How Much Does Content Marketing Cost? Post, Retainer and In-House Prices for 2026
Content marketing costs $150 to $600 a blog post and $1,000 to $20,000 a month on an agency retainer, per WebFX's 2026 survey of more than 350 marketers. A local business rarely needs the top of that range. Ziwi Care is $299 a month per location, with a new post every week, hosting and unlimited small edits.
Content on a flat monthly price
- $299/moZiwi Care, a new post every weekSee what's included
- $597/moLocal SEO, two new pages or posts a weekSee what's included
vsTypical per-post price$150 to $600 a blog post (WebFX, 2026)
Ziwi Care includes hosting, a new post every week and unlimited small edits, per location, month to month.
See how we compareThis page is about the money side of content marketing for a local business: what one post costs, what a monthly plan costs, and what it costs to hire a writer. Most pages answering "content marketing agency pricing" are written for software companies with five-figure budgets, so the numbers below are split by who does the writing. Every market figure carries its source and the month we checked it, September 2026.
We checked 194 Florida agency websites: 89% publish no price
How much does content marketing cost per month for a local business?
For a local business, content marketing usually costs a few hundred dollars a month, not the $1,000 to $20,000 a month that WebFX's 2026 survey found for agency retainers (checked September 2026). The difference is volume: a plumber or a dental office needs one useful post a week about the work it actually does, not a content calendar for a national brand.
At Ziwi, a new post every week comes inside Ziwi Care at $299 a month per location, together with hosting and unlimited small edits. If the goal is Google Maps, Local SEO at $597 a month per location adds two new pages or posts a week alongside the profile and link work.
| Who does the writing | Typical published price | Source, checked September 2026 |
|---|---|---|
| A writer paid per blog post | $150 to $600 a post | WebFX, Content Marketing Pricing, updated March 2026 |
| A long-form article or guide | $500 to $2,500 an article | WebFX, same survey |
| A freelancer on a monthly basis | $1,000 to $10,000 a month, or $60 to $200+ an hour | WebFX, same survey |
| A content marketing agency on retainer | $1,000 to $20,000 a month | WebFX, same survey |
| An in-house writer | $76,910 a year median pay | US Bureau of Labor Statistics, May 2025 data |
What does one blog post cost to have written?
One blog post costs $150 to $600 to have written, according to WebFX's content marketing pricing survey (updated March 17, 2026, checked September 2026). A long-form guide runs $500 to $2,500 an article in the same survey.
Orbit Media's 2026 blogger survey puts the average post at 1,312 words and 3 hours 20 minutes of writing time, which is why a very cheap post is usually a rewrite of someone else's page.
A price per post also rarely covers the parts that make a post earn: picking the question, linking it to a page that sells, and publishing it on your site.
- 01
Length and research. A short tip costs less than a long guide that compares prices and names its sources.
- 02
Who picks the topic. Some writers are handed a title; others find the question your customers actually type. The second costs more and is worth more.
- 03
Knowing the trade. A post about implant pricing or a roof insurance claim needs someone who understands the work, or a round of corrections from you.
- 04
Publishing. Formatting, images, links and uploading to your site are often billed separately or left to you.
What do content marketing agencies charge on retainer?
Content marketing agencies charge $1,000 to $20,000 a month on retainer (WebFX, 2026), and Column Five says most B2B content agencies charge $5,000 to $15,000 a month, with a production-only tier at $2,000 to $5,000 (Column Five, May 2026, checked September 2026). Column Five's own advice is that a budget under $2,000 a month is better spent on a freelancer. WebFX publishes its own content plans at $1,800, $3,600 and $6,000 a month.
Those retainers are priced for companies selling nationally, where one article can win a large contract, and a business serving one town rarely needs that volume to be found.
| Retainer level | Monthly price | Source, checked September 2026 |
|---|---|---|
| Content production only | $2,000 to $5,000 | Column Five, May 2026 |
| Strategic content partner | $5,000 to $15,000 | Column Five, May 2026 |
| Full content operations | $15,000 to $50,000+ | Column Five, May 2026 |
| WebFX content plans, published | $1,800, $3,600 or $6,000 | WebFX, March 2026 |
What do you need first?
Pick one and see every line priced before you sign. No form.
People searching nearby find you first.
Essentials covers your Google Business Profile, business listings and fixes to your own pages.
Per location, Local SEO Essentials.
- Essentials$297/mo
- Local SEO, two new pages or posts a week$597/mo
- Bigger markets$997/mo
Month to month, per location.
