Create a Social Media Marketing Invoice Template for Research and Development

Social media marketing invoice template for Research and Development

Onboarding social media clients in today's video, I'm going to share with you how you can create a smooth onboarding process with your social media clients from the moment they get off the discovery call with you and say, Yes, I want to work with you until the moment you post your first post on their account. So everything in between is what we called the onboarding process until you actually have access to their account and from the moment on, they say, yes, I want to work with you. Before we dove in with all the content. I would love for you if she could subscribe to this channel and if you like the video hit that thumbs up button. Right. So let's say you had your discovery call with a potential client and they say, Yes, I want to work with you. Now what do you do next? and how do you get access to their accounts and how do you get paid? So let me walk you through that whole process step by step, starting with a right after the call. I want you to send them an email explaining the next steps for all of these things that I'm going to share with you now. You want to have a template ready because it's always going to be the same thing. So if you want to prepare an email, that would be something that you can start with. It's called that next step email and even a step further back when they said yes on the call. you want to tell them what your next step is going to be. You want to tell them, look out for my email, I'm going to send you an email today. You can say tomorrow, but I honestly prefer today. While the client is still hot while they're already, we want to keep that excitement high. And now here is the biggest difference that you can make compared to other freelancers. And trust me, I've hired freelancers myself, and the onboarding experience was, let's say, not so good. And that will make you feel, Oh my god, do I really want to give them my money? Are they going to be like that in the whole process when working with them? So right when you go off the phone with them, you can share or show how professional you are. So you're going to say, OK, so in the next hour or today, I'm going to send you an email with the next steps in that email is going to be the contract. Now the contract is the first thing that you're going to send out. This basically involves the package you discussed on the discovery call, which you decided together with the client would be serving them best. Obviously, the price. And also, when you state the price, make sure that it says paid upfront. That's super important. If you don't do paid upfront, you end up working a month doing all the great stuff for your client and then might not get paid. So this is always upfront for me, non-negotiable. In the contract. you also say different things about that. You're a freelancer, you're not an employee of the company, and you can add many other things. I'm not a lawyer. I have my own template, but make sure that you have a good template or work with a lawyer so that it's super clear what you're going to do and what you're not going to do stated clear in the contract. What's not a part of you. one other thing I want to mention here is if they have an emergency or something that they need you to post, they can do that once or twice. But usually, they have to give you 48-hour notice because what we don't want to happen is sending you random pictures and saying, Can you post that in the next hour? That's not how it works. So contract and next step emails are the first things you're going to send out. Once you have gotten the contract signed back, you can then send the invoice together with how to get access to the different assets that you're going to share. So what you can do is when you start out, it's OK to just send a PDF because I understand that you don't want to right away invest in a tool However, further down the road, I highly suggest using a tool, you can use honey books, you can use 17 hats or you can use dubsado I highly suggest using a tool because then the whole process is automated as in like when the client virtually signs it will trigger an invoice. So then you have to worry about one thing less. Everything is automated. And also, if the invoice is not paid by a certain date, it will trigger a reminder which will make it easier for you because then you don't have. to send out those annoying emails, say, Hey, you still owe me money. So once you have sent out the contract, they signed it, they know what the next steps are. You'll send the invoice or your system sends the invoice. And now we're also going to share with our clients, how are we going to work together? What platform is best? And I personally use Google Drive for everything. So I have a dedicated folder for each client, and then each folder has subfolders. one subfolder for photos. One subfolder for videos and it's super clear for the client that they have to upload their photos in those subfolders. They're not sending you an email or a text message with their photos, right? They uploaded into that folder. Now in that folder, you can also have some folders for their logos for their other brand assets, like what is their tone of voice? What is their brand images that they use? What is their colour palette so they can upload all of that? Here are two ways on how you can explain that to the client. You could either create in a lot of people do that a PDF and you like, make it nice and Canva and you sent that to the client. That's basically an onboarding document. And in there they will see, Oh, OK, yeah, for Google Drive and here I can upload this and that. But let's be honest, not everyone is going to read it and then they're going to get through half of it and they still don't understand it. So my personal preference is to create a little video. You can use Loom for that, and you put that video in the folder as well. The video is called Start here or watch this first. And in that video, you're just walking them through step by step what that Google Drive entails and just explain to them this is where you upload your photos, your videos here, you can add your logos, et cetera, et cetera. So watch this first video you can add in the Google Drive. One other important thing on that is you're going to add a client questionnaire into the Google Drive. Now, this is a part. This is the next part basically on our process, having a client questionnaire If you don't do work with the Google Drive, that's fine, but you still want to send them a client questionnaire. If you don't do that, you will have so many struggles along the road creating content for them. And honestly, it would just be weird because it's one of the most important parts that client questionnaire is asking them more about their company. Yes, you've already talked with them, but now we're talking way more in-depth, way more in-depth about their services or about their products, about their competitors. Most important