Digital marketing is a hot term right now. Everywhere you go, it sounds like every brand is concerned with digital marketing and how to boost their return on investment. With people accessing companies more and more through the internet and particularly on social media, brands are vying to grab their attention through resources like ads and sponsored posts.
Then, there are some brands who believe in a more subtle, natural approach. Organic digital marketing is the process of creating great content, possibly doing some shares in order to spread the word, but largely allowing loyal fans to come by the posts on their own.
Today, we’re going to talk about organic digital marketing: what it is, why it matters, and how it could play a part in your strategy.
The Definition of Organic Digital Marketing
At Vervology, we define organic digital marketing as such:
“Natural and authentic efforts used to increase awareness and add value to potential customers; efforts built brand recognition and loyalty over time; reliance upon real-time content; reactionary posts; sales trends.”
It isn’t necessarily about a high volume of clicks and likes, but instead focuses on building a solid foundation of loyal customers that enjoy your services, your brand, and your content, and are happy to show their support.
Myth #1: Organic Digital Marketing Won’t Grow My Audience
You’re in your small business for a reason. You have ideas and values that are important to you, and you’re putting that out into the world in the form of your company. The audience base that you’ve created is closely tied to those core values, and they will be the ones advocating for your brand in the long run.
As long as you’re staying true to those values and continuously ensuring that your online community is engaged and excited about the things you’re producing, your audience will naturally grow.
It’s also important to note that the number of followers you have on any given social media profile doesn’t necessarily equate to success. Followers are important, but if you have one hundred thousand followers and only one or two are interacting with your posts, that’s a problem. In many cases, it’s better to have a smaller number of highly engaged followers rather than a large number of followers who rarely pay attention to your brand.
Myth #2: Organic Digital Marketing Is Not Strategic
Because it relies less on paid advertising, some people believe that organic digital marketing is about throwing something up on the internet and hoping it sticks.
While this is not only incorrect, in many ways, it’s just the opposite. Organic digital marketing often requires you to be more strategic than standard digital marketing. Due to its very nature, organic digital marketing places a strong emphasis on every single piece of content you publish. Manual targeting, long-form and short-form pieces, and doing your own market research are key components of this.
This comes along with truly knowing your audience and doing regular check-ins with them to make sure you’re delivering content that they appreciate and want to engage with. Since your posts aren’t being manually “sponsored” or “boosted,” it’s important to use your audience as a sounding board to ensure that they’re sharing your message and spreading the word.
Myth #3: The Only Way to Get Website Traffic is Through Backlinks
Backlinks are incredibly important for every website, particularly when it comes to ranking in Google. Creating great content, as well as collaborating with other creators, are just a few great ways to secure those backlinks.
However, just because you’re relying on organic digital marketing doesn’t mean that it’s the only way to rank. It’s also important to ensure that your posts are optimized for organic searches. Here are a few tips for achieving this:
- Have a defined set of keywords and use them
- Write for your audience, not a search engine
- Write metadata for your blog posts
- Ensure that your site is optimized for mobile
- Make sure images are sized correctly so that load speeds stay within user expectations
It all comes down to high-quality content. In order to attract attention and provide value to them, as well as your loyal customers, you have to continually exceed expectations with content that delights, informs, and inspires.
Myth #4: Creating a Lot of Content At Once Will Put My Brand Ahead
The important thing to remember about organic digital marketing is that it takes time. It takes about three to six months for a website to rank in Google. It can take several months to build up your social media presence. It’s not something that typically happens overnight.
Some brands may try to offset this time by pumping out as much content as possible right from the start. There’s nothing wrong with having plenty of content, but it’s important to consider quality over quantity. You may have a bunch of blog posts on your website in just a few weeks, but are they well-researched? Are they something your customers will refer to? Are they adding value? These are the aspects to focus on, rather than simply having a lot of information.
Putting It All Together
Organic digital marketing provides an excellent opportunity to increase engagement on your social media, create traffic for your website, and bring in more high-quality audience members. It may take time and effort, but the results will speak for themselves.
Are you interested in learning more about organic digital marketing and how to use it in your digital strategy? Get in touch with us; we’d be happy to help you. And be sure to share this article if you found it useful!