Feasibility of a marketing/social media business for SMEs

A19B1C12

Hello all,

I was wondering what would you guys think about the feasibility of setting up a marketing/social media business for SMEs. It would work along the lines of I would charge a monthly fee (€500 was what I was thinking - about a week and a half wages of a full time employee) to set up and maintain an on line presence for small to medium companies. Using social media, google analytics, blogging, etc to gather publicity and work in tandem with the company to create offers that will be both profitable and garner excitement/interest around the company and in their area.

I am a 20 year old student and very familiar with twitter, facebook, blogging, adwords, websites, etc and often look at company websites and think I could make them so much more interesting and engaging fo their potential customers as its an area I feel is hugely underutilized by local businesses.

Any thoughts on whether or not this would be viable? Any business owners out there? Thanks.

swanvill

Hi,

Not a bad idea but I feel your stumbling block would be to sell your idea to a small businesses. Maybe if you gave a free trial for a month with a promise that you can show measurable KPIs that also could translate into increase phone/footfall enquiries into the business after your month you might have better success with your pitch.

You must bear in mind that €500 per month is €6k which is a big expense for a SME. You could look at maybe pitching some where around €100 pm & less time input from you.

Anyway good luck with your new venture.

jesse.j

Hi, Good idea, If you could identify and connect with lets say six businesses that you think you could showcase your positive impact over one to three months then use this as evidence to help sell your service. If you get this idea right, many SMEs in this climate will not afford to not use your service. the best of luck.

Rigor Mortis

Plenty of people are out there doing this, either on a sole operator or on a small agency basis. The business is viable but the market is tough

kop-end

swanvill wrote: »

Hi,

Not a bad idea but I feel your stumbling block would be to sell your idea to a small businesses. Maybe if you gave a free trial for a month with a promise that you can show measurable KPIs that also could translate into increase phone/footfall enquiries into the business after your month you might have better success with your pitch.

You must bear in mind that €500 per month is €6k which is a big expense for a SME. You could look at maybe pitching some where around €100 pm & less time input from you.

Anyway good luck with your new venture.

+1 This. You will need to run a trial for an SME before you can expect them to hand over anything near what you will be charging. SME owners are very savvy and money wise so if you can show them a definite increase in footfall etc etc which is worth more than your costs then you have a good business.
Good Luck

anitaken29

That's a great business Idea, but 500 euro seems steep especially since businesses could do it themselves with just a little more effort. Maybe look at lowering the price and also you should find something that makes you different from competitors out there, because your working on this at a small scale means that you can offer businesses, website improvements which are personal and tailored specifically for them. Considering how high your price is you really need to find a unique selling price.

Boldberry

I'm in the middle of doing this myself and I would suggest that you do it for about 100 per month. The really hard thing is getting the first couple of businesses signed up, but I have 11 clients now and it's a nice little sideline. I've no plans to take it any further than this as at the moment im working full time but I can tell you there's plenty of people looking for a service like that but they are afraid they will be ripped off. There are messers out there claiming to be experts and charging ridiculous amounts for simple stuff.