers.
Once you’ve defined your brand, incorporate this into your website design. When it comes to designing a website for your agency, start with something simple, even just a link-in-bio services rundown is fine.
However, for those of you looking to hit the ground running, there are plenty of small business website builders, like Hostinger’s, online aimed at startup agencies and web design beginners. Use these types of tools to drag and drop your winning content on the page, customise captions and build a portfolio page from scratch with the help of pre-optimised web templates.
3) Build a Portfolio (Even If It’s a Mockup)
Once you've established your brand, it’s time to start promoting it. The best way to do this is to create a portfolio of your past work that can be viewed by potential clients.
Showcase your best visuals, your engagement rates on your own social platforms, and even results for any past clients (Estimates or goal-oriented)
There are plenty of ways to showcase a portfolio. If you have a website, great! Add your portfolio as a separate page on your domain. If not, another great way to showcase your social content is on social media itself.
If you’re yet to sign a client, you can create a mock portfolio. Why not use Instagram to demonstrate your skillset, exhibit your content and even show how you use captions?
4) Invest in a Neat Set of Tools
The best social media marketing agencies invest in a neat set of tools to make the process easier.
Some tools we recommend to start you off include:
Canva for Graphics and Design
Canva is a wonderful app that can be downloaded on a laptop, smartphone and many other devices for free. Full of social content templates, free graphics and hundreds of title fonts, Cava is the perfect creative helping hand.
Podcastle for Content Creation
This platform is a power-station for creators to record and edit podcasts or videos, use AI voices, clean up audio with Magic Dust, and add royalty-free music—all in one place. Want to resize your video for TikTok, add captions, or upscale your footage? Done in seconds. It’s everything you need to create high-quality content for your clients without juggling five different tools.
SocialBee for Scheduling
As a social media marketing agency you’re likely to be posting multiple pieces of content on numerous channels every day. To make life easier, invest in a scheduling tool like SocialBee that allows you to schedule content on multiple platforms ahead of time, allowing for seamless posting at optimal moments on each channel.
Mention for Analytics
Once your campaigns are live, it’s up to you to monitor their success. Investing in a tool like Mention ensures that your content is monitored in real-time and you are alerted to any negative sentiment or a dip in engagement. Better still, Mention also has a social listening feature that allows you to research your target audience, track trends on social platforms and gain insight into brand sentiment before and after the content was released.
With content tools, scheduling tools and analytic programs on your side, you’ll complete campaigns to a higher standard in half of the time, allowing you to focus on securing new clients.
5) Price Your Services
Now we reach the less creative part of the job, pricing. As a startup social media marketing agency, clear and simple pricing packages are a must if you want to attract customers from the get-go.
First, decide if you want to charge project by project or offer monthly retainers for returning clients. We’d recommend starting with a project-based pricing scale, as you’re likely to start with a couple of singular campaigns for your clients. However, as you scale, a monthly pricing system is the ideal option as it encourages clients to stick with your services long-term.
So, what should you add to your pricing packages?
- Content Creation: How many pieces of content are you going to publish per month?
- Posting Schedule: How often do you plan to post content for your client?
- Monthly Analytics: What tools are you using to monitor social analytics, what depth of analysis can you promise?
These are just a few services to include in your pricing package, but depending on your other unique abilities, this list is likely to grow.
Once you’ve created your package, take some time to research your closest competitors and your target market to establish the best starting price for your services.
It’s Time To Find Your First Clients
That’s it, you’re all ready to start hunting for your first clients. Our advice is to start with your own network, such as fellow creators, local companies in your niche and even friends.
Even if you offer these clients a trial project or a heavy discount, the case studies are what you need at the beginning.
The best way to learn how to be a social media marketer is to jump in head first. Start small and keep scaling at every opportunity you get.
You don’t need a degree or previous agency experience. In fact, you don’t even need 10K followers. You just need to know your industry like the back of your hand. As a content creator, you’re already halfway there, now it’s time to show the world what you’ve got.
About the Author: Rebecca Barnatt
|
Rebecca is a content manager at Solvid. She specializes in all things marketing and digital trends transforming consumer targeting. |
