What is Organic Digital Marketing? (and How to Build an Organic Marketing Strategy in 2024)
Organic digital marketing is a core pillar of any successful digital marketing strategy. By building a strategy around organic marketing, your businesses can build brand awareness and cultivate consumer trust. Using these marketing tactics can help your business create authentic relationships with customers and build customer loyalty.
Organic marketing (sometimes called inbound marketing) is distinct from paid marketing. It’s free in the sense that you’re not paying someone to promote your campaign or brand. You’re also not paying for any ads or boosted posts when you rely on organic marketing.
Compared with paid ads that can target large audiences and get quick results, there are many benefits to organic marketing. Below we look at what organic marketing is and why to use it. We also provide 8 tips on how to use organic marketing to elevate your sustainable business.
What is Organic Digital Marketing?
You’re not alone in wondering ‘what is organic marketing’.
Organic marketing is a key component of a digital marketing strategy. It aims to help you generate traffic to your website and drive conversions without using paid ads or paid marketing.
In addition to driving traffic to your site, organic marketing also aims to raise awareness about your brand, generate new business leads (cost-effectively), and help to cultivate relationships with your customers while also building trust.
These are all critical aspects of your sales funnel. When combined with other marketing techniques, organic marketing can be a powerful tool for activating business growth.
There are many benefits to organic marketing that we explore below, making it an indispensable aspect of any marketing strategy.
What are some organic marketing examples?
When it comes to implementing organic marketing techniques, there are a range of tools and platforms to consider.
These are some examples of organic marketing tools and techniques:
content marketing (e.g. blog posts and guest posts),
email marketing (e.g. newsletters and emails),
improved search engine optimisation (SEO),
organic and unpaid social media posts (e.g. on Facebook, Twitter, Instagram, LinkedIn, etc.),
natural link building,
user-generated content (e.g. reviews),
digital PR,
organic influencer marketing.
Using these organic growth tools and strategies can help you attract a more authentic, engaged, and relevant audience of supporters and customers. This in turn can foster greater brand loyalty and encourage more repeat customers.
You can measure the success and effectiveness of your organic marketing efforts. By analysing what type of content, which channels and which marketing campaigns drove the most traffic and conversions to your site, you can figure out which strategies are working best
Reasons to use organic marketing: 8 advantages of organic marketing
There are many reasons to use organic marketing as part of your digital marketing strategy.
It can be a powerful tool to create brand awareness and brand visibility. It’s also an opportunity to create an emotional connection between customers and your brand. And it can help to consistently drive traffic to your site, both naturally and cost-effectively.
1) It creates brand authority and trust.
Consumers are more likely to buy from brands that they trust. That’s why investing time into building your brand authority by using informative content marketing and other tactics, can help create a sense of trust.
It can also improve your organic search ranking on search engines like Google.
Brand authority and trust don’t come easily and paid ads don’t usually deliver the same results as organic digital marketing in this regard.
2) It allows you to communicate your goals and values.
Organic digital marketing is an opportunity to communicate with your potential customers about your business goals and values. This gives them a sense of what your brand is about and what matters most to you.
If your values are aligned with theirs, this is a chance to create meaningful conversations and engagement. Creating an emotional connection with your brand can help to further build trust.
For green businesses and organisations committed to being sustainable and ethical, communicating your values about sustainability and caring for the Earth is important.
Communicating your commitment to sustainability can help your bottom line too. Did you know that 92% of consumers are more likely to trust brands that are environmentally or socially conscious? And, 87% of consumers would buy products that have social and environmental benefits if they’re able to.
Those are some powerful reasons to start communicating your environmental and social values, impacts, and activities.
For example, you can communicate what you’re doing to be climate-positive, nature positive, to minimise waste and pollution, and what community initiatives you support.
Whether you operate in the sustainable fashion industry, or you have an eco brand in Australia, there’s an opportunity to tell people what you do.
3) It helps drive customer engagement.
Organic marketing also helps drive customer engagement. That in turn builds important relationships with your audience.
Engagement can also help with conversion rates. And it can help you retain customers because they feel valued thanks to your regular communication with them.
