How Much Should a Blog Post Cost?

With companies shifting their marketing budgets away from physical events and inappropriate ads, the corporate blog and content marketing are becoming central elements of marketing.

You know that blogging needs to be the central hub of your content marketing strategy. But you just don’t have time – you have a business to run. You wonder about hiring a content marketing agency, but you don’t have a clue how much to pay. So maybe you are asking: How much should a blog post cost?

A blog post can cost anywhere from $5 to $50 for poorly written ones, up to $1,000 to $2,000 for posts from expert blog writers.

That’s not the whole story, though. Buying a single blog post won’t help you much. A single piece of content can never deliver a return on investment. What you need are consistently published blog posts based on a targeted content marketing strategy. Let’s look at all your options in-depth so that you can best leverage this revenue-boosting marketing tool.

Quick Takeaways:

• Regular blog posts can boost both traffic and revenue for your business.
• Hiring an in-house blogging team is a costly investment. Hiring freelancers is a gamble.
• A specialized content marketing agency delivers a full-service approach to blog posts – and the best return on your investment.

Can I leverage the power of blog posts when I don’t have the time to write?

Publishing blog posts regularly can boost traffic to your website by a factor of 20. That, in turn, yields – on average – six times the revenue for that traffic.

Those kinds of numbers mean that if you don’t get onto the blogging train, it will leave the station with your competitors on board. You need to get on board – even if you and your team don’t have the time to write your own posts.

The problem is: Maybe you don’t know a thing about writing blog posts. SEO? Maybe the very mention leaves you scratching your head.

You’re all about the practical – and you rock at it. You’ve hired engineers, developers, laborers, and office staff – and knit them into a team that functions like a well-oiled machine. But blog writers? “What do I look for? How much should I pay them?”

Blog writing isn’t something “anybody can do,” as many otherwise intelligent businessmen and women often think. Neither is it some mysterious art that pours out of an ivory tower like a magic fountain.

It’s a discipline that pairs a nuanced use of the English language with measurable, scientific results. It’s knowing when to misplace a modifier (With apologies to all my high school English teachers) or use a sentence fragment to make a point. And knowing when to not.

It’s turning conversational English into readable, scannable copy that can retain the attention of readers as well as search engines. It takes training – and to do it well, it takes a wealth of experience.

It’s the ability to turn facts into brand stories, the knack of turning an entire hero’s journey into a two-minute read. It takes talent – and there are several ways to get that talent on your team, generating revenue with every post.

What about an in-house content team?

The average salary for a copywriter is $57,137, according to Indeed.com. And that doesn’t include the cost to define the strategy, update your site, purchase images. Add to that the costs of recruiting, hiring, onboarding, and benefits – and multiply that by as many people as you need to create, distribute, and measure the results.

Not only will hiring an in-house team make a huge dent in your HR budget, but there’s another downside to hiring an in-house team: your lack of expertise in the field. Unless you’re an experienced web content writer, you’re probably not familiar with all the nuances you need to know to select the right candidates.

And – with the average tenure of copywriters under a year – you’ll probably need to factor in yearly recruiting expenses for each of your in-house team members. It’s a highly competitive field. Unless the country’s in a long-term down market, your in-house team will likely fly the coop the moment they get a better offer.

How about freelance content writers or marketplaces?

So, you got on a freelance marketplace and found a copywriter who was willing to write your blog posts for about ten bucks a pop. Then, you get your post back and find it full of grammatical errors, non-native wording and little to no research.

Or worse. Low-quality writers often “borrow” posts from other sites, putting you at risk for violating those sites’ copyright.

Even you – who maybe struggled through English class – can tell that those aren’t the kind of blog posts that you want anywhere near your company blog. Even though you can get away with paying as little as $5 to $40 for these types of posts, you usually get what you pay for.

Are copywriting agencies any better?

Yes, they are a better choice. But there are a few drawbacks.

While there are a handful of reputable copywriting agencies that screen their writers meticulously, you’re only getting the post itself. Although their writers can create world-class content, you’re not getting the benefit of their wisdom of someone who has worked inside corporate marketing teams and been responsible for managing budgets. You need someone who knows how to create an overall content strategy. Nor will they teach you how to measure your content marketing metrics — or conduct research on your customers.

Similarly, solo freelancers work on a one-off basis. They, too, aren’t likely to create a content strategy for you. If they do, they’ll want a full-time salary – naturally.

That’s fine and good if you already have a well-tuned content strategy. It’s also a wise alternative to content mills, particularly if you’re on a strict budget and just getting your blog off the ground.

Freelance agencies with vetted writers and in-house editors should be the bare minimum standard for you. Solo writers should have a proven portfolio and impeccable grammar since they don’t have another pair of eyes to check their work.

Plan to pay about $34 to $135 for a freelance agency blog post with an in-house editor, depending on the writer’s experience and the length of the post. Solo writers can charge anywhere from $25 to $150, depending on the length of the article and the amount of research required. A blog post from a top-of-the-line writer, though, might cost as much as $2,000.

Do content marketing agencies take a comprehensive approach?

Let’s face it. You don’t have time to create a customized content strategy. A full-service content marketing agency can.

Having a team on your side that focuses on solving the problems that keep your customers up at night is a game-changer. Blog posts that drive traffic, build trust, and increase revenue position you as a thought leader in your industry. Trust translates into dollars in today’s skeptical world.

Consistency creates trust. When you publish two to four blog posts a week — as we do for our clients, your traffic — and your conversions take a sharp turn upward.

A full-service content agency like ours can conduct research on your customers, coming up with topics that can address all their needs. Furthermore, you’ll have a team on your side that knows how to improve SEO with content. They’ll research all the ways to get your content in front of all the right eyes with content that catches the attention of search engines as well as your target customers.

An agency can scale your blog production as needed. With a team of expert writers and editors, the agency can step up your posts when you need more content, helping your business grow into its full potential. As for our agency, our team will even publish the content for you and teach your teams how to track, measure, and calculate your blog posts’ key metrics.

For that reason, a blog writing service is an ideal fit for a startup. With everything you need for a successful blog strategy under one roof, you can devote yourself and your team to doing the work you were born to do.

The cost for a content marketing agency averages about $250 to $1,000 per blog post, depending on the complexity of the content, the research needed, and the number of services you need. But with our agency — you get so much more than simply blog posts.

You get quality. You get support. And, you get consistency. And with a 1300% better likelihood of experiencing positive digital marketing ROI when you post consistently, you’ll be well on the road to a significant boost in your bottom line.

If you are ready to get more traffic to your site with quality blog content published consistently, check out our Content Builder Service. Set up a quick consultation, and I’ll send you a free PDF version of my books. Get started today–and generate more traffic, leads, and revenue for your business.