30 minutes on Google Meet. You own the site, the domain and the accounts.
A site that turns a visit into a call.
Designed and written for your business, and yours to keep.
With a 12-month plan.
- Hosting and maintenance$99/mo
- Ziwi Care, a new post every week$299/mo
30 minutes on Google Meet. You own the site, the domain and the accounts.
Your ads show up when people search for what you do.
Google, Facebook and Instagram ads, with the fee set by what you spend.
Management fee, by monthly ad spend.
- Ad spend up to $1,500$297/mo
- $1,500 to $3,500$497/mo
- Above $3,500$797/mo
Ad spend is paid to Google or Meta directly.
30 minutes on Google Meet. You own the site, the domain and the accounts.
Everyone you invite gets the same review request.
Review asks, replies, monitoring and profile cleanup, handled for you.
Per location.
- Reviews and reputation$197/mo
Month to month, per location.
30 minutes on Google Meet. You own the site, the domain and the accounts.
What does an in-house content writer cost?
An in-house writer costs about $76,910 a year in median pay, which is $36.98 an hour or about $6,409 a month before anything else (US Bureau of Labor Statistics, writers and authors, May 2025 data, checked September 2026). WebFX puts an in-house copywriting team at $5,000 to $25,000+ a month (2026). A hire makes sense once there is more to write than one person's week of posts, pages, emails and captions. For most local businesses that point never arrives, which is why the work usually goes to a freelancer or a monthly plan.
- Pay is the median, not the ceiling. Half of writers earn more than $76,910 a year (BLS, May 2025).
- The costs around the salary. Payroll tax, benefits, a laptop and software seats all sit on top of pay.
- Your time. Someone still has to pick topics, check facts about your trade and approve every post.
- No cover. Posting stops when the writer is on holiday, off sick or gone.
How does Ziwi's content price compare to the market?
Ziwi publishes a flat monthly price for content instead of a rate per post: Ziwi Care is $299 a month per location and includes a new post every week, hosting and unlimited small edits. At WebFX's $150 to $600 a post (2026), four posts a month would cost $600 to $2,400 before hosting. The table puts each published Ziwi line next to the nearest market range we could source.
| What you get | Ziwi, published | Market range (source, checked September 2026) |
|---|---|---|
| A new post every week, plus hosting and small edits | Ziwi Care, $299 a month per location | $150 to $600 a post (WebFX, 2026), so $600 to $2,400 for four posts |
| Two new pages or posts a week, with local SEO and link outreach | Local SEO, $597 a month per location | Agency content retainer, $1,000 to $20,000 a month (WebFX, 2026) |
| Two new pages or posts a week, plus a link and digital-PR program | Local SEO Plus, $997 a month per location | Content production tier, $2,000 to $5,000 a month (Column Five, 2026) |
| Social posts on one platform, two a week | Social Starter, $197 a month | Social media content, $500 to $5,000+ a month (WebFX, 2026) |
| Social on Facebook, Instagram and Google, a higher cadence | Social, $497 a month | Social media content, $500 to $5,000+ a month (WebFX, 2026) |
Every Ziwi price is the invoice, published on the pricing page and billed month to month with no notice period, and the first month of Ziwi Care is free. The market ranges are other companies' published numbers with the month we checked them. Check that date before you budget against them.
What does a post have to do to be worth paying for?
A post is worth paying for when it does three jobs: it answers a question people in your area actually search, it links to a page that sells the service, and it gets read by someone who can hire you. A post that does none of them is a cost at any price, $150 or $600. Run every post you pay for past this list.
- It ranks for a real question. One post, one question a customer types, such as what a crown costs or how long a roof replacement takes, answered in the first two sentences.
- It links to a money page. Every post points to the service or booking page the question leads to, with link text that names the service.
- It gets read. Short paragraphs, the price or the timeline near the top, and a photo of your own work.
- It is about your business. Your prices, your towns and your finished jobs, which no competitor can copy word for word.
- It lives on your site, in your name. A post on a platform you do not own stops working for you the day you leave.
Content marketing for a local business comes down to one choice: $150 to $600 a post on the open market (WebFX, 2026), or a flat monthly plan with the writing, publishing and hosting included. To decide whether search is worth the money first, read whether SEO is worth it for a small business and how marketing agencies charge. For social instead of search, see what social media management costs. To have a new post published every week, see Ziwi Care at $299 a month per location.