This authentic and ongoing communication is a great way to drive engagement and can be done by directly answering questions, responding to messages, hosting online events, community building on social media platforms, and by providing engaging content.
It takes time and dedication to build this level of authentic engagement with your customers, so get started today.
4) Organic marketing can build a real and authentic audience.
Compared with paid advertising, organic marketing allows you to build an audience that is real and authentic and really interested in your brand and what you have to say.
The benefit of building an authentic audience is that they’re more likely to promote your brand, engage with your brand, create user-generated content, and become your customers.
And because consumers nowadays are used to seeing so much promoted content, particularly on social media – they may discard irrelevant ads and search out content and brands that appear authentic instead. This provides an opportunity for brands like yours to raise your authority and grow your consumers’ trust.
Being authentic, instilling trust, and having brand authority are all critical aspects of selling online. These characteristics also help with successfully marketing your brand.
Once you have established authenticity, consumer trust, and brand authority, then it’s easier to use targeted ads to convert your audience into becoming customers.
5) It can optimise your content.
Digital marketing includes using search engine optimisation (SEO) to help drive traffic to your website.
This is done through optimising content on your website and blog, as well as your social media posts and profiles.
SEO is achieved using a combination of well-targeted keywords, informative and relevant content, the strategic use of backlinks and internal links, and other SEO optimisation techniques.
When there’s more traffic being directed to your site, there’s more chance of increasing your overall customers. And by enhancing your SEO, you’re also able to increase your ranking on search engines, making your website more discoverable.
6) It’s a cost-effective alternative to paid advertising.
If you had to rely exclusively on paid ads for your business to thrive and survive, it may consume a large proportion of your resources (perhaps even all of them).
That’s why it’s prudent to have a mix of paid ads and organic marketing.
While organic marketing may not be completely free (as you may have to rely on services, apps or subscriptions), it is a great way to affordably drive traffic to your site and keep your audience engaged. It can also provide long-term results for brand authority and trust.
7) It helps to drive traffic to your website.
Organic digital marketing in the form of SEO-optimised blogs and organic social media posts, can help you drive a large amount of traffic to your website.
This in turn can help your search engine ranking and can boost engagement rates.
By driving more traffic to your website, organic marketing can help you create more leads and sales if you’re able to convert visitors into customers.
8) Organic marketing provides a great return on investment (ROI).
Organic marketing may not cost much to create, but it can provide significant return on investment (ROI).
For example, email marketing for small businesses has the highest ROI, according to HubSpot.
That means that strategic use of social media marketing can propel your business to new heights. It can raise your brand awareness, increase customer trust, and result in increased conversions and sales.
Of course, this will depend ultimately on the strength of your social media strategy and how well your site is optimised.
What are some disadvantages of organic marketing (compared with paid advertising)?
Just as it’s unwise to rely solely on paid ads for all of your marketing purposes, there are also disadvantages of relying exclusively on organic digital marketing.
One drawback is that it can take much longer to see results.
Organic marketing can also be time-consuming. It also requires a lot of creativity, experience and skills for it to work optimally.
Ideally, you’ll need a professionally trained marketing team to consistently produce social media posts, blogs and other forms of organic marketing to propel your inbound marketing to new heights.
Hiring an experienced social media marketing agency like Green Socials to take care of all your marketing needs, can help you focus on your core business while we take care of the rest.
Take a look at our social media management services, which include custom content marketing, blog post writing services, email marketing services, and social media marketing and management.
8 tips on how to build a successful organic marketing strategy for your sustainable brand
Do you want to build a successful marketing strategy for your sustainable and purpose-led brand?
Now that we’ve looked at pros and cons of organic (and paid) marketing, you may be interested in learning how to actually implement an organic digital marketing strategy that works.
There are many ways to do this.
Below we’ve outlined 8 of the best ways to build a successful marketing strategy, organically (i.e. without paying for any ads). We’ve also included some tips specifically directed at sustainable brands and organisations committed to sustainability in business.
1) Assess and analyse your current website traffic and organic reach.
To get started building a marketing strategy it’s important to first assess and analyse your current marketing efforts. How much website traffic are you getting each month? What’s your organic reach?
