Content is THE essential element and foundation of any marketing strategy for most businesses. As a discipline, content marketing has exploded over the last few years — and for good reason. In the current digital landscape, B2B and B2C consumers alike are hungry for high-quality content that educates, informs and nudges them toward purchase.
But with this large, trending appetite for content comes the quandary: How are marketing teams supposed to keep up? Well, here’s the secret. It turns out many aren’t doing it alone. According to Forbes Advisor, as many as 48% of companies outsource content marketing to agencies or third-party companies.
If you’re in the nearly half of all companies leveraging content marketing agency assistance (or considering outsourcing), use this article as a guide to set your expectations for pricing and value.
What influences content marketing agency pricing?
Naturally, a few factors are involved in determining a content marketing agency’s pricing.
To begin, agency size and reputation. You might think that a bigger agency with more employees to attend to client needs would be cheaper, but that’s not always the case. Often, larger agencies are associated with multiple well-known national or global clients and, therefore, charge a premium. Not to mention, these agencies can charge more for overhead, and the minimum campaign size is bigger, further increasing the price.
Another influence on pricing is the scope of services required. For example, your total cost will vary greatly depending on your needs. If you just want the copy for a marketing campaign, you can expect to pay much less than if you also need design, media buys, or even campaign management.
Do you need a blog or two per month, or are you looking to publish new articles every four business days (and including social media content with those pieces?). Content volume and frequency also impact the price of services.
Finally, the content marketing agency’s industry and niche specialization can affect its service charges. While some agencies may cater to a broad range of clients or be cheaper, it can be well worth your while to seek out one that deeply understands your market. At Content Matterz, we work extensively with B2B tech companies and service providers. Because our focus is dialed in, we know the nuances of this specific sales environment, how marketing trends affect these product buyers and how to price our services to align with typical marketing budgets.
Pay to play: Understanding how agencies charge for services
Before you shell out your valuable marketing budget dollars, let’s take a quick minute to review the three typical pricing models you’ll be likely to encounter.
1. Retainer
Up first we have retainer-based pricing. Monthly retainer pricing is a common model for content marketing agencies, where clients pay a set fee each month for ongoing services like blog writing, social media management, content strategy or SEO.
Instead of charging by the project or hour, a retainer covers a set scope of work. This is typically a predetermined number of deliverables each month or a dedicated hourly allotment, and it offers you consistent support with predictable costs. It’s similar to how law firms charge ongoing clients: they pay in advance for a range of legal services to ensure access to ongoing advice and representation without hourly billing surprises. If you’re signing up for a retainer with an agency, be sure you understand the agency’s “use-it-or-lose-it” rules — whether they will roll hours to the next month if you don’t use them, or if you lose those dollars.
It’s also perfectly normal to expect or ask for a lower hourly rate for being on a retainer, than if you’re paying ad hoc. Retainers are helpful to agencies to be able to predict revenue and team capacity, so the arrangement can be good for both parties.
2. Project-based pricing
Another model is project-based pricing. Here, an agency charges a fixed fee for a specific, one-time project, such as creating a website, writing a whitepaper or developing a full content strategy. The price is typically based on the project’s scope, timeline and complexity — and clients pay for the completed deliverable rather than ongoing services.
This approach offers clear cost expectations and is ideal for companies that need help with individual tasks or campaigns. It’s similar to how a law firm might charge for a specific legal case or contract work, providing a flat fee for a defined outcome.
Be sure you understand the terms of your project. Many agencies place restrictions on the number of rounds of revision or time to protect themselves from cost over-runs. It’s not a bad thing, but you’ll need to be aware. Also, if you know you’ll only get two rounds of revisions, you’ll want to adjust your processes accordingly. Or if you know your team is not efficient about such things, you may want to go the hourly route instead.
3. Hourly rates
And finally, hourly rates are a third method agencies use to charge for services, generally anywhere from $150 to $250. The final bill is based on the total number of hours spent working on a project or task, such as writing, strategy sessions or revisions. Clients are billed for the actual time invested, which offers flexibility but is ultimately less predictable. Sometimes, agencies will work on a “not to exceed” (NTE) hourly basis, where clients pay an hourly rate and are notified when approaching the NTE amount. This can offer the flexibility of an hourly rate with the safeguard of a fixed maximum.
Aligning your budget, needs, and expectations
Wouldn’t it be great if you were given a blank check to accomplish all your content marketing goals? Yeah, we think so too, but the reality is (to reference an old saying) you need to spend money to make money. Below, we’ve broken down what most agencies charge for three different-sized budgets, designed to help you visualize how much marketing is necessary to be impactful.
1. Small businesses and startups
Whether you are trying to scale or maintain a presence, high-quality content is the best way to build your reputation, connect with customers and support your product or service. Not only does content offer readers something tangible to digest while they learn about your company, but it also does that good SEO magic in the background.
For small businesses or startups, chances are you either have a non-marketing person in charge of marketing (oh hello, CEO) or depend on a team of one. In this scenario, a $3,500 to $5,000 monthly budget for a content marketing agency can go a long way — and still be significantly cheaper than adding an employee to your payroll.
