Meeting Social Media Management Clients Where They Are, Without Cutting Your Boundaries
POV: Every client that you're chatting with, end the conversation with "you're out of my budget, sorry!" or "I don't have the budget for this at the moment. I'll circle back if anything changes." Trust us, after being in business on our agency side for six years, we've heard it all. But that doesn't make it any less frustrating!
Market Budget Cuts
In 2025, companies are noticing a difference in spending habits and adjusting their forecasting and budgets to align with these changes. Unfortunately, we know all too well as marketers how much this can impact the marketing budget specifically.
Marketing budgets for small businesses seem to be one of the first categories to get cut. Whether we agree with this strategy or not, it is a harsh reality. While we'd love to turn this into a TED talk about why your marketing budget shouldn't be the first to go, we'll stick to talking about how we can combat this as social media marketers, managers, and freelancers. First, let's recap a few of the numbers:
→ 54% of global marketers plan to cut ad budgets in 2025.
→ Nearly half of small business owners expect the economy to weaken in the coming months, according to a GoDaddy
Which industries are expected to be impacted the most?
Retail/e‑commerce: 40% expect ad budget reductions.
Consumer electronics: 33% are trimming budgets.
Automotive: About 26–28% plan cuts.
Media & entertainment: 28% anticipate cutbacks.
According to Emarketer https://www.emarketer.com/content/us-ad-growth-slows-2025-economic-uncertainty-looms
What do we do about this?
Meeting clients where they are. And, let's set it straight, we do not mean letting clients walk all over you. We don't mean working for free. And, especially, we don't mean accepting every single client who low-balls you and questions your pricing. Instead, what we mean by this is (1) always asking for their budget in the discovery process, (2) leaning on custom proposals, (3) lowering deliverables where you see fit. Let's dive into each of these points more.
Asking for a Budget in the Discovery Process
ALWAYS ask for a budget in the discovery process. Don't leave this as an open text field on your discovery form. Instead, use a checkbox or drop-down where they can select their budget. Having an open text field creates an opportunity for them to leave it blank, put n/a, or additional comments, versus a number. We want that number, even if it's a ballpark. We want to use this as an opportunity to filter out potential clients that might not be a good fit, but also reassure them of our pricing, before we waste time on a discovery call. If you have a lower-scale offer on your service menu, make sure to include a large range of pricing so you're not scaring away potential opportunities for this space, too.
Custom Proposals
Of course, we are fans of the package pricing method when it comes to social media management. However, we like to use these as more of a starting point. Every client and their social media journey is so unique; our agency commonly creates custom proposals to ensure that we are capturing all those little details and properly getting paid for our time, effort, and expenses that go into each client's management.
Meeting Clients At Their Budget
So, you have a dream client in your DMs, but their budget is $300 lower than your minimum pricing? Instead of giving them the old, "too bad, so sad" email, you can lower your deliverables to align better with their pricing. Notice how we said, you're not discounting your time + expenses, but rather lowering them so you're in turn lowering your end price!
When to do this:
Dream clients that will be portfolio builders
There is a clear vision for scaling and growth potential
You want to start a relationship with them, and they would be a great partner (easy to work with, have a lot of connections, and can be a great referral partner, etc!)
You can trim without compromising strategy
When not to do this:
Their budget is unrealistic, or it's WAY too far under your lowest offer.
They said they have a larger budget, and they are just looking for a discount.
When it's a client you're not passionate about.
When you can't lower the deliverables enough for it to be worth your time. The last thing you want is not to have a strategy that works because you can't spend enough time on it. That means, don't do one post a month, don't cut engagement completely out, because it's just not going to produce results and work in the long run.
While this should be played by a case-by-case basis, this can be a great option to get paying clients in the door! Again, this allows you to not compromise your boundaries because you're cutting your time put in, therefore it's reducing your profit margins at the end of the day.
Which of these are you going to start implementing first?
Need to chat this through with someone?
Our mentorship for social media managers is going to be your new favorite tax write-off. We hold weekly (or bi-weekly during summer months) coaching calls where you can discuss your business face-to-face (or screen-to-screen, rather!) with Maddie + Jess, two entrepreneurs who have run their own social media management companies for years and have been exactly where you are, feeling what you're feeling. Not to mention, a resource vault with all our masterclasses, templates, guides, and client management processes right inside, and an exclusive Slack channel to get to know other SMMs. What are you waiting for? Your business deserves better, and you deserve to get some much-needed relaxation after building it by yourself!