How Organic Marketing Beats Paid Ads?

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Organic marketing and paid advertising are the two main methods used to promote businesses online. In an ideal world, you’d utilise both for your business, as the best strategies combine all different elements.

But if you have to pick one over the other, the clan at Strawberry Forge recommend going with the organic approach.

“Why’s that?”, we hear you ask. We explain all the details below. But first, let’s clarify what organic marketing actually is.

What is Organic Marketing?

What is Organic Marketing

Organic marketing is how your website naturally generates traffic. Rather than paying for advertising space or cold calling/emailing, leads land on a piece of your online content through search engines.

For effective organic marketing, you’ll need to:

Produce high quality content such as blogs or videos to present your visitors with something of value
Carry out keyword research to discover what your audience is searching for and what problems they face
Be patient. Organic marketing needs a little time to build up steam

Why is Organic Marketing Better Than Paid?

An Engaged Audience

If you want to increase sales, you need to build an authentic audience. Organic content — such as blogs — gives your company the opportunity to answer the burning questions your target market has. Consistency in your approach then provides web visitors with value that will keep them coming back for more.

And if individuals repeatedly land on your website, they’ll quickly become a lead, which may result in a sale down the line.

So, how do you actually do all that? Well, you have to create content that people find relevant.

how organic marketing beats paid ads - An Engaged Audience

Let’s say you’re selling your service as a divorce solicitor (I know; I couldn’t have picked a less cheery subject if I tried). A blog titled “How Do I Start Divorce Proceedings?” would be very useful to your blog audience.

Now we’re gonna up the ante. You have a lot of clients asking you about how a divorce will affect their child’s day-to-day life. In that one part of divorce, you’ve found your niche; child stability.

Your audience will want to learn more about:

Visitation rights
Child payments
Going for full custody
Parental rights for children who are emigrating

This is what your audience wants, so make sure to deliver it.

Establish Trust

Congratulations! You’ve done exactly what we suggested above and written the content your audience is searching for.

But what does that have to do with trust?

Well, the content you’ve created is honest and points your reader to the next logical step. After following your advice, the reader has seen a positive result and is now one step closer to their end goal.

This means they have no reason to doubt the validity of your next round of content; they trust in what you have to say.

And if they trust you, why would they look towards your competitors? You’re already providing your audience with the help and advice they need.

Organic Marketing is Cost-Effective

Quick question; would you pay to rank on Google if there was a way to do it for free? Of course you wouldn’t. But thousands of businesses worldwide are paying to take the top spots.

The worst part is that they lose all their visibility when they stop coughing up.

Organic marketing puts you in pole position without having to constantly inject cash into the project. And with a little careful monitoring with SEO software, your content could stay in the sweet spots for years to come.

So, Is Paid Advertising Bad?

Don’t get us wrong, we’re always going to champion organic over paid advertising. But a good digital marketing campaign should have some element of paid too, so don’t count it out completely.

You can reach a lot of people in a short time when you pay for the results, which makes ad spend a great choice for project work or when your business is starting out.

So, Is Paid Advertising Bad

Just be sure that you don’t become reliant on it, as the costs will mount up. We also recommend using a reputable PPC (pay-per-click) specialist who will keep on top of expenditure and make suggestions to get the best results.

Learn More About Organic Marketing

By now, you should feel pretty excited about the potential organic marketing has to boost your business. And do you know what? We haven’t even listed all the elements here; what you’ve read is just the tip of the iceberg.

To learn more about organic marketing — and the Strawberry Forge methodology — make sure to check out our Content Marketing Expertise.