How Much Does Digital Marketing Cost for a Small Business? A Straight Answer From an Agency That Works With SMBs Every Day
Digital marketing for a small business typically costs between $500 and $5,000 per month depending on what is included — but most agencies won’t tell you that until you’ve had three calls and signed an NDA. At Shergroup Digital, our Forever Traffic programme is $1,299 per month plus tax in the US and £999 per month plus VAT in the UK, on a 12-month minimum, and it includes everything: a complete website build, hosting, SEO, three blog posts a week, social media management, email marketing, and 2,000 contacts to launch your list from day one.
We are publishing our price here, in full, because we think you deserve to know what you are buying
before you pick up the phone. Here is the complete picture.
Why Do Most Agencies Refuse to Publish Their Prices?
The short answer is that most agencies price by gut feel — they look at the prospect, estimate what they
can afford, and quote accordingly. That is not a pricing model. It is a negotiation strategy that wastes
everyone’s time and breeds distrust from the first conversation.
The other reason is that most agency packages are unbundled to the point of meaninglessness. SEO is
one price. Content is another. Social media is another. Hosting is extra. The website you were promised
in the pitch turns out to be a template with your logo dropped in. By the time you have assembled
something resembling a complete digital marketing system, you are spending three times what you
budgeted and still missing half the components.
Shergroup Digital was built by a business owner who spent 11 years using digital marketing to grow
Shergroup from a specialist enforcement firm into a multi-department business. The Forever Traffic
programme is the system that powered that growth — productised, priced transparently, and delivered
as a complete package. No unbundling. No surprises.
What Should a Small Business Digital Marketing Package Actually Include?
A complete digital marketing package for an SMB should cover five core areas without exception. If any
one of them is missing, the system will underperform — because each component feeds the others.
- A website that converts. Not a brochure site — a properly built, keyword-structured,
mobile-optimised website hosted on a reliable server. This is the foundation everything else is built
on. - SEO built around the right keywords. Your top ten to fifteen commercial keywords identified, your site optimised around them, and a monthly rankings report so you can see the movement. SEO without reporting is SEO you cannot trust.
- Regular blog content. Three posts per week is the cadence that builds domain authority at a meaningful rate. Each post targets a specific keyword, answers a specific question, and is structured for AI Overview citation. This is what compounds over time.
- Social media that amplifies your content. Facebook, Instagram, and LinkedIn as a baseline — with Reels and additional formats added as the account grows. Social media alone does not generate leads. Connected to your blog content and email list, it multiplies everything else.
- Email marketing to a real list. A newsletter to a properly seeded list of prospects and past customers who receive consistent, valuable communication from your business — not a list of five people you emailed once three years ago.
What Does Shergroup Digital’s Forever Traffic Programme Cost and What Do You Get?
US pricing: $1,299 per month plus tax UK pricing: £999 per month plus VAT Minimum term: 12 months
Here is exactly what is included for that monthly investment:
Website — a complete build or rebuild, whether you are starting from scratch or bringing existing
content and imagery that we repurpose and restructure properly. Hosted on WP Engine, one of the
most secure WordPress hosting platforms available. Included in the monthly fee — no separate
hosting invoice.
CRM setup — your customer relationship management system configured and ready from day one,
so every lead is captured, tracked, and followed up systematically.
2,000 contacts to launch your email list — a combination of contacts sourced through RampedUp
and your own existing client list imported from QuickBooks, your accounts system, or a simple Excel
file. Day one you have a live, populated list ready to receive your first newsletter.
Three blog posts per week — every post keyword-mapped, AEO-structured, and published
consistently. Over 12 months that is 156 pieces of content working continuously for your business.
Social media management — Facebook, Instagram, and LinkedIn managed consistently, with
content drawn from your blog pipeline. Reels and additional format capability added as your account
develops.
Newsletter to your contact list — regular email communication keeping your business front of mind
and driving repeat visits to your website.
Top 10 keyword identification — your most commercially valuable keywords identified at the start
of the programme, with your content calendar built around them.
Monthly SEO rankings report — track exactly where your site ranks for each target keyword and
see the movement month on month.
One-time competitor analysis — a snapshot of up to six competitors showing where they rank,
what they are doing well, and where the gaps are.
One important clarification: paid advertising is not included in the monthly fee. Google Ads, social ad
spend, and any paid promotion are quoted separately depending on your goals and budget. The
Forever Traffic programme is built entirely on organic growth — content, SEO, email, and social —
which means the results it builds are permanent and do not stop the moment an ad budget pauses. If
you want to accelerate early results with paid advertising alongside the organic system, we can quote
for that as a separate conversation.
