More and more, customers are looking for brands that can offer them deeper and more relationships. This means that while paid advertising is still essential for marketing, alternative methods can help businesses build a deeper, more authentic relationship with a target audience
Organic marketing is a great compliment to more conventional advertising techniques that encourage customers to come to your brand over time. Consistent investment in these techniques will help you naturally grow your audience.
What Is Organic Marketing?
Organic marketing is a broad term that typically covers any marketing that you don’t spend money to promote directly. Blog content, podcasts, and anything you do to make your website more user-friendly or searchable are all common examples of organic marketing.
Depending on who you ask, email campaigns may also count as organic marketing. So long as you’re not spending money to boost an ad or piece of content directly, you may be able to describe it as organic.
This isn’t to say that organic marketing is free. Podcast guests may want to be compensated, social media management isn’t always cheap and you’ll still have to spend on any marketing and ad planning solutions you use. At the very least, you’re going to spend time creating content or writing social media posts.
However, organic marketing is a great way to capture increasingly disinterested in targeted ads and build more authentic relationships with your audience.
These five organic marketing techniques are some of the most popular out there. No matter what kind of industry you’re in, these are a great way to get started or grow an existing organic marketing strategy.
1. Articles and Blog Posts
Written content often forms the basis of an organic marketing strategy. Articles, blog posts, and guest posts are a great way to drive traffic to your site while also providing visitors with valuable, relevant information.
Creating content regularly will allow you to build up a deep archive of interesting written content. This archive will provide serious value to visitors that find your site — potentially encouraging them to come back for more information or entertainment.
When deciding on topics, it’s best to write on what you know and what your audience may be interested in.
Small business owners are often subject matter experts. They may have a wealth of knowledge that can be relevant to visitors. For example, a lawn care company likely has a lot to tell homeowners about pesticides and home landscape design techniques.
Keyword research and other SEO research techniques can help you narrow down your list of potential topics while also learning more about what your audience is searching for.
2. Social Media Content
Social media is typically a key part of any organic marketing strategy. A Facebook link or Tweet is a great way to spread the word about a new article or infographic that you’ve published.
Your social media page can also be a great organic marketing tool in its own right. Sharing interesting posts, gathering up relevant links, and engaging with your following can all help you build a stronger relationship with your audience.
Filling out your social media profile — adding key information and including a profile picture or header — will help ensure that your page is attractive as possible to potential readers.
When developing a social media content strategy, however, be careful not to spread yourself too thin. While creating accounts on every platform you can find will expand your reach, it may also create more work for you and your team.
Inactive social media accounts can reflect poorly on your brand, or give the impression you’re no longer in business — meaning that it’s often better to stick with a few accounts that you can regularly update.
3. Podcasts
B2B businesses, for example, may get a lot of mileage out of a podcast that breaks down case studies, or one where your host interviews subject matter experts from your field. A B2C business, on the other hand, may want to offer a combination of entertainment and general audience info.
If you want to start creating podcasts or audio content for your business, it’s good to start small and experiment with recording, editing, and post-processing workflows.
Like written content, audio content can benefit significantly from some extra polish. High-quality audio equipment and good mastering can go a long way in giving your podcast episodes a more professional sound. Even subtle postprocessing and mastering can go a long way in making your podcast more trustworthy-sounding and easier to listen to.
4. Website Optimization
A good organic marketing strategy relies on your business website. If it’s difficult to navigate or not optimized for web search, you may find that it’s not attracting visitors or even pushing them away.
Following best practices for business site design — SEO, mobile optimization, and simple navigation — is a. good way to further boost your organic marketing efforts.
5. Fill Out Online Directories and Business Profiles
Your business probably already appears in a number of online directories across the web.
For example, your business might already have a Google My Business listing. If so, this means that a sidebar will appear whenever someone searches for your brand, listing basic info about your business including hours, location, and website. Claiming your listing is an opportunity for you to ensure this info is accurate, and provide additional utility for customers — like a copy of your menu, or a link to your online storefront.
Other online directories — like Yelp and Yellowpages — are also a great place to provide searchers with more info about your business.
Organic Marketing Techniques Can Work for Any Business
Organic marketing is one of the best ways to reach new audiences and build strong customer relationships. With the right combination of content, social media presence, and web optimization, you can make your brand much more accessible to consumers.
Over time, these techniques will help to draw in new customers and reinforce your brand.
Eleanor Hecks is editor-in-chief at Designerly Magazine. She was the director at a marketing agency before becoming a freelance web designer. Eleanor lives in Philadelphia with her husband and dog, Bear.