By tracking and monitoring your performance you create a baseline to work from. You can then glean insights that will help to inform and shape your marketing strategy.
💡 Tip for sustainable brands: Look at what keywords are driving most of your organic traffic. Also track which websites and backlinks are sending traffic to your site. Look at what impact your social media has on your website traffic.
You can then use these insights, together with keyword research relevant to your brand and the sustainability sector - to improve your SEO and content strategy.
2) Make sure your content is evergreen.
Organic marketing requires the creation of content. To create content that performs well and helps you reach your marketing goals, it’s important that your content is evergreen. In other words, create content that is timeless and won’t date easily (or that can be updated easily). Evergreen content should also be relevant for your audience and your particular niche.
This evergreen content can be in the form of blogs, podcasts, videos, guides, case studies and more. Make sure it’s SEO-optimised to help attract more people to the content (and your website).
💡 Tip for sustainable brands: Consider creating articles that include listicles, tips, how-to guides, tutorials, FAQs, and thought leadership. Your content should also reflect your sustainable brand’s values and show how they relate to your products or services.
Make sure your content is simple to read and that you use clear and plain language so that it’s easily scannable. Use the right keywords (informed by your SEO strategy), and create content that’s shareable.
3) Create content that’s visually engaging and appeals to values.
When you create content, consider how visually appealing it is to your audience.
People tend to engage more with content that has a visual element, whether that’s an image, video, meme, infographic, quote or interactive element.
To create engagement that converts, try and appeal to your audience’s values. Tell a story about your brand that people can relate to, and provide guidance on how your brand can help solve a customer’s struggles or meet their goals.
💡 Tip for sustainable brands: Create content that is visually appealing, and that tells a story about your sustainable brand in a way that will make people emotionally attached to your brand.
For eco brands, this may include showing photos and videos about how your brand creates social and environmental impact. Or you can show how you improve the lives of people who use your product or service.
4) Develop an email marketing strategy.
Building an effective organic digital marketing strategy wouldn’t be complete without developing an email marketing strategy.
Email is a great way to reach your target audience and customers. Should anything ever happen to your social media channels or website, your email subscriber list is also a great way to keep in touch with your customers and supporters.
Over 4.1 billion people globally have email accounts. Studies have shown that email marketing is one of the most effective ways to build brand awareness. So if you’re not already using email marketing, you probably should be!
There are many ways to use email marketing to promote your brand. You can choose to either set up a regular email newsletter campaign or to send email updates with product reviews or other announcements to communicate with your audience.
💡 Tip for sustainable brands: There are many ways to use email marketing to build your audience, increase sales, and raise brand awareness. You can send out email updates about your new eco products or services, about relevant sustainability causes you’re involved in (e.g. World Environment Day), and about what kind of positive impact your brand is having on the planet.
Creating a professional email newsletter that is sent out regularly can help keep your brand top of mind, and build consumer loyalty and trust.
Designing your newsletter and creating content that resonates and converts is an art form. You may want to consider a professional email marketing agency like Green Socials to help you.
Don’t hesitate to set up a free discovery call to discuss your marketing needs and goals.
5) Grow your social media presence.
Building a social media presence is another powerful way to organically market your business and its products or services.
There are over 3.9 billion social media users today, which is expected to grow rapidly. Connecting with only a fraction of this audience can create transformational results for any business.
To grow your social media presence, you can start by creating engaging and relevant content on your chosen social media platforms.
Having a social media presence can help brands like yours to broaden their audience, and connect and engage with more potential customers and brand ambassadors. It also provides the potential to work with social media influencers who may help you increase your brand awareness and sales.
Growing your social media following and reputation requires a good social media strategy.
Rather than trying to get as many followers as possible, try to communicate in a way that drives meaningful engagement. That can help you build a following of targeted and authentic followers who are more likely to support and buy from your brand.
💡 Tip for environmentally-friendly brands: Post regularly on your chosen social media channels about content that’s relevant to your audience and brand. Keep your posts authentic, shareable, and engaging.
