What Does It Cost To Hire A Marketing Agency?

Hiring a marketing agency can be an effective way to elevate your businesses visibility, reach, and consistency. But the decision to hire a marketing agency comes with considerations beyond the initial excitement. 

One crucial aspect is understanding the costs involved and how they align with your budget. Here are 3 things to consider when it comes to the cost of hiring a marketing agency.

1. Choosing Appropriate Services For Your Goals

Marketing agency costs vary widely based on the type of services you are looking for to achieve your goals. A majority of marketing agencies will have package options. Which makes their costs easier to understand and budget for. A basic package might include social media management, content creation, and email marketing. While a more comprehensive plan might include the above but add a focus on dialing in SEO, advertising, and content capturing. Just to name a few! Each service adds to the overall cost, so defining your marketing goals is a vital conversation to have for choosing the right services.

We also believe that you should absolutely ASK ALL THE QUESTIONS. If you don’t know what something might cost, just ask. A marketing agency wants to help you but at the end of the day if you don’t know what their services cost you may be surprised at either how affordable or how unaffordable they are! 

Let’s talk about real examples! You can actually see our Megan Moore Marketing prices HERE. 

Package Example One - Service Based E-mail marketing only: 

In this example we have a Lawyer who is already generating leads from her website - but then does NOTHING with them.

She realizes that not everyone needs a lawyer all the time and that consistent email marketing was her current business goal. We know that staying consistently in the forefront of someone’s inbox will make her the FIRST choice should they need a lawyer in the future. With the added benefit of establishing TRUST, authority and credibility for her email reader’s. Remember - out of sight, out of mind if you’re not in people’s inbox when it comes to email marketing!

Upon hiring us we decided collectively that we would help her stay consistent by sending out 2 emails per month for her. Showing off testimonials, her services offered and reminding people to book their consultations with her.

This client - for 2 emails per month written, designed, sent out and 1 marketing session per month to discuss marketing needs with our team pays $625 per month.

Package Example Two - Full Service:

In this example we have a Realtor who is incredibly busy running her business as well as enjoying her personal time, but is feeling overwhelmed by trying to DO IT ALL herself.

She realizes that outsourcing her marketing efforts or hiring a marketing agency will help to take off some of her workload and give her peace of mind that her marketing will be consistent and effective. No on and off, here and there!

Upon hiring us we agree to help her by posting on Instagram, Facebook and TikTok, 5 days a week, we will write, design, and send out 2 emails per month, write 2 blogs per month with the appropriate SEO for her business and create corresponding Pinterest posts to drive traffic to her blog and website.

Additionally as part of this agreement we will do on-site content capturing for her new listings that we will use for reel and story creation. (That is where we meet you in person to physically help you capture photos and videos for your marketing!)

All this with the added benefit of ongoing Monday to Friday marketing suggestions and support. We want you to be able to be involved in your marketing plan even if you hire us to do the work!

This client pays $4000 per month. (These prices are as of 2024…)

2. What’s Your Budget?

Your budget serves as the guiding light for the range of services that are available to you from a marketing agency. A smaller budget may limit you to basic services, whereas a larger budget opens doors to more extensive campaigns. It's essential to align your budget with realistic expectations of what a marketing agency can provide within your budget. Knowing your budget will make all the difference about setting those realistic expectations. 

No matter what your budget is, if you are wanting to invest in hiring a marketing agency even a small budget can make a difference in your business. Some marketing agencies may be able to support you with 1 email per month - allowing you to be consistently in front of your audience – because let’s be honest sometimes you DO forget to email your list! 

Most agencies will charge an on-boarding fee. Now before we had our agency I couldn’t understand why you’re just starting the work. But the truth is - when we work together for 6+ months, the first 3 months are the ones that we go through the trenches. More meetings, more discussions, more diving into who, where …and what. On boarding fees range from agency to agency - ours starts at $600 and goes up to $2500. Depending on how many assets you have, the size of your company and what we’re going to be managing. 

3. Start Where You Are and Add Things In

A smart approach if you prefer to dip your toe in before diving in, is to start with basic services and gradually add more as your budget allows and your marketing needs change.

For example - You could begin with social media management and content creation. Then expand to include email marketing, or content capturing. Each additional service comes with a cost, but it also expands your marketing reach and impact.

When you think about adding services you want to consider what your main goal for your business is. If you are not interested in email marketing, then don’t add that service. If you have no idea how to build a sales funnel but it fits your goals, ask your marketing team and see if it is something that is within your budget to add to your marketing services.

We can’t speak for all marketing agencies BUT we love when our clients ask questions and want to learn how they can make their marketing efforts more effective! And the more you understand what a marketing agency can do for you: the better it is for all of us. It is a long term relationship - and we are in fact making sure more people see your company. It is important we know how to communicate! 

We LOVE to be able to add a service to your contract that makes sense for YOUR BUSINESS. Above all we want your business to succeed!!

We believe that transparency and communication between you and your marketing agency is the most important part of deciding to invest in hiring a marketing agency - Especially when it comes to the costs of their services. Investing in marketing for your business should come with a realistic budget and a clear picture of what your goals are.

If you are ready to take the leap and add an out of home marketing team to your business → This is for you!! We are LITERALLY transparent about our costs and what we can provide to help your business grow!