With a content marketing agency partner, a $3,500 to $5,000 budget could get you:
- 2–4 blogs per month
- Social media content (design and copy) for two platforms
- Monthly email newsletter
- Limited strategy and reporting
- A portion of work toward a larger campaign that spans multiple months
If you are a startup with your eye on the prize (aka getting to that next round of funding), enlisting a content marketing agency’s help can be just the kickstart you need.
2. Mid-sized companies
Mid-sized companies, typically those with 50 to 500 employees, will have different needs (and usually larger marketing budgets) than small or startup companies. At this stage, chances are you are on your way to having a well-rounded — yet still minimally staffed — marketing team. You probably have individuals responsible for different functions (aka a mix of specialized and generalist roles to cover various aspects of marketing), yet you still have more things to get done than you have people to accomplish.
For a mid-sized company, a monthly budget of $5,000 to $15,000 can help augment marketing efforts and support various channels. An outside content marketing agency is a great way to drive alignment across all messaging and offload some of the work so your marketers can shine in their roles. And you know, hit that next growth target for your organization while saving on overhead.
With a content marketing agency partner, a $5,000 to $15,000 budget could get you:
- 4–8 blog posts per month
- Comprehensive social media management (2–5 platforms)
- Bi-weekly email newsletters
- Content strategy development
- Basic video or infographic creation
- 1-3 email nurtures per quarter with lead magnets and landing pages
As more demands for content hit your mid-sized company, enlisting agency support helps you not only meet them but reach your goals.
3. Large enterprises
Enterprise-sized marketing teams typically have dedicated departments for areas like brand, demand generation, digital marketing, product marketing, and customer engagement. Awesome, right? The caveat is these teams often operate in silos. While each area might have in-depth expertise, it can create challenges in cross-team coordination, maintaining consistent messaging, and avoiding inefficiencies — especially in global or multi-product organizations.
Hiring a content marketing agency is an awesome way to boost consistency in your entire marketing engine. Agencies bring an outside perspective, can work across departments to ensure alignment and provide specialized content creation that fits within broader strategies. And just like our other two company sizes, you can get a lot of (very experienced) dedicated support for less than one or two FTE salaries.
With a content marketing agency partner, a $15,000 to $50,000 budget could get you:
- 8–12+ blog posts per month
- Full-scale social media strategy and execution
- Weekly email campaigns and landing pages
- Advanced content strategy and competitive analysis
- Monthly performance reports with in-depth analytics
- Regular video and interactive content creation
- Specialized content for multiple channels and teams
Hiring a content marketing agency can offer flexibility, so your enterprise team can scale content efforts quickly without additional internal hires. And, working with the right one will complement your in-house teams by filling gaps in expertise or bandwidth.
Breaking down the costs for specific services
If all the above has you pulling out your calculator, here are some additional figures to help you with your maths. We’ve identified a few of our most requested content marketing projects and the ranges most agencies typically charge:
Blog posts:
- Short (500 words): $300–800 each
- Long-form (500 to 1500+ words): $400–2,500+
Social media:
- Per-platform management: $700–3,500 per month
- Individual posts: $100–250 per post (often a five to 10 post minimum)
Email marketing:
- Newsletter creation: $500–3,000 per email
- Campaign strategy: $1,000–8,000 per campaign
Video content:
- Short-form (1 to 2 minutes): $2,000–20,000
- Long-form (5+ minutes): $5,000–25,000+
Infographics:
- Simple: $1,500–5,000
- Complex: $3,000–8,000+
The content marketing agency advantage: What to expect in terms of value
Hiring a content marketing agency offers significant benefits in strategy development and planning. Agencies bring fresh perspectives and expertise, which means they can help craft comprehensive content strategies that align with your company’s goals, audience — and even industry trends.
Regardless of your org size, the right agency should help
- identify content gaps
- build editorial calendars or plans
- ensure a cohesive approach across all platforms
As a bonus, a content marketing agency can help your businesses pivot strategies as market conditions change, ensuring content remains relevant and effective in driving engagement.
On top of strategy, agencies excel in content creation and distribution — especially when it comes to SEO optimization. A skilled agency copywriter will not only produce high-quality content that resonates with target audiences, but their copy will adhere to SEO best practices. AKA engaging content that captivates readers and drives organic traffic.
Agencies also have the experience to modify content for multiple channels—such as social media, email, and blogs — to really amplify its impact. Plus, if you take advantage of an agency’s partnership with, say, HubSpot, they can provide detailed performance tracking and reporting, giving you juicy insights into what’s working or what needs adjustment.
When content matterz, do your research to reap the benefits
Everyone else is doing it (okay, about 50%), so you should, too! Outsourcing to a content marketing agency is a great way to amp up your marketing efforts, whether you are a small, midsize or enterprise-sized business. Hopefully, this guide helps you understand the different pricing structures and what you should expect in terms of balancing costs, deliverables and expected values.
When finding the right content marketing agency partner, it’s essential to do your research. It will be well worth your while to pick one that gets your products, market and industry. If you fall into the B2B tech sphere and are searching for your perfect content marketing partner, we’d love to chat. Reach out today.