This is an important subject, especially in the Zimbabwean context. Should you stick to organic marketing, or should you do paid marketing? In Zimbabwe, I have seen that the vast majority of business people or entrepreneurs stick to organic marketing. I can understand why this is so because there are two issues behind that. One, due to currency-related issues in Zimbabwe, it is not that easy and quick to pay for paid marketing, i.e. on social media platforms. Two, some find it somewhat expensive to do paid marketing given the currency issues and tough operating environment. Regardless, organic and paid marketing are BOTH important; let us discuss more. Just so we are clear, this is with respect to digital marketing.

Key Definitions

First off, it is vital that we get some key definitions out of the way. Digital marketing is the promotion of products or services via one or more forms of electronic media. These include promotional efforts made via the internet and social media, amongst other digital platforms. Organic marketing entails promotional efforts that do not involve any form of paid approach. For example, making general posts, tweets, or uploading blog posts can constitute organic marketing.

One of the secrets behind successful organic marketing is paying close attention to search engine optimization (SEO). I recently did an article on SEO or Meta Title tips; it is useful in showing you how. Paid marketing entails promotional efforts that are based on paid approaches. Examples are promoted posts or tweets, paid ads, pay-per-click (PPC) advertising, or influencer marketing. Both organic marketing and paid marketing have their place – they must be utilized together systematically.

3 Important Things To Consider

In order to understand how best to use both, you need to understand how they differ.

Cost Implications

Evidently, paid marketing is more costly than organic marketing. The cost of organic marketing will mainly be getting data to be online. As for paid marketing, you will need more money to also pay for your method. It could be paying an influencer, paying to get a tweet or post promoted, or paying for PPC marketing. Whichever way you use it will always be more costly than organic marketing. The benefit though of paid marketing is that you will get faster and wide-reaching results. You will also get more comprehensive data analytics with paid marketing than with organic marketing.

Life Span

One of the fundamental differences between organic and paid marketing pertains to their life spans. Paid marketing relatively has a shorter life span than organic marketing. The results of paid marketing are only in effect during the active period for which you paid. For example, you can pay to get a tweet or post promoted for 7 days. After 7 days, the tweet or post’s weight or effect shrinks. Organic marketing is different in that the tweet or post mostly maintains its weight or effect over time. Organic marketing has sustained longevity, provided the tweet or post is still relevant and engaging. That is why content for organic marketing is referred to as evergreen, whereas that for paid marketing is not.

How Long It Takes For Results To Be Realized

Obviously, with paid marketing, the results come much sooner. Once a promoted tweet or post starts running, the results are virtually immediate. For organic marketing, it takes much longer for results to be realized. It will also take much more effort to realize those results. Results that can be realized after just a week of paid advertising can take even close to a year to get with organic marketing. However, the results wrought from organic marketing last much longer than those from paid marketing. Paid marketing results are rapid but fizzle out as soon as the running time is up.

What Is The Bottom Line?

Apparently, there are benefits each marketing approach offers. Where one falls short, the other can step in as a buffer. That is why it is advisable to get the best of both worlds. For example, you can start with paid marketing to quickly set sail. You can instantly move your brand from obscurity into being widely known through paid marketing. Then afterwards, you can keep things steady and cost-effective by using organic marketing. Alternatively, you can set sail with organic marketing and then periodically throw in some paid advertising. For instance, paid marketing would be ideal when running some promotions or looking to launch a new product or service.

Then you can nurture the outcomes of that via organic marketing. Paid marketing is also instrumental in getting comprehensive data analytics. This makes it easier to understand your clientele better. Plus, it is much easier to empirically measure the performance of your efforts when using paid marketing. Organic marketing is instrumental in building solid engagements with prospects, leads, and existing customers. Though organic marketing might take time, the returns on investments can be sky-high. There is something of substance to benefit from both sides.

At the end of the day, it depends on what your marketing goals are. What is it that you want to achieve and when? This will inform when it would be best to use some paid advertising. Otherwise, organic marketing is supposed to be an ongoing thing. This means that even when running some paid marketing, you never put a hold on organic marketing.