In the world of digital Marketing, we have two basic, broad classes of marketing: paid advertising, like PPC and paid social media management, and Organic Marketing, such as SEO, organic social media marketing, and content marketing. 

Of the two, organic marketing offers the greatest opportunities for long-term growth, as well as for building credibility. It also offers a lot of potential for developing authority as an industry leader. 

But it isn’t necessarily easy, and unlike paid advertising, organic marketing can’t simply be “bought.” There are organic marketing services you can pay for, but there is a huge difference between what constitutes quality in organic marketing compared to what quality is in paid advertising. 

So, let’s take a look at some helpful organic marketing tips that can help you grow your business and diminish your reliance on paid ads.

But first, let’s consider what value organic marketing actually delivers, and why it’s critical to invest in it as well as paid advertising.

Why Organic Marketing Is the Way to Go

Organic marketing, like paid advertising, can help build your business, but there are many things that organic marketing offers that the latter does not. 

• It’s cost-effective

Admittedly, startup costs associated with organic marketing are quite steep. For instance, if you want to start a company publication with high-quality content with the goal of entrenching your domain as an authority in your industry, hiring an experienced copywriter or SME can be cost-prohibitive. 

But only in the short term. In the long run, that will pay dividends, as authority builds on itself and is cumulative. The work you put in today will pay off in spades tomorrow making it highly cost-effective despite the high initial investment.

• It’s sustainable

This is sort of an offshoot of the latter component, but as your company builds brand awareness and solidifies itself as an industry leader, it will develop a brand image and mystique that will be difficult for competitors to outperform. This only comes with time, though.

• It builds on itself over the long-term

The longer you work at organic marketing, the more the results will compound on themselves over time. Consider your website’s organic footprint. The more quality content you publish, and the more actively you engage with followers on social media, the more respected your model will be in your industry. 

• It builds credibility and authority

Last but not least, organic marketing efforts, particularly SEO and content marketing, will establish your brand as an uncontested authority in your niche. This can – and will – take years, but once you’ve earned that position of authority and respect, it will be even harder for competitors to reach you. 

Helpful Organic Marketing Tips 

Now that you know some of the most important benefits of investing in organic marketing, let’s take a look at some specific organic marketing tips that can help you realize these benefits. 

Start a Blog and Publish Regularly 

This is arguably the most important tip I can possibly think of offering. It is also one of the best ways to increase exposure for a wide range of search terms, gather readers, generate leads and interest, and build authority. 

Without a doubt, starting a blog is one of the most important and effective ways to improve your organic marketing efforts. 

But you don’t just want to start a blog. You want to make sure you publish useful information in it, and do so on a rolling basis. A blog won’t help you if you only publish every three months. You want to add blog posts regularly and listen to what your customers have to say. 

Write on topics relevant to subjects customers regularly approach you about. Answer commonly asked questions. Write a buying guide. Break down some of the details associated with your products or services. 

Creating a content schedule and blogging regularly will have your website ranking higher in the organic search engine results pages and will bring more traffic to your website over time, generating leads. 

Another helpful organic marketing tip is to encourage users to leave their email addresses so you can use that contact information as a warm lead for email or content marketing.

Here are some more tips: solicit guest posts from industry experts as these will help capture more interest from your target audience. Also, open a comments section in the blog so you can connect with your audience. 

Don’t just write with the goal of selling through your organic content, either. Write to inform, and you’ll generate interest and fast-track your way to credibility. 

One more organic marketing tip: if you don’t have the human resources to devote to an active blog, or don’t have enough topics to blog about, at least make it a yearly goal to publish a few high-quality CMS pages. 

There are all different types of content you can offer, but whatever you publish make it as comprehensive as possible and fill the pages with answers to common client questions. Try to make it evergreen content, too. These will also improve your organic reach and will help generate new leads.

Do Something Useful with Your Product Pages

Another helpful organic marketing tip, and one that you might not expect, is to use your product pages to the fullest. 

First off, that means optimizing them for SEO. Remove duplicate copy and images. Take your own images, compress them, and add alt text. 

Add metadata to each product page and include target keywords for which you want to rank higher in the metadata fields and, where possible, in the URL. 

If you have the option, write some unique facts, or answer frequently asked questions, in the product description. This can help improve product page impressions and can even drive conversions. 

You can also use your product pages as funnels for your social media accounts. Most eCommerce platforms easily integrate with Facebook, YouTube, Pinterest, Instagram, and other social media platforms. 

If you have the option, set up your product page templates with social media widgets somewhere visible on the page to encourage visitors to follow your accounts.

Don’t Just Post on Social Media; Interact with Users 

This brings up another interesting topic. Yes, you need to run an effective organic social media campaign if you want to gain followers, build authority, and increase exposure. 

But running an effective social media campaign is about more than just periodically publishing social media posts. 

Sure, if you put up pins every day and post on Instagram every few days, and have high-quality imagery, you’re going to get a few follows, and that’s great. Moreover, consistency will help you get more of them – and that’s a good thing.

But another important thing these platforms look at is interaction. Posting and gaining followers is good, but it isn’t enough. You need to engage. 

If your followers are liking your posts or leaving you comments, respond to them. At least like some of the more noteworthy comments. 

Encourage users that follow you to tag you in their posts if they are using/wearing your products. You can tag users, too, especially those that frequently like or interact with your posts. 

These signals will show those social media platforms that you are engaged with your follower base and can help you gain new followers.

Even if it didn’t, it’s better customer relationship management and will help humanize your brand – and there’s no model that doesn’t appreciate that. 

Start an Email Marketing Campaign and Actually Offer Something 

One more useful organic marketing tip is to start an email marketing campaign, even if you only have a few contacts. As I said, you should actively be soliciting more through your blog. 

There are lots of plugins you can use (like Mailchimp) that can help you customize email templates and run email marketing campaigns. Experience is useful but even a layman can easily launch an email marketing campaign with little notice.

Here’s the trick. You need to have something to offer. Don’t just blast your subscribers with emails showcasing your products at regular list prices. You’ll lose subscribers that way. 

Offer discounts, specials, or access to helpful information like guides. You can also use your email marketing efforts to promote your published content. That way, subscribers won’t always feel like you’re just trying to get money out of them. 

That’s what I mean by offer value. Give them a reason to click on your emails and not just ignore them. 

Put These Organic Marketing Tips Into Practice Today 

Now that you know about some of the differences between organic and paid marketing, as well as some of these tips to help you run an effective organic marketing strategy, all you need to do now is put them into practice. 

Adhering to some of these organic marketing tips can improve your standing in the organic results, drive traffic to your online store, improve brand authority, and encourage conversions. 

See which if any you can put into practice for your eCommerce model today.

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