How To Offer One-Off Services (Audits, Strategy, VIP Days) as a Freelancer
Social media management is our bread and butter, there's no doubt! While we love working with clients long-term, there can be a variety of reasons that it may not be the best offer. If your (1) client roster is full, (2) the client doesn't have the budget for full management or it's not the right time (3) they just need minor help on a few things, goals, or a campaign, (4) or they don't seem like someone you'd work well within a long-term format, offering a one-off service can be a really helpful direction to point them in.
Why we love one-off services as social media managers:
Re-energizes that creative spark: Taking a break from our everyday account management and talking with a new business owner or team member can sometimes be really helpful for refueling that creative energy and even thinking of ideas that can relate to other brands as well.
Income boost: Who doesn't love a little extra income boost? If you're experiencing a lull or don't quite have time to take on another client long-term at your current work capacity, a one-off service can be a quick way to generate some extra dollars.
Lead generation: Even though the project may start small, that doesn't mean that it couldn't scale into something more. Business is all about networking and creating connections and you never know when it will turn into more!
One-Off Services You Can Offer As A Social Media Manager:
Consultation Calls / Strategy Sessions
VIP Days
Social Media Audits
Content Calendars / Content Creation
Social Media Templates / Digital Products
Email Newsletter
Blog Post(s)
Below, we are breaking down the ins and outs of how you can go about offering these services, how to set them up, and how to price them!
Strategy Sessions
What is a Strategy Session?
A strategy session is a service you can offer to focus on planning a strategy for a specific brand, social account, campaign, or goal. Essentially, instead of bringing your strategy to pen & paper, you bring it to life and talk about goals, brainstorm ideas, provide resources, create actionable steps, and give them a clear direction of where they can go with their marketing strategies. Feel free to use our free strategy template!
How To Offer a Strategy Session:
Strategy sessions are typically a set time (1-2 hours), via Zoom. After you collect the customer's information, you'll be able to research before the call and have resources ready to answer questions and get to work.
VIP Days
What is a VIP Day?
A VIP Day is where you spend a day focusing on one client specifically. This can be great at eliminating the email questions, and back-and-forth, and allows you to dive deep into the client and their marketing strategies for the day.
How To Offer a VIP Day:
Determine what the deliverables will be for the VIP Day and the time spent. VIP Days are typically done in half-days (four hours) or full-days (eight hours). Block off your calendar so you don't have any other client work, meetings, or distractions so you can focus 100% on the VIP.
You can offer a VIP Day that is:
Platform-specific - Instagram, TikTok, Facebook, LinkedIn, Pinterest, etc.
Strategy
Launch strategy
Content creation
Start the day with a Zoom session going over the VIP day deliverables, timeline and project with your client. Use this time to ask them any questions that you need, then use a communication tool (email, Slack channel, Voxer channel) to stay in touch with them throughout the duration of the day. Schedule a delivery call at the end of the day to send all deliverables over, get feedback for any revisions or edits, and to share with them the next steps.
VIP Days are a great way to get them into a management package for ongoing social media management support, or you can offer them support through your line of communication for an extended period (one week, two weeks, or one month).
Social Media Audit
What is a Social Media Audit?
A social media audit is a review of the social media account to asses how your strategy, content, and overall presence is performing. This can be a great way to set accounts in the right direction. Check out this free audit template from our blog!
How to Offer a Social Media Audit:
Typically you put an audit document to go through and take notes about what is working well on the accounts, what's not working well, and where you see areas for opportunities. After you complete the audit, it can be helpful to sit down with the customer and go through it together, to ensure they know what those updates should be and have actionable steps to move forward with this information.
Content Creation and Content Calendars
What is a Content Calendar?
A content calendar is essentially just the content portion of social media management. This is where you pull together post ideas, dates, and times, and set them up on a calendar for easy planning and posting. This can either be done for a specific month time frame, or it can be a general calendar. For example, you can create a general calendar that has 31 days, or you could do October 2023 specifically where you put in relevant trends and information pertaining to that month specifically. Content creation is also an option of services you can offer. This is where you just provide specific content for what they are looking for, for example, if a client needs five Instagram Reels, edited, formatted, and scheduled.
How To Offer a Content Calendar:
There are many ways you can create and send a content calendar. We recommend creating a spreadsheet or PDF calendar that states what will be posted on which days, and then providing the content deliverables in a folder, such as a Google Drive folder, so they can access it for easy posting.
Social Media Templates + Digital Products
What are templates and digital products?
Templates are typically customizable reports, checklists, guides, and workbooks that help with a social media task. These can be anything from a daily engagement checklist to a fill-in-the-blank content calendar.
How to Offer Templates and Digital Products:
The first step is to think about whether you'd like them to be customized to the person you are working with or general templates that you can sell on a storefront. Squarespace, Etsy, and Stan Store can be options if you are looking to offer general templates for anyone to use!
Email Newsletters
What are email newsletters?
Email newsletters are typically educational or promotional emails sent to a list of email subscribers on a weekly, bi-weekly, or monthly basis.
How To Offer Email Newsletters as a Service:
Emails newsletters can involve newsletter content creation, newsletter design, list management, delivery and scheduling, analytics, and reporting.
Blogs
What are blog posts?
A blog post is a piece of content published to a blog or website, that's SEO optimized and is about a niche topic or discussion point.
How to offer blog posts?
You can either use a flat rate to the price per blog and provide however individual blogs the client may need, provide them on an as-needed basis, or you can do standard bundles like 5, 10, 15, etc. to offer a pack of written blogs to the client specifically.
How To Price These Services:
We like to think of these services in three categories.
Low-ticket
Something they get
Example: Templates, content calendars
Price Range: $7-97
Mid-ticket
Something they learn
Example: Audits, masterclasses
Price Range: $97-$497
High-ticket
Something they can get, learn, and implement
Example: Strategy sessions, VIP Days
Price Range: $497+
How To Set Up One-Off Services:
1.) Create a separate sales page and/or discovery form to market and collect general information, use Calendly to have them book a call
2.) Send a more in-depth questionnaire formed around the service. For example, for strategy sessions, you might ask more in-depth questions about the brand and what they are currently promoting, so you can get to the strategy right away on the call. Verus, if you are going with a content calendar, you'll likely want their branding guidelines, design assets, etc.
3.) Hold calls via Zoom so you can collaborate and share your screen to show resources.
4.) Send a prompt follow-up email with any additional resources, links, and a recap of what you discussed. Crafting a template for yourself will be super helpful here if you want to make it more of a resource!
We can't wait to see all the creative ideas you come up with for your service offerings. Remember to pick something that you love doing, so you feel confident about promoting it!
Need a social media management backboard? Join the mentorship where we are constantly collaborating, providing feedback, and sharing tips (and, let's not forget access to our resource vault with SMM templates, masterclasses, and a weekly coaching call), get started here!
