How to Create a Pitch Deck For Your Social Media Agency

A comprehensive and well designed pitch deck is critical to helping an agency convert leads into clients. It clearly shows prospective clients how your agency can help them reach their business goals. 

Also, your pitch deck slides should tell a story about your agency, the services it offers, and the problem it solves.

So in this post, we will look at how you can create a pitch deck for your social media agency. 

We’ll see what a pitch deck is, the proper outline to use, and best practices to follow.

What is a pitch deck?

A pitch deck is a presentation that gives potential clients or investors a quick overview of what your agency offers. You can create pitch decks using tools like PowerPoint, Zoho Show, Google Slides, and Canva. 

Pitch decks can serve different purposes depending on who will be viewing the presentation. For instance, you can use it to show an investor the growth potential of your business. It will include a summary of your business plan, the vision of your company, market opportunities, financials, etc. Essentially, an investor pitch deck should give investors reasons to invest in your agency. 

On the other hand, you can use a pitch deck to attract clients to your agency. Here, you will use the presentation to pitch your services to prospective clients and show them what they will benefit from working with you. 

In this article, we will be looking at the latter; how you can use a pitch deck to attract clients to your social media agency. 

Let's get started. 

How to create a pitch deck

Now that you know what a pitch deck is, let's see how you can create one. 

Here are 7 steps that you can use to create a pitch deck template that is customizable depending on the prospect or inquiry. 

Note: These steps will also work regardless of the kind of agency or business you run. 

1. Research the prospective client

The first step to creating an actionable pitch deck is to research the prospect you will be presenting to. This will help you identify the problems that they need to solve. Doing so will allow you to determine what services you will offer. If you offer services that the client does not need, your pitch deck won't work no matter how great it is. 

Here are some things you can research on:

• The products or services they sell: Prospects will respond enthusiastically when they see that you have a good knowledge of their product. Understanding the pain point that your client’s product solves will help you promote them better on social media. You can learn about the client’s business offering by looking at their company website and product literature like catalogues. 

• Their location: If you run an agency where you will need to have regular face-to-face meetings with the client, you need to put the client's location into consideration. It's also not a bad idea to know where your client’s business is located even if you don't need to see them in person. You can obtain this information via their website or an online directory. 

• Their competitors: When you know the client’s direct competitors, you will be able to create social media marketing strategies that take advantage of their competitor's weaknesses. For most companies, you will be able to find their competitors using a Google search. 

• The decision-maker in the company: You should reach out to whoever is in charge of making decisions. This can either be the company head or the person in charge of the department you will be working with. For a social media agency, the best person to reach out to will be the head of marketing. You can go through the company website or LinkedIn page to find this information. 

• The size of their team: This will give you insight into how much work you might have to do. A small or non-existent team will mean that your agency will have to do all the work. This will help you accurately price your services. 

• Knowledge of the services you're offering: The client's knowledge of your service will determine how in-depth your presentation will be. If the client has no prior knowledge, you will have to spend time explaining your service and its benefits. If they already know about your service, you should spend time on case studies that show why they should work with you and not your competitors. 

💡 It might be difficult to perform this research except you are asking the prospect directly. One way to do this research is by looking at their existing marketing strategy. For instance, a social media agency will look at a prospect’s social media pages to see if they are active. An active social media page signals that the prospect has a social media strategy in place. It's now up to you to identify how you can improve on their existing strategy. 

• Their budget: The client's budget will determine how you will price your service. Although, there is no way you can know what a prospective client’s budget is. However, you can estimate their spending power by looking at the company size. For startups, you can look at how much capital they have raised. 

2. Personalize your pitch deck

Using all the information you collected from your research above, you need to personalize your pitch deck to each prospect. A 2019 Semrush study showed that a personalized agency sales pitch is more likely to determine your success than factors like price, value propositions, case studies, or benchmarks. 

So even if every element of your pitch deck is excellent but doesn't resonate with the prospect or show how you will solve their specific pain points, it may be difficult to convince them of the value of your agency. 

For instance, if the client you are approaching has a small budget, you won't put TikTok ads as part of your marketing strategy. 

Why?

TikTok ads can be very expensive. The minimum ad group for TikTok ads is $50 compared to just $1 on Facebook. Since the client doesn't have the budget for such expenses, they might not want to work with you because you will cost them a lot of money. Instead, recommend low-cost marketing strategies.

