Five ways to run your marketing — what each really costs.
An agency, a hire, a stack of AI tools, HubSpot, or one automated department. Same seven roles either way. What changes is who does the work, what you manage, and who gets to press publish.
The whole board, one table.
Prices are public 2026 list figures and are directional — every business is quoted differently. The last column is this site: the automated department built for the small business everyone else priced out.
| Marketing agency~$3,500–$5,000/mo retainer | Hire a marketer$60,000+/yr salary + benefits | AI toolsJasper ~$69/seat · Copy.ai $29→$1,000 · Writesonic ~$399 · Surfer up to $999 — per-seat / metered | HubSpot$800–$3,600/mo + $3,000–$7,000 onboarding | This departmentFounding rate $499/mo — no per-seat, no per-post meter, no onboarding fee | |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Typical cost | $3,500–$5,000 a month to start, on a contract. | $60k+ a year, before taxes, benefits and tools. | $29 to ~$1,000 a month each — and you buy several to cover the roles. | $800–$3,600 a month, plus a one-time $3,000–$7,000 onboarding fee. | Founding rate $499/mo, month-to-month — well under the ~$2,900/mo a managed department normally runs. The flat fee is the ceiling. |
| Who does the work | An account team — you're one logo on their list. | One person, ~40 hrs/wk — their strengths and their limits. | You. The tools are blank boxes; you're the operator. | You, or a paid partner. The platform holds data; people still market. | Six role-agents produce the work; you approve it. |
| What it covers | Whatever's in the retainer scope — usually a few channels. | What one person can cover well — rarely all seven roles. | Mostly copy and SEO drafts — each tool does one slice. | CRM and marketing plumbing; the content is still on you. | Audit, SEO, content, social, email — the whole department, on a schedule. |
| Setup | Onboarding calls, a contract, and ramp weeks. | Recruit, interview, hire, onboard — weeks to months. | Sign up for each tool and wire them together yourself. | A paid implementation project before you see output. | A short questionnaire; stood up for you, days not months. |
| Control | You brief and review; they publish. | You manage a direct report. | Total — because you personally do everything. | You configure and run the platform. | You approve. Nothing sends or spends without your yes — no auto-publish. |
| Built for | Companies with the budget for a retainer. | Companies ready to add headcount. | Hands-on operators who enjoy running the stack. | Growing teams with an ops person to run it. | The small business everyone else priced out. |
↔ scroll the table sideways to see every column
Questions people ask before they switch.
What is an automated marketing department?
A set of small software agents that each cover one marketing role — auditing, SEO, content, social, and email — and produce finished, on-brand work from your own data on a schedule. Unlike a single AI writing tool, it runs the whole department end to end. Unlike an agency or a hire, there's no headcount and no retainer — one flat monthly price. The part that sets it apart from raw automation is the gate: nothing it drafts is sent or published until a human approves it.
How much should a small business spend on marketing?
A common public benchmark is roughly 7–8% of revenue to hold your position and 10%+ if you're pushing for growth, though small businesses often run leaner. In dollars the options spread wide: a multi-channel agency retainer typically starts around $3,500–$5,000 a month, a full-time marketer runs $60,000+ a year plus benefits, a stack of AI tools adds up per seat, and HubSpot lists $800–$3,600 a month plus a $3,000–$7,000 onboarding fee. Comparing them is really about matching the spend to how much of the work — and the management — you want to keep. An automated department covers the same ground for one flat founding rate of $499/mo — well under the ~$2,900/mo a managed department normally runs.
How is this different from Jasper, HubSpot, or Copy.ai?
Jasper and Copy.ai are writing tools — blank boxes that draft copy when you prompt them, priced per seat or metered, with you still acting as operator, SEO manager, and publisher. HubSpot is a platform: it holds your CRM and marketing plumbing and charges an onboarding fee, but people still have to do the marketing inside it. An automated department is done-for-you across the whole roster — it audits, writes, optimizes, and drafts social and email from your data on a schedule for one flat price, and hands you finished work to approve rather than tools to operate.
Does it publish automatically?
No. Nothing is sent and nothing is spent without a person approving it. The agents audit, draft, and score; every outbound item — each email, post, and page — waits in an approval queue for your one-tap yes. There's no auto-send to your list and no auto-charge to an ad budget. The machine drafts; a human ships.
Want the whole department for one flat price?
Tell us your niche and what you do for marketing today. We'll map your department and stand it up — and nothing goes out until you say yes.