With the large variety of content marketing rates and services available, it can be difficult to figure out how much content marketing is going to cost your business.
When it comes to content marketing, you often get what you pay for.
While content marketing has the potential to produce three times the ROI of traditional marketing, creating and executing a successful content strategy is no easy task.
This article will show you what goes into creating high-quality content, how much it costs, and how to determine which rate makes the most sense for your business.
Content Marketing Rates: How Much Does Content Cost?
1. Content Research
The first step of creating and executing a successful content marketing strategy is research.
To determine which strategies and tactics are going to work for your business, a content marketing agency needs to dig deep into your product, your audience, and your competition.
They need to understand your target audience and perform keyword research to see what types of content will resonate with your potential customers, as well as how to get your content in front of as many of them as possible.
Content research also includes competitor analysis. What are your competitors doing that’s working well? How can you use content to position yourself as the better choice?
The research phase is there to make sure your content marketing team knows your product (and your competition) inside and out, which is not a quick process. That’s why content research costs can vary greatly.
Some agencies sell basic website audit packages for a couple hundred dollars, while others will charge as much as $25,000 per project.
2. Content Writing
When you hire a web design firm to create a website for you, they will often throw in content as a “freebie”.
That is why so many businesses end up with excellent website design but atrocious content, which drives potential customers away.
Written content is by no means a freebie. It is an investment.
A 1000-word blog post takes an average 3 to 4 hours to write. Longer, more research-heavy pieces of 2000 words and up, can take a writer anywhere from 6 to 10 hours, if not more.
After that, you still have to spend time editing and optimizing your content for maximum impact.
While content marketing rates vary across agencies, shorter posts (300-400 words) will typically cost you around $100-150, while a longer, more in-depth content piece of 1000+ words is likely to be somewhere in the $300-$500 range.
Working with a freelancer will land you on the lower end of these ranges, but will often come without the added benefits of editing and SEO optimization.
Partnering with a full-service content marketing agency will be more of an investment, but you will be able to rest easy knowing every aspect of your content marketing plan is taken care of.
3. Updating Content
Your content should include evergreen content – the type of content that is always relevant and useful to the reader. However, that does not mean you can leave it on your website and expect it to deliver the same results year after year. Regularly updating your content is an essential part of a successful content strategy.
For example, you may want to expand last year’s content to include new data or additional tips for the reader.
Updating old blog posts to align them with current SEO best practices is also important if you want to keep your search engine rankings.
Updating your content will often be included in the package price the content marketing agency offers. Separate fees for content updates can range from $2000 up to $10,000 per month.
Choosing The Right Content Marketing Rates for Your Business
The question you should ask yourself is: how much am I willing to spend on content marketing.
Remember, you are not just buying content.
You are making an investment in your business: an investment that is going to get you greater visibility, more traffic, and more customers.
How much is that worth to your business right now?
If you are a small to medium-sized business, you should also know that outsourcing your content marketing can actually be much more cost-effective than building an in-house marketing team.
How HandmadeSEO Can Help Your Business
Here at Handmade SEO, we don’t just grow traffic.
We create and execute a complete content marketing strategy that positions you as an authority in your industry, brings qualified leads to your website and helps you convert them into paying customers.
From research to writing, to updating your content, we take care of all of your content needs for you.
Want to know more about our rates and package options?