💡 Your pitch deck should not be a one-size fit all. Every prospect will have different pain points. To achieve success with your sales pitch, you need to convey how your service will help them solve their problems. 

3. Introduce your team

When pitching to a prospective client, it's important that you introduce the key members of your team. This section of the pitch deck will show the prospect why you and your team are the best people for the job. The slide should feature their name, photo, and give context to their job role and expertise. 

Here is an example from Airbnb:

For a social media agency, the key team members to feature are the account manager that will be assigned to the prospect and C-suite executives like chief executive officer (CEO) and chief operating officer (COO). 

When presenting the team section of the pitch deck, it's also good to include a story about your agency. For example, you can tell a brief story of how the agency was started or the challenges that the founder went through. 

Why is it important to tell a story?

A Stanford study showed that 63% of presentation attendees will remember stories while just 5% will remember facts. So, if you want to leave a lasting impression on the prospect, tell a good story. 

4. Define the problem and the solution you offer

This section of the pitch deck is very important. It's this section that will show the client what they will gain from employing your agency's service.

First, your service already has a set of problems that it solves. For example, you might run an agency that helps businesses create social media content. 

Your goal with your pitch deck should be personalizing your service offering to the prospect. That is, how can your social content creation service help the client reach their business goal? 

For instance, after your initial research, you found out that the prospect posts once a week.

To personalize your value proposition to the client's needs, quote a research on how companies who constantly post on social media are 40% more likely to reach their revenue goals than non-social companies. Next, point out how improving the prospects' content strategy will help them increase their revenue. Other business goals you can highlight are increasing brand awareness and audience engagement.  

Finally, you provide a detailed strategy on how you can help the client improve their content strategy. 

5. Explain how you work

Now that you've introduced your agency, the services you offer, the prospects' pain points, and how you can help them solve these problems. The next step will be to describe how your agency works with clients. 

This section doesn't have to be very long. All you have to do is briefly explain your business process. 

Here are some things you should make clear:

• The services you’ll deliver: Clearly explain the services your agency will deliver. For example, your agency might be in charge of creating and publishing social content but won't be in charge of managing the prospect's social media pages. Make sure the prospect understands this before you sign a contract. At this stage, you will also communicate what you will need from the client. For example, if you don't get access to their social media management tool, you won't be able to schedule content for publishing. 

• The metrics you’ll be measuring: The prospect’s goal will determine the key metrics you need to measure. So if the client is interested in building brand engagement, you will look at the number of interactions like comments, likes, and shares on their posts. These KPIs will help you assess the performance of your strategy. 

• How often you’ll report:  How often you will report to the prospect will depend on factors like the prospect's goals and how soon they want to achieve these goals. In the first few weeks of working with a client, it's best to give regular progress updates. This will ensure that you and the client are on the same page. 

6. Include case studies of your work

According to HubSpot, “A case study is the analysis of a particular instance (or "case") of something to demonstrate quantifiable results as a result of the application of something.”

In your pitch deck, a case study does two things:

Firstly, they serve as social proof. It demonstrates to the prospect that you have achieved success with past clients. The case study will build your credibility and help the prospect trust your agency more. 

Secondly, a case study allows the prospect to see how collaborating with your agency will look like in real life.

Note that the clients you are pitching to are not all the same. You need to choose case studies that the prospect can relate to. For instance, you can use case studies of companies that are similar in size or have similar goals as the prospect. It doesn't matter if the prospect and company from the case study are not in the same niche or industry. The most important thing is that the case study demonstrates the effectiveness of your agency. 

7. Summarize and wait for their questions

This is where you will detail the next steps to take if the prospect decides to work with your agency. 

Here you will reiterate all the key points you mentioned in the pitch deck. Discuss the key milestones and your client onboarding process. You should also say how soon you can start working if the prospect decides to go with your agency. 

After the deck, provide the information of relevant people the prospect can contact if they have any questions after you leave the presentation. 

It's also a good idea to proactively answer common questions you have been asked in previous presentations. If you want to further impress the prospect, always backup your answers with real case studies. 

How to outline your pitch deck

We've seen what a pitch deck should consist of. Now, let's look at how you can properly outline the deck. 

1. Introductory slide

This is the first thing anyone will see when they open your pitch deck. It should do things:

• Present your business name
• Say what service you offer in one sentence

On the introductory slide of the Airbnb pitch deck above, the company logo and name are very visible. They also describe what they do in one sentence. The image they used is also visually pleasing.

