How Social Media Managers Are Keeping Clients Longer in 2025
This isn't the same freelancing landscape it was in 2020. Clients are shopping for social media managers, they are altering their marketing budgets, and changing the entire dynamic of social media freelancing. Let's talk about what we are doing to cope with this and how to keep clients wrapped around your finger as a social media manager in 2025.
How Social Media Managers Are Keeping Clients Longer in 2025
Data-Driven Marketing
Clients are looking for ROI. They want numbers and facts. They want to see their investment (aka you!) churn results! And while we aren't the sales team, we are likely generating some crazy successful stats and leads. Social media managers who can clearly report results and show the impact of their work...that's what's working in 2025.
Need a reporting template? Go on a shopping trip inside our template shop!
Transparent Communication
Actually, scratch that, overcommunication. *Most * clients want to be kept in the loop regularly on what's happening with their socials. Again, they want to see their investment doing the most! You'll notice we said most, because be sure you're asking in your onboarding process how they like to be communicated with — which platform, what involvement level, and how often, because it's all about meeting them halfway in this step.
This might be weekly Zooms, Slack messages, email recaps, or a combination of all the above.
Flexible Packages
Being open to changing your packages is important for working with clients long-term. We don't mean month to month, of course, but at the contract time, still giving them a few different options if they need to tone down for budget reasons or amp things up and scale to new platforms.
Building Trust and Relationships
Personal connection matters! We aren't saying you have to become BFFs with your clients (although we kind of love that for you, too!), but regular check-ins, celebrating milestones, and showing you genuinely care about the client’s business goes a long way! Not only that, but establishing trust is huge! Meet deadlines, set expectations from the start, be organized, and stay transparent throughout your relationship because this will be the grounds for building trust.
One more thing we want to add, you could be doing all the above, and clients are still going to walk out the door. And, that's 1000% okay because that's on them, and better clients are out there waiting for a social media manager like you. That's it for our prep talk, come chat with us inside the mentorship if you need more!
That's a wrap on what makes clients stick in 2025. Tune in every Monday and Friday for more social media manager tips, only on the Hashtag Managed blog.