LEARNING HUB

What Should You Pay for AI Marketing as a Small Business?

Artificial intelligence is rapidly reshaping the digital marketing landscape, but for small businesses, one big question keeps coming up: What should you really pay for AI marketing? In this week’s episode of the AiME Weekly Podcast, seasoned AI strategists and business leaders crack open the realities behind the hype, separating blue-sky promises from practical, bottom-line impact.

Why does this matter now? Because AI tools and “done-for-you” systems have flooded the market, and the stakes are higher than ever. It’s never been easier—or more confusing—to adopt AI in marketing. Prices range from a few hundred dollars for DIY solutions to tens of thousands for enterprise-grade, customized systems. But is expensive always better? And how can business owners cut through the noise to decide what truly adds value, cuts costs, or gives them an edge?

This episode delivers unfiltered advice and hard-won expertise—plus, plenty of real numbers. Whether you’re a business owner, agency pro, or part of an internal marketing team, understanding AI marketing costs, models, and implementation strategies is non-negotiable in 2026 if you want to move fast, save money, and maintain your edge. Here’s what you need to know.

 

This Week in AI: Key Developments

This episode brings front-and-center the real-world evolution of AI marketing systems. Gone are the days when companies could buy “an AI.” As discussed at 00:00, AI marketing is now seen as a dynamic ecosystem—a set of systems and processes deeply tailored to each business’s goals.

Key developments covered:

  • Custom vs. Off-the-Shelf Solutions: There’s no one-size-fits-all “AI marketing product.” Whether you build in-house tools, subscribe to an AI-powered platform, or partner with a specialized agency, approach and cost structures differ dramatically 02:14.
  • Integrated AI Use Cases: Modern AI marketing isn’t just chatbots or automated ad buys. It now spans paid ad optimization, SEO, organic content generation, 24/7 AI voice receptionists, lead nurturing, touchpoint automation, and more 06:10.
  • Price Transparency: The discussion anchors AI marketing system costs anywhere between $500 and $10,000+ per month, depending on complexity, business size, and the expertise embedded in the solution 03:49.

Bottom line: Every AI marketing solution is unique—success depends on how it’s applied to your business model, not just the technology on offer.

 

Tactical Takeaways & Use Cases

This episode is packed with actionable insights for businesses at any stage of their AI marketing journey. Here are some practical takeaways:

1. Think in Systems, Not Silver Bullets

  • Don’t expect a single AI tool to “fix” marketing. Real results come from combining strategy, process, and the right tech for your goals 01:53.
  • Always start by clarifying: What do you want to solve? Can AI do it better, faster, or cheaper?

2. Match Your Spend to Your Business Needs

  • Basic AI-led marketing programs start around $500–$700/month, usually focused on core tasks like lead management, client communications, and content distribution.
  • Sophisticated, niche-specific or custom-built solutions scale up to $10,000+/month—or much more for fully tailored platforms 03:49, 06:44.
  • Consider what expertise is built into the system. Solutions with deep industry knowledge consistently outperform cheaper, generic tools 04:45, 28:05.

3. Human in the Loop Matters

  • AI can handle much, but you always need an experienced human overseeing decisions, results, and optimization 00:25, 15:29.
  • Use AI to multiply your team’s impact—not to blindly replace all human judgment.

4. Specialty Use Cases Highlighted

  • AI Voice Receptionists: These services (starting as low as $250–$600/month) deliver 24/7 coverage at a fraction of hiring a human, ideal for small businesses needing around-the-clock support 09:01, 27:05.
  • Done-for-You Newsletters & Lead Nurture: Automated touchpoints and client retention campaigns are emerging as “fast-track” wins for service businesses 23:38.
  • Brand Voice Automation: Newer AI systems help businesses embed unique brand language into their marketing automatically—a key for standing out 25:56.

Implementation Tip: Always pilot with your lowest-hanging fruit, track ROI, and only scale up what works 24:18.

 

AI Workflow or Strategy Spotlight

The “5-to-1, 1-to-5” Impact Rubric for AI Implementation

Of all the strategies discussed, one stands out for its simplicity and power: building a prioritized implementation roadmap using the impact/ease matrix mentioned at 28:42.

