In the early days of social media, unpaid posts by businesses were not only seen by large numbers of users, but often shared as well, making social media an incredibly affordable and wonderful place to promote a brand, reach potential customers, and gain trust and authority. Fast forward to today: on most social platforms these same organic (unpaid) posts are rarely seen and even more rarely shared. It’s a pay-to-play world out there, and it would seem that organic marketing is a thing of the past.
But we are here to proclaim that not only is organic marketing alive and well, it should also be the foundation of all your digital marketing strategies. Why, you ask? Well, there is still absolutely no better way to gain trust and authority for your business on the web. And online trust and authority are more important than ever.
What is Organic Marketing?
To put it simply, organic marketing is any digital marketing that does not utilize paid advertising or leverage paid strategies to get promotional content in front of prospective customers or clients. Organic marketing is providing “free” pathways for your customers to come to you naturally over time.
For organic marketing to be successful, it must leverage one, or both, of two things: real world, person-to-person sharing and/or search engine optimization (SEO).
What is the Difference Between Paid and Organic Marketing?
The best way to understand the difference between organic and paid marketing would be to look at a few examples:
Creating a video describing the goods and/or services your business offers and paying to have it promoted on Facebook would be paid marketing. Crafting a compelling video that answers a question or speaks to a concern of your potential customers and posting it on YouTube would be organic marketing. In the case of the latter, potential customers will find it organically via search or because it was related to another video they had watched. And if they found your video helpful, they then might share it with others via Facebook or another social media platform!
Paying for Google Ads to get your website to the top of the page in a search result is obviously paid, but utilizing SEO strategies to choose a compelling topic and format a well-crafted blog about it can also get you to the top of the search engine result pages (SERPs).
What are the Advantages of Organic Marketing?
When comparing organic vs paid marketing, the most obvious difference is that you are not paying an advertising fee to reach users. However, the bargain doesn’t stop there and the critical element is time.
In both of the above examples, when you stop spending to have your promoted post or search ad shown, your marketing abruptly stops with no trace. You are basically starting from square one again and have to “pay the piper” to get things moving again.
Not so with organic marketing. A compelling blog or video can actually grow in visibility over time without having to pay any advertising fees or campaign costs. Basically you are producing content that takes on a life of its own, promoting you or your business for as long as that content is relevant. Well-crafted and meaningful organic content is the gift that keeps on giving.
What are the Disadvantages of Organic Marketing?
Just as time is an advantage in organic marketing, it can also be a disadvantage.
It can take weeks or even months for a quality blog to be indexed and settle into its targeted namespace on the SERPs. Videos tend to find their audience quicker, but there is still no instant payoff or even a quick way to properly evaluate a piece of content’s true marketing value. That is something only time can tell.
Organic marketing can produce instant results however. We hear all the time these days about viral Instagram and Tik Tok posts instantly launching the careers of internet influencers. But for the average business owner, organic marketing is less about “viral posts” and more about building trust over time and becoming the recognized voice of authority.
Is Organic Marketing Really Free?
Ask anyone who has worked with paid digital advertising and they will tell you how expensive it can be. Not only do you have to pay for online ad bids or monthly campaign costs, but you also have to spend time (labor) creating, monitoring, and tweaking the ad campaigns.
Comparatively, organic marketing seems like a bargain since there are no ad fees, and campaigns to manage. But, done properly, organic marketing does have its costs.
Creating meaningful content that will appeal to a particular social media audience or be recognized as the authority in a namespace by search engines takes a level of creativity, expertise, and intuition that can only be gained with years of experience. And producing authoritative, compelling, and share-worthy content takes a tremendous amount of time. If that content is video, you can add in the cost of production and editing equipment and software, and any associated labor costs.
In the end, however, even with all the associated production costs, a piece of content that drives traffic to your business and makes you the trusted voice of authority in your field for years to come can still be an incredible bargain. And we can’t say it enough – quality is everything when it comes to content.
Developing Your Own Organic Marketing Strategy
In these days of high expectations for quick returns, organic marketing is often not taken seriously or even overlooked by marketers looking to achieve the instant results paid advertising offers. In order to develop an effective organic marketing strategy, you completely have to change your mindset: you need to be in it for the long game.
The organic posts that drive traffic to a small business are typically those that provide a valid solution to a problem or provide meaningful advice to navigate situations encountered in the realm of your business expertise. Show that you have the expertise and experience to provide the most effective solution for that customer’s woes.
That solution may be a unique strategy or a “tried and true” methodology that is expressed in an entirely new way. And don’t be afraid to offer a solution that won’t end up in a conversion – the trust that can be generated from helping someone can pay off even more when they encounter a bigger problem or are recommending a business to a friend.
The concept is pretty simple – be the helpful voice of authority in your field.
Hire an Organic Marketing Expert
When it comes to crafting organic content and strategizing about how, where, and when to post that content, there is no quicker pathway to success than hiring an organic marketing expert. This is a person or team that has expertise in social media, SEO, branding, analytics, and, of course, content creation.
Our organic marketing team here at Blink;Tech works closely with our clients to have as deep as possible understanding of their relative industries, business models and customer demographics in order to produce content that can cut through noise of the internet and get found by those potential customers. Because we believe so much in the power and return on investment of organic marketing, we are dedicated to a long-term partnership with our clients where we work together to help their businesses grow with a solid, organic foundation built upon trust and authority.
If you need help with your organic marketing, give us a call. We’d love to help you grow your business and show the world that you are the authority in your field!