about their client avatar and what are their pain, points and challenges if a business doesn't have that red flag. So that is super, super important. So the client questionnaire for my clients they can find in their Google drive. So that leaves us with one more important thing how can now get access to all my client's different accounts Instagram, Facebook, TikTok, LinkedIn, whatever is in your package, you need access to those accounts. And again, it's not always as simple. And remember most of your clients, they're not used to working in social media. They have a different business. They are experts in a different businesses. So it's not always super straightforward for them to understand how they can give you access and what they should never do. And I really mean never is sending you their password. It's very unsafe. And if you work from different locations, like when I work from Bali etc, it feels weird to the platform when suddenly someone gets a password sent out to a different country. So that's a whole other story. But for now, let's just say we don't send passwords. So how are we getting access? Then we're using a tool called LastPass. LastPass is a very safe and secure way, which I would use for all your personal passwords as well, and it lets you share your password with someone else without them seeing it. So now I can just go and log into an account using the past the LastPass extension in Chrome and log in to their platform. This works, let's say, for example, we use LinkedIn or we use a scheduling tool like plainly. However, for Facebook, we want to do it differently. That is what we call the Facebook business manager, which they now renamed to Meta business suits. So if you hear me say Facebook business manager or Meta business, it means the same. It's basically a part within Facebook that lets you manage someone else's assets. So Company A can add me as their editor or administrator in their business suits. And then from there, I can have access to different access to different platforms like Facebook, different Facebook pages, Instagram, Facebook ads, etc.. So this is, to me, the easiest way to go via met up business suits. Now, if you log in on Instagram on the app, you still need the password again. You can use LastPass for that. Also, you want to make sure they have turned off the two-factor verification while you log in. Otherwise, they will get sent out a code and you can't log in. Now, as you can see, even just from me explaining that now in this short summary, it sounds very complicated. And if you hear that as a client or you see it on a PDF written, you're like, Oh my God, I don't want to do that right? So if you create a video for your client walking them through, it's going to feel so much easier. So you're going to use a loom and you screen record exactly step by step what the client has to do. So then they can just rewatch your video over and over again. one other thing that some of my clients do is state go on a call and then they explain step by step what to do. I highly suggest to do the video way because honestly, that is just a waste of your time, because everything that we can automate, we should automate in our business and we can automate that by creating a video, sending it to the client. Now they can rewatch it as many times as they want to. So this video about how to add me and in your meta business suits or give me access to your different platforms and how to set up LastPass etc. That is also going to be in the Google Drive. So now the client has a clear overview on what they have to do next. And honestly, if they send me an email with a photo, I will reply to first one or two times saying like, Hey, please upload that in the Google Drive in the next few times. I just won't use that photo. I have to be very strict because otherwise if you work with five to ten different clients, you completely lose the overview and have a very structured way, and it works super well if you do it that way. So that brings me to our next point, which is how do we communicate with clients? You can put that also into a contract, by the way. Otherwise, you would just have it in your next step emails. My communication is via email with the clients. And once a week, once a week would be a bit too much. Once a month, I have a call with them and I walk them through the social media analytics and we talk about the next month and what kind of content I'm creating for them, what kind of strategy we're choosing based on the analytics. So that means I only communicate with my client once a month via call. And if they have an urgent request, they can email me. But really, there is nothing much to discuss during the months otherwise, I don't want to have Slack where it just opens the conversation for daily chit chat or giving their input on stuff. So really, for me, it's like I have a folder dedicated in my email system for each client. And if they have something that they need me to know, I'll drop the email in that folder and I can just reply via email, but really only if there is something urgent. Otherwise, I usually only talk to my clients once a month on the call. Talking about call, this is the last step in our journey on onboarding a social media client. It's a kickoff call on the kickoff call. I like to discuss what kind of content I'm seeing for my client, what kind of content I don't see for my client, basically. the strategy making sure again, we're on the same page, making sure I also ask some final questions of what content they don't want or content that they really love, and content that I see strategy-wise makes the most sense. And then also again, explaining how it works moving forward with the communication that I scheduled the content usually a month upfront, which means if there's something urgent. And they have to tell me, et cetera, et cetera. So the kickoff call is the last step during this whole process. The most important thing and I can't say it enough, but before I say it, actually click subscribe or like this video If you feel this was helpful for you. Let's get back to it. The most important thing is to always be the leader. The client should never ever have to email you or message you. What are we going to do next? I saw you did this. Now, what should I do next? Your emails should always tell them or your videos what the next steps are. And this can also be that you say, hey, for the next week, just that, you know, I am in my research phase, so I will review your answers. I will come up with a strategy. I will do some competitive research based on what you said. So you will hear back from me after death so that the client constantly knows what you are doing, and it's super clear when the kickoff date actually is. And again, just keep them in the loop so the client should never have to email you. All right, guys. This is my process for on boarding social media clients. Let me know below this video if this was helpful and also what kind of other content you would like me to create and I will see you in the next video bye.