Step-by-Step:

  1. Inventory Your Processes: List all marketing tasks or workflows you’re considering for AI automation.
  2. Score Each for Ease of Implementation (1–5): Can you deploy this quickly (5) or would it be difficult and time-consuming (1)?
  3. Score Each for Expected Impact (1–5): Will this make a big difference to revenue, efficiency, or customer experience (5), or just a marginal one (1)?
  4. Add Scores to Create Your Priority List: The tasks with the highest combined scores (up to 10) are your “quick wins”—implement these first.
  5. Work Methodically Down the List: Tackle the higher scores before committing to less impactful or more challenging projects.

Who should use it?
Small businesses, agencies, and teams who want to avoid “shiny object syndrome,” focus on ROI, and build momentum without overwhelming staff or budgets.

 

What This Means for Marketers in 2026

The message is clear: Intentional AI adoption is the new currency of competitive advantage. In 2026, agencies and business owners should expect:

  • Increasing Customization: Off-the-shelf tools are fine for starting out, but niche expertise and strategic insight will separate top performers from also-rans.
  • Blended Teams: Human expertise remains critical for setting direction and interpreting data—even as AI takes over more repetitive tasks 15:29, 17:13.
  • Continuous Evolution: AI systems and pricing models will keep changing. Budget for ongoing costs (including “token” usage and upgrades), not one-time purchases 31:03.
  • Agencies & Internal Teams Become AI Guides: Marketers must curate, vet, and adapt tech choices for their clients or bosses—not just “push buttons” 18:01, 19:32.

If you’re not re-evaluating your AI stack and retaining a strong strategic partner—internally or via an agency—expect diminishing returns and higher risk of obsolescence.

 

Implementation Checklist

Ready to move forward? Here’s your weekly action plan:

  1. Audit your current marketing systems to decide where AI could add value.
  2. List and rank potential AI projects with the “5-to-1, 1-to-5” rubric.
  3. Pilot one high-impact, easy-to-implement AI tool (e.g., AI voice receptionist or automated lead nurture).
  4. Compare internal expertise vs. external solutions for each project—decide what to outsource and what to keep in-house.
  5. Set clear ROI metrics before launching any AI-led program.
  6. Assign oversight to a human expert—never “set and forget.”
  7. Review for ongoing costs and upgrades—plan for changes, not just initial deployment.
  8. Schedule time to iterate and adapt as results come in.

Frequently Asked Questions

What should small businesses expect to pay for AI marketing?
Expect monthly costs from $500 for basic systems up to $10,000+ for advanced, customized solutions—always aligned to your goals and complexity.
AI multiplies your team’s output but does not replace the need for skilled humans making strategic decisions and monitoring results.
Look for 24/7 AI voice receptionist services, automated lead nurture, or branded newsletter automation—these are proven, high-ROI entry points.
The answer depends on your internal resources and appetite for change. Most SMBs benefit from expert partners, at least to jump-start the process.

Conclusion

The AI wave isn’t slowing down—and neither should your pursuit of clarity, impact, and ROI. The smartest approach? Start with strategy, stay curious about emerging use cases, and benchmark every investment against real business outcomes. Ready to take the next step? Dive into our full “Show Guide & Resources” for deeper strategies, implementation templates, and up-to-the-minute tips.
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Transcript

JENNIFER CREGO
0:48

Hello everyone and welcome to AI Marketing Experts. I’m Jen Crego with Margot, AI receptionist and I’m here today with my amazing co hosts, the, the whole group here. So today we’re talking about AI marketing. Like, what does that even mean? What is it? How much did it cost? Like it’s a big can of worms. So we’re jumping into it. So who wants to start, start us off and kick things off? Right, I’ll, I’ll jump, I’ll jump in

CHRIS HUNTER
1:24

because it really dovetails. If you didn’t watch last week’s, go back and watch last week’s. We were talking about the scams in the industry because AI is now gone mainstream. It’s new to you. Maybe it’s, you know, old to us, maybe four years plus and counting. And maybe you went, you jumped in early. But AI marketing is not a thing that you buy. It’s like, you know, so it’s, it’s a constantly evolving system of, of what do you want to solve in your company? Is AI a way to solve it better, faster, cheaper and, and then, you know, what does it cost? Well, there’s no it, so what are you talking about? It’s, it’s, it’s.

JOHN CLENDENNING
2:14

Right now it’s still custom to. Do you want to own it yourself? Do you want to have somebody else? Do you build it for you? Do you want, who’s maintaining it? We’re going to break all that down because really what you’ll, we’re going to hope you walk away with at the end of this episode is understanding that how do you determine what AI in your marketing specifically? Well, you know, what is, what is it? How does it fit in? Where can you start adapting it? And when should you buy an enterprise level tool versus an in house solution? And then yeah, what would that then cost? What would you be looking at in purchase and upkeep costs? So that’s kind of just kind of in a nutshell, trying to tear it apart and see, see if it, you can get some clarity on, on, on, on that endpoint.

