How much does it cost to create great content?

Creating content is key to any marketing strategy these days but I still find that clients have an unrealistic expectation of what it actually costs to create content. It is not unsual to spend between $500 and $800 on one piece of content. 

Let's look at the key elements in creating content.

1. Copy - if you engage a copywriter it will generally cost between $300 and $500 for a blog post of around 400 words. This will include SEO (search engine optimisation) for key words, a catchy title and links back to other relative content or a Call to Action. Additionally a good copywriter will write out some key social media headings and tags to use fr this campaign.  I know this is hard for small business owners to swallow but good content costs money to create. One good blog, can create as much traffic as a Google AdWords campaign. 

2. Images - A picture is so important when grabbing attention. Not all pictures are free and those that are may have been used over and over again by your competitors. It is worth investing in a catalogue of images that are relevant to your business and your customers. We use istock but pixelbay and others have some create images. Make sure when you add them to your blog you add the ALT image description and a link back to your blog. This is important for Google juice.

3. Posting the blog and a Call to Action - With any great piece of content you need to give the read the next step. We call this a CTA or call to action. It is the next step in learning more or engaging the customer in a deeper relationship with you. This can be filling in a form by downloading a rich piece of content, booking an appointment to chat or following you on social media. To create this form and upload the blog with the key words could cost between $100 and $150.

4. Social Posting - To post your blog to your social profiles it is important to resize your image for each platform and use the appropriate hash tags. Sometimes this also requiries investing in a piece of software to schedule blog posts across many platforms. Examples are Hootsuite or Sprout Social.

So next time you are looking at creating a piece for your website or email, really think about it, because it is not a cheap exercise and you really need to leverage it to make it a worth while exercise.

Learn more about content planning here.