If you plan on getting ahead online and if you plan on utilising content to reach more people then you should definitely create a plan for a content marketing budget.
It is not just enough to have a budget if you do not know what to do with it and that is why a marketing plan will help you understand how much should you budget for content.
This blog will help you understand how to budget for content marketing and we will help you understand content marketing expenses and how they can accumulate.
The thing with budgeting for content strategy and marketing is that content creation costs are not really standard. There are a lot of factors that play into the budget.
That is why content marketing budget allocation should be based on a strategy that covers every aspect of content marketing.
That budget should include how much it is going to cost for the content and how much it will cost for content promotion spending. Cost-effective content marketing is all about balancing all those factors.
You must also keep in mind that this should always be an ROI-driven content marketing strategy. This is because it is a content marketing investment and it should definitely bring you returns.
So, let us look at everything about content outreach budget and how you can plan it.
This Is How Big of a Budget You Need for Content Marketing
The thing that you must understand about content marketing is that it is not something that you create a separate budget for in a separate section.
Your content marketing budget should come out of your marketing budget. Usually, companies take out on average 30% of their marketing budget to spend towards content marketing.
This figure is an average and you can do a lot with this 30% if your marketing budget does not have expensive requirements like creating short films and ads.
If your marketing budget does not include a lot of spending on other areas and if your primary way of promoting your company is social media then you can take out at least 50% of your marketing budget and allocate it to your content marketing.
However, it all depends on your situation and if you feel like you need your marketing budget for marketing your brand offline and for alternative ways of marketing then you should stick to 30%.
Having said that, content marketing is one of the best ways to reach people.
Things To Include in Your Content Marketing Budget
Content Marketing Tools
One of the most important things that you must definitely include in your content marketing budget should be tools.
These are content marketing tools and content creation tools. You can get subscriptions for them and it is always good to get a yearly subscription because it will be cheaper.
You should include tools that will help you edit and design content. Along with that, you should also include tools that will allow you to research keywords. You definitely need to implement keywords within the content.
Along with that, you must also include data analysis tools that will allow you to check the performance of the content.
And if you can get other management tools that will allow you to manage the content then that is even better. However, you can do that yourself if you do not have a lot of content.
Content Creation Team
One of the most important elements of your content marketing should be the actual content creation and a large chunk of your budget will go into content creation.
In order to create content you are going to need a team whether you have that team in-house or outsource that and hire the services of a professional team.
The best option is to keep some elements of it in-house and have the rest as hired professionals. Within this team, you are going to need content managers and we recommend you to keep them in-house.
Along with that, you are also going to need a team leader who will formulate the strategy and make sure that the strategy is being followed.
You are definitely going to need writers but having in-house content writers will be expensive and that is why you should hire the services of a ghostwriting agency.
And you will definitely need image and video editors and you should also hire them. It will be cheaper for you to hire these people rather than having them in-house.
If you have some graphics requirements then you should hire them too.
A Place for Your Content
So, now you have amazing content and even the tools to make sure that content is utilised properly, there is still something very important missing.
You need a place for that content to go. That content can be in the form of pictures and videos as well as blogs. For that, you are going to need a website where you can upload that content and market it.
So a part of your budget should be allocated to a website and the maintenance of that website. You are going to need a website that is reliable and responsive so that you can create your online marketplace on that website.
You can even upload that content as social media content and if you have videos you can then upload that on YouTube but there should be a primary home for that content.
That is going to be your website. That is why you should not cheap out on a website.
Training For Content Management
The world of content can be very difficult because content needs change all the time and with that content requirements change as well.
The online industry is always evolving and in order to keep up with that you are going to need to continuously train your people to manage content effectively.
That is why you should allocate a part of your budget to train your people. You can enroll them into courses and they can be simple online courses to understand how to manage content.
You can even take them to attend workshops and conferences. Along with that, you can also get study material for them to understand how to manage content and much more.
You should also invest in learning yourself so that you are always aware of how content works and how to effectively utilise content.
Key Things to Remember for Content Budgeting
Results Take Time
One of the most important things you must keep in mind for content budgeting is that you are not going to get a return on your investment within a month.
You are not going to see results just yet and that is why content marketing is not for people who are not patient.
You need to have nerves of steel when you invest in content because you are not going to see that money anytime soon and it might even be a year or more before you see results in terms of monetary gains.
That is why you must forget about returns and only focus on your strategy and keep pushing your content until it becomes effective.
Don’t Do Blind Budgeting
The thing you must keep in mind about content marketing budget is that you cannot do blind budgeting. When we say blind budgeting we mean doing budgets without a plan.
It is not just enough to allocate a budget if you do not have a strategy in place on how to implement that budget effectively.
Content is like a deep well if you do not have a plan and you can keep on spending and improving your budget but you will still not see results unless you have a strategy in mind.
That is why one of the simplest things to do this to study the market and study your competitors and see what they are doing.
The best thing about content is that it is all out in the open for you to look at and study. You can utilise all your tools to find out if their content is effective and you can replicate that if you are new to content marketing.
