What Is Organic Marketing?

Originally published at adlabs.social on July 3, 2018.

When it comes to growing your business by attracting more leads, there are several different ways to go about it. While some company leaders put a lot of money and time into their marketing approach, others have a way of growing their following and making more sales simply by letting the marketing do itself. This is known as organic marketing, and it’s a sure-fire way to expand your business naturally. However, that doesn’t mean that there’s no work to be done — after all, creating a successful organic marketing strategy requires at least some type of ‘investment’ upfront.

The Basics of Organic Marketing

Organic marketing is a marketing strategy in which companies can bring customers to them “organically,” which means they aren’t actively chasing after customers with in-your-face marketing campaigns, irritating sales calls, or paid ads. It’s defined as natural marketing tactics that are free, because anything you pay or to bring in customers would be considered “inorganic marketing.” Organic marketing is a term that’s thrown around a lot, and you may have heard the term “inbound marketing” more often. Inbound marketing and organic marketing are essentially the same thing, but organic marketing can be thought of as “inbound marketing 2.0” as it takes similar strategies to the next level.

Different Types of Organic Marketing

These days, there are many different types of organic marketing that company leaders can experiment with. While a combination of all types of organic marketing strategies is wise, some companies may feel as though a certain type works better for them than others. Before you discover what works best for you, take a closer look at the main organic marketing tactics used by companies today:

• Organic marketing using social channels
• Organic marketing using external groups and online communities
• Organic marketing by building connections on an individual basis

Examples of Organic Marketing

Within those three different types of organic marketing tactics are additional strategies companies can use to grow their following. The number of examples are endless, but there are a few that have proven effective thus far for many businesses selling in a variety of different industries. Remember, anything that can be used to bring in leads without paying, can be considered a form of organic marketing. Best of all, the more organic marketing examples you try for yourself, the more it will boost your validity on platforms like Facebook:

• Highlight your best performing posts on social media by pinning them to the top of your page
• Use emojis to brighten up your posts
• Share a link to your page in a Facebook group that allows people to highlight their services, for instance, an entrepreneur group
• Publish interactive content, like polls, contests, tag-a-friend, etc.
• Host a webinar or one-on-one consultation with an interested client where you offer value for free

Setting the Groundwork

One of the main reasons company leaders zero in on organic marketing is because it allows them to save time and money on finding leads. But, it’s also a better way to bring in leads in general, because people appreciate when companies do things naturally. No one wants to feel as though they are being coerced into buying a product or service. Instead, they prefer to find a solution to a problem their having, or be given valuable resources for free before they make a financial commitment.

As you can see, organic marketing isn’t “organic” in every sense of the world. It takes some time before you can get yourself to the point where you see the leads coming in, and that’s only after putting in the initial work to make that happen. Social media posts are going to post themselves, and video chats with interested customers isn’t going to happen via a bot (though, that’s certainly not impossible).

That being said, these tasks should only take a few minutes of your time, and with software like marketing automation, you can do more. The fact that any determined company can potentially bring in loads of leads with just a post or share and absolutely no money down, goes to show that organic marketing is something every smart business leader should be considering, if they are not already doing it.

Why You Should Be Doing It

We are very lucky to be living in a time in which there are so many ways to advertise your business for free. The internet and social media platforms have gifted entrepreneurs with something that wasn’t even fathomable a decade ago. Though companies will still no doubt continue to invest money in things like ads or boosting posts, there’s no guarantee that those strategies will always work. And, when you can bring in leads without needing to spend a dime, companies can do so much more with less. Organic marketing has completely changed the way businesses advertise and sell their products and services, and those who aren’t taking advantage will likely fall behind.