Sooner or later, these questions come up in every contact with potential new customers. That's understandable – after all, you also want to know what costs you can expect when working with us. But content marketing costs are not quite that simple.
It's just a shame that this wide range leaves all those who want to budget for content marketing in the dark.
If you want to succeed with SEO and content marketing, you shouldn't get bogged down in cost estimates anyway. What's more important is the potential ROI you want to and can achieve with your content marketing initiatives.
Cheaply produced copycat content and AI texts that are neither accurate in terms of content nor appeal to the target audience can be obtained for little money. Nevertheless, if they generate zero clicks and do not convert users into customers, even this ‘chunk’ of money – and above all your time – is a bad investment.
It is therefore worth considering carefully when choosing your content marketing measures and engaging internal or external partners: What goals do you want to achieve? And: Where will you get the greatest ROI?
You're probably thinking, ‘Thanks for the wisdom, but that doesn't really help me...’
That's why we've listed as many fixed costs in content marketing as possible below and explain what you can expect from which providers – so you can find the right solution for you.
Too many companies that start with content marketing focus exclusively on outputs and neglect the outcomes they want to achieve. Writing a blog post every now and then is not enough (even if you invest in smart tools and competent copywriters).
To ensure that your investment achieves your business goals, you need a comprehensive content marketing strategy. This describes how the individual elements, such as customer research, market analysis, content production and distribution, and reporting, work together. This allows you to leverage the full potential of content marketing:
How much do you need to budget for more traffic, engagement and ultimately conversions? That depends primarily on your market, the competition, the size of your domain, your goals and the time frame. Last but not least, the quality of the services and the experience of the service providers also play a role.
However, based on our experience, we can give you an estimate of the fixed costs you can expect. Please note that the figures listed may differ from the actual costs for your needs:
| Service |
Prices |
Frequency |
| Target Group Analysis |
CHF 3'000 |
One-Time |
| SEO & LLMO Audit |
CHF 4'000 |
One-Time |
| Strategy |
CHF 4'000 |
Once-Time |
| 2x Blog Posts/Landing Page |
CHF 3'200 |
Monthly |
| 2x Social Media Post |
CHF 800 |
Monthly |
| Set-up SEA / Social Media Campaign |
CHF 1'000 |
One-Time |
| Ongoing distribution |
CHF 800 |
Monthly |
| Set-up Monitoring & Tracking |
CHF 1'000 |
One-Time |
| Continious Tracking |
CHF 400 |
Monthly |
| Total |
CHF 75'400 |
In the First Year |
If you are wondering what exactly each item entails and why it is important for your content marketing, here is a brief explanation of each cost item:
Target group analysis
For a strong marketing foundation, you need more than superficial personas. An insightful target group analysis requires you to engage intensively with your (potential) customers and enter into dialogue with them. And that means a bit of effort.
To achieve truly meaningful results, you should budget around CHF 3,000 upwards for this.
SEO & LLMO Audit
A detailed SEO & LLMO audit gives you a more accurate picture of the bot journey, customer behaviour and your visibility in traditional and modern search environments. This provides a good basis for deciding how to prioritise further measures. Such an audit includes a review of the technical set-up (tech audit), your current presence in Google, Google AIOs, ChatGPT, etc., as well as mapping the content potential (content audit), including keyword research and backlink audit.
How much an SEO & LLMO audit costs depends largely on the size of your website. For a small domain with up to 500 URLs, you should expect to pay at least CHF 4,000.
Content-Marketing-Strategy
If you engage in content marketing without a fundamental strategy, it's like shooting in the dark. Your strategy should always be based on customer journey mapping and aim for content market fit. In other words, the strategy determines what content you use and which channels you use to reach your target group along their journey and convert them into customers.
The strategy must therefore be preceded by a target group analysis and an SEO & LLMO audit. The cost of a strategy including a workshop is CHF 4,000 upwards.
Content Creation
Copycat content sucks! Because it won't get you anywhere. High-quality content communicates expertise, helps your target audience and offers them unique added value. And it does so at the right level. If you have little or no experience in copywriting, we advise you to steer clear of portals such as textbroker.co.uk and upwork.com.
However, this also means that brilliant content costs a little more than £10... Blog posts of around 1,000 words and well-designed landing pages are available from around CHF 1,600. Shorter texts, such as LinkedIn posts, are available from as little as CHF 400.
Content Distribution
Your post is live, now what? ‘Publish and pray’ only works in very few cases. Instead, you need to invest in distributing your content via SEO, SEA or even paid social media.
If you have invested in a thorough target group analysis and an SEO & LLMO audit, this will now pay off. The next step is to implement your strategy correctly:
Repurposing, publishing and continuously optimising content can quickly cost around CHF 800 per month (after an initial set-up fee of around CHF 1,000).
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🤓 Read more about content distribution in this article.
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SEO Analytics
DData dumps are not effective. To be successful, it is important that you set meaningful goals and define exactly which KPIs you want to measure in order to see whether your measures are contributing to the achievement of your objectives. Otherwise, Google will forever remain a ‘black box’.
