Agency Marketing Services: How To Know If The Price Is Right

What should you be paying for agency marketing services? 

If only we had Drew Carey or Bob Barker to help guide us…well, you have the marketing experts at SugarBush and there’s no better than us to tell you what you should and shouldn’t be paying for your marketing services contract. After all, that’s the business we’re in each and every day. 

The fact of the matter is, you can never pay too much for value. The key is to work with a marketing consultant that goes out of his or her way to bring in more revenues and/or to reduce costs. 

But, they shouldn’t be promising those coveted end results too early! 

Agency marketing services providers should never promise specific sales numbers, unless they know your sales team’s abilities or historical close rates. 

What a marketing consultant can and should promise is a cohesive marketing process that works hand in hand with sales to move the prospect through the customer buying process, awareness, consideration and decision. Ultimately all marketing and sales stakeholders should have an understanding and agreement of what their roles are in this process. 

So, back to the topic at hand – what should you be paying for agency marketing services? 

By the going industry rates, marketing consultants typically charge around $100-$250 per hour depending on the size and experience of their team. Fees on top of that can run in the range of $100-$150 per hour for services like landing page building, insight email campaigns, SEO work, etc. Looking at an hourly rate really does not tell you anything about what you are getting for your money.

Anything under $3,500 a month for agency marketing services would be considered tipping your tow in the water. The reality is a typical Inbound Marketing engagement is going to cost you 5-10k a month, that just what it is. There are a number of marketing services that are needed to attract traffic, convert lead and close customers.

But those are just numbers – remember, it’s not merely about what you’re paying; it’s about the value you’re receiving for those agency marketing services. This is where the rubber meets the road and agency marketing services differ. You need to know what you are going to get for your investment.

Do they understand your business objectives? Are they giving you an opportunity to measure and track against ROI? Have you been offered the chance to brainstorm with their team to help affect strategic changes and impact results? All of these individual components help to ensure you’re paying for value – not just time. 

At the end of the day, it’s not about what you are paying per hour or per month, it’s about partnering with a marketing services professional that can clearly and unequivocally predict, measure and prove the value of their agency marketing services.

Contact us to learn more or consider a FREE Marketing Assessment.