BRAD KILGORE
2:59

I think John brings up some good points and, and I think that’s what we’re going to unpack mainly is what is it? You know, because all businesses are different, there’s a lot of things that could help multiple businesses, a system, so to speak. But I think that it’s important to clarify and to really hone in on what you need and what it’s going to do for you.

CHRIS HUNTER
3:22

Yeah, and, and one of the big questions that we get that I’ve gotten at least and, and is, you know, how much, right. How much does it cost? And I, I think that if you keep in mind that AI Marketing systems, right, we’ll call these all systems because they’ve gone beyond just, you know, software or it, it all depends on exactly what it is. Right. What y’ all were just saying. But I would say a safe range for a decent marketer or marketing company is probably going to be anywhere in between $500 or ranging all the way up to, you know, $10,000, depending on what you need per month. Right. If you’re a nationwide company that is selling, you know, manufacturer that’s selling something, you’re going to need way more than the, the local roofing company. Right.

CHRIS HUNTER
4:21

And, and so it, it again, it all just depends on, on all of that. The other part that I, I would say it really depends on is what is it trained on. Yeah, you know, we talk about that a lot here of making sure that you train your AI systems. But if you train, if, if, you know, and I’m not, I’m going to push a little bit here. A young 18 year old goes out and says, hey, I’ve built this marketing system, you know, for AI. I’m going to sell it for a hundred dollars a month, 200amonth, whatever. Is that going to be worth the same as somebody with 25 years of experience in the marketing industry in your niche. Right.

CHRIS HUNTER
5:02

So it’s just, it’s, it’s the value, it’s what you’re getting as well as what actually works for you guys, Right. So I, I, I would say it’s going to range $500 to $10,000. Who knows, you know, if you’re building it out for somebody. If somebody’s asking you to build out this system for you, and we’ve talked about this before in the past also, is it going to be something that’s ongoing? Right. Meaning that we have to keep it up to date? I would say yeah. Because marketing changes and I mean when I went to go write my book six years ago, it was the most ridiculous thing I’ve ever had to do because marketing changes like liter. You finish a chapter, you’re like oh well I got to retake all those screenshots and, and change everything about it. Right.

CHRIS HUNTER
5:47

Because it’s, it’s, it’s a constantly evolving thing, marketing by itself. Right.

JOHN CLENDENNING
5:52

So and then the it that we talked about is like are we talking paid ad optimization? Like AI can help with that. But are you a paid ad specialist again back to your 18 year old versus a 45 year old, a media buyer who’s been working in that niche for 20 years, old school to new school. Are we talking about AEO so SEO now with the, as I say, everything everywhere all at once. Is it talking to AI plus organic plus maps, tying it all together to your website and, and, and, and, and you know, all that kind of stuff. Like are we talking about that, are we talking about a receptionist that’s marketing as well that answers your phones when you don’t like 24 7. If you guys miss it, I always think human in the loop. But if you miss it, somebody else better than an answering machine is actually triaging. Those are after hours and things like that.

JOHN CLENDENNING
6:38

All of these are AI marketing. Which one are you talking about? Right? Which one do you want? Like is there an all in one system? Well then yeah, 10k to set up feed to do it right. And thousands of dollars a month to manage, maintain and, and, and license. And as soon as you, you don’t pay them anymore, it goes away. Like things like HubSpot and all those are sort of kind of building in these things and whatever all the way to. If you wanted to hire somebody to build that yourself. We know people that audit companies, just audit companies for what AI can help improve in their company for 50 to 60 grand the build separate because it’s the same days of Microsoft, SharePoint and Building your. Do you want your own in house software solution? And if you go back to the episode with Danny Barrera, do you want to spend $300,000 on an AI solution that tomorrow Google comes up with an answer, comes up with the exact same thing and the whole project scrapped like he did last year, like There’s a lot going into this.

LAURA SUTHERLY
7:34

There is so many different levels. And even as we’re saying, we’re just mentioning a lot of, I guess, obvious levels. But now what we are hearing as well is as agents become more popular, is your website, is your marketing going to attract other AI agents and how are you going to handle that? So again, that just takes everything up to another level because are you prepared for it? And it is going to be a different price point. It’s going to be a lot more expensive, especially again for the updates as is AI agents are coming and learning about information to take it back to who might have inquired about it or are they coming to actually buy? Are they, you know, is there going to be some exchange of coins? However, you know, the exchange will happen. We have to, you know, you’re going to have to plan all this out or say, no, I’m going to stay within this marketing.

