Marketing is a minefield for industry terms. I literally work in the industry as a full-grown, real-life, UNironic #girlboss and if they sold a pocket translator for marketing terms I would buy spares! Ultimately a lot of these terms are either essentially useless or hyper-selectively useful so I don't often feel the moral need to put on my educator cap. However; there are exceptions and organic marketing is not only on that list of exceptions but it's at the very top!
What is Organic Marketing?
All marketing will naturally fall into one of two categories. Organic marketing and NOT organic marketing. Sometimes NOT organic marketing is just referred to as paid marketing and sometimes it's referred to more by the specific type of marketing taking place such as Pay-per-click or affiliate marketing. This hints at the major difference between the two, money.
Organic marketing is marketing that naturally drives customers to complete an action. A great example of this is organic social media content. Content put out by your favorite brands are not paid. They are posted for free just like everyone else and they help to drive action. This would differ from a Facebook ad which does not naturally show up on the feed but rather is carefully injected in selected feeds for the right price.
Now if you're thinking, Wait isn't all marketing paid, I hear you. Yes. Organic social media for example is not a FREE service. But it is affordable! However; when we're saying "free" versus "paid" in this sense we're referring to the TRAFFIC. Organic social media only shows up to the people it would show up based on the health of the account and quality of the account, hashtags, etc. Whereas paid marketing would pay for a certain amount of views, clicks, or actions.
Examples of Organic Marketing
Some great examples of organic marketing include but are nowhere near limited to:
Social media marketing - creating and sharing content on social media platforms to engage with your audience and build a community around your brand.
Content marketing - creating and sharing valuable and relevant content, such as blog posts, videos, and infographics, to attract and retain a clearly-defined audience.
Search engine optimization (SEO) - optimizing your website and its content to rank higher in search engine results pages (SERPs) and drive organic traffic to your site.
Word-of-mouth marketing - encouraging satisfied customers to share their positive experiences with others and generate buzz about your brand..
Email marketing - sending targeted and personalized emails to your subscribers to nurture leads and build relationships.
Influencer marketing - partnering with influential individuals on social media to promote your brand and products to their followers.
Referral marketing - incentivizing customers to refer their friends and family to your brand, resulting in new customers and increase brand awareness.
Community engagement - participating in online communities and forums related to your industry or niche to build relationships and establish yourself as a thought leader.
Event marketing - hosting or sponsoring events to promote your brand, build relationships, and generate leads.
The Power of Organic Marketing
There are so many great things about organic marketing! In fact, it is our preferred type of marketing. One of the best things about it is it's sustainable! There is little that can generate traffic faster than a targeted search ad but as soon as you turn off that ad ALL the traffic dries up. Organic marketing sticks around and still keeps delivering. I have more than one client with blogs several years old still generating new clicks for them MONTH OVER MONTH!
Another undeniable perk of organic marketing is that it's more natural. Even on the most advanced platforms, most people can tell an ad from a not-ad, and one would hope so as there are laws requiring EXACTLY that. The truth of the matter is no matter how good the ad is you're going to lose some people just because it's an ad. People don't like ads.
Organic marketing shows up where it shows when it should, and allows your audience to interact with it as they like, without feeling like they need to fast-forward past you to get back to what they want. They can come to your Youtube channel and watch as many videos as they want.
Oh, and you CANNOT forget the intention! The intention with organic marketing is off the charts. If they are following you on social media or reading your blogs every week or watching your videos each month then they are already telling you they're interested. They are asking to be talked to more! These are your people and this is what they want! That is POWERFUL!
The Clever Difference
Here at The Clever Catalyst, our focus is always organic. I think it has something to do with the way we like to do things by the book and in a way that makes just good old-fashioned sense! We do offer paid-marketing services, in fact, we have an impressive success rate with Google Ads, but we always start with organic marketing. Ads don't perform well when they're driven to sites with no good content. Trust us!
So if you need help with conceptualizing, strategizing, or activating your organic marketing strategy do not hesitate to book a FREE consult call today, and let's talk about getting your business more GREEN!