Hello everyone, I am new here at this forum…
So I have been creating and selling IG accounts for the last 3 years and I would like to start an agency to manage accounts for the clients…
Hope there’s someone who can answer my questions.
What’s the right way to find the clients? DM? Finding potential ones and emailing offers?
How much to charge and what to include in the service?
What kinds of businesses to avoid?
Thanks!
There is no right way to find clients. Different strategies work for different people. So go out there and test.
Don’t undercut everyone else and charge what you’re worth. You can make different packages for different people which fit their unique needs.
I take everyone and kick out the annoying ones if they keep on sending emails or complain a lot.
Good luck,
Emil
Doing free work for those that can refer you or act as a case study you know will attract the ideal client for you usually works really well. It helped us get to 3k clients and we still use it everyday.
Another great way to get clients is leveraging the power of real world community.
Identify communities and events in your area that are likely to have a good amount of people who are engaged in some form of entrepreneurial activity. Go to events, socialize, make new friends. When people ask what you do, tell them without any kind of sales pitch and watch how many clients you will get coming to you without you needing to convince them or sell them.
People are way more likely to trust you in person vs getting some random DM from a total stranger. Cultivate real relationships, build community, build trust within that community. It’s way more fun and engaging for you and can lead to many unexpected benefits down the road.
Amen to this.
I’ll take it further - truly get involved in your community. When I first started, I unabashedly told everyone within my network what I was doing.
Go through your contacts, call everyone you know - whether they have a business or not, everyone knows someone who needs what we do. Follow up on every lead.
Get involved in things outside of marketing and business too, whether that be a religious group, volunteer program, or even a running group. Whenever you a part of something bigger than yourself, people who gather in these groups naturally like to help other people. And truly get to know them, cultivate relationships, and give referral discounts or bonuses to those who refer you more business. Once you have a solid base of 30 or so clients and you are known to do good work, it should grow organically from there.
Do you take this guys who are going to the school and are only willing to pay 20$ monthly?
No. If they can’t pay for my service they can’t get my service. $20 is ridiculous.
It depends a lot about your strategy.
We work only with brands, businesses and celebrities and charge a lot more than what you can find online… but we are an actual agency.
Many people are confused between starting an agency and starting a clients management service.
Our clients want strategy definition, coaching / mentoring, content creation,… and yes, growth.
We find them thanks to our reputation as CMOs and brand managers talk a lot one to the other (they actually find us more than we find them), and thanks to actual business development.
Because we deliver tons of value (at least we try) by combining all this, we can charge them much more without growing that much our infrastructure.
If you simply get Jarvee and sell online to random people, you will make money too, but it’s a different business model. Your cost will explode if you are successful, and because you don’t create a relationship with your clients, they probably won’t be loyal. That said, you don’t need to take care of them as we do, and you don’t need to even meet them. Also, you have millions of people who simply want to grow and that you can help.
If I were you, I would first ask myself if I want to be an actual agency, or if I want to keep on living at Ibiza and grow a bunch of guys’ account.
One more free tip: When you don’t charge a lot, and the prospect starts discussing your rate anyway, walk away and don’t take him. He will keep on blaming you for everything and nothing good will get out of that relationship. Ask the many experienced and skilled client manager you have here, they should confirm 
PS: You see @wortime, I’m back lol
Always good to have you chime in when you can!
Thanks for the advice!
Confirmed haha
Thanks for sharing mate!
So I have registered business in my country and I am selling shoutouts and selling accounts that I grow using Jarvee and I think it’s time to do something more challenging.
I want to have real professional agency and not just the short term clients.
I’m from Croatia and it’s hard here to convince people who own small business or webs they need proffesional to do the right thing with social media. My idea was to update website with the blog and sharing useful tips and attract customers that way, I doubt to find serious clients sending DM’s and emails will probably end up in spam folder.
Let me know what you think
I know starting is very difficult, and we had to build our reputation for years before it became “easy”.
In your case, I would start by really targeting accounts I can help, in the US and Europe, where social media marketing is recognized as a mandatory business practice.
I would engage them, one by one, meaningfully (bring them real value), and keep the conversation alive. I understand it takes time, but business development takes time anyway.
Once I would have found someone worth it (ready to do what you ask him to do and a good reference) and I would have created that relationship, I would offer him or her my services highly discounted (but not for free because he will not get involved if he doesn’t pay anything), with his approval of using the reference.
And then, I would work ike crazy to make sure he is super successful. We call that “building your hero”.
Then, I would target other similar clients and show them my results with my hero. Of course, I would charge the new ones with my regular rates.
Patience and good value are key.
Emails out of the blue go to spam.
And DM are ignored unless it’s massive, but you can’t really use the tactics our friends spammers use, as it’s not the best way to start a relationship.
I would also get really authentic shoutout from good large accounts telling their community you’re the best Instagram marketer they have met. People will think you worked with them, and help growing them like they are today.
I hope it helps.
Chamber of commerces are amazing for business community connections. The only catch is you’ll need to pay their annual fee to get involved. Worth every penny though
The more money they pay you, the less hassle they tend to be. I always found the people worth 10% of my income took up 90% of my time. Once i learned to start saying no to their business and eventually fire the ones I had as clients life got so much better. Especially because then I had time to cultivate the good clients and make far more than the loss removing the bottom feeders.
Free work for clients you deem as assets is different than free trials. I want to make that clear. Just like I preach no to anything under $99 USD ($149 if you ask me personally), I tell everyone DO NOT GIVE OUT FREE TRIALS. The conversion rates are below 1%. To people asking:
“We do not do free trials anymore as they are labor intensive, cost us money and most importantly we have too much work invested in our current clients. I can assure you that you are talking to the right agency and we look forward to working with you on your account.” @Kiesix
Let’s start here, do you have a landing page? You don’t have to show it, but let’s talk about your current assets. I’m guessing you are far from DM’ing clients. Let’s get you to a point to where you look like a million dollar monthly agency based in Los Angeles, San Fran, Chicago, New York servicing individuals, small business and brands worldwide!
I understand what you are saying and the prices are usually around $149 and that’s quite fair.
What I want to do here is to create an agency that will have 100+ customers and make it my real job and to hire employees that can help me reach my goal. I was thinking of offering 3 packages + custom ones.
If you have more experience I would really appreciate if you send me PM.
Amen on this. When starting out, I also went to every free event that the chambers host. They do this to drive their own new memberships up and are goldmines as well.
Whichever strategies you use, the most important thing is to focus on methods that allow you to develop real relationships with your clients.
The way we do what we do now probably won’t last forever, but if you have a good rapport with a solid book of business, you’ll be better positioned to make the transition.