Don't forget to engage with other sustainable brands and causes when you’re using social media. Showing a genuine interest in your followers by taking time to engage with them, respond to their comments and questions, and follow them back, can also help you create a genuine and authentic community of fans and followers
6) Optimise your content and improve your website ranking.
SEO-optimised content can help increase traffic to your website and boost your overall search engine rankings.
If done right, it may also ultimately lead to more conversions and sales. That’s why it’s important to create quality content that people actually want to read. Your content should be relevant, unique and authoritative and should include the keywords that people commonly search for.
According to a recent Hubspot State of Marketing report, the majority (69%) of marketers use SEO. SEO is a tool to help you optimise your content so that you get noticed online when people are searching for relevant keywords.
💡 Tip for green brands: Firstly, create a content strategy that’s aligned with your brand values and which identifies customer personas. Research relevant keywords and incorporate them into your content.
Here are some useful tips on how to enhance SEO for articles on your site:
aim to create blogs posts that are over 1000 words,
make sure to use simple, readable language and short sentences,
use an active tone,
make sure all your heading formats are correct
use headings and subheadings to break up text into content that’s easy to scan,
Research the correct keywords to use — they should be relevant to your audience (and what they’re searching for) and your business,
include a mix of internal links (to other pages of your website), and external links (that point to authoritative and relevant sites),
optimise your website structure for SEO.
7) Join Groups and Online Communities.
Another way of organically building your brand is to join and engage with digital communities and groups.
You can share content you’ve created with these groups, reply to comments or questions, comment on other peoples’ posts, provide feedback and encouraging comments, or even send direct messages.
💡 Tip for sustainable brands: There are a range of sector-specific groups and online communities which could be relevant for your sustainable brand.
Whether you’re in sustainable construction, organic or vegan food, eco clothing, eco-friendly accommodation or another field - find relevant digital communities to engage. This may include groups on LinkedIn or Facebook, digital membership groups and networks, or even online community forums or events.
Make time each day to connect with your online community and to authentically engage.
8) Re-assess and improve your organic marketing strategy.
It’s also important to take time to reflect on what has worked well and what hasn’t when it comes to your organic digital marketing.
Learn from these insights and incorporate these learnings into a revised marketing strategy.
Marketing is not static - it’s forever changing and evolving. As a marketer, it’s important to always have your finger on the pulse and to stay up-to-date with the latest trends and developments.
If you need help developing a marketing strategy, you may want to reach out to a social media marketing agency like Green Socials. What sets us apart from other digital marketing agencies in Australia, is that we’re specialists in sustainability communications.
💡 Tip for eco brands: Use analytics to see what’s worked best for you and where you can improve.
Also, consider what aspects of marketing you haven’t focused on and see whether there’s potential to explore those further. For example, if you don’t have a strong social media presence or a large email subscriber list, you may want to concentrate resources on developing those.
For eco brands, check whether you’ve focused enough on your brand story in your messaging.
For example, do you explain what inspired the creation of your eco brand? So you promote a cause that many people can relate to? Do you show what it feels like to use your products and services?
Final thoughts on inbound marketing and choosing the right digital marketing mix for eco-friendly businesses
Using organic digital marketing is just one aspect of your digital marketing mix. It can be used to promote your eco-friendly business, drive traffic to your site, and deliver conversions.
It’s important that you consider and assess your brand in relation to your competitors, and that you set goals before you start with your marketing journey.
This will help you make more informed decisions on how to use organic and paid marketing to reach your marketing goals.
Organic digital marketing, if done right, can help you build a loyal, authentic, and engaged audience of people who relate to your values and feel a sense of trust in buying from your brand.
It’s therefore a powerful tool to use to grow your brand and your business success.
We know it can be difficult to create an organic marketing strategy for your website, newsletter, and social media. For small businesses that are trying to scale, it can be particularly hard to fit in time for marketing - even though marketing can itself bring tremendous results for brand growth.
That’s why at Green Socals we’ve created a range of bespoke eco-friendly marketing packages to suit small, medium, and larger organisations. So if you want to grow your businesses, but don’t have the time or marketing expertise to do it on your own – we’re here to help.
If this sounds like you, we’d love to hear more about your goals and how we can help turn them into reality!
