How detailed is your social media agency contract? Find out if you’re covering all the bases, plus, grab a free contract template.
A social media agency contract is important to the success of any agency-client relationship. These contracts protect the interests of both parties by clearly defining the terms of your arrangement. Effective client-agency communication is vital.
Although contracts might sound scary, they’re a good thing! A solid contract ensures everyone understands their rights and responsibilities. They prevent misunderstandings and set clear boundaries, so it’s super important that you know what to include.
In this guide, you’ll learn all the essentials you need to build your social media agency contracts.
Key Elements to Include in a Social Media Agency Contract
1. Scope of Work
First things first, you should clearly define the scope of work expected in your social media agency contract. This includes the practical details of the work you are expected to carry out such as:
- Which platforms you are expected to manage
- The frequency of posts
- What types of content you are creating
- Turnaround times for creating and approving content
- The approval process and points of contact.
2. Payment Terms
Payment terms are exactly what they sound like. These set the expectations for when you will be paid, how often, and for how long.
Research how to price social media management and be clear about your fees upfront. Maybe you are paid per project, and therefore the terms are on a kind of as-and-when basis. You could also be retained full-time with a fixed fee for any work done within your scope of work responsibilities.
The section might look something like this:
The legalese can seem a little daunting, so consider consulting an attorney when drawing up your contracts.
3. Intellectual Property Rights
When creating content for a client, you have to establish who owns the rights to it. When you upload content to social media, you automatically retain the intellectual property rights.
This fact can become a bit muddy, however, when an agency is creating and uploading content on behalf of someone else. Normally, the rights transfer to the client as soon as they pay for your services, but it’s best to have this clearly expressed in your contract.
4. Confidentiality and NDAs
Confidentiality clauses are pretty usual when you’re hiring someone. They are normally included to emphasize the importance of keeping sensitive information about business activities under wraps. When dealing with a social media client, there’s often a glut of secret material in development. Agencies must protect the integrity of upcoming projects before they are ready to launch.
NDAs are ‘non-disclosure agreements.’ These contractually define what confidential information can or cannot be shared outside of a relationship of any kind. When creating your social media contacts it’s important to consider if NDAs are necessary for your partnership.
5. Dispute Resolution
In an ideal world, all your business relationships are smooth sailing. In the real world, things go wrong from time to time. Including a dispute resolution policy in your social media agency contract can be immeasurably helpful in the second instance. Clients can sometimes be difficult, so planning ahead is the smart choice.
Dispute resolution clauses help to establish best practices for relationship issues. They might include commitments like promising to use mediators before jumping straight to legal action. Including these details in your contract could save you bruised egos and lots of money in legal fees.
6. Additional Provisions
The additional provision section of any contract seeks to cover anything not included in the standard contract terms. Each client is different and requires a different approach.
You can get specific about this or you can plan for the possibility of future written documents that make additions to the original contract. This could, for example, cover additional costs incurred by extra, unforeseen work.
The example below doesn’t state any additional provisions in detail but outlines how they will be considered and approved.
Social Media Agency Contract Template
Now that you know what to include in your agency-client contract, it’s time to start drafting one—or you can hire an attorney to handle it for you.
To help you get started, we’ve prepared a general template. Keep in mind, though, that it’s essential to consult a lawyer to ensure your final contract complies with all relevant laws in your country.
Click here to get the template.
Tips for Customizing Your Contract
Although it’s good to have a template to guide you, customization will always be necessary. Each project and client is different, so it makes sense that they need different terms to agree on.
If you have specific working practices and policies, like set turnaround times, state them clearly. However, if the client needs to work to a different timeline, see if you can be flexible in your accommodations. Tweaking your conditions to fit around your clients will help create good agency-client relations. It shows that you understand their unique requirements.
In addition to considering client needs, think about your team. Do they have particular skills, needs, or preferred ways of working? Do they favor certain social media management tools? If so, state in writing what the client needs to do to work successfully with your talent. You will produce your best work when people feel considered on all sides.
FAQs
You don’t necessarily need a lawyer to create this kind of contract, but seeking legal advice is always a good idea. Protecting your interests should be a top priority. Maybe once you’ve established your standard contract terms with the help of a lawyer, you can just tweak it when needed.
Clearly define the scope of any projects in the contract before work begins. Also, allow for additional provisions by mutual agreement if you’re not sure of the extent of the project from the beginning. To ensure you’re not pushed into doing extra work for free, include details of overage fees.
Having an unresponsive client is unfortunate and frustrating. Should this happen to you, you can terminate your contract if you have included clauses that cover non-compliance or non-responsiveness. Consider adding specific clauses that cover this if you’re uneasy about client communication.
Final Thoughts
A well-crafted social media agency contract is essential for protecting both your agency and your clients. Outline the key elements both parties need to operate smoothly right at the start of your working relationship.
By setting clear expectations, you’ll reduce the chances of problems cropping up along the way. Take our advice on what to include, and you’ll be positioned for success.
Once the ink is dry on your contract and you’re ready to start collaborating, consider using Gain to manage all your clients’ content. Gain combines client collaboration features – like gathering feedback and approvals – with social media features – such as scheduling and publishing – so you can manage clients at scale and grow your agency fast!
Sign up free today.