Diversify Your Content
The truth about content is that you never really know if a piece of content is effective unless you try it out. That is why when you make the budget you need to make sure that you create a diverse budget.
It should be a balanced budget where you allocate equal amounts to different types of content so that you can get different types of content and see if they are working for you.
You can then change things up and try other types of content to see if it is working for you and then only allocate the budget towards the type of content that is the most effective for your market.
Content marketing and creating a budget for that content is all about experimentation and you need to keep on experimenting with new types of content to make sure they are effective.
Keep A Dynamic Budget
You must never keep a static budget. You should keep on increasing your budget and not lower your budget or keep it in one place.
This is because the more you spend on your content budget the better kind of content you are going to have and things are only going to improve.
It might be difficult for you to do so and that is why your initial budget should be low so that you can always increase that budget again and again.
Content is definitely an investment but the returns are slow and that should not discourage you into cutting your budget.
This Is How Companies Budget Their Content
We are not going to talk about the exact amount of the budget because it is quite different depending on the country and depending on the industry, we are going to talk in percentages.
We will talk about how every kind of business allocates the budget and talk about it in the percentage of their total marketing budget.
This is so that you can have a universal idea about the percentage. However, it is an average and you should not go by average and study each industry and especially your industry closely to understand how it works.
Small And Medium Size Businesses
When we talk about small and medium-sized businesses, they spend an average of 30% of the total marketing budget. This is the budget that they spend for content creation as well as content promotion.
This can be different based on the age of the business and if the business has a good hold on the market then their marketing budget can fluctuate from this percentage.
But the thing to notice here is that these small and medium businesses spend a lot of their marketing budget on content because content is very important to these businesses.
However, you must keep in mind that this is an average and the percentage can be quite different for certain industries.
Large Businesses
Now you might make a guess that large businesses should spend less than small and medium businesses on their content budget because their marketing budget must be a lot bigger.
However, the results we are about to present to you might come as a shock because large enterprises also spend nearly 30% of their marketing budget on content.
This is because large businesses also spend a large amount of money on marketing no matter if their marketing budget is bigger.
This means small businesses might consider blogs as a kind of content but for large businesses, it might be YouTube videos or even a TV ad or content for offline ads.
That is why their spending is large because the quality of the content as well as the type of content changes with the size of a business.
Let’s say for example your local ice cream shop has a content budget and spends about 30% of their total marketing budget on it. Apple, which is one of the largest companies in the world also spends 30% of their marketing budget on content.
That does not mean both of them are going to have the same kind of content and you can simply check out the level of content Apple brings out to understand the quality and spending on it.
We hope this blog has been helpful for you to understand how to plan your content marketing budget. However one of the biggest questions still remains on where to get the best quality written content that is affordable and at par with your content budget.
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We welcome you to visit our website and check out everything we do as we hope to fulfil all your needs for ghostwriting affordable high-quality content.
Common Content Budget FAQs
How much budget do you need for content marketing?
It all depends on how much you can spend from your marketing budget without hurting your marketing. You should be able to allocate exactly how much you need but if you go with industry standards then 30% is a good amount.
This 30% should be spent on everything content and nothing else. However, you should do your own research before spending money on it because if you spend too much money on content then your other operations will be affected.
One of the most important things that a business owner should learn to do is to know when to spend and when not to spend.
But if you move forward with a ballpark figure of 30% of your marketing budget then you will not be taking a lot of risk and it will be a safe bet.
Is content marketing profitable?
Content marketing is profitable but it is not going to show you results right away and it needs time to get a return on the investment.
If you look at startups then you might find that they keep spending money for marketing as well as content for years before they see any profit.
This is because content marketing is a long game and it will definitely give you returns and all you need to do is to be patient with it.
That is why you should invest in content and get the best quality content and utilise that kind of content effectively because you are definitely going to see profits.
That profit might not be visible instantly and that profit might take a bit of time to be visible but that profit will definitely be visible to you.
Does content marketing have a future?
Content marketing not only has a great future but now is the time for content marketing and it will stay like that for years and years to come.
This is because content is powerful and you can expect returns on your investment and you can expect your business to grow with the help of your content.
It all depends on what kind of content you have but in general, if you have effective content and good quality content that is reaching your audience then you can expect a positive impact on your business.
But this should not make you spend all your money on content and you should keep on experimenting and find out what content works for your business and gradually improve your budget.
That is why if you are thinking whether content has a future then it definitely has a future and you should definitely invest in content.
How do I start content marketing?
You can start content marketing by understanding the different types of content there is in the world and then you should find out which is the most impactful type of content.
You should then try to acquire that kind of content and utilise that kind of content and customise it according to your needs.
A lot of content marketing education is experimentation which means you need to try out new things to find out if it is actually working for you.
Certain types of content might work for you or it might not be effective for you.
That is why you can start by reading this entire blog and understand content budgeting.
When you understand that you will be able to start content marketing. You can also check out multiple videos on YouTube to get a better understanding of how content works in the online world.
