Using social media for your small business is a vital part of your digital content marketing strategy. There’s just no denying that using social media is an incredibly effective way to promote your brand to potential customers online.
Organic social media marketing is our bread and butter here at Content Savvy, but we’re also big believers in using paid advertising sometimes too!
As a small business ourselves, we’re all about being smart with our marketing, so we want to help you understand why you need both paid and organic marketing to really thrive on social media.
Keep scrolling to discover why both types of marketing are valuable for your small business, and how you can use them to your advantage!
Words by Adriana Thani
The difference between organic marketing VS paid marketing
What is organic social media marketing?
Organic social media marketing is all the content you can share on social media for free. It’s all the text, images, infographics, video, and other things that you share directly on your profile.
The goal of organic social media is to nurture connections with your community through direct engagement and communication. Engagement here can include comments, direct messages, Stories, and even Live videos. This is where your brand sparks relationships with your followers and potential customers, basically.
Organic social media marketing is key to brand awareness and recognition. Whether you’re on Instagram, Facebook, TikTok, or LinkedIn, sharing organic content is ultimately a form of story-telling. You’re sharing your brand story, one piece of content at a time.
With every image, graphic, or caption that you share, you’re creating an online persona that attracts a community that connects with your messaging and wants to support your business! So remember that organic marketing is the thing that really makes your brand stand out and sets you apart from your competitors.
What is paid social media marketing?
Paid social media marketing consists of displaying advertising and sponsored posts on social media. Whether you’re creating paid ad campaigns or boosting a post, paid social media marketing is an investment to make sure your messaging is reaching the right audience.
The main goal of paid social media is to generate new leads. While you can still use organic marketing to get leads for your business, paid marketing is far more targeted and purpose-driven.
Using paid social ads is a great way to reach new audiences, people who might not have discovered you otherwise. You can really narrow down and specifically define your ideal audience through paid advertising!
For example, you can set it up so that your paid ads reach lookalike audiences. These are people who share key commonalities with your followers and existing customers – they’re people who will likely find your brand appealing.
You can also use remarketing or retargeting techniques to reach folks who have already visited your website or signed up to your mailing list. Another method is using geo-targeting to reach location-based audiences, such as folks who are close to your shop location.
Why you should invest in paid and organic marketing
1. Build multiple streams of reach
You’ll be able to reach a wider audience when you use both approaches, particularly when you’re really targeted with your paid ad strategy. This, in turn, gives you an opportunity to reach even more people to consume your organic content too!
2. Strike a balance between connection and conversion
Connecting with your audience and nurturing those relationships is the key to long-term success for your brand, and ads will support that organic reach with more conversion-focused content as well.
3. Reinforce your brand messaging
You’ll be able to create a stronger brand story when you use both paid and organic marketing, simply because you’re reinforcing your messaging at every opportunity.
Having a clear brand story is an excellent way to reflect your core values and appeal to audiences that are more likely to become loyal customers and long-term members of your community.
4. Create a more dynamic marketing strategy
When you invest in paid ads while still offering value through your organic marketing content, you’ll have a responsive, dynamic, and effective marketing strategy that maximises your reach and brand recognition.
This is especially true if you are intentional about it by planning ahead and scheduling the paid and organic content to really create an impact.
5. Access more data about your audience
We’re big on analysing data – after all, what’s the use in using marketing strategies for your business if you’re not tracking their performance! When you’re using both organic and paid approaches to your social media marketing, you’ll be able to analyse data for both strategies.
You’ll be able to learn even more about your customers, and discover what really resonates with them. You can even use the data from one approach to inform your strategy for the other.
For example, you can use what you learned through organic marketing to create ads that are more likely to succeed. So if you find that an organic post seems to be performing really well, you can replicate the content and market it to a lookalike audience for your paid ads!
Reach more people with a hybrid approach
If you’ve ever found yourself asking, “Should I be investing in ads?” the answer is probably yes. A more balanced social media marketing strategy will help you take advantage of the benefits of both approaches, so it makes sense to go for it!
We highly recommend that you integrate both paid and organic marketing now so you can continue delivering valuable content to your existing followers while also getting new eyes to see your content for the first time.
Our partners at LYF Solutions are the best in the biz when it comes to creating successful paid social media marketing campaigns. Get in touch with them to discover how paid advertising can help your business stand out on social media and be sure to tell them that your savvy sisters sent you!
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