It’s the age old question and one with answers varying from person to person. In the past couple of years, many social media platforms have been in the news for changing their algorithm so that organic posting would not generate as much results as in the past. Facebook is an example of one such case. These changes are made to prioritize updates from family and friends over content produced by brands.
So where does that leave you?
Your content is being pushed down the newsfeed so that users will see their cousin’s wedding pictures or the best friend celebrating his divorce. In plain English, your content will no longer get the hits or engagement. That means that you aren’t converting your followers into dollars.
So guess what? If you intend on relying only on organic marketing as a means to increase traffic and dollars to your business, you are vulnerable. Like it or not? I don’t but the big tech companies such as Google and Facebook is in control of whether you deserve traffic. Any minute change to the algorithm will put you out of business.
That’s not to say that it’s completely useless.
Having good, visually appealing content that resonates with your audiences helps mitigates any worries of big tech crushing your small business. It help send you traffic to your social media channels and website and have you convert followers into dollars. But again doing it organically will only take you so far until you plateau.
Paid ads on their own are not a magic pill. It takes time to learn what people are looking for and to utilize that data when mastered, to make effective paid posts. Sure, you’re buying customers and some may state that it’s ‘expensive’ but at a much lesser cost than what these customers are ultimately worth to your business.
If you’re bad at using prior research to optimize your returns, it’s extremely easy to say that paid ads are a waste. It costs more in the start but the mission is to lower ad spend while increasing the value of each customer to your business until you get to the point where it becomes profitable.
Still afraid, don’t call it spending but investing. Once you get to the point where say for every $100 you put in, you get $300 back in business, that’s a wise investment and if you remain unconvinced, get out while you can.
Organic traffic is often regarding as “free” but mastering it and turning that traffic into profit takes a lot of time, commitment and resources. It’s worth it.
As for what’s preferable? It depends. Organic and paid are not mutually exclusive. Whether avenue you pick, make sure that your digital marketing strategy brings in dollars. An effective marketing strategy is the bedrock of a successful enterprise and once you go through the growing pains, it can be relied upon to gain you customers.
