How can you increase traffic to your website and actually get conversions? Organic marketing is the piece you are missing.

Organic marketing is a subtle and effective approach to growing your business.

When the average person thinks of marketing, they likely think about blaring billboards or obnoxious tv ads that disrupt their show flow. Though these types of more traditional marketing can eventually gain brand exposure, they’re inefficient and frankly annoying. Organic marketing circumvents such issues. It’s all about strategies that have educational value and speak only to those who are interested. When all is said and done, the funneled nature of organic marketing stands to compound your investment.

In fact, almost 50% of Search Engine Journal’s online community claimed that organic marketing brought in the highest ROI for their respective businesses.

Organic marketing is a type of digital marketing that attracts traffic to a website by meeting the needs of potential consumers. In many cases, this means providing valuable information that answers your audience’s most pressing questions.

Here, we’ll discuss the basics of organic marketing and how it supports business growth.

What is Organic Marketing?

The goal of organic marketing is for your target audience to naturally stumble upon your website. Also called inbound marketing, this differs from traditional marketing in that there is no outward advertising trying to attract people to your brand.

While there’s a time and place for paid ads and sponsored posts, organic marketing takes a more evergreen approach. This digital marketing strategy generates traffic and increases brand awareness by providing valuable content.

Types of Organic Marketing

Organic marketing is all about creating value on your site to pull your audience in. Examples of organic marketing include blog posts, social media updates, case studies, white pages, and email campaigns. The value of the content is the core of organic marketing with SEO polishing the edges to create impactful pieces that drive conversions.

Considerations of Organic Marketing

Organic marketing is key to sustainable business growth and boasts several advantages over more traditional tactics. That being said, it’s not perfect. As you start an organic marketing campaign, consider the pros and cons of the strategy.

• It’s almost free. Running paid ads on Facebook or securing a sponsored spot on Google’s SERP (Search Engine Results Page) can be a great financial investment for a company. Unlike paid advertising, though, organic marketing uses tools and methods that are basically free to use. We say basically because while posting on your blog doesn’t require extra money, there’s still the cost of staffing and software to run your organic marketing campaign.
• Establish amazing relationships with your target audience. By continually sharing informative content, you build a solid rapport with your audience. They develop trust in your expertise. However, a core tenet of inbound marketing is to specify your buyer’s personas. This may limit you from reaching potential consumers who don’t already follow you.
• Empowers sustainable business growth. An intentional organic marketing campaign is an investment in the long-term future of your business. Think of marketing as paving a path for prospective consumers to find your product or service. With every piece of content published, you are laying the foundations for a scenic walkway to perpetuity. While having this long-term vision for marketing is critical, that pathway can’t be built in a day. One drawback to organic marketing is the time investment it requires. It won’t boost traffic overnight. Though great for sustainability, it’s not ideal for rapid conversion generation. Organic marketing’s strength lies in creating permanent and reliable traffic to your website.

Organic Marketing Steps

While writing a blog post sounds straightforward, there’s a lot more that goes into organic marketing than meets the eye. Every campaign follows these four general steps and includes a review and reflection after each campaign. It’s a different set of skills than traditional marketing, and most companies choose to hire an inbound marketing expert to lead these more nuanced campaigns.

1. Walk in your audience’s shoes. The first step to organic marketing is understanding your audience’s needs, wants, and pain points. What questions are they asking and how are they asking them? This will inform the type of content you create.
2. Craft amazing content. Quality content is the backbone of any organic marketing strategy. Fill your website with all types of content that build on each other. Blog posts and videos will give your prospects a taste of your value and downloadable ebooks provide a thorough outline of your products and services.
3. SEO. Use SEO to improve the rankings of individual content pieces and your website as a whole. The higher a page ranks on Google, the more clicks it stands to get.
4. Social Media & CTA. Use your social media platforms to share your content. Be thoughtful about your wording and linking on different platforms. What works on LinkedIn doesn’t work the same on Instagram! Furthermore, think about what type of call to action (CTA) makes the most sense to end that particular piece. Do you want to direct the reader straight to your product or to a video that will tell them more about its benefits?

Attract an Authentic Audience

In the world of inbound marketing, you don’t just want views, you want attention from an audience who might actually convert.

And that’s exactly what organic marketing tactics do.

With inbound marketing, consumers build trust in your brand. When people are looking for a product or service, credibility goes a long way. It’s why you might be more inclined to take a restaurant recommendation from a friend than look up a random dinner spot.

Organic marketing slowly earns your business the position of that trusted friend.

Align Your Goals with the Algorithm

Search engine algorithms are getting good, and they have been for a while now.

Gone are the days when keyword stuffing could boost your ratings. Today, ranking high on Google means you need to rank high with readers. Organic marketing is all about creating content that provides value to your readers so they click on your link and spend time on your page, after all.

That’s why modern search engine algorithms are prioritizing content that serves real people’s needs. By aligning your content with the goals of search engines (to provide quality information), your site will become more accessible and draw in a more authentic audience.

