How much money do you need to content market?

You know by now that content marketing strategies can make a significant impact on your business's success. You need to be a leader in your field if you're a large business. Startups need to attract attention, generate leads and drive growth.

How much should we spend on content marketing in order to drive growth?

Content marketing has proven to be 7x more effective than traditional advertising. This is $7 per dollar. But where do you begin?

Let's look at 3 things to think about when you are setting the budget for content marketing.

Quick Takeaways

• 
  Companies are spending more on Content Marketing because of its higher ROI.
  
• 
  Companies allocate 25% to content on average.
  
• 
  Successful content marketers don't just create content. They create a strategy, set goals and measure the results.
  

Content marketing is becoming more important

Companies that are shortsighted in their marketing budgets can cut costs during uncertain economic times. This is especially true for tactics that have low ROI or are difficult and expensive to measure.

While advertising spending has declined over the past year, most companies are beginning to see content marketing as more important.

Late last year, the Content Marketing Institute reported that 71% B2B companies have been putting more emphasis on their content marketing efforts because of its overall measurability and value.

Neil Patel's recent study also showed that 83% companies are increasing their content marketing budgets by 2023.

Semrush also released their most recent study, showing that almost 70% marketers intend to increase their budgets in 2023.

In 2023, content marketing will be more important than ever. It is getting more money. It's surviving the fear that there will be an economic downturn. Companies large and small must grow in 2023, regardless of what happens to the economy.

Content marketing is a great way to achieve that growth.

Okay, we all know that content marketing is essential. We also know that we need more content. Content marketing is even more important. How can we set a budget for content marketing?

What budget do I need for content marketing?

Every company is different and has its own budget. We cannot give a company a specific content marketing budget. We can however look at industry trends to see how companies invest in content marketing.

According to research, companies spend 26% on their marketing budget for content marketing. The highest-performing companies spend close to 40% and those that are less successful, just 14%.

According to Semrush, 73% of companies spend over $1,000 per month in content marketing. The most successful spend up to $10,000.

Let's assume that the average content marketing budget for a month is $5000.

Our content marketing services, which include content strategy, content, measurement, and content creation, start at $2500 per month for one article per week. We also offer $4500 per month for 2 articles per semaine.

This is not a one-size-fits all approach. However, content marketing can be very cost-effective but it does require a significant financial investment, especially at the beginning, when there is a lot to do like website optimization, content auditing, and building your blog.

Essentials for your Content Marketing Budget

The right strategy

Many of our clients have been frustrated by the work of Upwork or Fiverr freelancers. These platforms have many talented writers. Full-time copywriters can be found for as low as $70,000 per annum. You still need to tell them what they should be right about!

A content marketing strategy that works effectively defines your audience's keywords, the content they consume, and the channels they use to consume it. This will help you to identify the best content type to create.

Our services can help you identify these pillars. We will identify the content pillars you require, the keywords that your audience uses by looking at long tail phrases and competitive gaps. Then, we brainstorm headlines that are creative for our writers to use in writing for our clients.

We measure the results. Our clients have amazing success stories, including 2-3x more leads and 300% traffic increases, 60% higher conversion rates, and bottom-line growth in revenue and new customer that resulted in massive content marketing ROI.

Strategy is essential. However, you need the right team.

The right team

Great content is only possible with great creators. The right people who create your content are the most important part of your content marketing budget. It is dangerous to try to add content creation to a role in your organization without considering the time and expertise required.

Content creators are skilled in optimizing your content for maximum results. These are some of the roles that you might want to invest in when marketing content.

• SEO experts can optimize written content for search engine results pages (SERPs) by using keywords and other SEO best practice.
• SEO experts optimize technical aspects of websites to improve their ranking in search engine results pages (SERPs).
• Copywriters are skilled in writing high-quality and high-performing marketing content.
• Editors who ensure that the content is consistent with your brand guidelines
• Support staff that can upload, share and publish your content
• Experts in demand generation who can help drive conversions
• Paid media experts who maximize your spending

(Or, you can hire us because our staff includes all of these people.

