There are a few posts on this subject out there already but with regards to digital marketing prices, the response is usually ‘it depends’. Well I am going to give you a straight answer and say:
Digital marketing prices start from around £9,000 – £80,000 a year.
There you go, now that wasn’t too hard was it? The costs do vary greatly and I will discuss why a little later, but for now the biggest factors that influence price are the services you receive and the cost of the marketing automation software you use. Marketing automation software allows you to automate a lot of digital marketing, saving you time and money.
I believe that every company should have totally transparent pricing and show them on their website in as much detail as possible. For an example you can see our prices here.
Don’t you find it annoying when you are researching companies and they don’t show their prices on their website? I do. I know it is a custom service but give your customers an idea please. We don’t have the time to contact you at this stage, we just want a ball park price.
What exactly am I paying for?
Digital marketing can see a great return on investment, so as I say “you should not have a strict budget for marketing that really works.”
Let’s discuss where these costs actually go and let’s see what exactly you are paying for:
1. Marketing Automation Software
An essential cost, but one that is out of the hands of most inbound marketing companies. There are so many out there but for the purposes of this article I will discuss Hubspot as Stargazer are HubSpot partners and I think their software is the best on the market.
Hubspot – can cost between £1,800 and £20,000 per year and has to be paid up front. Hubspot is the best all-round system inn my opinion.
You should really be taking advantage of all the benefits this great software can bring, you don’t need to have your website built on the Hubspot management system like some people may think, but that would be a great advantage. The reason HubSpot bills annually is they know that digital marketing is a long term investment and you need to invest at least a year to see results.
2. Professional Copywriters
A large part of business success with inbound marketing is content and the written word plays an important part in this content. Your inbound marketing company either has to hire amazing copywriters or use freelancers.
A good digital company will encourage you and your team to write as much content as you can as this will save you money and no one knows your industry like you and your team. For the times when you can’t do this, then you must pay for copywriting services.
3. Video Production
As I mentioned, content is important and creating engaging video content is a really great way to get the attention of your target market. You can have explainer videos, how to videos, testimonial videos and many more.
When digital marketing companies don’t have the talent in-house they will outsource to other companies that do. Like writing great content, creating great video content can also be done by you. Stick a video camera in front of your best customers and ask them why they chose you.
4. Graphic Design
Visual content also plays a big part of your content strategy and writing great content is only part of making it amazing. Adding graphs, flowcharts and illustrations to your content will really give it the WOW factor.
Creating great looking PDFs will also need to have the professional touch of a graphic designer, so will your calls to actions.
5. Search Engine Optimisation
SEO is also a part of your digital marketing success as you need your content to be found. Your digital marketing company will need to have some SEO experts on staff to ensure your content is easily found and displayed by search engines. SEO services alone can cost as much as digital marketing so this is a great way you can save money. Furthermore, a lot of digital marketing companies used to be SEO companies themselves.
Unlike writing content and creating videos, I would not recommend doing your SEO yourself.
6. Social Medial Marketing
Social media marketing is relativity new and finding great people in this space can be challenging, so having experts in this field as part of your marketing team is a real benefit. I would encourage you to listen and engage in social yourself and your digital marketing agency will teach you how to get the most out of social media efforts.
7. The Digital Marketing Agencies Time
How much you pay for digital marketing depends on the hourly rate of the company, but you are also paying for experience. Managing a winning inbound marketing campaign does take a lot of hard work and effort.
I believe we should all be thinking of moving away from billable time and be focused on value rather than time.
So there you have it, just some of the things you will be paying for when you hire digital marketing company. I hope this helped to answer your questions.
Now it’s your turn
Why not take a look at my handy digital marketing calculator so you can see for yourself how much return you can expect from what you spend on digital marketing.