Let’s Go Organic
In a series of posts over the last two weeks, we have discussed both utilizing a content marketing strategy to organically or naturally grow an online audience and adopting an additional accelerated strategy to grow that audience quickly through the use of social media advertising. We briefly touched on the differences between the two and explained how an audience can be grown organically depending on your resources available to invest in advertising. We also discussed how detrimental it can be to your current online presence and future brand awareness to substitute an advertising initiative for a content marketing initiative, as the former should be complimenting the later, not replacing it. Simply put, your business should build and develop a comprehensive online presence, including a digital brand, content marketing published through your blog and social media accounts and a system to funnel potential customers back to your website. While online advertising can complement this presence, it should not be a replacement for it.
Boosting The ROI
If you’re the type of entrepreneur that seeks instant results above all else, with a need to see an immediate Return On Investment (ROI), organically growing an online audience may seem like a waste of time and potential. Furthermore, if the only ROI metric you’re measuring is your website’s visitor and/or conversion rates, you may be unsatisfied with the short-term results of an organic marketing plan. However, it’s important to understand that making the investment in online organic marketing will pay off for your business in the long-term, and failing to do so now can cost your customers in both the short-, mid- and long-term.
Building A Brand, Building A Presence
If you were asked to mentally conceptualize your business, what would pop into your head? If you have a physical presence, you may think of your office or warehouse where you and your employees work. You may think of your employees, your products, your brand elements (including your logo) or even your website as a whole. You know your business better than anyone, and you know your history, you and your employee’s background and expertise and even the conversations and interactions that occur between you and your employees. Now, if you were to ask a prospective customer to conceptualize your business, what would they say? More importantly, where would they go to seek out that information? The importance of establishing an online presence may have just become apparent to you!
In 2016, when consumers want to discover businesses within a certain industry and learn more about those businesses, they go online. They go to Google, which should immediately direct them to your website and blog, and they will also seek out your Facebook page, your Twitter page and potentially other profiles such as a LinkedIn page, a YouTube and Instragram page for videos and pictures respectively, and even a Yelp page, depending on your industry. Without an organic marketing initiative in place, many of these elements of your online presence may be missing, or you may have established a page but neglected to include content of any kind. Imagine if a prospective customer stood in front of you, asking questions, and you remained silent – that’s the impression that a non-existent online presence, or one that’s devoid of content, will give of your business.
In our next blog post, we will discuss the limits of an organic content marketing strategy, helping you to develop a well-rounded understanding of exactly how an organic content marketing plan can benefit your business!