Last Updated on February 17, 2023 by Arif Chowdhury
It’s a lot of fun if you have content writing and managing business. You can work from anywhere you want, set your schedule, and attract clients who want to expand their companies.
However, when it comes to freelance content creation rates, determining how much to charge for your content writing and managing service can be a challenging task, even if you have been in this business for a long time.
So, the question is – how much should you charge for social media content creation?
Here are the details for you:
- Blog post/article – $0.01 to $1 per word.
- eBook – $0.05 to $0.50 per word.
- Image – $0.50 to $10 per image.
- Video (basic) – $200 to $1,500 per video.
- Video (advance) – $2,000 to $50,000 per video.
- Live video – $2,000 to $7,000 per streaming.
- Infographic – $500 to $7,000 per content.
This guide can help you devise a pricing strategy, validate it, adjust it, and find the correct freelance content creation rates for your specific market at this exact moment in time if you want to revamp your existing business model along with the pricing model. And the price will, without a doubt, alter again as the market for freelance content creation evolves.
Why do you need to adjust the pricing model or rates?
I want you to check these signs, regardless of how long you’ve been in business:
- First, you’re swamped with jobs you need help keeping up.
- Second, you currently have too many leads and need more resources.
- Third, almost all of your leads turn into paid customers.
- Fourth, you’re resentful and exhausted.
- Finally, you won’t be able to meet the financial objectives.
Either of these signs may indicate that you need to increase your rates or alter your pricing model, for example, creating a content creation price list. You should move from hourly billing to a monthly rate if it is a fixed-rate service and consider the social media content creator’s hourly rate. It may be time to outsource jobs and expand your staff. In that case, you should increase the costs to maintain your profit margin.
Here is a base pricing model for you to get an idea.
| Content-type | Price range | Quantity/Quality |
| Blog, article | $0.01 to $1 per word | 500 to 10,000 words |
| eBook | $0.05 to $0.50 per word | 10,000 to 100,000 words |
| Image | $0.50 to $10 per image | Mid to high resolution |
| Video (basic) | $200 to $1,500 per video | 1 minute to 30 minutes |
| Video (advance) | $2,000 to $50,000 per video | 60 minutes to several hours |
| Live video | $2,000 to $7,000 per streaming | 60 minutes to several hours |
| Infographic | $500 to $7,000 per content | Low to high end |
If you need to figure out where to start, use this pricing model as a baseline.
How to decide what types of content you should create?
Digital marketing popularity mainly depends on the quality of the data you share. On the other hand, small companies need help with creating good quality content. It’s challenging and time-consuming, which can, at the very least, bring value to any consumer experience.
Content solutions typically involve diverse content styles to solve these obstacles better. You will give the viewers a more immersive experience if you use various of these seven options in the advertising campaign.
Those are the benefits and drawbacks of each promotions marketing style, as well as how to create it or the best channels for them:
1. Journals, blogs, reports, tutorials, and other written content.
Cost of production: The marketing cost of production varies and depends on the quality of the content; they range from $0.01 per word to $0.50 or even more than $1 per word.
Advantages: This publication illustrates the business’s experience and understanding, which will help you gain respect and improve your brand awareness.
Drawbacks: There is plenty of website content nowadays, so the competition is fierce. Coming up with new subject topics requires a lot of imagination. Generating topic ideas takes a long time, particularly when describing complex issues.
How to make it: You may look at recent trends to help you come up with compelling content. It can provide you with an overview of the types of issues people are looking for answers to and will help you come up with topics to think about.
The right networks for this data are LinkedIn and Facebook, particularly for posts that are 800 words or even bigger posts. You can post the entire piece, a brief excerpt, or a reference to the article. Twitter is indeed a good option, but due to the word cap, you will only have a connection and a short quote that can also push inbound links.
Recommended Reading: The Ultimate Beginner’s Guide to Conducting a Social Media Audit for Your Clients
2. Digital book or eBook (kindle books).
Cost of production: The marketing price of production for eBooks varies depending on the quality and quantity, price ranging from $0.05 to $0.50 per word.
Advantages: The eBook contains more profound and informative information than an article, allowing you to demonstrate your business knowledge and helping you to generate more leads. Other organizations don’t invest their time creating an eBook compared to websites. Thus, you will avoid facing too much competition.
Drawbacks: Very few audiences wish to digest an eBook, and creating and finding material that would cater to the audience takes time.
Platforms to use: LinkedIn users come to chat with friends and talk about their jobs or other passions, making it a perfect venue for sharing an eBook. Secondary alternatives include Facebook and Twitter.
3. Post a link to the content.
Benefits: If you need to use the opportunity to complete blog content or your author is away, you can still refer to related blogs, tools, and resources from many other reliable outlets. Big companies are all great content providers.
Handicaps: As you connect to the material you’ve not made, you invite another company’s social networking insight into yours. People who read may also find another source more valuable than your website. Content curation in social networking sites is an effective digital marketing tool, although it can be cumbersome.
It’s crucial to keep an eye on any social metrics and ensure that curated content is entertaining and profitable rather than abandoning your content production.
