In any digital marketing strategy, it is important to utilize both paid and organic marketing strategies. But do you know how to use them? This guide will tell you everything you need to know!
So What Are Paid and Organic Marketing?
Organic Marketing
As the name suggests, organic marketing can be considerably less expensive than paid marketing. While paid marketing involves spending a great deal of money on advertisements, organic marketing is more focused on an online presence. Various forms of content production, such as blogs, social media posting/presence, and online videos, are all powerful parts of organic marketing. While all of these are certainly 21st century strategies, they are all simply updates of good old word of mouth promotion- get people talking, and they will buy your product. This strategy may result in you spending less money outright, but be sure that you are prepared to invest the time necessary.
How expensive is organic marketing?
As you begin to develop your organic marketing strategy, you will find that the biggest invest you’ll be making is your time. Sure, you will probably have to pay for content writers and social media managers, but organic marketing is time consuming, so be prepared. It takes time to build a social media following and establish and identity online; add that in with the day to day tasks associated with running a web presence, and you’re looking at a pretty big time commitment. But remember: as difficult as it may be, an organic marketing strategy is crucial to building relationships and laying the foundation for a long-lasting business.
What are some organic marketing strategies?
In order to effectively utilize organic marketing, its important that you have a good grasp of social media, blog posting, and search engine optimization. These three things are crucial to bringing your product in front of potential customers over the internet. Here are some possible methods that are worth trying out:
To establish effective organic marketing, you’ll want to consider the following methods:
- Regularly scheduled blog posts written for search engine optimization (SEO). Don’t just write ads in the form of blog posts- put the effort in to produce content relating to your business that will interest your audience _independent_ of their interest in your business. Share them on all your social media pages, and be sure to engage with readers and comments, regardless of where the blogs are posted.
- Once you have a good schedule of content postings, why not repurpose them into an email newsletter? This will allow you to reach the maximum number of potential customers.
- Try to tag other companies and brands when you make a social media post and see what happens to your engagement. Evaluate which kinds of posts get the most interaction, and adjust your strategies accordingly!
- Use referrals! A recommendation from a family or friend is oftentimes significantly more convincing than a paid advertisement.
Paid Marketing
Paid marketing, unlike organic marketing, is all about purchasing different kinds of ad space. These ads can be placed on search engines as well as various social media sites. Its a great strategy to use in conjunction with organic marketing approaches, since paid marketing often takes less time and can have a greater impact, freeing you up to build up word of mouth promotion.
How much will paid marketing cost me?
That’s the big question, isn’t it? It’s important that you know what you pay for when it comes to paid marketing like this. Unfortunately, there is no one size fits all answer-it will be different for each business, simply because of the number of variables involved. After all, ads have to be made, so depending on the size of your business, you will need either a person or team on staff to create these advertisements, or an outside freelancer. All of these, of course, cost money, so it is something to keep in mind.
And it can often be difficult to analyze the results of your advertising without the proper tools. In order to get the most out of a paid marketing strategy, your company will need to purchase these tools. They will allow you to evaluate the success of your advertisements, and allow you to change course accordingly. The value of these tools cannot be understated.
What are some paid marketing strategies?
There are a number of ways to employ paid marketing, all of which will allow a large number of potential customers to come into contact with your business. It is a great way to get a quick push towards your business. Here are some ideas:
- Consistently pump out ads; this will give you a better picture of their overall effectiveness, allowing you to see which kinds of advertisements get the most engagement.
- Once you figure out which ads perform the best, put more money into them; expand the reach of your best ads, and you will be well on your way to bringing in more customers.
- Once you reach the end of an ad campaign, take a more detailed look at the data from these ads and your customers to adjust your strategy and devise future strategies; its crucial to take what you learn and apply it to new approaches and ideas.
Should I use paid and organic marketing at the same time?
Although every business is unique, with their own unique needs, the answer to this question is yes, absolutely. While both approaches will bring in customers on their own, once you start to use them in conjunction with one another, you will see their effectiveness increase exponentially. They will also allow you to reach the maximum number of customers; after all, if you can cover all lanes of online traffic, you are sure to bring in more customers. And a greater number of strategies reflects the diverse nature of buying communities. Every customer is different, so it is important to employ a number of different strategies to suit their needs and personalities. And at the end of the day, the purpose of marketing is to grow your business; whether you do that with a Facebook ad or a well written blog post is beside the point. All that matters is that you incorporate both into your marketing strategies, and adjust them until you find an approach that is right for you.
If you would like to speak to one of our team about incorporating both organic and paid marketing into your strategy, contact us today or schedule a strategy call.