Until recently, Organic SEO and Social Media were considered two very separate and distinct things. Organic SEO is the art of getting search engines to show your website content in search results without paying for ads. Social Media marketing is the art of publishing content on social networks to reach consumers along each stage of the buying cycle, develop relationships and ultimately, generate leads and sales.
Today, Organic SEO and Social Media go together like peanut butter and jelly.
While Social Media is a strong branding and engagement platform, Facebook, Twitter, Google+ and others give you the ability to create real conversions in multiple ways. I’ve often said that your marketing must “touch” the prospect 7 times before they’ll buy. Organic SEO and Social Media now provide those touch points in very valuable ways.
The term Organic Marketing is new, however its components are not. Word-of-mouth has always been the most effective form of marketing and now, with the new Social web, we identify our marketing efforts under 3 categories: Owned, Earned and Paid media.
Owned Media
Owned media is a channel that your company promotes which it controls. Some examples of owned media are:
- Websites
- Blogs
- Facebook Page
- Twitter Account
- Newsletters
- Ebooks
Earned Media
Earned media is essentially word-of-mouth…digitized. It’s your business being mentioned by others on the channels they prefer to use. Examples of earned media are:
- Mentions
- Shares
- ReTweets
- Online Reviews
- “Viral” content
The driving force of earned media is the combined result of strong organic search rankings and highly relevant content distributed by your business on social networks.
Paid Media
Paid Media is something you’re likely more familiar with, although it comes with a twist. There’s a real pushback I see with car dealers and other businesses to want to revert back to the old ways of advertising. The term “Paid Media” is definitely not those tactics. It’s the practice of promoting useful content to generate more earned media, which then drives traffic directly to your owned media properties.
Facebook ads are a form of paid media which can also generate traffic, leads and sales. The ad platform has become one of the most valuable tools you have in your arsenal. Even with a small budget, you can laser-target ideal buyers and guide them further down the sales funnel.
Within the context of organic marketing, Social Media is your primary engine for promoting new content. Effectively organizing your social campaigns and tying them together with new content on your site, optimized for search, can take you from zero visibility to a strong performing position very quickly.
This is unprecedented. We used to blanket the land with advertising messages and cross our fingers that prospects would appear. By leveraging your useful, relevant, search-optimized content to attract buyers, your business reaches those searching for what you offer and they’re the ones most likely to buy from you.
Customers attracted via organic content are warmer leads and therefore, are much better customers to have over the long run. Your content presents your business as a trusted resource. No hard sell – just quality information and cleverly-positioned questions to help turn visitors into buyers.
If you really want to be brilliant, start mixing paid and organic. The combined lift is overwhelmingly better than paid channels alone.
It all starts with great content. Here are some ways to implement content marketing:
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Dive deep into why people buy from you.
Consult with an expert to perform a “brand discovery” with you so you have a foundation from which to build your content strategy.
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Start a company blog.
Post 2 or more times per week. Designate an “editor” for your blog; someone who can write catchy headlines, engaging useful information and can optimize your posts for search. Hire a consultant or coach to help you if you’re new to blogging.
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Create initiatives for employees to participate in content creation.
Each employee possesses their own expertise. Capture that in the medium they feel most comfortable. Video, written word, audio, photographs – everyone has their favorite. Let your employees be teachers for your business.
Visitors from organic search have some of the highest conversion rates across any channel in digital marketing. When you combine well-orchestrated social campaigns with ongoing search optimization, you’re creating leverage and a long-term competitive advantage.
Organic SEO and Social Media are here NOW.
This is not something to consider in the future. All purchases are researched online before people decide to buy. Will you be the one they choose?
Wow Kathi, you have taught me a new term, “organic marketing”, showed me how effective it can be and told me how to do it all in one post. That’s…well… Remarkable! Thanks yet again!
Thanks, David. I appreciate your always supportive feedback. Do you think the idea of organic marketing will have an affect on dealers?
My worry is that the GM’s out there will see only ‘an investment of time’ from someone at the store who could be selling something rather than sitting on a computer costing him money…
Always great stuff though Kathi, as evolution gains speed in the car biz and more of the dinosuars die of folks will look back and know that you got it all along and more of us should have listened to you!
Yeah Mike, I have to agree with you that many GMs discount the opportunities with SEO and Social. A lot of it comes from the information they have (or not have) received. Marketing is not sales. Marketing builds interest in the brand and generates leads. Selling takes those leads and hopefully closes deals. Someone who’s good at selling may not be so good at marketing. And certainly “adding” marketing onto an already-busy Internet manager’s job dilutes his/her ability to make a living. For me, well, those that get it will act and I would like to have a hand in their success. Those that don’t, we’ll have to wait and see how their lack of success affects their actions.
Kathi, Brilliant. This really drives the value proposition for integrating search and social. Love it!
Mark
Thanks Mark! I appreciate your feedback 🙂
Organic traffic is the traffic, where visitors come to Website from
unpaid organic or natural search engine results.