Ways to create it: Examine various blogs for keywords that are identical to those on your webpage.
4. Visual content – Image.
Cost of production: depends on the quality of the image, price ranging from $0.50 to $10 per image.
High-quality photographs or videos improve engagement and make the company more appealing to consumers. Customers would be less likely to swipe past your content and skip your message if you use them.
Advantages: Long-form posts and papers are much less digestible and entertaining than visual content. Do you know your mobile phone cameras can capture breathtaking images, and applications make it easy to edit them, apply filters, and more?
Disadvantages: Websites that rely on images like Instagram will face hardcore competition. A specialist camera and editing tools can be expensive and time-intensive if you want content above what a smartphone can do.
Platforms to use: Images look great on all platforms. However, Pinterest and Instagram are the most photo-friendly. Alternatives are Facebook, Twitter, etc. Incorporating a picture into a blog post will also boost the interest of your audience.
5. Visual content – Video.
Cost of production: it also depends on the quality and length of the video. An introductory video can cost you from $200 to $1,500. A lengthy video can cost up to $50,000 or more.
It has become a lot easier to capture since the introduction of mobile cameras. Facebook’s algorithm favors it and is an excellent way to exhibit your wares.
Furthermore, with the rise of live streaming, user preferences for viral videos have changed. Videos with a rougher edge can sound more at home on social media sites. Please give it a go and incorporate them into your content marketing plans.
Advantages: It’s quick and straightforward to record videos, and they’re more entertaining than photos. How-to videos, tourist videos, and various exciting product announcements and demos are examples of excellent video posts that can boost website visits and purchases.
Disadvantages: Making short videos is cheap, but prices can rise if you choose well-researched content.
Best platforms: YouTube is indeed the best platform for video content. Facebook videos still work well. Instagram is the perfect choice for shorter posts, much better than the YouTube platform.
Recommended Reading: Facebook Marketing: 7 Advanced Ad Targeting Strategies for Business
6. Live Videos.
Cost of production: It will cost you the same for both video and live video.
Advantages: Do you know live streams are an excellent way to introduce live experiences to people who cannot attend in person? Unlike stories, it usually deletes after 24 hours, and the audience can see live streams anytime.
Disadvantages: Contrary to popular belief, there are several disadvantages to using this method. You do require something interesting to show, like an event. Afterward, you’ll need someone to chat with when using a mobile phone or other devices. It’s also crucial to have a good Wi-Fi link. If your internet connectivity is slow, the video can pause and often buffer, resulting in poor quality.
Regarding the best social platform, Facebook Live is best for live-streaming video content. Smaller channels like Periscope are still available, but attracting a broad audience could be more difficult.
7. Infographics.
Cost of production: price may vary from $200 to $2,000 based on the quantity of information.
Advantages: Visuals are used to help interpretations, data charts, and other valuable definitions in infographics. They’re particularly effective at communicating abstract concepts.
Disadvantages: Producing an infographic necessitates both copy and illustrations, which could require the collaboration of several individuals. They also need innovation and analysis.
The best websites for infographics are Pinterest, Facebook, and LinkedIn. Twitter is another choice.
Your social media content has the potential to increase brand popularity and convert raw audiences to loyal customers. This result is only possible for a well-thought-out social media marketing campaign. It’s not enough to appear on any website and refresh the audience on a sporadic basis while you have the opportunity.
Identifying particular priorities, creating valuable messages that correspond to your objectives, and distributing material to the appropriate channels are also ways to achieve success in social media. Then you can track your progress and optimize your plan as needed.
There is no perfect approach to social media that can guarantee results. Based on the business and target demographic, your policy would be different. However, there are clear steps you can take to create a strategy that will help the brand and company prosper.
Define a reachable goal.
Setting marketing priorities is the first step toward a reachable goal. Having a set of objectives in mind will assist you in determining what type of content you should create.
This method entails delving into the brand’s ideals and conducting consumer analysis.
Begin by determining your ultimate marketing objectives and how your content marketing approach can help you achieve them. The more precise your campaign objectives are, the more effectively you can adapt your social media posts to reach them.
One of the marketing objectives is to increase revenue from social networking sites. Therefore, your social media post should contain the link to your landing page to turn your raw visitors into paid customers.
Social networking advertising costs anywhere from $1,000 to $5,000 a month. Though the price of content is influenced by a variety of factors, such as the more social media sites you use, the more you would expect to spend.
So, how can you identify the price of social media content?
Here is how you should do it.
- Identify the content type.
- Decide posting frequency.
- Advance content monitoring.
- How much ad budget do you have?
By following the above steps, you can set a baseline. But first, you must know the cost of content research, development, and promotion.
- Cost of research – $5,000 to $25,000 per audit.
- Cost of strategy development – $3,900 to $45,000 per plan.
- Cost of updating content – $1,000 to $10,000 per content.
- Cost of promoting content – $500 to $1,200 per campaign.
Now let us give you the details as you get the basic idea.
Content type: You must have to identify what kind of content you have to create. However, it depends on your audience type and social media platform. Always remember that the more social platform you utilize, the more clients you’ll be able to meet. However, focusing on the platforms your target audience utilizes is essential. There’s no need to spend money on a social media site your target demographic doesn’t use.
