The cost of content marketing services will vary with each campaign and project, but generally, companies can plan to spend around $5,000 to $75,0000 per month if hiring a content marketer. Learn how much content marketing costs and the factors that impact pricing so that you can budget for your business’ unique needs.
What’s Typically Included in Content Marketing?
Content marketing services will differ from agency to agency or freelancer to freelancer, but some typical offerings include:
- Content strategy: Any research and planning of content, including content audits, competitive analyses, keyword research and SEO content roadmaps, etc.
- Content creation: All copywriting, be it blog posts, website copy, press releases, case studies, infographics, social media captions, etc.
- Content distribution: Getting your content into the world through publishing; influencer marketing and guest blogging plans; or collaboration with SEO, paid advertising, email marketing, and social media teams
A common misconception about content marketing is that it’s limited to writing blogs. While creating a blog for your business is a great marketing tactic, you’ll quickly find there’s more to strategic content marketing than just blogging. A good content marketing team will consider how your content is seen by search engines and how to get more people in your target audience to read what you create—all while producing work that aligns with your company goals, values, brand voice, and budget.
Kennedy Martinez, Hurrdat Marketing’s Content Director, adds,
“A big part of content marketing is performing content audits—auditing a website’s current content strategy and defining opportunities for better performance and competitive edge. Essentially, any copy that you read on a website can be a part of content strategy. Whether it’s a paid landing page, homepage, or service page, these all have a place under the content marketing umbrella.”
Below is a general cost breakdown for common content marketing services.
| Content Marketing Service | Average Cost Per Month |
| Content Strategy | $1,000 to $75,000 |
| Content Audit | $1,000 to $30,000 |
| Competitive Market Research | $15,000 to $50,000 |
| Keyword Research | $500 to $4,500 |
| Content Creation | $50 to $45,000 |
| Website Copywriting | $50 to $5,000 |
| Blogging | $500 to $45,000 |
| Social Media Copywriting | $400 to $5,000 |
| Content Distribution | $5,000 to $20,000 |
Oftentimes, content marketing works hand-in-hand with SEO, website development, and other digital marketing services, meaning that these offerings are usually bundled together and billed by the project. This can make it difficult for businesses to estimate one-off content marketing prices, which is why it helps to first understand how much SEO costs, as well as web design, before finalizing your content budget.
Factors that Influence the Cost of Content Marketing
There are no set content marketing rates since every content marketer will have unique pricing based on your project needs, as well as their expertise and resources. Here’s what to consider when setting your content marketing budget.
Scope of Content Services
The complexity of your website and the content marketing tactics you need will determine your final cost. Generally, if you have a larger website, operate in a more technical or niche industry, or want a more comprehensive content strategy, you should have a higher budget than small business websites with low competition and a la carte services.
Other factors that could drive up your expenses because they increase the scale of the project include if the content needs to be created from scratch instead of reworked, if the content is not templated, if the volume and frequency of content is larger or recurring, if the distribution plan has multiple channels, and if you want additional revision steps throughout the process.
Length & Type of Copywriting
On average, content marketers tend to charge more for long-form content vs short-form content because it takes significantly more time and effort to research, write, and edit—plus, it requires a deeper understanding of the topic. The exception to this rule is any short-form content that’s highly in demand, like video scripts, micro-influencer content, or branded challenges that gather user-generated content.
Similarly, content like case studies, white papers, ebooks, and long-form blog posts are usually the most labor-intensive and require specific skillsets to complete so they’ll be the most expensive. Website copy, landing pages, and infographics might be more mid-range, while social media captions, short blog posts, and other minor content projects will be the least expensive content types.
Content Marketing Team
You have four options when it comes to who can get the content done—yourself, your employees, freelancers, or a content marketing agency.
Doing parts yourself is obviously the cheapest option, but for small businesses owners who lack the time and necessary skills, this is often an unrealistic and unsustainable choice. An in-house content marketing team has the advantage of more consistent messaging across platforms, but carries a higher price tag because you’re paying their salaries.
