What’s the Difference between Organic Marketing and Paid Marketing?

Marketing is a tool that helps businesses promote and sell their products and services. The right combination of Organic Marketing and Paid Marketing can generate optimal results for any business. First, let’s discuss the difference between the two.

Organic Marketing

If something is organic, we think of it as natural. In the food aisles at the supermarket, “organic” usually refers to how agricultural products have been grown and processed. Regulations that determine whether something is organic or not change depending on each country. For example, according to Help Guide’s article on organic foods, organic crops in the U.S. must be grown without the use of any synthetic herbicides, pesticides, fertilizers, or bioengineered genes (GMOs).

What about when it comes to marketing? Organic marketing is developed in the same natural way that organic produce is grown, through steady effort and a lot of care. The objective is not to produce results as fast as possible, but to achieve regular growth over time.

Sometimes known as inbound marketing, organic marketing uses strategies to develop a brand; foster connection with prospects, leads and current clients; educate others about your products; and ultimately increase traffic to your businesses’ websites and other online profiles.

Organic marketing is a strategy that “generates traffic to your business naturally over time, rather than using paid advertising or sponsored posts” (Green, 2020). Organic marketing yields great results but takes longer to kick into full effect.

What actions fall under organic marketing?

Anything that you do NOT spend money on directly in order to boost! You may spend money using software or hiring employees to design posts for your business, but you are not spending money to make sure that these posts reach.

Examples include:

- Blog posts on your business’ public website
- Unpaid Twitter posts and Facebook posts your business shares online
- Emails sent to potential customers or leads as well as current customers

Paid Marketing

Once you start paying other parties to help your business’ posts target and reach specific market populations, you are engaging in paid marketing. Through paid marketing, you will directly push the content that promotes your business’ services so that it draws the attention of your target markets.

What are some examples of paid marketing?

- Pay-Per-Click (PPC) Ads
- Social Media Ads
- Paid Influencer marketing

Organic Marketing or Paid Marketing: Which one should I use?

The key to success is not necessarily choosing between one or the other; it is finding the balance between the two! Both types of marketing can be used to help your business achieve its goals.

Your overall strategy is to figure out how you can combine Organic Marketing strategies and Paid Marketing strategies to generate the most significant impact.

And remember, finding the perfect balance takes time as well as a lot of testing and fine-tuning. Stay patient and persistent and you will keep moving towards your target goals.