OUTSOURCED MARKETING ROLES
Hire a community manager, or buy the hours instead
A community manager is the person who answers. Comments, DMs, mentions, the review that arrives at 22:00, the question in a Facebook group that turns into a sale or a complaint depending on how fast someone replies. It is the least glamorous marketing role and the one whose absence customers notice first.
It is also a role that most SMEs should not hire as a full-time seat, and this page is unusually direct about that: what they need is cover, measured in hours a day, not a person at a desk. We price it that way.
What a community manager actually costs
The gap between what the role costs to employ and what the work actually requires is wider here than for any other seat on this site, which is why the last row looks different from the others.
| Option | Cost | What that number covers |
|---|---|---|
| In-house, Belgium | €4,445 / month | All-in employer cost on the Belgian average gross of €2,839 a month, so about €53,300 a year, for one person covering one timezone, minus holidays. |
| In-house, Netherlands | €5,090 / month | All-in employer cost on a Dutch gross of €3,715 a month, so about €61,100 a year, holiday allowance included. |
| Belgian freelancer | €40–€80 / hour | Workable for scheduled blocks. Hard to make work for the evening and weekend replies, which is when most of it happens. |
| Swiftly, 1 hour a day | inside Growth, €995 / month | Daily cover on comments, DMs and mentions, bundled with 20 posts a month across 3 platforms. |
| Swiftly, 2 hours a day | inside Professional, €1,495 / month | Twice the daily cover, plus video editing and 8 Stories or Reels a month. |
| Swiftly, 24/5 cover | inside Enterprise, €2,295 / month | Round-the-clock weekday cover across 5+ platforms. This tier exists because a single European employee cannot provide it at all. |
Belgium. Monthly gross × 13.92 × 1.35 = × 18.79, for the reasons set out on the other role pages: twelve months plus double holiday pay at 92% of a month plus the PC 200 13th month, then about 35% employer loading. The Belgian average of €2,839 a month is therefore about €53,300 a year, or €4,445 a month.
The Netherlands. Monthly gross × 12 × 1.37 = × 16.44, holiday allowance inside the loading. A Dutch gross of €3,715 comes to about €61,100 a year, or €5,090 a month. Treat the Dutch figure as softer than the Belgian one. Belgium has a single documented statutory rate to build on; Dutch employer cost is a sum of variable premiums plus a pension that depends on the sector scheme, and published ranges differ, some starting nearer 20% than 30%. The 8% holiday allowance is the only part that is fixed by law. Read it as a reasonable point estimate rather than as arithmetic.
Why we do not sell a dedicated community manager seat. Because for almost every SME it is the wrong unit. The work is bursty and spread across the day, and an eight-hour seat spends most of itself waiting. Buying one or two hours of daily cover inside a package delivers the response time customers actually judge you on at a fraction of the cost. If you genuinely need a full-time community seat, meaning a large membership community, a live product or a real moderation load, say so on the intro call and we will quote the staff-augmentation rate card at €1,500 to €2,500 a month instead.
Sources. Belgian gross: Indeed Belgium (€2,839 a month, June 2026), with junior roles reported at €2,000–€2,800 and experienced roles at €3,000–€4,500. Read the Belgian figure as directional rather than as a market rate: Indeed had nine reported salaries behind it when we last checked, which is too few to be stable, and a re-pull weeks later moved it. The Dutch figure rests on a larger sample and is firmer. Dutch gross: Indeed Netherlands (€3,873 a month, June 2026), Werkzoeken (€3,715 from 10,316 salaries, April 2026) and the Nationale Beroepengids (€3,500). Belgian freelance rates: Jamais Vu’s July 2026 market survey. Belgian employer loading follows EY Belgium and Vandelanotte on double holiday pay and PC 200 on the 13th month. Checked 23 September 2026.
What daily cover actually involves
One hour a day on the Growth package as the reference point. The hour is not a shift. It is spread across your working day and, on Enterprise, across the clock.
| What | How often | In what form |
|---|---|---|
| Comment replies | Daily, within the cover window | In your brand voice, from an approved response framework |
| DM handling | Daily | Answered, or routed to you with the context attached. Never left on read |
| Mention and tag monitoring | Daily | Across the platforms in your package, including tags you were not notified about |
| Escalation | Same day, as it happens | A written rule for what we answer, what we route to you, and what we never answer without you |
| Review responses | As they arrive | Drafted for approval on anything negative, sent directly on anything routine |
| Sentiment and theme notes | In the regular report | What people keep asking, usually the most useful marketing input you will get all month |
The escalation rules are written down in week one and they matter more than the hours. A community manager without a clear boundary either answers something they should not have, or escalates everything and saves you nothing.
How the cover gets set up
Faster than the other roles, because in most cases it is a scope decision inside a package rather than a new seat.
- 1
Intro call, 15 minutes
Where the conversations actually happen, what the current response time is, and what a bad reply would cost you.