Become the Expert

The content you create should be educational, informative, and accurate.

If you tick each of these boxes, you start building credibility with your brand and your audience will come to view your brand as a trustworthy source. Moreover, the more accurate and effective you are in relaying information, the better your site will rank for your relevant keywords.

The more your build on your content, the more your customer base will grow.

Improve Engagement

Once you’ve built a trusting relationship with your audience, the next step is to keep them engaged.

How do you achieve this? Organic marketing strikes again!

However you chose to publish your content, you can plant seeds to elicit interactions. This engagement takes your brand to the next level and moves prospects further along the buyer’s journey. If your initial content gave you a credible reputation, this is where you can welcome your audience into your community. Once prospective consumers feel a part of something, they start turning into genuine leads.

Whether you are selling a product or service, organic marketing tactics strengthen your relationship with customers by improving engagement. Comment sections on blog posts, email giveaways, and individual problem-solving are all great ways to improve your consumer engagement, but this is truly where social media can shine. Use your social accounts to advertise contests or ask provocative questions that will get your audience talking.

Giving your brand a personality that has a relationship with your consumer base will give your audience a sense of loyalty. Loyal customers are returning customers!

Boost Brand Authority

At its core, organic marketing is about connecting with consumers over core values and valuable information.

It stays away from flashy lights and intoxicating asks because those can make you come across like a snake oil salesman. Highly commercial advertisements and aggressive marketing campaigns can create mistrust in a company—fortunately, organic marketing steers clear of this.

Still, that doesn’t mean that organic tactics don’t improve brand awareness. It does, just more subtly. By providing helpful, informative content, you’ve already got your audience engaged. A mention of your brand on the periphery of a post reminds consumers here and there without seeming too pushy.

Additionally, branded content marketing should be a part of your general marketing strategy. While other forms of content may try to drive conversions or attract new leads, branded content marketing has the sole goal of raising brand awareness.

Here’s a hypothetical scenario: a camping gear company publishes a blog of camping tips and adventure advice that is actually useful for its audience. Readers will return to that site for inspiration for upcoming trips or the latest hacks to shed gear weight. With intermittent internal links and an unobtrusive reminder of their products at the end of each post, readers take away valuable information and a subtle reminder of that particular brand’s value. Because the brand has positioned itself as the authority on the subject, consumers will steadily gain trust in them. When it eventually comes time to buy a new tent, that gear company will be first on their list. This’s backed by data, too.

According to a study by Invesp, 59% of consumers prefer to buy products from brands they already know. Do right by them and they’ll return the favor tenfold.

Cost-Efficient

Not to mention, organic marketing is very cost-effective.

When done well, each piece of content paves the way for future business growth without chipping away at the bottom line. Rather than paying to be seen on search engines or social media platforms, you create content that will get you found naturally. The only cost is in creating amazing, SEO-optimized content that can actually be found. That being said, even if it saves you money, you still want to spend your resources well. Effective organic marketing takes ample time, effort, and creativity.

Though not nearly as expensive as outbound marketing tactics, organic marketing can be competitive. That’s why you want the best team handling your content development and why it’s wise to invest in one sooner than later.

Drive Traffic and Boost Visibility

Needless to say, the goal of any marketing campaign is to drive traffic to your site.

While it may feel slow to start, organic marketing tactics will steadily get you there and boost your brand visibility. The best part? You don’t have to take the ads down or remove your sponsored spot on Google when the cash runs out. Every piece you publish is out there forever, essentially serving as your company’s library. The more you build upon and link your content, the more established you will be and the higher you will rank on search engines.

From a marketing standpoint, your website’s position on Google’s results page is critical to attracting traffic—and it needs to happen organically.

In fact, you might be shocked to learn that over 70% of users completely ignore paid ads. Where do they go instead?

The first five—usually the top two—organic search results get the most attention. After that, content marketing tends to have a snowball effect. When it starts building, it grows like no tomorrow. Between effective keyword research and holistic content development, organic marketing can get your business to those coveted top rankings on Google. The traffic that organic marketing creates for your brand won’t disappear overnight, either. Think of them like your marketing strategy’s IRA. They are long-term investments in your brand's visibility.

Check out our more detailed tips for driving traffic to your website here!

Partner With WriteForMe to Plant Your Roots with Organic Marketing

Organic marketing should be a pillar of any business looking to attain sustainable, long-term growth.

It’s all about naturally attracting traffic to your site by providing prospects with answers to their questions and solutions to their problems. While inbound marketing is less of a financial investment than paid advertising, its benefits shouldn’t be taken lightly. Along with being more cost-effective, organic marketing drives conversions by boosting your brand engagement, authority, and visibility all in one go. Don’t know where to start?

Contact WriteForMe, your new content marketing BFF!

We pride ourselves on concocting engaging expertly-crafted content to support your organic marketing campaign. In the meantime, reach out to discover the content strategy that is the best fit for your brand.

We’ll even get you started with a free content marketing playbook so you can hit the ground running!

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