2. Table of contents

A table of content gives the prospect a quick overview of what the pitch deck contains. If the pitch deck is sent digitally, it makes it easy for the viewer to jump from one section to the next. 

3. About us

In this section, you will introduce your team members and also give a brief background of your agency. 

This is where you can also tell stories and mention your agency’s unique selling point. 

4. Social proof

This is the slide where you show off recognizable brands you have worked with. You can also highlight reviews and testimonials that you have gotten from other clients. If you have been featured in media publications, you can share it here. 

5. Your services 

In this slide, you will focus on describing the services you offer. This is where you show the prospect how your service will help them solve their pain point. The “Your services” section can take up to one or two slides on your deck. You can divide it into the ‘problem slide’ where you will highlight the prospect’s pain points and the ‘solution slide’ where you show how you can help them solve the pain point. 

Here is a simple template from Visme’s Traveler Connect pitch deck. The first slide states the problem, and the second one shows how they solve it.

This section is very important because it gives the prospect reasons to choose your agency and not a competitor. 

6. Pricing information

It is important that you clarify your preferred pricing model. You can choose to be paid hourly, commission-based, project-based, or performance-based. 

💡 The pricing model you use will depend on the kind of prospect you are pitching to. Most new clients will be hesitant to accept a retainer model until they have worked on a couple of projects with you. Also, if you are pitching to a prospect that hasn't worked with an agency before, they will need a lot of convincing before they accept value-based pricing because it typically comes with high fees. So before you choose a pricing model, think about the best option for the client. 

7. Case studies

Here you will include at least one or two case studies that the prospect can relate to. 

8. Your process

In this section, you will explain how you will want to work with the client. Layout when reviews will come up, when you will send out weekly reports, your posting schedule, and the key performance indicators you will measure. This slide will give the prospect an idea of how the partnership will work. 

You should also give room for flexibility here. The prospect might want to make changes that will fit their schedule. 

9. Thank you slide

This is the last slide on the pitch deck. Always thank the prospect for viewing your presentation. You should also include the contact information of relevant people that the prospect can reach out to if they have any questions. 

Best practices for creating a pitch deck 

When creating a pitch deck, there are important guidelines you should follow. They include the following:

1. Get your timing right

Your presentation should not be too short or excessively long. The appropriate time frame for a presentation should be around 20 minutes. The pitch deck should not be more than 10 slides. 

💡 Follow the 10/20/30 presentation rule. Which states that your presentation should have 10 slides, last no more than 20 minutes, and have a font no smaller than 30 points. 

From the outline above, you will have 9 slides. You can add one more slide to explain your services more in-depth.

2. Use consistent branding

Pitch decks need to look professional and consistent with your agency’s branding. Add your company logo, and use the same font and color scheme that is on your agency website and marketing materials. A prospect should be able to identify your brand by just looking at the deck. 

3. Make text easy to read

You don't have to use fancy fonts that can be difficult to read. Also, use simple words that the prospect can easily digest. Use fonts that can be seen from a reasonable distance. 

Some of the best fonts you can use for presentation include Lato, Libre-Baskerville, Montserrat, Dosis, Bentham, Roboto, Fire Sans, and Open Sans. 

4. Use visuals

Studies show that 80% of people remember what they see, compared to 20% of what they read, and 10% of what they hear. So if you want the prospect to readily remember your presentation, include visual aids. Convey information like stats or data using charts or graphs. 

This is an example of how to use visual aids from Airbnb.

5. Create a PDF version 

After the presentation, always give the prospect a PDF version of the pitch deck. Sometimes the software you used in creating your pitch deck might not be compatible with the prospect’s device. For instance, a presentation created with Keynote (macOS) will not open on a Windows device. 

Conclusion

In this article, we have seen how you can create a pitch deck for your social media agency. Regardless of your agency's specialties, a pitch deck is an effective way to attract new clients.

The key is to remember to thoroughly research your prospective clients, their competitors, and their industry. The more details you have, the more extensive and personalized your pitch deck will be. Your goal should not just be to sell your services but also show how your service can help them solve their pain points. 

You can research your prospects and their competitors by using Iconosquare’s monitoring and analytic tool. As a social media agency, you will also need a powerful social media management tool. Iconosquare comes with powerful analytics, publishing, and monitoring tools for Facebook, LinkedIn, Twitter, and Instagram. Start your 14 day free trial.