- 2
Proposal, within 48 hours
The package tier that matches the cover you need, and honest advice if a cheaper tier would do.
- 3
Response framework, during onboarding
Tone, approved answers to the questions you get weekly, the claims nobody may make, and the escalation boundary. Written and agreed before anyone replies to anything.
- 4
Brand immersion, 3 to 5 business days
Founder-led, same as every engagement, with an emphasis here on the complaints and edge cases rather than on the visual identity.
- 5
Cover begins
Handed to the team member who runs it day to day. Response times are reported from the first week so you can see them rather than assume them.
- 6
Review
Recurring themes go into the regular report, and the response framework gets revised as the questions change.
What they work in
Inboxes first, then whatever you already use for escalation.
Unified inboxes
- Meta Business Suite
- Later
- Hootsuite Inbox
- Sprout Social
Escalation and handover
- Slack
- Your helpdesk if you have one
Reviews and listening
- Google Business Profile
- Trustpilot
- Platform mention alerts
Craft, not software
- De-escalating in public
- Knowing when to move a thread to DM
- Answering a pricing question without quoting a price
- Spotting a sales signal in a comment
- Consistency of voice across hundreds of small replies
When not to hire a community manager
When you have no community yet.
If the posts get four likes and no comments, cover has nothing to cover. Build the audience first, which is a social media manager’s job, and add cover when replies start arriving faster than you can answer them.
When the questions are really support tickets.
If most inbound is order status, returns or technical troubleshooting, you need customer support with access to your systems, not a marketing community manager guessing from outside. We will say so rather than sell you cover that cannot answer.
When the answers must come from an expert.
Regulated advice, whether medical, legal or financial, cannot be outsourced to a response framework. The workable version is cover that triages and routes fast, with you answering the substance, and it needs to be scoped that way deliberately.
When the community is the product.
A paid membership, a user forum, a developer community: that is a full-time relationship-owning role and it should sit inside your company. €4,445 a month in Belgium buys it, and it is worth it when the community is the retention.
When a full-time seat is genuinely warranted.
Large moderation loads and live products need one. Ask for the staff-augmentation rate card instead of a package, at €1,500 to €2,500 a month for a dedicated person, and we will tell you honestly which of the two fits.
Might you want a different role?
These three overlap, and the wrong one is an expensive way to find that out.
Social media manager
Worth reading before this page rather than after, because the cover described here is already bundled into that role from the Growth tier up, at the same price. If you need the posting as well as the replies, buy it there rather than twice.
Content designer
If the reason nobody is commenting is that the posts are hard to look at, cover has nothing to cover yet.
Questions about hiring a community manager
What does it cost to outsource community management?
It is included in the packages rather than priced as a seat: one hour of daily cover inside Growth at €995 a month, two hours inside Professional at €1,495, and 24/5 cover inside Enterprise at €2,295. A dedicated full-time community manager through the staff-augmentation rate card is €1,500 to €2,500 a month. In-house in Belgium, the same seat costs about €4,445 a month all-in.
What is the difference between a community manager and a social media manager?
A social media manager owns what you say: strategy, calendar, copy, reporting. A community manager owns what happens after you say it: replies, DMs, mentions, reviews, and the judgement about which of those needs you personally. Small teams often buy one person for both, which works right up until the volume means neither job gets done.
How fast will comments and DMs be answered?
Within the cover window your package buys, and response times are reported from the first week rather than promised. Anything outside the approved response framework is escalated to you the same day. The Crisis Management Retainer add-on at €295 a month adds a guaranteed 60-minute response during business hours if you need a hard commitment.
Do you cover evenings and weekends?
The Enterprise tier covers 24/5, meaning round the clock on weekdays. That tier exists precisely because it is the one thing a single European employee cannot provide at any price. Weekend cover is scoped separately; ask on the intro call.
Who decides what gets answered and what comes to me?
You do, in writing, during onboarding. The escalation boundary is agreed before anyone replies to anything, and it is revised as the questions change. This is the part that determines whether outsourced community management helps or hurts.
Is my customer data safe?
Every engagement runs under a formal Data Processing Agreement as required by Article 28 of the GDPR, with Swiftly Marketing as processor and you as controller. Processing takes place partly in the Philippines, which has its own Data Privacy Act of 2012.
Read before you decide
Turning Social Media Into a Sales Channel
Why the reply matters commercially, not just reputationally.
In-House vs Agency vs Outsourced Marketing Team
The three shapes compared, which is the decision behind buying cover rather than a seat.
Working With a Filipino Marketing Team
How hours, handover and escalation actually run across the timezone.
Try it for €1 a day before you commit to anything
€365 for a year buys one professionally designed, written and scheduled post a day on one platform. You approve every post before it is scheduled, and you only pay after you have approved them. It is the cheapest honest way to find out whether we are any good at this.
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