When you head to the grocery store, buying organic may cost you a little extra — but when it comes to marketing, this is an affordable strategy that pays dividends for years to come. Investing time and energy in developing an organic marketing strategy is one of the most important steps you can take to ensure the long-term success of your business’s digital presence. Why? It’s one of the most effective ways to build an authentic audience and fan base for your product or service. Organic marketing can take more time, consistency, and patience to pull off, but it’s worth the extra effort, especially in the long run.

The term is intuitive; the definition of organic marketing refers to the act of getting your customers to come to you naturally over time, rather than “artificially,” or via paid links or boosted posts. Organic marketing encompasses any direct or instinctive campaigns — those without paid marketing tools. Paid tools, such as link ads on Google or Facebook, are considered inorganic marketing. If you’ve been putting your blood, sweat, and tears into revising and reinventing your user interface, maintaining Twitter and Facebook accounts, building your email lists, and improving your SEO, the good news is you’re doing organic marketing already. Now, let’s take a closer look at why it’s effective, and how you can do it better.

Shouldn’t I Spend Money to Make Money? Why Go With Organic Marketing?

While organic marketing refers to tools and approaches that do not rely on paid marketing strategies, let’s be clear — no time investment is free. Organic marketing takes attention and care; for example, your company might put a brand-specific spin on a Twitter trend, making use of a new hashtag that floats your tweets to the top of a feed. This is organic (you put no spend behind it), and yet it has caught eyeballs and is gaining traction. 

Take Time to Experiment

Organic marketing is also a wonderful tool because of how fresh it feels — when it comes to paid spend, you want to make sure you get a good ROI. But with organic marketing, there’s room for experimentation. Maybe you want to try out a new campaign or strategy but aren’t sure how it will perform. Organic marketing is a great way to give it a go — if it fails, yes you’ve lost some time, but you didn’t lose hundreds or thousands of dollars boosting it. This gives brands some freedom and wiggle room to play in their sandbox and try out new tools. Plus, paid ads can sometimes feel too sales-y; organic marketing can be more conversational and informal to give different segments of your list something unique to engage with.

You Still Have to Prioritize the Customer Journey

Paid ads can be an effective tool within a high-budget marketing strategy, but if the consumer arrives at your website and doesn’t find what they’re looking for, how is that investment working for you? Organic posts, too, need to have specific landing pages. If a sponsored tweet draws followers in but a discrepancy in expectation chases them away, what’s the benefit there? Organic marketing is a long process, but ultimately it will yield more authentic customer engagement and more accurate SEO.

Set Yourself Up for Success

Variety is the spice of life, and the key to a robust digital presence. Create an organic marketing action plan that includes diverse actions that you can incorporate into your business-as-usual days and your heavy lifting days. You can do this by rereading and reconsidering descriptions and blurbs sprinkled throughout your website. Check for accuracy and update any out-of-date information and links in campaigns.

CTAs Are Still Important for Organic Marketing

Since organic marketing gives room for experimenting, try out unique calls to action to see how each organically performs — this data collection can help you better determine future paid ads. This works whether you’re selling a product, hosting an event, or delivering new content for your subscribers to enjoy. Not sure what your CTAs should be? Visit competitors’ websites and social media pages — what hooks you? Discover what feels authentic and attractive and find your own spin on it that is specific to your brand. After all, it’s the CTA that will elicit a click, an engagement, and a conversion.

Over time, organic marketing goes the distance in helping you establish, maintain, and grow your brand. Want to formulate topical organic marketing processes? ondemandCMO are the experts you need to craft customized strategies to elevate your brand — get in touch and see how we can be of service.