What $499 a Month Buys When AI Does the Production

Most marketing pricing is built to be vague. "Custom packages." "Let's hop on a call." I understand why. When the math doesn't look good, you don't show the math.

So here's mine. I charge $499 a month, flat, and AI agents do the production. This post is the concrete version: what that buys, what it doesn't, and where it falls short, so you can decide whether it's the affordable marketing for small business you've been looking for or just not a fit.

How can marketing for a small business be this affordable?

Because the expensive part of marketing used to be production, and production got cheap.

Writing a blog post, building a Google Ads campaign, producing a quarter of social posts, updating website pages. Each of those used to need a person at a keyboard for hours. Now AI agents do most of that work, including logging into the tools and clicking through the setup. Agents like Anthropic's Claude in Chrome can read pages, click and fill out forms in a browser the way a coordinator would.

What doesn't get cheap is judgment: knowing what to build, in what order, and whether the result is right. That's my part, with 16 years in marketing behind it. I direct every task, give the agents the access they need, check every piece before it goes live, and meet with you once a week.

What's included every month

• A weekly meeting. We review what got done, what it produced, and what's next.
• Your list, worked every week. Everything you want handled goes on one list in priority order. There's no cap on tasks.
• Every piece checked by me. Nothing goes live until I've reviewed it.
• The AI tools. The agents run on my tools and credits. You don't pay for them separately.
• Direct access to me. Text, email or phone. No account manager in between.
• Your accounts stay yours. Everything is in your name the whole time.
• Month-to-month. No contract and no setup fee.

What a first month might look like

Here's an example. Say you own a made-up eight-person garage door company, Kirkwood Pine Garage Doors. This is what the list might look like for month one, and who does what.

Illustrative. Your list depends on your business, and it changes every week as we learn what's working.

Notice the "You" column. It's small, but it isn't empty. The weekly meeting and a few quick approvals are what keep the marketing sounding like your business instead of everyone else's.

What happens in the weekly meeting

The weekly meeting is the part people underestimate. It's where the direction actually happens, and it's short on purpose. A typical one runs about thirty minutes and covers the same few things every time.

• What got done. A plain list of what went live since last week, with links so you can see it yourself.
• What it produced. Calls, form leads and booked jobs where we can track them, not a pile of vanity numbers.
• What's waiting on you. Anything that needs your approval, a detail only you know, or access I don't have yet.
• What's next. We look at the list together and reorder it. A slow week, a new service or a hiring push can move something to the top.
• What you're hearing. The questions customers asked this week and the jobs you want more of. That feeds the next round of content and ads.

Between meetings, you can text me anything. New ideas go straight on the list. Nothing waits a month for a quarterly review, because there isn't one. Every week is the review.

This is also where the AI agents get their direction. What we decide in thirty minutes becomes the briefs and instructions they work from all week. Skip the meeting and the agents are guessing. Keep it and they're working on exactly what matters to your business that week.

What's not included

This is where cheap marketing usually hides its surprises, so I'll be blunt.

• Ad spend. What you pay Google, Meta or LinkedIn for clicks goes straight from your account to them. My fee covers building and managing the campaigns, not the clicks. If you're working out that number, here's how much a small business should spend on marketing.
• Your own software. If you pay for a website platform, a scheduling tool, a CRM or a booking system, those stay on your accounts.
• Overnight results. SEO builds over months, not weeks. Ads need some data before the tuning means much. Anyone promising instant results is guessing.
• Instant turnaround on everything. Every piece waits for my review, and the list is worked in priority order. Big projects, like a full website rebuild, get done in pieces over a few weeks.

How does $499 compare to an agency or a hire?

Here's the honest comparison for a small service business.

For the hire column, the U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics puts median pay for market research analysts and marketing specialists at $78,760 a year as of May 2025. That's before payroll taxes, benefits and the software they'd need. And one person, however good, can only produce so much in a week.

I go through all three options in more depth in fractional marketer vs agency vs full-time hire.

Where this isn't the right fit

I'd rather lose a sale than sign someone who'll be unhappy in a month. This setup probably isn't for you if:

• You want to hand it off and never talk about it. The weekly meeting is part of the job. Without your input, the work drifts toward generic.
• You need a big creative production. TV spots, film crews, a brand campaign across a dozen markets. Hire a team built for that.
• You won't share access. I work inside your accounts, in your name. If that's a dealbreaker, nothing gets built.
• You need same-day turnaround on everything. One person reviews every piece. That's the quality control, and it takes a little time.

How to try it for $99

For a limited number of new clients, the first month is $99 instead of $499. It's the full thing, not a stripped-down trial: the weekly meeting, your list worked every week, and every piece checked before it goes live. If you're happy, it moves to $499 a month. If not, you walk away and keep everything that was built.

That's the point of month-to-month. The work has to earn the next month. If you want to see it for yourself, claim the $99 first month while spots are open.