BRAD KILGORE
8:27

I want to interject real quick and then I want to hear some feedback from Jen. But I’ve been telling people something similar for I’ve been in the industry about 20 years and it doesn’t matter whether it was AI or whether it was SEO or paid ads or whatever marketing I was talking about. We’re talking about an investment here, right? So I’ve always framed it as it’s an investment into your company and there should be an roi. So think about it this way. If you’re doing even something as simple as an AI voice receptionist, let’s say it costs you $600 a month for this system. This is the bare bones basic, right? How much of that? If you had to pay a human to come into the office to do these tasks and do these things, you have to give them vacation time and you have to work around their schedule and perhaps sick days or personalities or bad days or showing up late or all these other things. So I’m pretty sure you could not hire a person in the United States to work for you full time, much less 24,7 for $600 a month, and get something of quality. So you have to think about that in the big picture of things, even if it costs you $3,000 a month, if this investment into your business saves you time, saves you money, replaces things that humans don’t have to do, and will simplify the things that the humans in your office are doing, then by all means, it’s a good investment.

JENNIFER CREGO
9:56

That’s a very good point. Very good point. You know, it’s like to me, if we take about or take away the AI out of AI marketing, then we, we still have marketing and we all work with our, you know, our different niches. And so we already know that one marketing system just going to use system is, could not possibly be right for every single client that comes to us. You know, one client might need more than, than the other one. Maybe one. There’s a different focus for someone. So there’s, there’s different programs for a reason.

JENNIFER CREGO
10:42

We have different marketing programs for our clients. And so it’s the same thing. Once we put AI into the marketing, the AI is just part of each of those programs. And, and it’s so to say, you know, how much does it cost or should it cost or what is it? Well, like that’s a, that’s, this is much bigger than that. It’s. Marketing is different and nuanced and yeah,

JOHN CLENDENNING
11:15

it’s, it’s all the stuff you’ve talked about, Jen. The like, you know, you have to define your brand first. Chris, your master prompt, what your company’s all about, who your ideal avatar is. All of that. Like, can we and should we are. Are big questions that come up as well? Because. Yeah. Can we have AI answer our phones? Yes.

JOHN CLENDENNING
11:35

Are you going to track the numbers to find out if it’s a higher booking percentage than a real human or lower? Because that’s going to affect the bottom line of your business going forward. So it’s still a strategic business decision. Is AI going to commoditize every business, which we should never be. The price of pork bellies, if that relates at all to anything Laura does or talks about. I don’t know. I just know the AG Report on, at noon on Mondays. But the price of pork bellies or whatever, that’s a commodity because it’s like there’s no different. Does this pork have a different belly than that pork, Whatever a pork belly is.

JOHN CLENDENNING
12:07

But in the world of business, there are better roofing companies, there are better shops there. I would pay more for my mechanic than, than going to a cheaper mechanic because I love Doug and he does an amazing job and his rates aren’t, aren’t the lowest, they’re not the highest. But it’s like if I had a Porsche, I would probably say by Doug. Right. And go somewhere else. Right. So is AI going to be able to, is it going to commoditize you because you just want AI to take care of it? It’s, it’s, you know, like set it aside and be done. Because as I tell all of our clients, in our clients, the, the, the coaching Calls I do the strategy sessions I do is when you own the business, first and foremost, you’re the marketer and chief outreach officer of that business to create sales conversations.

JOHN CLENDENNING
13:00

Because if you don’t market, you have to get lucky because you know your best friend’s dad funnels all the work to you because you know, whatever you know, again, that’s a problem because all your work comes from one guy kind of idea. But if you want to run a real business that grows, you market and market and get better at, you grow, you market, you hire marketing companies, you learn marketing, you, you bring in tools like AI, all that you stand out in the marketplace. You, you create brand awareness before you run ads so that the ads work better in a branded environment that people all know your name and all that kind of stuff. Then you create sales. Now you gotta solve a sales problem. Now you gotta convert. Now you create conversions to jobs. Now you gotta sell a better job, upsell properly.

JOHN CLENDENNING
13:40

Then you create client retention to build the backend engine and reap repeats and referrals and cycle the whole thing around again. So, yeah, what is AI marketing? What is marketing? It’s. You’ve got to define that first in your business, then decide, is there an avenue where AI will save you time, money or do it better?

