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Content marketing for SaaS businesses can be complicated and time-consuming, which is why many CEOs and startup teams choose to outsource content creation to agencies.
If you choose the right content agency for your company, your blogging efforts are more likely to bring the results you expect. But with so many options, it can be hard to figure out how to narrow down your choices.
In this article, we take a look at the different types of SaaS content marketing agencies available. We give some insight into which are best for the stage of your business and your goals.
Typical cost: $2,000/blog post
A single blog post from a premium SaaS content marketing agency, such as Fractl or Animalz, can cost roughly $2,000. For that price tag, some premium content agencies include extras like custom images, description tag, publishing to your CMS, inbound links from other websites, and interviews with experts. You can also expect their standard blog posts to be longer, say one to two thousand words.
Best for: Big brands and established companies with a strong content marketing foundation in place.
Premium content agencies can do a remarkable job of creating high-quality content for their clients. With expert-level writers, they can build true thought leadership and quickly make SEO gains.
Why is this? For starters, they work with larger clients with strong foundations they can leapfrog off. Clients who do well with premium content marketing agencies typically have established in-house content departments, branded websites with high domain authority, and additional distribution channels for their content. These factors let an agency add value to a blog or resource page very quickly.
What if you’re just getting your blog off the ground? While it can certainly be attractive to work with the best of the best, it’s not necessarily the right way to start out. You risk putting a big chunk of change into content creation before you have fundamentals figured out. Your team should be savvy about basic on-page SEO and have mechanisms already in place to squeeze the most value out of every piece of content. And smaller, younger brands rarely have those things figured out.
Typical cost: $250/blog post
For the price of a single post from a premium agency, you can typically get eight blog posts a month, including keyword research, topic ideation, and more. Standard blog posts may run less than 1,000 words with the option to create longer when warranted.
Best for: Growing SaaS businesses looking to build their blog traffic and brand awareness.
In the mid-range market, there are a lot of options. One of the most popular is the hands-off, async model that puts blog post production on autopilot for busy up-and-coming SaaS brands. For example, SaaSpirin offers a content subscription plan that includes content planning and ideation as well as high-quality articles written by professional writers for a fixed monthly price.
This hands-off approach is perfect for a fast-growing SaaS business with a small marketing team. At this stage of growth, you need to focus on building up your blog by publishing thoughtful, optimized articles consistently. This establishes a solid foundation that will set your brand up for compounding growth and is a great option for companies looking to generate traffic and leads via their blog without a big investment.
Many mid-range companies hire the same writers on a freelance basis, but what really sets these companies apart is how much effort they put in during the planning phases. At SaaSpirin, we have experts on our team who carefully research each client's business and create a well-thought-out content plan that will help your company achieve its content marketing goals. See how we research blog posts so the whole team can share industry knowledge.
Typical cost: $10-40/blog post
If you're a cash-strapped start-up in need of cheap content, you may be tempted by this option, but in our opinion, it’s best to steer clear. The only real benefit of content mills is the price. Usually, you can pay less than $50 for a single blog post. However, if you do decide to go with this option, be prepared for disappointing results.
Instead of wasting your budget on content that’ll do nothing for your brand, try to wait until you can afford to go with an agency at the lower end of the mid-range market—it will almost certainly be a better investment.
Best for: Not recommended
Although we wouldn’t recommend working with a super low-cost agency, they’re still important to mention. Extremely low-cost agencies are often referred to as content mills, due to the way they churn out content like an industrial mill. Usually, they hire writers who lack experience writing about topics in your niche (or writing at all), and, as a result, the content is often low-quality.
Posting low-quality content can cause real problems for your business, particularly if the information provided is incorrect. It can make your brand seem unprofessional and give you a bad reputation within your industry.
Typical cost: Varies
Prices can range from $250 to $10,000/month for managed SEO packages, and some agencies will charge by the hour for specific tasks.
Best for: Companies that need help with SEO beyond content marketing
Specialized SEO agencies are less focused on producing content and more focused on optimizing a website to rank. While some SEO agencies may include optimized content in their packages, most address some kind of specialized need. This can range from site audits that point out structural issues, to keyword research and content briefs for your own writer to work with, and building backlinks. Some will help you optimize your existing content.
A narrow focus on SEO can be useful, but it may not be the best option for younger SaaS businesses. For SaaS companies, bottom-of-the-funnel content that educates and convinces potential customers to purchase is just as important as posts that draw in traffic.
Typical cost: $2,000+/month
Prices for growth agencies usually start from $2,000+ per month. If you want a premium package, which is where the real results happen, you can expect to pay upward of $5,000 monthly.
Best for: Well-funded SaaS companies that already have their blog on track.
Some growth agencies take an all-in-one approach to growing your brand and manage everything for you. They cater to businesses with serious financing and can tackle digital marketing on several fronts. They may offer services including paid advertising, content creation, and even influencer and partner outreach.
If you fall into this category, you may find that the way to go is to partner with a growth agency and a content agency at the same time. This can help you balance the immediate growth that comes with paid advertising with a solid foundation in your blog. (See more about the critical role of paid ads in content marketing.)
Ready to get started with an agency that can elevate your content game? Give SaaSpirin a go. We help SaaS companies and MarTech businesses by creating quality blog content—and much more. Get in touch with our team to find out how we can help.