The changes I’ve recently made to my SMMA contract have made a big difference for me and for setting proper expectations with clients and helping them succeed.
Today, we’re talking about everything you need to know about SMMA agreements. And if you get this right, your retention will increase.
Here, you can get access to the SMMA contract, then download it as a PDF or Word , adjust to your social media marketing agency and move on. But instead of just giving you a copy of my agreement and saying, ‘Hey, this is what it is,’ I really want to dive as deep as we can today and talk about the principles so that you understand how to set one up for yourself.
None of what I’m sharing today is legal advice, just experiences that I’ve had,
So, without further ado, let’s get into this guide on SMMA client contracts.
Table of Contents
Why Contracts are Crucial in Client Onboarding
So, let’s talk about why and when to sign a contract with a client first. Why even use a contract when you onboard a new client?
Well, you want both parties, meaning you, the agency, and the client, to agree upon what’s going to be done, delivered, and included in this service. It sets the right expectation and also shows that you’re experienced, taking your business seriously, essentially.
So, that’s really the main thing when you onboard a new client. The reason why you have a contract is that you want to set the framework. You want both parties to agree upon what is going to be included and what is going to be done.
Also, you agree upon the price, which is very important. You have a time agreement. All of these things are super important, and that’s why we have an agreement or a contract.
The Right Time to Sign a Contract
So, when to sign? Immediately after the sale is made. Once the payment is completed and the contract is signed, that’s when you schedule the onboarding call and get to work. So, it’s very important that when you have your sales call and they agree that they want to work with you, you get the payment in immediately and also get the contract signed.
You can either do that on the call, or you end the sales call and then send them an email afterwards. As soon as you get the contract signed and the first payment is in, that’s when you start the work. That’s when you start the SMMA onboarding, not before, but when the contract is signed and the payment is in, that’s when the onboarding call starts.
Key Elements to Include in Your SMMA Contract
Okay, so what to include? Well, the most important things to include are details regarding the:
- Service
- Client requirements
- Compensation and Payment
- Time frame
Service
Service, the most obvious thing that you should include in your contract.
You want both parties to agree upon what is going to be included and what is going to be done.
Are you going to help them with advertising only? What is included in that?
Are you going to set up the campaigns and help them with the ad copy?
Or are you going to help them with the website as well?
You have to specify that in detail.
So, the services can be divided into two parts: setup and ongoing management services. As part of the setup services, the company will:
- Setup Facebook Business Manager & Optimize Facebook Business Page;
- Setup Retargeting Campaigns;
- Setup Marketing Automation System text & email;
- Setup Call Tracking;
- Create Custom Ad Campaigns (Copywriting, Images, Audiences, and Ads)
So here, you would obviously adjust it to your service, and then you can just outline what you’re going to do here in terms of the setup.
And then, as part of the monthly ongoing management services, we will do this:
- Manage and optimize the Facebook campaign daily;
- Manage and optimize the retargeting campaigns daily;
- Forward leads (calls & opt-ins) to client;
Client Requirements
Then we have some client requirements:
- Provide required intake info requested through an on-boarding call or survey.
- Provide the Company with requested photos for ads.
- After 30 days of no contact from the Client to The Company, the Company will assume that the Client no longer needs The Company’s services. The Company may terminate the Agreement; in this event, all unpaid fees will be due and collectable at the time of termination.
Compensation and Payment
You also include the details regarding the price, obviously. If you have a setup fee or not. Then you’ll have a monthly fee. So, you have that included.
So, you have the setup fee that you mention here and also you have the price per month.
- Set up Fee: For the Services described in Section 1A-F, the Client will pay [$ SETUP FEE] in setup fees. Set up, as outlined in Section 1A, can take varying lengths of time, but will usually take around 14 days (MAX).
- Ongoing Management: For the Services described in Section 1G-J, the Client will pay to The Company [$ PRICE PER MONTH] per month for ongoing management per advertising campaign location. The fee will be due every 30 days and will be automatically deducted from your payment method on file each month. The management fee does not include the ad spend to the advertising platforms.
One thing that you can do with the setup fee is that you can have a setup fee of one to two thousand dollars. It depends on how much work is included in your setup. But then also, what you can do if you have a setup fee is an incentive-based pricing. So, for example, on the sales call, you can mention that you have a setup fee of two thousand dollars, but if you get a decision on the call, then you can waive the setup fee, and it’s not going to be a setup fee for you. So, you can have something to basically tell them that if you make a quick decision, then there’s not going to be a setup fee because we won’t have to follow up with you, and so forth.
Time Frame
The next last thing that you want to include in your SMMA contract is the time frame. For how long does the contract last? What happens after that, for example, month to month?
The reason why you want to have a time frame that you agree upon, that the client is going to stay with you, is because you want to find people who are serious enough. You don’t want to get somebody onboarded and then work with them for a month, and then they just leave you because they want to do something else and they’re kind of all over the place.
But you want them to be committed to a specific time frame because sometimes you might have to test a couple of things, and in some campaigns, you might not get results within the first two weeks, or you’re getting them results, but you can perfect them a lot better over the next six weeks. So, if they leave you after two weeks, they’ve wasted everybody’s time.
So, it’s very important that you set a time frame in the contract to find people who are actually serious and are willing to commit to this, essentially.
SMMA Client Contract Wrapping Up
That’s basically the SMMA client contract, and again, you can download it to your computer as a Word document or however you want to do it, and then you can adjust it.
Then we’re going to upload it to DocuSign gn and get it signed, essentially. Right, so that is the contract. It’s pretty straightforward, super simple to use. We use this exact contract to this day, and it works like a charm