CHRIS HUNTER
14:02

Yeah. And I, I think so far we’ve been talking to basically, you know, small businesses out there in America in the world that are, are like, okay, what, how do I, how do I know? And we talked about that last time last week about, you know, telling a scam, scammer type, you know, versus A, a true value, what you’re going to get. What about the AI? What about the agencies that are thinking about AI?

JOHN CLENDENNING
14:29

Yeah, right.

CHRIS HUNTER
14:30

What about, I mean, because I’ve got friends that I’ve talked with recently and I think I talked about this last week. Is, is that are like, okay, I know I need to get into AI. I need, I know I need to do something, but what do I do? Right. I have no idea where to begin. And so I would say to them, you know, pick your battles, you know.

JENNIFER CREGO
14:55

Yes.

CHRIS HUNTER
14:56

Choose one thing at a time that you want to solve for and to potentially do either better with AI more efficiently with the AI, right. Or to give the tools to the people in your team to help them do it better and more efficiently. Right. Help multiply that person times 2100. Okay. Versus completely replace them. Yes, that can be done. But you still on everything.

CHRIS HUNTER
15:29

And this is my advice is you’re going to need humans in the middle because AI is not always correct. Right. We all know that and it still isn’t to this day. As I work with AI, I’m like why can’t you do that chat? GPT can do that, right? So anyways, you’re always going to need that human in the middle that’s, that’s making a sound decision. I think. You know what are yalls thoughts on that?

LAURA SUTHERLY
15:56

Well, I think you bring a great point too is if you’re trying to multiply that person, they are the expert, they’ve been in position, you have trusted them in that position. So whether you be an agency or a small business owner for, for that person, lean on them to say you are still the expert. We rely on you to make sure that the information that the AI is providing is accurate. The when you’re looking at whether I know last week I think we mentioned QuickBooks and such. If your team member is doing the accounting, ask them, investigate. Is those AI tools within the accounting system you’re using good, bad, bad? Did it save you the time? Did it save, you know, so have them kind of calculate the return on investment if it’s worth keeping. I know that was something else to keep in mind is as our systems that we’ve already used prior to AI, all of them seem to be popping up AI somewhere good, bad and different. But we need to decide did it help the team move forward? Did it help the company move forward? Is it worth paying for after the first free trial expires? And it’s not always the best thing to say, yes, I’m going to go ahead and use this for this purposes and on this soft system, use that for the other purpose.

LAURA SUTHERLY
17:14

You may find that whether it be cowork, whether it be notebook, lm, whatever, it might have a lot of those things. So you’re only going into one place versus paying for pieces here, there and everywhere. So definitely take the time. A lot of them have the learning conferences or webinars, ask the team member that’s been in charge of doing your payroll. Sit in that, talk to the accounting software. Will it help and get the feedback of your team member because they know what they’ve been doing every day and what it will move forward faster.

JOHN CLENDENNING
17:53

Yeah, I think agencies interesting thought process on that because I know we have agencies that watch our show as well and we’re friends with a lot of them. What is a marketing agency? Is it that you know how to click buttons to do SEO or pay per click ads better than your clients or you have, you know, like what is it that we’ve provided as a value because it’s a constantly changing battlefield anyways. SEO changes every three to six months in nuanced or big ways. A May 8 this year. Big ways, things like that, pay per click and environments change all the time. Does a business owner want to have somebody in charge of that like you just said, Laura, there’s a cost to that. Right. And they have to know that they’re staying up on it or do they have an agency as an agency watching this, Your job is to especially niche agencies.

JOHN CLENDENNING
18:42

But even just in general, if you went downtown to the, you know, the, the, the web design and SEO company, you know, in downtown Witchita, Kansas, probably lovely people and they work with the, the plumber and the podiatrist and everybody else in between. They have slightly more expertise than you want to learn. So you hand them that trust to do that. Right now AI is making the acts of creating content, creating plans, doing the work all that easier. Agencies need to understand that who they still are is the expert in curating what you just said. Laura. What if there’s 20 different pieces of software and you know, 19 are crap and this is the only good one because. Right.

JOHN CLENDENNING
19:32

That’s a value for an agency to deliver. Can you coach some clients like Danny told us? Danny Barrera told us on, on a podcast earlier in the year. Can he switching a lot of his contractor click to coaching? Some clients just want to do it themselves. Cool. We can support you with that. We can, we can be your sounding board and your resource. So you go do it. You train a team member, you pay that payroll because there’s still a real cost to that.