What Is It Actually Like to Work With Shergroup Digital?
This is the question most agencies never answer — and it matters as much as the price.
Some clients come to us completely hands-off. They want the system running without having to think
about it — monthly check-in, monthly report, leave the rest to us. That works perfectly within the Forever
Traffic framework.
Others want to be deeply involved in building their brand online. They have photos from their latest job,
a video from a client event, a story they want to share. They want to see the content before it goes out
and shape the voice of what is published under their name. That works just as well — and often produces better content because the raw material is richer.
Most clients sit somewhere in between, and the balance shifts over time as confidence grows. Whatever
your preference, the working relationship is managed through Slack — a simple, informal channel that
keeps communication fast and relaxed. No lengthy email chains, no formal approval processes, no
feeling like you are waiting on a corporate machine. You are building your brand alongside a team that
genuinely wants to see it grow. If you have photos, videos, or stories you want in the mix, share them.
We will make them work.
How Do You Know If a Digital Marketing Investment Is Worth It?
The calculation is straightforward. If a single new customer from digital marketing is worth $2,000 to
your business, and the Forever Traffic programme costs $1,299 per month, you need less than one new
customer per month to cover the investment. Most businesses working with us see multiple qualified
enquiries per month within 90 days.
The more useful comparison is against what you are currently spending. Many small businesses spend
$500–$1,000 per month on Google Ads that stop producing leads the moment the budget pauses. The
Forever Traffic programme builds an asset — at the end of 12 months you have a keyword-optimised
website, 156 pieces of indexed content, a growing email list, and a social media presence all continuing
to generate leads independently of any ad spend.
You can see what that looks like in practice in our client case studies — Yankee Dumpster, Property
Fixology, and Harrow Floor Gallery all started from a weak or non-existent digital presence and built
consistent lead pipelines through this programme.
What Is the Difference Between Cheap Digital Marketing and a System That Works?
Cheap digital marketing typically means one of three things: offshore content with no keyword strategy,
a social media posting service with no website or SEO component, or a web design agency that builds
the site and disappears.
None of these produce compounding results because none of them are systems. They are individual
services delivered in isolation, with no connection between them and no one accountable for the overall
outcome.
At $1,299 per month in the US or £999 per month in the UK, the Forever Traffic programme is priced at
the point where a small business gets the full system rather than a fragment of it. It is not the cheapest
option in the market. It is the option that builds something real.
Frequently Asked Questions
Is $1,299 per month expensive for digital marketing?
Relative to what most full-service agencies charge for equivalent deliverables — no. Agencies charging
$3,000–$5,000 per month for SEO alone are common. At $1,299 per month the Forever Traffic programme includes a complete website build and hosting, SEO, 156 blog posts per year, social media management
across three platforms, email marketing to a seeded list, and monthly reporting. The question is not
whether it is expensive but whether the return justifies the investment — and for most SMBs it does within the first 90 days.
Why is there a 12-month minimum commitment?
Because the system needs time to compound. Content published in month one is still generating traffic in
month twelve. SEO rankings built in month two are still producing leads in month ten. A 12-month
commitment is not a lock-in — it is the minimum time the programme needs to deliver the compounding
results it is designed for. Cancelling at month three is like planting a tree and digging it up before it has
rooted.
What happens to my website if I cancel the programme?
This is an important question to ask any agency before you sign. Ask us directly at shergroupdigital.com/contact-us/ and we will give you a straight answer about ownership, portability, and what happens to your content and hosting at the end of the programme.
Do I need to provide content or do you create everything?
We create everything — three blog posts per week, social media content, and newsletter copy are all
produced by the Shergroup Digital team. That said, clients who want to share their own photos, videos,
and stories are actively encouraged to do so through our Slack channel. Real imagery and real stories from your business make the content significantly more powerful than stock photos and generic copy. Whether you share a lot or a little, we work with what you give us and fill the gaps ourselves.
Does the programme include paid advertising like Google Ads?
No — paid advertising is not part of the Forever Traffic monthly fee and is quoted separately. The
programme is built entirely on organic growth: SEO, content, social media, and email. Organic results are
permanent — they do not stop when a budget pauses. If you want to add paid advertising to accelerate
early results alongside the organic system, talk to us and we can build a separate proposal.
Ready to get started?
You now know exactly what Shergroup Digital’s Forever Traffic programme costs and what you get for
every dollar or pound of it. No hidden fees, no vague deliverables, no lock-in beyond the 12-month
minimum the system needs to compound. If you are ready to invest in digital marketing that builds rather
than burns, start today at shergroupdigital.com/forever-traffic/ — we respond the same working day.
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