Content budgets are usually allocated by volume rather than by return, which is why so many stores have hundreds of blog posts and a welcome email nobody wrote properly. Rough ordering by return per dollar for a typical Shopify store:
Email flow copy — highest return, most neglected. The core five Klaviyo flows are read by people who have already shown intent, and they run indefinitely once written. A well-written welcome sequence earns continuously; most stores use near-default copy. Typically $1,500-$6,000 for the full set, and the fastest payback in this category.
Product page copy on your top 20 products. Concentrated revenue, concentrated opportunity. Rewriting your twenty best sellers with real research and objection handling costs $1,000-$3,000 and affects a large share of trade. Rewriting all 500 products costs ten times that for a fraction of the incremental return.
Landing pages for paid traffic. If you spend on ads, the page they land on is the highest-leverage copy you own. A single landing page rewrite at $500-$2,500 can move return on ad spend more than a month of media optimisation.
Homepage and category page copy. Read by everyone, rarely rewritten, usually written by whoever set the store up. $800-$4,000.
Brand voice documentation. No direct return, but it makes everything above cheaper and more consistent, and it stops the endless re-litigating of tone. $2,500-$15,000.
SEO blog content — slowest payback, still worth doing. Compounds over 6-12 months and supports paid efficiency by building retargetable audiences. But it's genuinely the last thing on this list by immediate return, and stores frequently start here because it feels like "doing content." $150-$600 per article, or $1,500-$8,000/month for a programme.
If your budget is limited, work down this list rather than starting a blog.