After the initial setup of your tracking and reporting dashboards (costs around CHF 1,000), this means an expense of approximately CHF 400 per month.
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🤓 Read more about content distribution in this article.
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“In-house is cheaper!” How companies try to reduce their content marketing costs
Of course, you can do all this yourself. But it takes time and, ultimately, a lot of money. However, many companies have limited resources and often lack the necessary expertise within their team. Logically, very few people are experts in all areas of marketing at the same time.
So you may need to hire someone new...
Let's just assume that you are lucky enough to find the universal genius among content marketers. The costs for internal marketers vary depending on experience, skills and location. But this much can be said: according to Glassdoor, the average annual salary for a competent content marketer in Switzerland is approximately CHF 95,000.
However, the salary alone does not cover the financial costs of employing staff: there is also around CHF 14,000 in social security contributions and around CHF 14,000 in additional costs for office space, office furniture, IT infrastructure, etc.
The total cost for a single specialist therefore amounts to at least CHF 129,000 per year.
If we compare this amount with the breakdown of content marketing costs at the beginning of this article, we are left quite astonished...
It is therefore worth considering whether you should outsource your content marketing tasks after all.
When is it worth outsourcing your content marketing?
If content marketing works for you and you have sufficient financial resources at your disposal, but lack a competent and experienced team, outsourcing is a good option.
Time is valuable, as is the certainty that the task is in competent hands. By working with external experts, you can also benefit from their know-how and expand your own knowledge. Plus, you have a competent sparring partner at your side with whom you can challenge ideas and master new challenges together.
Price of content marketing vs. ROI: Which provider can give me what I want?
If you'd rather not do content marketing yourself, there are various alternatives available to you.
Working with freelancers
Nowadays, you can get practically all content marketing services from freelancers at relatively low cost. But keep in mind that there is no such thing as an all-rounder who can do everything. One person may excel at writing, another at tech topics and analytics.
However, content marketing is too broad for a single person to handle everything. This means that you often have to deal with several freelancers at the same time and, in addition to your actual work, you have to manage the different people – in other words, you slip into the role of a project manager.
This, in turn, means more work for you. What's more, if the person is off sick or on holiday, the work piles up and you are left to fend for yourself in emergencies.
Hire an agency
And that's exactly why there are content marketing agencies like us. Successful content marketing requires a team of professionals with specific expertise, not just a single brilliant content marketer. The downside to what sounds so rosy here is that outsourcing your content marketing (or parts of it) to an agency is often a bit more expensive, but ultimately you get more brainpower.
And your partner should be chosen wisely. Be sure to check out the reviews of your potential partners or ask around to see if anyone in your circle has had experience with the agency in question.
Tip: An agency that focuses on 1–2 areas usually performs better than generalists who simply offer everything.
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🤓 You can find a list of the top 11 SEO agencies in Switzerland, including information about their expertise and services, here.
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SEO-focused content marketing & LLMO with Digital Leverage
Are you looking for professional SEO and content support? Then you've come to the right place!
Yes, I know: self-praise stinks. But we hear time and time again from our customers that there are very few agencies that deliver SEO, LLMO and content marketing at our level.
We have deliberately specialised in SEO-focused content marketing and LLMO and are constantly honing our skills in this area – because we want to be the best at what we do. Our experienced team will guide you through all phases of SEO, LLMO and content marketing and offer you a comprehensive package with exactly the services your company needs.
And the best part is that you benefit from the advantages of an external partner: no recruitment costs, no delays in the project schedule due to notice periods or absences, and services that can be adjusted on a monthly basis.
Unser Angebot: Ideation, Kreation und Distribution aus einer Hand!
As an SEO-focused content marketing agency, we not only design and write content, but also ensure that it ranks for strategically important keywords and boosts your traffic and conversions – both in traditional search engines and in LLMs. Our team covers each of the following points, offering you a complete package:
- Conducting customer interviews and SEO & LLMO audits
- Implementing technical optimisations
- Strategy and implementation of digital PR & link building
- Development of a complete content marketing strategy including customer journey mapping
- Conception of blog posts and landing pages that convert
- Ideation and implementation of SEA and LinkedIn initiatives for greater reach
- Implementation of an advanced tracking set-up including a meaningful reporting dashboard
- Coaching and consulting in the areas of SEO, LLMO and content marketing
[[callout]] Case Study: 0 to 3k organic Clicks
With precisely these services, we were also able to support the HuggyStudio agency in setting up their platform no-code.ch and help them go from 0 to 3,000 organic clicks within a few months.
🤓 Read the case study here.
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Our investment becomes your assets.
Should our paths eventually part ways, you will of course retain all content assets, backlinks and optimised profiles, which will continue to generate traffic and conversions for months or years to come. And of course, we would be delighted to support you again on your next project.
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Does this sound exciting for your company too?
👉 Discover our SEO-focused content marketing services here.
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