JOHN CLENDENNING
19:56

You’re not saving necessarily a ton, but you need somebody to be the single source of truth to help you get to that point. And as a model changes, are they learning the model update or did they learn it from their coaching call every single week with his AI implementation coach? Or you say, you know what? I don’t even want to do that. You guys do it for me. Okay, we’ll stay up on top of that. We suggest this software over that. We suggest this over that. That’s the role of an agency doesn’t go away because and for anybody who’s a small business listening, that’s, that’s the value you get from an agency that is understanding that they are a constantly adaptable and adapting resource to help you grow your business. But it’s still your business.

JOHN CLENDENNING
20:35

They’re just, they’re not a savior of your business. They’re. They’re a growth partner, helping you grow the business. And AI is just a piece of that.

BRAD KILGORE
20:43

What I found interesting. Oh, go ahead, John.

JENNIFER CREGO
20:47

Oh, no, you go ahead.

BRAD KILGORE
20:48

Oh, mine’s so, so simple and short. What I found interesting is John says he has friends and I thought that he bought and paid for all of his friends that were AI bots. He trained them what to do, how to be his friend. So I found that very interesting.

JOHN CLENDENNING
21:02

We just got to teach them how to do a concert, Brad. And then we don’t. Yeah. Have a live jam for us.

BRAD KILGORE
21:09

That’s right. Go ahead, Jen.

JENNIFER CREGO
21:11

Well, so if we’re going to bring this back to AI marketing and the costs of it, or how much it should cost or what we’re charging for it, I’m curious, do any of you guys have a program or a service that is AI led that you are selling right now? And if so, let’s talk about it. How much does it cost? What are you charging for it?

CHRIS HUNTER
21:40

Yeah, I mean, as, as y’ all know, you guys know. I mean, I, I sell our AI operating system right now for founding members. We’re almost to the end of that. Right. For 497amonth. Okay. And the AI operating system isn’t really just the marketing side of things. It’s also sales as well as an executive assistant.

CHRIS HUNTER
22:02

Right. For the founder. Um, I mean, that’s, that’s just that side of things. We, we are considering an AI only program that we’re going to be selling for 697amonth. Right. That’s going to include a lot of the things that we do currently with people doing it, but with AI leading the charge on, on that stuff. So it, it helps bring our cost down. We normally sell that for around $2,000 a month for that program.

CHRIS HUNTER
22:31

We’re, we’re passing the savings on to our clients because we can, you know, nice.

JOHN CLENDENNING
22:36

And, and part of that’s the client training and knowing that.

CHRIS HUNTER
22:40

Right.

JOHN CLENDENNING
22:40

How to do it. Like, I mean, so you, you’re also handing over the team and responsibility to say, hey, I’ll give you the system, you can jump on calls, but you’re, you’re running the machine, not us.

LAURA SUTHERLY
22:52

Right.

JOHN CLENDENNING
22:52

You’re the wizard behind the curtain, not us.

BRAD KILGORE
22:54

Right.

JOHN CLENDENNING
22:55

So is there a value to that? That becomes the big question.

JENNIFER CREGO
22:57

So yeah. Who else?

BRAD KILGORE
23:00

We have, we have America’s Best Shops system, that similar pricing starting at597 for a more basic setup on up to9.97amonth. And then we’re adding more features in constantly and we are like Chris putting together a full operating system as well that does even more than what we currently have. So similar to what Chris is saying, and like you say, there’s lots of price ranges. We’ve had people come to us and say we’d like something even more elaborate. Can you do that? Well, in most cases we can. It’s the old saying of if you can, if you can think it, we can probably build it, you know.

JOHN CLENDENNING
23:38

Yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah. And for carpet cleaners, we help them out. We started as low as 200 to add in a, a lead and client nurturing agentic system with, with a newsletter about the local community and, and their company and happy customer stories and things like that plus touch points. Just that point that a lot of, a lot of players don’t do. They can enhance on marketing campaigns with annual reminders and quarterly campaigns that tie into print mail and stuff like that. Obviously a little bit more plus, you know. But the better way to stay in touch with your clients, voice services, AI agents. Added onto that we, we kind of say hey, start with the thing that lowest hanging fruit get.

