OUTSOURCED MARKETING ROLES
Hire a social media manager, month to month
A social media manager owns the channel, not the posts. The calendar, the copy, the scheduling, the numbers afterwards, and the judgement call about what to do differently next month. Done properly it is a strategy job with a production tail; done badly it is a person filling slots in a spreadsheet.
It is also the most commonly mis-bought role in this category, because the price range runs from €450 to €8,000 a month in Belgium alone and almost nobody tells you what separates the bands. This page does.
What a social media manager actually costs
Three genuinely different markets are in play here: employment, agency retainer, and outsourced seat. Their headline numbers are not comparable until you load the salary properly.
| Option | Cost | What that number covers |
|---|---|---|
| In-house, Belgium | €4,540–€6,575 / month | All-in employer cost on a gross of €2,900–€4,200 a month, so €54,500 to €78,900 a year. |
| In-house, Netherlands | €4,860 / month | All-in employer cost on the Dutch average gross of €3,546 a month, holiday allowance included. |
| Belgian agency, entry | €450–€1,200 / month | Two or three platforms, a few posts a week, community management, a monthly report. Output, not strategy. |
| Belgian agency, mid | €1,500–€3,000 / month | What most Belgian SMEs actually pay. A named strategist and campaign work start here, not below. |
| Belgian agency, premium | €3,500–€8,000+ / month | Full service including paid media, usually priced at 10–20% of media spend on top. |
| Swiftly Marketing | €595–€2,295 / month | 2 to 5+ platforms, 12 to 30+ posts, community management from the Growth tier up, reporting weekly or monthly. Month-to-month, 30 days’ notice. |
Belgium. Monthly gross × 13.92 × 1.35 = × 18.79. The 13.92 is twelve months plus double holiday pay at 92% of a month plus the PC 200 13th month; the 35% is employer loading, of which about 25 points is statutory social security. A manager on the Indeed figure of €3,335 a month costs about €62,700 a year all-in, or €5,225 a month.
The Netherlands. Monthly gross × 12 × 1.37 = × 16.44, with the statutory 8% holiday allowance inside the loading. The Dutch average of €3,546 a month costs about €58,300 a year, or €4,860 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.
A myth worth killing, because it is sold hard. Belgian employer social security is not unusually high. It was cut from 32.4% to 25% in the 2016–2018 tax shift, and Belgium’s non-wage share of total labour cost sits below the EU average. Belgium is expensive because gross wages are high, not because the charges are punitive. Anyone pitching you outsourcing on “crushing Belgian employer charges” has not checked.
Sources. Belgian gross: Glassdoor (€2,658 a month from 51 reported salaries, March 2026), Indeed Belgium (€3,335, July 2026) and Payscale (€34,128 a year). Dutch gross: Indeed Netherlands (€3,546 a month from 446 salaries, June 2026). Belgian agency rate cards: Cowire (€450–€850, updated July 2026), TeamTuesday (€500–€1,000), Adman Agency (entry tier €2,500, rising to €8,000+) and Jamais Vu’s July 2026 market survey. Dutch comparison: BrightQontent (€710 / €980 / €1,340 plus a one-off setup fee). Checked 23 September 2026.
What actually lands, and how often
A Growth package as the reference point (€995 a month, three platforms). Starter does less, Professional and Enterprise do more, and the shape stays the same.
| What | How often | In what form |
|---|---|---|
| Content calendar | Monthly, a week ahead of the month | Shared sheet or Notion board, yours to comment on and approve |
| Finished posts | 20 a month across 3 platforms | Copy plus designed visual, scheduled, per-platform variants included |
| Platform-native copy | Per post | Written to your brand voice, not the same caption reposted three times |
| Community management | 1 hour a day | Comments, DMs and mentions, with anything needing you escalated the same day |
| Performance report | Bi-weekly | Reach, engagement, follower movement and what changed, with a recommendation attached rather than just numbers |
| Strategy call | Monthly | 30 to 45 minutes with the person actually running the account |
Nothing is published before you approve it. If that sounds slow, it is worth knowing it is the single control that keeps outsourced social from drifting off-brand in month three.
How the seat gets filled
The same path as every role here: founder-led intake, then a named person who runs the account.
- 1
Intro call, 15 minutes
Which channels actually matter for your business, what has already been tried, and what “working” would look like in numbers.
- 2
Proposal, within 48 hours
A recommended package, scope of work, a content strategy outline and a timeline. Free, unlimited revisions to the proposal.
