As you develop your next marketing campaign, you might wonder whether your organic marketing strategy should be supported by paid marketing. In other words, should you rely just on organic content, which can be slow to work, or is it worth it to bring in paid ads?
The answer is all about balance. This article explores how to balance paid campaigns with your organic content to create an effective marketing strategy that expands your customer base and maintains your brand.
Table of Contents
Paid Marketing vs Organic Marketing
Paid marketing involves attracting new customers using paid advertisements. The most common examples of paid marketing include:
- Ads on search engines and social media
- Banner ads
- Sponsored blog posts
- Sponsored products on e-commerce sights
Paid marketing is often charged by the click, meaning that you’ll only pay more if more people navigate to your site via the ad. It’s a great way to boost your business presence online, especially when you’re just starting out and need to build your brand.
Organic marketing involves attracting customers to your website without directly paying for ads. Examples include:
- Search engine optimization (SEO)
- Writing a guest blog or appearing on a podcast
- Social media posts
Unlike paid marketing, you don’t directly pay for organic marketing, though many companies hire professionals to manage SEO or create social media content. The big advantage of organic marketing is that it can snowball — as more people share your organic content, your brand visibility will increase exponentially. On the downside, any bad publicity can easily snowball too.
Is Organic Marketing Better Than Paid Marketing?
It’s easy to conclude that organic content should always be the focus of your marketing team. After all, it’s free, and both strategies achieve the same goals, right?
The truth is that both types of marketing strategies have their strengths and weakness, and a successful marketing strategy needs to employ both paid and organic marketing to maximize success.
What Are the Strengths of Paid Marketing?
- As more people are used to buying products and services directly from search engines and social media, paid advertising is a good way to place your brand exactly where potential customers are looking.
- Paid marketing helps businesses attract new customers.
- Paid marketing focuses on generating qualified leads. If someone clicks on your ad, it means that they’re at least interested in buying what you have to sell.
What Are the Strengths of Organic Marketing?
- Organic marketing helps your company build brand awareness on platforms where people already spend significant time (namely, social media and search engines).
- People who share your organic content are already loyal to your brand and act as unofficial brand ambassadors to others.
- Your followers are more likely to closely read and engage with your content, so your marketing efforts won’t be ignored.
Balancing Paid Marketing and Organic Marketing
If you want to maximize the success of your marketing campaign, you need to know how to balance paid marketing and organic marketing. The exact balance depends on your overall business goals, but there are some general rules to help you decide how much time and money to put toward either marking strategy.
When to Use Paid Marketing
- You want to reach new customers who are very different from your existing customer base.
- You want to reach your business targets as quickly as possible.
- You have a clear idea of the demographic you want to reach (otherwise, you risk wasting money by showing ads to the wrong audience).
When to Use Organic Marketing
- You want to strengthen the relationship with your existing customers
- You want the public to recognize the value of your brand beyond the products and services you sell (for example, excellent customer service or commitment to diversity and charitable causes).
- You’re OK with seeing a delayed return on your time and investment in generating organic content.
Summing It Up
Developing a successful marketing strategy isn’t about picking organic marketing over paid marketing. It’s about balancing these two strategies to help your business achieve its short- and long-term goals.
Of course, no marketing campaign can succeed if you don’t have the right data. Give yourself and your marketing team the insights they need with a toll-free vanity number with call tracking.
