How Much Should You Pay for These Common Services?

Entrepreneurs often have to work with outside vendors on things like logo creation, SEO work, social media sharing, blog post creation and more. While outsourcing these services, it’s helpful to understand the range of costs you should expect to pay. This way, you can determine the best offer for outsourcing your services. Here we’ve put together the average range that each service costs, along with tips on how to find the best vendor for the job to help you in the outsourcing process.

Logo Design

A high-end corporate logo and branding design can cost you millions, such as the Pepsi logo that cost $1 million. But there’s no reason to spend millions, or even thousands, for a logo design to make it worthwhile. Some of the world’s most famous logos, despite their low price, have become popular, such as the Nike logo, which cost only $35.

Before outsourcing your logo design, you should be clear about how and where you want to use the logo. You should receive your logo in png, jpeg, and Adobe Illustrator and Photoshop files, as well as in white, black, with a transparent background and a variety of mock-ups. The cost of a logo design depends on the following factors:

• Who is doing the design
• The level and intricacy of the details
• The amount of time taken
• Effort and strategy
• The craftsmanship that goes into designing your logo

A professional logo designer understands the various elements that go into making a good design. If you want a professional, custom logo design crafted by someone who understands the ins and outs of good logos, you should expect the cost to be somewhere in the range of $200 to $800. With this investment, you should receive several initial concepts and be able to revise your ideas to achieve a well-designed logo with clear, unique and professional positioning.

A complicated logo design with custom illustration, intricate patterns and unique fonts can cost you around $500 to $800. There are also less expensive options available, like do-it-yourself logo maker tools that usually result in a bit more generic designs. For instance, the original Twitter bird logo was acquired off iStock for just $15. Such designs may work for the early startup phase of a company, but you may have to upgrade that logo at some point to improve the overall branding of your company. When eventually you replace your logo, you should be prepared for:

• Reprinting all of your business cards.
• Replacing any company signage.
• Updating your website with the new logo.
• Ordering new promotional merchandise that may have an old logo.

SEO Work

Every business is different and has unique goals and budgets. Depending on how in-depth you want to go with competitor analyses and SEO (search engine optimization) audits, you can expect costs anywhere from $1,000 to $10,000 for these services. You can maximize what you get out of your budget by prioritizing your needs. SEO costs vary with the needs of your organization, service type and the experience level of the service provider you choose.

For monthly retainers, $501 to $1,000 per month is the most popular pricing model, but the cost increases with the needs of an organization. Smaller companies with low to medium competition and simple websites can usually get SEO services by paying around $1,000 to $5,000 per month.

SEO requires consistent, quality content creation, high-quality link building and a strong focus on optimizing conversions, usability and accessibility. It’s difficult to find all of these services correctly performed at the lower price range.

Established SEO companies with a proven track record of success in competitive markets can provide these services for $5,000 to $10,000 per month. With this investment, you can often get access to a dedicated SEO team that employs professional writers, content managers, conversion specialists, web development experts, link outreach specialists, account executives, and analytics experts. The team will ensure your success and provide you with the support you need.

Companies with ambitious goals can work with an SEO partner that manages the entire process from start to finish for $10,000 to $20,000+ per month. You can get access to a senior SEO team at this budget that drives substantial results. If your target market has lots of competition, you can make this type of investment for at least the first year or two. Less experienced consultants may cost less but will likely take longer to get results.

Social Media Marketing

Social media marketing has become a powerful way for businesses to reach prospective customers. If you’re not interacting with your target audience through social platforms, then you’re probably missing out on a lot of business. While there are ways to do it for free, you can often get faster success if you invest money into marketing and advertising your business.

Your marketing budget should always depend on your needs, goals and business-building priorities. The price for contract services, such as setting up your social media presence, varies based on the services you need and can range from $5,000 to $30,000. Project-based services are similar to contract services, but focus more on one specific project, like achieving a short-term boost in your social media presence or launching a blog. The price depends on the type of project and the amount of work it needs.

Before outsourcing to a social media marketing firm, you should know which kind of network is supposed to bring you the maximum benefits, based on your product or service.

When you outsource your social media marketing services, what you pay to the agency depends on various factors like:

• Experience of the marketing agency
• Number of platforms you want to engage
• Types of services you want to get
• The size of your company

You can make the most of your budget by choosing the right platforms and establishing a strong social presence. These are the six core components you should include in your social media marketing budget:

• Content creation that resonates with your target market and uplifts your brand image
• Software and tools for scheduling and reviewing analytics
• Paid advertising
• Paid partnerships with influencers and other brands for co-branded campaign
• Setting the strategy for each social media platform
• Creating new relationships by actively engaging with users and converting them into paying customers.

Outsourcing Content

Whether you run an online magazine, blogging website, or you write customer support articles, you need quality writers who can create content that will resonate with your readership. You have two options to consider for content creation unless you hire in-house: Outsourced content via freelancers or a content agency. You should select the more cost-effective option for long-term benefit.

In the per hour model, you can expect hourly rates from as low as $12 to roughly $60 per hour, with some as high as $100 per hour. In the per article model, you will find rates ranging from $50 to $500 per article. The price depends mainly on the type and length of the article, as well as the industry.

When you hire an outsourcing firm, you can have access to a large marketing team with different roles for each specialty, such as content strategy, content creation and promotion. Agency pricing can vary widely, ranging from $2,000 to $10,000 per month, sometimes more. An outsourcing firm can produce and promote three to four content pieces for $2,000 to $4,000 per month.

While outsourcing content, you also have the option to access an expert in any given field. If you need to have a technical or business article, you can find a writer with expertise in the relevant field. This allows you to deliver content that will likely be more comprehensive than if written by an internal employee.

One of the other advantages of outsourcing content is that you can hire on an as-needed basis. You may put a hold on contracting any writing work if you lower your budget, yet when things pick back up, you have the resources ready to dedicate to creating content again, which is not possible with a full-time employee.