JOHN CLENDENNING
24:18

Make sure you’re getting repeats and referrals from your database. Make sure you’re staying in touch with your leads long term because they might come back three months, six months, nine months, a year later if they didn’t like the last guy or chose not to do it. If you stay in touch, there’s a fast path to cash kind of idea and then start adding those other things that all the, all the way up the ladder. As Brad said that that can help on next next next levels and, and decide if you want to be the wizard behind the curtain or not or have somebody else do that and work your way up. And we also have a coaching program that teaches AI every single week. So for operators who want to start learning how to build some of this stuff. But I still say at the end of the day a business owner that goes out the door and does what I call the core Forever engine and actually goes into the marketplace, meets and talks with referral partners and businesses in the community and does all that stuff that sounds so old school. Grandma and grandpa used to do that when they ran their business.

JOHN CLENDENNING
25:18

That is still the differentiators in 2026 and will still be the differentiators when the gal behind the counter is a robot in 2030 at Starbucks. It’s still did you meet other people know them? So a lot of this conversation is do you really want to divert all your attention to that? Is it a shiny object like it is for us or is it something you enhances what you’re doing and continue to do what you’re doing that works to grow the business.

LAURA SUTHERLY
25:48

We have ours that start at 4.95amonth. And you know, we’ve just kind of folded in AI for an AI led, it would be the brand voice. So we have the rooted voice where we actually give their brand, we work with them to get their own voice as well as their brand voice. Now I know there’s a lot of systems out there, of course that just seems to ask some basic questions and they can accomplish close to the information. But we wanted to make sure that they had a really strong start for any of the marketing that they wanted to do on their own. So that was a standalone, that was 1495 or excuse me, yeah, 1495 on that one. But they said we have the different programs that they come in and then as they go up to what was mentioned earlier than more that we do for them because I know in our industry that’s the, probably the number one thing is everybody prefers to be outside, not so much behind a computer. So that’s where we really enjoy just folding in AI to enhance and make it still very authentic with their information, their how they’ve solved many growers problems and carrying that through and then we get to know them more and more.

LAURA SUTHERLY
26:54

It’s a very close relationship we have to their marketing so that we’re putting their digital voice out there.

BRAD KILGORE
27:01

Strong, very good.

JENNIFER CREGO
27:03

That’s cool.

LAURA SUTHERLY
27:03

That’s cool.

JENNIFER CREGO
27:04

So how about you? So yeah, I mean we do AI voice, receptionist. So it’s kind of, you know, all it is is AI really. I mean, so starts at 250 for introductory pricing. 250, 500. And then it goes up from there for like multi like locations and things like that. The, the interesting thing that I hearing from kind of all of us is that we all kind of have these AI LED programs that are, they tend to be lower priced. I think in my mind part of the reason of that aside, because we’re not selling AI efficiency. Like if it was just efficient but it didn’t have the expertise and all of that that we put into them, we wouldn’t be able to run those programs at those lower prices.

JENNIFER CREGO
28:05

So I think that that is something that I really want to call out here. We couldn’t just like say, yep, I’m going to, I’m going to throw out this AI system for roofers. I know nothing about roofing, but I’m going to throw it out there and charge $500 a month for it. No, you have to have that roofing expertise, the roofing marketing expertise that you have put into the system and that’s what allows you to offer a quality system at that price point.

LAURA SUTHERLY
28:37

Absolutely, absolutely.

CHRIS HUNTER
28:41

Yeah.

JOHN CLENDENNING
28:42

So I think, I think a checklist or like again and check the show notes afterwards. You’re going to get this. I think one way to think this through is you do have to think through your company. Right. So you’re going to like the best way to do this is actually put a little bit of time in of all of the things in your company that you do that you could, you, you’re considering, you could, you might be able to do more efficiently, save some money. Do you know, with AI and then whether you have to talk to somebody about this or not or kind of do some learning and understanding, but you want to do it on a basic rubric, like a two column thing. It’s called the five to one, one to five. But basically what you’re going to do is anything that is easy to implement, give it a five.

JOHN CLENDENNING
29:31

Anything that’s going to have the biggest impact on your company. Those are the two variables that you’re going to put numbers by. And I’ve seen people do with three and four, but that’s a good starting point. Put a five beside it. That’s now a 10. Right. If something is hard to implement but can have a big impact, it might be 1 on the implementation hard, but 5 big impact. That’s only a 6.

JOHN CLENDENNING
29:51

Start with the tens, then work your way to the nines, then work with the eights because you’re going to get momentum and the best bang for your time, energy and buck. If you can implement it fast, then it has a big impact. So that would be one way to kind of think through doing, doing that. And then yeah, if you’ve got an agency that can help out putting some things in place for you and help you with some of those things and think that through. Have that conversation as well.

