What Does Online Marketing Cost?

Creating a successful budget for online marketing can be a daunting task. With so many options, it might be hard to figure out where to start. In this article we give our recommendations for your online marketing costs.

1: Search Engine Optimization Costs

The first cost you should encounter for your online marketing is your search engine optimization costs, or SEO costs. If you only have a few dollars in your marketing budget, this would be the first place to start, for two reasons: it’s nearly a necessity to having a successful website, and it’s also fairly easy to generate a good ROI from. Your goal is to own 3-5 keywords in the search engines that can drive a significant amount of traffic to your site. Spending anywhere from 500-1500 dollars a month would be a great place to start here.

2: Content Creation Costs

Once you optimize your content, the next thing to do is create more content! More pages will allow your site to reach new keywords and rank higher in organic search. We recommend this over something like pay-per-click at this stage, because you want to invest, not pay for listings. PPC is great for short term, but you are left with no equity in the search engines. Investing in quality content is key to get yourself higher in the rankings. How much should you spend? The more you spend, the faster you can go, so your budget is really the limit.

3: Email Marketing Costs

Email marketing is the most cost-effective marketing channel that you can use in your business. The ROI of email exceeds all other digital channels, so it should be one of the core elements you use. From doing a basic newsletter to using an automated drip email campaign to convert some leads, email can be the work horse of your online marketing outreach. And you can put your fears about SPAM aside; email is engrained into our culture and business, and everyone is on and open to email communications. You can start small with a 20-30 dollar a month email service, or move to something like Hubspot, which can reach 300-1500 dollars based on how may contacts you want to reach. Either way, email is a sure thing for online marketing.

4: Social Media Marketing Costs

Should you be on social media? Yes. The difference is what should you use it for and how to get the results you need from it. Social media is not just broadcast – it’s interaction and relationship. Having a Facebook page is critical, but only if you’re using the right channel for your business and industry. We would suggest working with an agency for social media marketing, and this could run from 500-1500 a month for a good social media strategy.

5. Website Design Costs

Is your website bringing in the business it should? Having a strong website should be the cornerstone of your online marketing campaigns. If you have not updated your site in a few years, we’d recommend spending between 8-15K to get a new website created that better reflects your brand and conversion funnel. Website design for lead generation should be your main focus. Don’t just think about your website as a brochure. The investment into your website will net a serious ROI as you build your online marketing.

6. Video Marketing Costs

Video marketing is gaining tremendous speed and viability for B2B. Having a strong video library or video series can help keep your ideas in front of the customer. This media is high engagement, and you can communicate so much more about your brand than you could by just using the written word; personality, look, feel, and emotion all come into play on video. Creating a video series could run between 1-3K with a real production company, yet you could fire off a few quick ones on an iPhone to see if the medium gains traction with your audience. Either way, a solid plan for video production will increase your chances of connecting with your audience.

7. Podcast Creation Costs

Do you think you’re ready for your own radio show? More experts are using podcasts to stay engaged in deeper conversations around their areas of expertise. Along the way, they’re gaining a real depth of followers and brand awareness. Podcasts can run weekly or bi-weekly and be created for a few hundred dollars each episode. We’d recommend doing a season of 10-12 episodes, which might run 7-10K based on your show length and content schedule. You don’t need a voice for radio (although if you happen to have one, it can’t hurt!). Just be able to speak clearly and have a positive outlook.

Need help creating a marketing budget?

New North can help you put together a marketing budget for your business in a few simple steps. Knowing your goals and assessing your market will allow us to give you a good estimate of what kind of budget you’d need to create new opportunities in your market place.

If you’d like to see what your unique inbound marketing campaign would cost, check out our inbound pricing calculator for an estimate tailored to your needs.

Ready to take the first step into creating more leads for your business? Try our free marketing review to sign up and talk about a marketing budget especially for your company.