Creating a Budget for Content Marketing

As content marketing continues to be the preferred marketing avenue in the business world, more companies are shifting their marketing plans to include a budget for it. It is a marketing strategy that with the right budget will help to generate more leads. However, just what type of budget should you have for your content marketing? How much do you need to budget? These are questions that aren’t widely talked about even though the growing trend of content marketing is extensively discussed. Don’t sweat it though, creating a budget for your content marketing is a daunting but doable task.

Why Create a Content Marketing Budget?

Creating a budget for content marketing has several benefits. Not only does it assist in managing your overall business, but it also allows you to see where your money will be best spent. Having a budget will also help you to determine whether or not you have the opportunity to expand your marketing efforts to gain more leads and will also give you a baseline to measure results by and to assist in continuing to improve your marketing efforts. So, where do you start?

How Do I Start Creating a Budget?

First, look at what annual marketing campaigns you currently have in place. If you do not already have a campaign in place, decide your marketing goal, target audience, and distribution methods and create an outline of the content type and frequency. You will need to account for every part of the content production from the writing, research, and editing. Decide how many you will produce in a year and use that to start your budget. If you already have the previous year’s information you can also use it to decide where and if you can grow your marketing campaigns. Keep in mind, on average thirty-seven percent of unsuccessful marketers say it is because their content budget is too low so you will want to make the most out of your budget.

Next, you will need to use the projected production time to figure out how many hours it will take to produce that content per month. As an example, you could break it down into something similar to this:

Blogging: 8 Hours (4 Blogs Per Month)
Landings Pages: 10 hours (5 Landing Pages Including Graphic Design)
Email Content: 5 Hours (2 Emails Including Graphic Design)
Downloadable PDF: 10 Hours (One 8-10 Page Downloadable Including Copywriting and Graphic Design)
Blog posts: 4 Hours (12 Social Media Posts Targeted to Specific Audiences)
Facebook Posts: 10 Hours (Non-Monthly Content Related Social Media Posts)
Tweets: 2 Hours (20 Tweets)

What is My Hourly Cost?

Once you have an idea of how long it will take to produce the content, you will need to figure out an hourly cost. Keep in mind these are theoretical times and prices to use as examples only and the actual times and rates will depend on the choices you make. The cost for content will vary depending on how much time it takes to produce it and what type of material it is. Other factors will include whether you use your staff or freelancers to create your content, as well as projected overtime and taxes should you use an in-house team. As an example for this article let’s say you are using a freelancer at seventy-five dollars an hour. Your formula would look something like this:

Blogging: 8 Hours x $75= $600

Now use the formula for all your content to get your content marketing budget for a one-month campaign.

Blogging: $600
Landing Pages: $750
Email: $375
Downloadable PDF: $750
Social Media: $1,200 (Includes all Social Media)
Subtotal: $3,675
Miscellaneous Factor: $425 (Google Ads, Facebook Boost)
Total Content Marketing Budget: $4,000

Need Help Creating a Content Marketing Budget?

If you have been doing content marketing on your own, you probably know how much of an investment of time and money it can sometimes be. IDM is a full-service digital marketing company that offers a variety of professional services (SEO, Blogs, Downloadables, Digital Ads, Social Media, and more) that can be tailored to fit the needs of your business. We understand working within a budget and can likely work with yours. Call today to schedule an appointment to discuss your content marketing options. Or schedule a consultation with someone on our content marketing team. Our business is helping your business grow. (757) 514-1671.