Your secret to finding Christchurch’s best social media agency

Social media is no longer just a fun place to hang out online – it is a marketing channel overflowing with potential for your business. A platform like Facebook combines scarcely believable user numbers – three billion at last count –  with the ability for marketers to target very specific demographics. No matter what your ideal customer looks like, you can be confident of finding them on socials.

Social media also grants you the ability to engage with customers in a deeper and more meaningful way than traditional advertising ever could. Your brand can show its personality, and by interacting with your followers through posts and comments you can build connections that lead to loyalty, and that can potentially turn people into brand ambassadors.

But this potential can only be realised through clever social media marketing strategies – which is why so many businesses choose to partner with social media experts.

But how do you find the right Christchurch social media agency for you? In this guide we’ll show you exactly that.

Before you begin shopping for a Christchurch agency, you should work to understand what you hope to get out of the arrangement, as this will help to clarify what you’re looking for in an agency.

A lot of NZ businesses go into the world of social media a little blind or directionless. They know they need a presence on Facebook, Instagram, TikTok or LinkedIn, but they’re perhaps a little unsure why.

Before we get into the nitty gritty of marketing services and strategies, we need to understand the goals you hope to achieve with the help of social media. The good news? For most businesses, it’s a choice in three.

Are you simply looking to get your name out there? Many businesses will see social media as a way to alert people to their existence and to spread the good word about their brand. This is often the case for brand new businesses, or for businesses attempting to enter a new market.

Key performance indicators for this goal are simple metrics like followers, impressions, views, engagement and website traffic.

A more targeted goal might be to generate leads for your business. Granting you access to a large and highly segmentable audience, social media platforms can be a rich source of potential customers. These leads could arrive as social media followers, or, if you use posts and ads to direct users to your website, as people you can add to your CRM.

KPIs for social media lead generation include click through rate, conversion rate and landing page traffic.

Christchurch businesses who dabble in ecommerce might look to social media to generate direct sales. This can either be by directing people to your online store, or by using ‘social selling’ tools that see the entire transaction handled within the social media platform.

KPIs for social media sales include abandoned cart rate, conversions and total revenue.

Having gained a better understanding of exactly what you want to get out of your social marketing campaigns, it’s time to hunt for a Christchurch digital agency capable of delivering. Here are six traits that you should look for when shopping for social media marketing services in Christchurch.

Can your chosen agency deliver what you need them to deliver? If your focus is on brand awareness, do they have the writing, designing, photography and videography expertise to create compelling, engaging, shareable content? If you are looking to generate leads or sales, do they have the necessary web design, sales funnel and ecommerce know-how?

Social media marketing doesn’t exist in a vacuum, so the best partners will offer more general digital marketing expertise as well: from SEO to Google Ads to remarketing.

Has the agency helped other businesses succeed? Ask for case studies that reflect your own goals and that feature hard, quantifiable numbers. Speak to their clients to hear what the company is like to work with. Check their reviews, particularly how they respond to any negative feedback.

Ideally you’ll want to find a local partner who has experience working with a business like yours, as this experience can be invaluable, granting the marketer knowledge on the audience you want to attract and exactly how to attract them. A business based in Christchurch can also be more accountable, as they have a local reputation to upold, and as a customer you can drop into their offices any time.

It won’t take long to work out whether a potential social media partner is good to work with or not – simply monitor how reponsive they are to your initial advances. If they take ages to repond to an email or return a call, it’s not a great sign. On the flipside, if they communicate well, you can be far more confident that they will also be more accountable.

Your social media marketer will be spending your money. When you have a question about how that money is spent, you should receive a prompt, straight answer.

Having worked to understand your goals, your social media partner should outline clear steps to achieve them, and clear KPIs that you’ll use to track your progress. These metrics should then be delivered at least once a month in the form of an easy to understand report.

Before you commit, ask for a sample report so that you know what you’ll be delivered every month. Also check that the KPIs can be customised to reflect your needs and goals.

Social media marketers can be broadly grouped into two categories: reactive and proactive.

Reactive marketers set and largely forget campaigns, only jumping in if and when something goes wrong. Proactive marketers, meanwhile, are always looking for opportunities to enhance your social media campaign: creating new content, testing new strategies based on algorithm updates, aiming for new and untapped audiences. You should partner with a proactive company that always looks to do better.