Hiring freelancers helps you avoid paying workers a full salary with benefits, but might make your overall content strategy disjointed, and the quality of the final product can be a gamble. So even though hiring a full-service marketing agency comes at a larger cost than the DIY or low-budget route, it’s probably worth it if you want a better experience with dependable communication, high-quality work, and achievable results from experts.
Content Marketing Tools
If you plan to strategize, write, or distribute the content yourself (or with your team), you’ll need content marketing tools to execute your project. While many of these tasks can be completed at a relatively low to no cost with the use of free tools, it might be worth the investment for paid upgrades that give you more features or a better user experience. You can expect to pay anywhere from $10 to $500+ a month on these resources.
You or your small business might even use AI during the content ideation and creation process to keep costs down. Just know that, although free, AI-generated content can sometimes be inaccurate or misleading, unnatural-sounding to your brand, ethically questionable, and potentially lower performing than human content because of Google’s March spam update. For these reasons, you’ll at the very least want to have a human editor go over any AI-generated content to adjust for accuracy, quality, and authenticity with your brand.
Common Content Marketing Pricing Models
Below are a few ways that content marketers typically charge for their services and what the advantages and disadvantages of each content marketing pricing structure is for your company.
Per Word
- Freelance Content Marketer: $0.05-$1.50 per word
- Content Marketing Agency: N/A
Per-word pricing is most used by freelancers and individual content writers instead of agencies or in-house content marketers. Often used with blogging, this model charges a specific rate for each word written and does not usually include services like research, editing, SEO optimization, or revisions in the rate. This pricing structure can be appealing for businesses with a clear understanding of their content needs and a fixed budget, especially if your focus is on short-form copy. However, it can be difficult to predict an article’s final length, meaning the overall project cost can significantly vary from what you were originally quoted.
Hourly Rate
- Freelance Content Marketer: $50 to $200 per hour
- Content Marketing Agency: $150 to $250 per hour
The more complex your content marketing project, the more hours your agency or freelancer will need to spend on it, increasing the cost. If you work with a digital marketing agency, they will likely have several departments collaborate on the content, with each department having unique hourly rates that will affect the overall pricing of their content marketing packages. Similarly, if you hire multiple freelancers, it’s likely they will each charge different rates for their services. If you need ongoing content marketing services, it may make more sense to negotiate a content marketing contract for a flat rate by the month or by project to help your business budget effectively.
Monthly Retainer
- Freelance Content Marketer: $500 to $5,000 per month
- Content Marketing Agency: $1,000 to $15,000 per month
When you hire a freelancer or agency under a monthly retainer, they will reserve a designated number of hours for your business each month to complete whatever tasks and services you need. Some of the benefits of monthly marketing retainers for businesses include the ability to receive consistent support, the same monthly expenses for more predictable budgeting, and savings over the long term—since retainers are typically offered at a bit of a discount. This payment model is best suited for businesses that need regular, ongoing content marketing services.
Project-Based Charges
- Freelance Content Marketer: $50 to $15,000 per project
- Content Marketing Agency: $1,000 to $30,000 per project
Project-based pricing is when you agree to a fixed fee for particular services. This content marketing pricing structure can be a great middle-ground for businesses needing more complex work than a one-off task but who don’t want to commit to a month-to-month arrangement with a freelancer or agency. A project-based model allows you to be upfront about your service needs and provides clarity to agencies and freelancers about their compensation. Businesses who use project-based pricing can clearly define their content marketing budget for what’s ahead, since each project’s scope and cost is tailored to your needs.
Is Content Marketing Worth It?
Yes, well-planned content can lead to a substantial ROI for businesses of all sizes, making content marketing a worthwhile investment. For example, when Extra Space Storage wanted to increase organic traffic to their website, Hurrdat Marketing collaborated with them to build and execute a blog strategy that resulted in a 3,300% increase in blog traffic.
Besides impacting your bottom dollar, content marketing can also help your business:
- Improve your position in SERPs
- Boost brand awareness
- Increase conversion rates
- Strengthen relationships with customers
- Build industry authority
- Provide valuable insights on your audience
- Better your customer experience
- Streamline your customer service
Need high-quality content marketing services for your business? Hurrdat Marketing offers comprehensive content marketing services that won’t break your marketing budget. Contact us today to learn more!