- 3
Matching
A social media manager matched on sector and register. B2B LinkedIn and consumer TikTok are not the same skill, and we do not pretend they are.
- 4
Brand immersion, 3 to 5 business days
Run by the founders: voice, audience, competitors, the offers that matter and the claims you are not allowed to make.
- 5
Handover and launch
First content live within 14 days of signing, or within 5 business days on the €1/day trial.
- 6
Ongoing review
Bi-weekly reporting, a monthly strategy call, and European project management accountable for quality.
What they work in
We work in your tools where you have them, and bring our own where you do not.
Scheduling and publishing
- Meta Business Suite
- Later
- Buffer
- Hootsuite
- LinkedIn native scheduler
Analytics
- Native platform insights
- Google Analytics 4
- UTM discipline on every outbound link
Production
- Canva
- Figma
- CapCut
- Adobe Express
Planning and communication
- Slack
- Notion
- Google Workspace
- Trello or Asana
Craft, not software
- Writing for a feed rather than for a brochure
- Reading a drop in reach without panicking
- Community tone under pressure
- Knowing which metric answers the question asked
When not to hire a social media manager
When paid media is the actual growth lever.
If your growth depends on ad spend at real budget, you want a paid ads manager and a media budget, not more organic posts. The two roles get confused constantly and the confusion is expensive.
When the Belgian or Dutch market knowledge is the hard part.
If the work needs copy that survives contact with a native Dutch or French reader, knowledge of which Flemish or Walloon publishers matter, or Belgian event and press work, hire a Belgian agency. That knowledge is genuinely local and genuinely scarce. You will save money outsourcing it abroad and lose the campaign.
When marketing is the product.
If the content is the funnel, if you ship weekly and the messaging changes with it, if the knowledge that makes the marketing good lives in conversations nobody writes down, employ someone. €54,500 to €78,900 a year in Belgium is then the cost of the thing you sell, not overhead.
When you have not decided what the channels are for.
Outsourcing an undefined goal produces consistent, professional, pointless output. We would rather spend the intro call on that question than sell you a package that cannot succeed.
When you need fewer than twelve posts a month.
Try the €1/day offer instead: €365 for a year, one post a day on one platform. It is a cadence test, not a marketing department, and it is priced as one.
Might you want a different role?
These three overlap, and the wrong one is an expensive way to find that out.
Community manager
Community management is already inside this role from the Growth tier up. If replies and DMs are the whole problem and the posting is fine, read how that cover is scoped before buying a bigger package.
Content designer
If the strategy is settled and the bottleneck is purely that the assets take too long to make, a designer is the narrower and cheaper answer.
Questions about hiring a social media manager
What does it cost to outsource a social media manager?
Swiftly packages run from €595 a month for Starter to €2,295 for Enterprise, with Growth at €995 and Professional at €1,495, all month-to-month with 30 days’ notice. A Belgian agency doing comparable work charges €1,500 to €3,000 a month, and the same person in-house costs €4,540 to €6,575 a month all-in.
Is €3,000 a month expensive for social media management in Belgium?
No, it is mid-to-upper market. Adman Agency’s entry tier is €2,500 a month and already includes strategy, management, advertising and project management. At €3,000 you should be getting a named strategist and campaign work. If you are paying that and receiving twelve posts and a follower screenshot, the problem is that supplier, not the market rate.
How many posts a month do I get?
12 on Starter across 2 platforms, 20 on Growth across 3, 25 on Professional across 4, and 30 or more on Enterprise across 5 or more. Community management starts at the Growth tier with one hour a day.
Am I locked into a contract?
No. Every package is month-to-month. You can upgrade, downgrade or cancel with 30 days’ written notice, and if it is not the right fit within the first 30 days the engagement ends with no outstanding charges.
How quickly can you start?
A proposal within 48 hours of the intro call, onboarding and brand immersion in 3 to 5 business days, and first content live within 14 days of signing. On the €1/day offer, first posts go live within 5 business days.
Will the posts be in Dutch or French?
We produce in English as standard. For Dutch and French copy that has to read natively rather than translated, say so on the intro call, because it changes who we put on the account and it is a fair reason to prefer a local agency.
Read before you decide
What Social Media Management Actually Costs in Belgium
Every published Belgian rate card from €450 to €8,000, and what each band buys.
7 Signs It’s Time to Outsource
The decision before this one: whether the seat should be outsourced at all.
5 Ways to Work With an Outsourced Social Media Manager
How to brief and review one so the first month is not wasted.
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.
Book your free intro call →15 minutes · No commitment · Talk to a real human