LAURA SUTHERLY
30:18

Yep, yep.

JENNIFER CREGO
30:19

Well, should we, I mean, I think that’s a good place to wrap up. What do you guys think? Is there, is, is there something that we haven’t touched on in this episode that we want of make sure we, we pull in.

BRAD KILGORE
30:33

I think we hit all the, the high points of, you know, what is it that you’re getting and what is it going to solve and the investment piece, just like any marketing. Yeah, there’s a cost involved but what’s your ROI going to be? If you can solve these problems by having some automated AI tools in place that you didn’t have before. So I think we’ve. I think we’ve covered it. Yeah.

JOHN CLENDENNING
30:58

Who’s managing it, who’s maintaining it as the models change?

LAURA SUTHERLY
31:03

All of it and the ongoing cost because there’s tokens and so it’s not just put your credit card in the system and run with it. Make sure you know what your usage is. So it’s not as easy.

JOHN CLENDENNING
31:15

We might do a whole show at some point on token hygiene and oh my gosh. So, yeah, for another day and be

BRAD KILGORE
31:22

prepared and be prepared for change because.

JENNIFER CREGO
31:26

Yeah.

BRAD KILGORE
31:26

Not going to stay the same.

JENNIFER CREGO
31:29

Yeah, that’s true. Every. I mean, systems marketing systems, we have to change them as things, you know, evolve and AI is changing so fast.

BRAD KILGORE
31:44

Yeah.

JENNIFER CREGO
31:44

Make your head spin.

LAURA SUTHERLY
31:46

Yes, yes.

JENNIFER CREGO
31:47

Yeah, yeah, yeah. All right, well, I think that’s it then. We’ll wrap up there. Don’t forget to like, like the. The video subscribe. It. It helps us out a lot. If you like it, it helps other people find this, this program.

JENNIFER CREGO
32:09

So we appreciate all those likes and shares.

JOHN CLENDENNING
32:12

So join the UME Insider club as well. That’s where you get the show notes. It’s free and you can ask questions. Community there building and growing. Invite your friends, all that good stuff as well. And yeah, let’s just stay. Let’s keep chatting and stay current.

JENNIFER CREGO
32:27

That’s it. All right, we’ll see you next week then. Thanks, everyone. Bye.

00:00 Episode Trailer

00:52 Intro

01:29 Why Small Businesses Are Asking About AI Costs

02:54 Why AI Marketing Is Not Just a Tool

04:42 What Problem Are You Trying to Solve?

08:46 Why Every Business Needs a Different AI Strategy

12:23 When AI Marketing Is Worth Paying More For

13:31 Questions to Ask an AI Marketing Vendor

20:22 AI Support, Upkeep, and Data Ownership

24:30 AI Pricing Red Flags

28:09 Why Human Judgment Still Matters

33:47 AI Marketing Cost Checklist

34:27 Like, Subscribe, and Stay Ahead of AI Marketing

In today’s episode, we break down how much AI marketing should actually cost your small business.
AI marketing is not just a tool, chatbot, automation, or done-for-you system you buy. The real cost depends on the problem you need solved, the level of customization, the tools being used, and whether there is a real strategy behind it.

Small business owners are being pitched AI agents, automations, chatbots, and marketing systems that promise faster growth and lower costs. But how do you know what is worth paying for — and what is just an overpriced prompt?

In this conversation, we talk about AI marketing pricing, vendor red flags, what small businesses should budget for, and why every company needs a different AI strategy.

You’ll also hear why AI can help your business work faster, cheaper, and smarter — but human judgment still matters.

What you’ll learn:

AI marketing costs: what small businesses should expect to pay.
AI strategy: why pricing depends on the problem you need solved.
Tool vs. system: why AI marketing is not just software you buy.
Pricing red flags: when an AI marketing package may be overpriced.
Human oversight: why your business still needs smart decision-making.
Vendor questions: what to ask before paying for AI marketing.
Automation value: when AI can actually save time and money.
Small business AI: how to avoid hype and invest wisely.
Custom AI systems: why one-size-fits-all AI rarely works.
Marketing foundations: why AI works best when your strategy is already clear.

• ChatGPT
• Claude
• OpenAI
• Anthropic
• Perplexity
• AI automation tools
• CRM systems
• Marketing automation platforms
• AI content workflows
• AI Marketing Experts

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