Beginner SMMA mistakes
So your a beginner SMMA (Social Media Marketing Agency) but you feel lost in a sea of information?
Are you only starting out and want to minimise your mistakes to maximise your success?
Don’t worry it happens to all of us when starting something new (especially beginner SMMA).
There are guru’s and all sorts of ‘experts’ out there who want to tell you which way is best and how you can generate 6 figures in 6 months using a certain method.
Some people have claimed to have quit their job in a matter of days and started a wildly profitable agency. Which in reality could be true. But it leaves the masses wondering why they aren’t doing the same?
The thing about SMMA is that it is just like starting any other business. It requires hard work, persistence, and being able to bounce back from failure and rejection.
A lot of people get into this business without fully understanding how hard it is to actually sign clients up and get them amazing results.
That being said, there is no reason you cannot do these things, it just requires a lot of hard work and discipline.
I don’t claim to be some sort of guru myself, I can only go off the experiences I have had and what I have seen other agency owners go through.
I have built my skills and portfolio over the past year or so and it is only now that my business is starting to grow.
So without further ado, here are the mistakes I see beginners make when getting into SMMA.
Impostor Syndrome
This is something I struggled with for a long time and even still to this day at times. Impostor syndrome is something that most newbies in any industry struggle with. Impostor syndrome is the fear of being exposed as some sort of fraud.
Confidence in your own ability can have a huge part to play in this, and this is obviously going to be apparent in newbies as they don’t have any past experience or results.
Impostor syndrome can take over peoples thinking and it can allow them to start to believe the story they have created about themselves.
For any beginner SMMA owners who struggle with this, my advice would be to be open and honest with any potential clients you try and sign up. Tell them you have limited experience but you have a strong passion for marketing and getting people results.
Business owners can sense passion and will appreciate the honesty. This gives you some breathing space and less pressure when working on your ad campaigns and strategies. I done the same thing when I first started out and I done free trials also.
Most guru’s tell you to stay clear of free trials but I disagree. I think they are a great learning experience for someone starting out and can help improve your skills greatly.
If your still interested in learning more about impostor syndrome and what can be done to tackle it, my mate over at The man blueprint has a great article on it.
Salesman Mentality
When you heard the term SMMA did you at all think about sales?
Me neither.
I thought that all the clients just magically came to me and I done all their Facebook ads or them, all while sailing off into the sunset with a huge bank balance……
If you couldn’t sense my sarcasm in the last paragraph then I do apologise.
Sales is probably the most important aspect when it comes to SMMA. Especially for beginners.
How do you expect to get people to pay you money each month for your services?
If you are beginner in SMMA and this is scary for you then don’t panic.
Sales is just like any skill. It can be learnt and developed.
A lot of successful agency owners have claimed to have had no sales experience prior to starting their agencies….. In fact I have had no experience in sales myself and I have managed to become good at cold calling businesses and setting meetings.
So now you see how important sales is in SMMA you should use this as an opportunity to embrace the challenge and learn more about sales.
Read books, watch YouTube videos on the subject, do whatever you can to soak up some knowledge.
Here are some sources I recommend you use as they have helped me.
The importance of sales skills is something I never really understood until I started doing client outreach.
Doing it alone
When starting something new and daunting your going to feel like the world is against you.
Its tough, your going to feel like giving up and quitting most days. The good thing though is that your more than likely not the only person going through the same thing.
There are plenty of online communities, especially in the SMMA space. I would encourage you to join these and interact with people so you can spur each other on.
Something I done when starting out was search bloggers which were based in my local city. The reason for this was because I never had any friends who done what I was doing in terms of blogging, so I thought it would be interesting to find people local so I could potentially meet up with them and bounce some ideas off each other.
After a quick search on Google I found a few blogs that were of interest, but settled on one which I really enjoyed reading.
Long story short, I reached out to the owner of the blog and we have became good friends and have worked on various projects with each other.
The lesson I learned from this was seek out others with similar interests to you and you never know what opportunities will preset themselves.
Being busy and not productive
Have you ever heard about IPA’s?
IPA stands for Income Producing Activities.
So what has this got to do with SMMA?
Its a term I heard off a few other entrepreneurs, but when I understood what it meant it really flipped a switch in my head.
When being a beginner in SMMA your probably going to want to build a website, set up social profiles and create business cards. This is all well and good but to be honest, its not necessary for your success. Getting clients signed up and money into your business is what will really determine your success.
An income producing activity would be creating a lead data base as well as prospecting businesses and setting meetings with business owners.
This is what I mean about being busy and not productive. There is a difference and it is up to you to make sure your focusing on what really matters, and that is getting clients signed up.
The rest will follow.
The beginners mindset
My philosophy is that no matter how far I have came or how much I think I might know, there is always more to learn.
Therefore I am always in the beginner mindset.
The only difference is now I can look back at the mistakes I have made and learn form them.
I hope you enjoyed the blog post, I wanted to include as much information as I possibly could on the subject of beginner mistakes in SMMA.
If you enjoy this type of content then let me know and follow me on my social media channels, were more content will be getting produced weekly.