This list doesn't include all the roles, but it does include the most common skills needed by a content marketing team. These responsibilities should not be assigned to someone without the right skills and training. This will lead to underperforming content.

A content marketing agency can help you manage your strategy. A good agency has the resources and expertise to produce consistent content and proven strategies. They also provide frequent reporting. This allows you to concentrate on strategic priorities.

Although outsourcing content creation can be a significant investment, it is often less expensive than hiring full-time employees. It allows you to feel confident in your content strategy and not be overwhelmed by all the work involved.

Technology tools

All three are essential components of a content marketing strategy. Technology tools can help you optimize your capabilities in all of these areas.

These tools provide valuable data insight and enable you to scale your strategy for reaching larger audiences. Some examples include:

• Email marketing software allows you to track, store and email subscriber lists. It also provides templates for designing well-designed emails.
• Social media software allows you to digitally store your content calendar, automate post, post simultaneously across multiple platforms, and view performance reports.
• Google Analytics provides detailed reports about web traffic.
• Every company should take advantage of the analytics features offered by website CMS platforms as part of website management.
• CRM platforms offer more functionality and enable companies to automate their sales, marketing and reporting processes.

Your content

Your content might have a separate price depending on the way your team is set up. However, there may be additional fees for projects that are not included in a contract with the agency.

These could include professional videos, white papers, print brochures, and many other things.

E-books are available at a cost of anywhere from $3500 up to $5000

Consider the types of digital and print content that you will be creating, and add those costs to your budget.

How to think about your content marketing budget

When it comes to setting up content marketing budgets, the mistake many companies make is to think strictly in financial terms. So, let's say we have a budget and can afford it. Let's now spend it.

Your content marketing budget is more than just a number. Spending only on what you can afford without considering how you can implement your content marketing plan will result in a lot wasted time and frustration.

The bottom line is to not budget for money that you don't have the resources or time to spend and not spend money that you can't effectively execute.

There is no one formula that every company can use for the perfect content marketing budget. You can be successful if you think about how to create a smart budget that maximizes every dollar.

It is a good idea to look at your content marketing budget through a prioritization perspective: What are the most important items? Consider how you will execute each item. How will you organize execution? What team or individuals will be responsible for this? What other resources is this going to require?

This will help you determine what you can actually execute. When you feel you are spreading your resources too thin, you may need to consider cutting down on lower-priority items.

Our recommendation is to set stretch goals but prioritise setting up your team and company for success. You can use your best judgment to create a budget that is just right.

For more information on the best practices for supporting budgeting content, check out our guide Budgeting Content.

Example Budgets for Content Marketing

$1000 per month: This is the minimum you can get. You should be able to write around two articles per month for $1000 each month. You could also use a freelancer platform to create content, but you must make sure it is relevant to your audience and delivers measurable value. Keep in mind that content marketing frequency research has shown that blogs should be published weekly in order to see real growth in traffic to your site and leads.

$2500 per month: This will give you one article per week, plus an annual content marketing plan and monthly reports. After about three to four months, most clients who sign up for this plan begin to see an increase in search engine optimization and rankings. This plan will almost double your traffic and leads, with an average growth rate of just below 100% per year.

$5000 per month: This will give you 2 articles per semaine, the annual content plan and monthly reporting as well as 2 demand generation e books. These clients are seeing results in a shorter time frame, around 2-3 months. They also see an average of 138% growth in traffic and leads year-over-year.

$10,000 per month: this gives you the super-sized strategy, content, and paid promotion plan. As we have already stated, you can expect growth and it happens instantly! Clients see around 10ooo new website visitors per month starting in month 1. It only gets better as organic traffic increases continue to materialize. We also begin to retarget these visitors with demand generation offers, which translate into predictable leads and new clients.

Get ROI from Your Content Marketing Budget

Are you driving traffic and ranking well? Are you seeing an increase in conversions due to the power of content? Your budget might not be aligned with your goals if it is not. Let's get on the same page.

Get more visitors to your website by publishing quality content consistently. Contact our Content Builder Service today to schedule a consultation!