Posting frequency: Do you update your social media accounts once a week or many times a day? Notably, the more frequently you update content, the more it will cost you.
Advance reporting/monitoring: Some content marketing firms use content analysis and evaluation in their content strategies. It helps you assess and improve your content quality to reach even more people. This feature is critical if you want the best possible ROI, but it also comes at a higher cost.
Ad budget: How much you can spend on paid social advertising affects how much exposure you’ll get. An advertising firm will assist you in tracking your ad budget to attract the most consumers with a low budget.
Recommended Reading: Maximize Your Content Marketing Efforts with Content Repurposing A Comprehensive Guide
Cost of research.
Auditing your site will cost you anything from $5,000 to $25,000, depending on the scale and requirements of the company. You can include the following items in a comprehensive marketing audit:
- Current web content inventory.
- Planning for content and resources.
- The use of social media.
- Production of competitors.
- Optimization of a website.
- Analytical monitoring.
The most critical thing to remember is what your campaign’s objectives are. You will better appreciate a marketing campaign’s nature and possible expense if you first understand the targets. There are a variety of content marketing objectives that can contribute to the company:
- Increase brand recognition.
- Increase the number of visitors to your website and the number of leads you get.
- Boost your revenue from online platforms.
For any marketing approach, research is a must-do first step. You can only reliably calculate marketing KPIs, ROI, and revenue goals when implementing the technique if you have it.
Cost of strategy development.
Digital solutions will range in price from $3,900 for a simple plan to $45,000 or even more for a sophisticated strategy suitable for medium to large organizations. The next phase is to design the content marketing approach after defining the targets you want to accomplish with content marketing. It entirely depends on your preparation whether you will get successful or not. A digital marketing strategy involves a variety of elements, including the following:
- Take stock of what you do have.
- Analyze your intended audience.
- Goals and milestones to aim for.
- Creating a unique content strategy for the company.
The digital marketing content calendar is a critical part of this method. You can plan your content with this calendar, giving yourself enough time to study, develop, and market it to the correct prospects.
And if you need more inspiration, referring to your content calendar helps you to build fresh content or optimize and update current content into new and exclusive parts. In addition, having an editorial calendar allows you to arrange the subjects that match your readers and ensure the speed of content production is adequate.
Cost of updating contents.
You’ll need to regularly refresh your content to retain your ranking in Google and customize it for additional traffic or a featured snippet package.
This cost is often included in the monthly fee when working for a content marketing firm. In addition, they will assist you in continuously monitoring your content and your rivals’ content — to introduce changes that will significantly impact your market.
Writers also demand the same rate for expanding or optimizing existing material for writing new content, but content upgrades will cost anything from $1,000 to $10,000.
Cost of promoting content.
Since there are many ways to sell your content, pricing varies based on the distributor and campaign targets. The cost of creating, optimizing, and managing social media pages will range from $30 to $150 per hour.
Alternatively, you may have to put aside a $500-$1,200 campaign budget and see whether you receive some exposure and, eventually, a positive ROI for a single content. It is an increasingly important part of online marketing, with some companies spending thousands of dollars monthly to promote their content.
Once you’ve optimized your content, the next step is to promote your best content to the right platform. Message boards, forums, and old-school news releases were the only means to advertise and share material in the early days of the internet.
Today, however, social media platforms such as Facebook, LinkedIn, Twitter, and others have a faster and more effective means of gaining exposure.
Getting social media pages set up and managed correctly will help you create a loyal and committed community that reviews, retweets, loves, and shares your posts with their friends and family. In addition, incorporating the company’s logo and cover photo into the platform customizations would increase trust and faith in your brand on the network.
How to decide how much content you need?
Building the ultimate FAQ using consumer queries is the perfect way to start with content marketing. But which ones, and how many are there? Use the following three-part formula:
1. What are your personas?
Think carefully; how many different types of customers do you have for your goods and services? It can be considered a persona; they must be distinct, with particular needs and usage cases.
Let’s pretend you have five different personas for the sake of logic. In this case, you have to invest in a service that will produce five different types of content for your marketing campaign.
2. Do you have defined buying stages?
Define the stages of your business understanding, attention, interest, and sales funnel/buyers’ journey.
You should do it now if you do not acknowledge these stages. Follow these simple five buying stages and prepare your content marketing plan.
3. Do you have a set of questionnaires for consumers?
Prospective consumers must have specific questions answered explicitly or tangentially to advance along the buyer’s path.
The type of questions you must ask can differ depending on when the customer is in the process. Still, the questions are generally broader at the start and more precise at the end, as consumers determine if you are the best option for their insurance, apps, or licorice needs.
Conclusion.
Content is the ultimate tool to generate revenue for your business. It doesn’t matter which platform you use. Every platform needs quality and engaging content. Thus, an everlasting need for regular fresh content will continue forever.
As a content producer, your goal should be to create a pricing model that will match your competitors. Too much lower price will reduce your revenue but increase your stress, while a higher price will also reduce your customer. Hence, combine them and build a pricing model.