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So it’s now the year 2023, and you’re ready to get your marketing on. Where do you begin? Organic digital marketing is a big term. Strategies are multifaceted and not one-size-fits-all.
The goal of this post will be to leave you with three things:
In the simplest terms, organic digital marketing is unpaid content, created and placed online or sent digitally.
You were likely introduced to organic digital marketing in the sphere of SEO which stands for search engine optimization, or as I like to think of it, a wellness plan for your website. SEO is a long-term strategy that has the goal of improving your rankings in search engines. Similar to a long-term relationship you should expect a big pay off at the end if you’re purposeful about it.
But don’t let the “10 Simple Steps to Improve Your SEO” articles fool you.
A plan that pays off cannot be executed in an afternoon. We’re talking keyword and competitor research, user-journey mapping, in-depth content creation, user-friendly design, subject matter specific internal linking, backlinking, I could go on.
A comprehensive SEO strategy takes a team, time to plan, execute and pay off. Some plans can show gains after three months, some after six, for some it takes even longer.
If you’re launching a new company or product, you don’t have time for that. You should still do SEO for your long-term growth, and we can help you, but if you’re in “hair-on-fire” territory to get something out into the digital space, you have better options.
To build brand awareness, to launch a product, or to advertise short-term promotional opportunities, you need to focus your unpaid efforts on deploying a comprehensive, organic digital marketing campaign.
A unified message plus location, location, location.
Short-term organic digital marketing campaign success is all about where you’re putting content to be consumed and keeping the message consistent across channels.
First up is where you’re putting content. There are 2 main segments to consider:
For the control freaks, you have two main properties: your website and your email list.
Your website encompasses more than just a new homepage graphic. Banners, pop-ups, spinning wheels, chat bot and live chat can all be leveraged to bring attention and awareness to your campaign.
Though email marketing might seem old-school, it’s still out performing the glossier social and paid strategies across industries, so don’t discount it. From Hubspot to Mailchimp and Microsoft Dynamics, there’s a platform out there that can fit your campaign scale and your budget.
If you have a healthy customer list with enticing email subject lines, you can’t lose. It’s a clear eyes, full heart situation.
Moving on, full-access digital platforms are in abundance. This is by no means an exhaustive list of tools but will give you an idea of where to start:
If you haven’t already, you can create a free, personal or business account on any of these platforms and build out your profile to reflect your business and brand.
There are other organic digital resources available to you, but they will often require relationship management and mutual benefit positioning. I’m referring to partnerships and podcasts.
Partnerships can take the form of other brands that appeal to a similar audience but don’t have the same offering or products, often referred to as co-branding partnerships.
On a smaller scale, industry experts that have an affinity for or interest in your offering or brand also make helpful partners during a brand, product, or promotion launch campaign.
Podcasts give you an opportunity to give a literal voice to your company. If you or a member of your team is considered to be a subject matter expert related to your industry or product there are many industry and product specific podcasts looking for qualified people to have conversations with.
This is a bonus round because in order to leverage these two methods for a short-term campaign it helps to already have these relationships developed. In all cases your benefit will come from access to their audiences through their digital properties and platforms.
In order to ensure you’re sending the same signal across your platforms, to the right people, you’ll need to address the following:
Map out your goals as they relate to your digital goals, KPIs, targets, dreams, wishes, etc.
As someone's grandmother used to say (I’m sure), “If you don’t know where you’re going, how will you know when you get there?” Set a goal, even if it starts off as arbitrary, so you have something to measure your success by.
When creating written content, you want to make sure it’s in a voice your audience will respond and connect to. Terminology, slang, common phrases and even grammatical expectations vary wildly across age groups and interests.
The same needs apply when creating graphics. If I wanted to, say, encourage graphic artists to download and share my new design app, I’m not going to do it in Papyrus font.
Is your brand/product/promotion the answer to your audience’s prayers or just the answer to their boredom? Both are fine, but you should have a clear understanding of what you’re offering or selling so you don’t miss the tone mark in your promotions.
Having flashbacks to Marketing 101 yet? Worried I might beat you over the head with a SWOT analysis request soon?
Stick with me here, we’re almost done and these last two points are pretty crucial.
Good news: I already defined these for you above! All you need to do is choose the mix that’s right for you. If you skipped ahead and missed it, scroll up.
While you can create organic digital content for every platform available to you, it doesn’t mean that you should. In order to include the platform in your organic digital marketing campaign, it must meet the following criteria:
If your brand, product or promotion would look out of place in the professional tone of the LinkedIn feed, you shouldn’t do it.
If you’re launching a financial advisory program for seniors, you aren’t going to gain any traction on TikTok.
See where we’re going with this?
I’m sure you’re loudly remembering in your head right now the multiple times I mentioned organic digital marketing is free, and technically it is, but there is a time and opportunity cost related to creating organic digital marketing.
While organic digital marketing is free and everybody can do it, it doesn’t mean that everybody is able to do it. You or a member of your team will need to spend time working through the process outlined above and creating written and graphic assets to serve the plan.
Changing and launching website imagery, chat announcements, profile photos, feed posts and email campaigns takes time as well. In consideration of growing your business, is your time better served elsewhere? Does your team have the capacity and interest in executing an organic digital strategy campaign or are they focused on other meaningful internal projects?
If you have no budget, but have an eager internal staff you can rely on - proceed. Just follow the digital marketing campaign steps outlined above and you’ll be heading in the right direction.
Need help determining what you need help with? Give us a call. We’re a full-service digital marketing agency and we’re ready when you are.
