Top 3 Reasons to Invest in organic content marketing before paid online advertising

Top 3 Reasons to Invest in Organic Content Marketing Before Paid Online Advertising

Are you a small business owner and thinking of investing in paid online advertising for your business? Or have you recently started to invest in paid online advertising? If so, then definitely read on as this article can save you some fortune and frustration.

Digital marketing is the lifeblood of any business. But not all digital strategies are created equal. In fact, there are two main ways to make your company more successful: paid marketing and organic content marketing. And here in this article, I will discuss why you should invest in organic content marketing before you plan to invest in online paid advertising.

First of all – what is paid online advertising?

Well, I am mentioning it as paid online advertising instead of paid advertising because back in the old days (and even now) businesses paid for advertising in the local paper or magazines. So, just to keep a clear distinction about what we are talking about here.

Paid online advertising is a marketing tool in which advertisers bid to basically drive more traffic to their website to increase their business. There are various types of paid online advertising, some of them are Social Media Ads, Display Ads, Search Engine Marketing, and Video Ads. 

But you have to be cautious with online paid advertising because if you don’t monitor your spending, it can become expensive very quickly. 

Are you aware how much you pay for online advertising every month?

Now, What is “organic” Content Marketing?

• Content marketing is a free and organic way that can be used for building an audience of loyal customers.
• The goal of content marketing is to create valuable, shareable content that people will want to read or watch.
• Content marketing helps you attract more traffic by increasing your visibility in search engines and social media sites like Facebook, Twitter, etc…

Are you getting a positive ROI?

Google and Facebook have become household names. But do you know that every year Google generates over 100 billion dollars through paid advertising and Facebook generates over 40 billion a year in revenue through paid advertising? 

But how many of you have already tried paid advertising for your business? If you answered yes, did you get a positive ROI? Are you ready to spend all your marketing budget on paid advertising year over year?

If you are like most small business owners or freelancers, I am assuming your answer to my questions is a “NO”.  

Problems and Solutions –

Here is what many of you might be dealing with paid online advertising and an organic marketing strategy solution to those concerns – 

1. Website – I’m paying for Search Engine Marketing – but where are the website visitors?

To refresh, Search Engine Marketing (SEM) is the most commonly used form of paid online advertising.

Businesses bid for keywords for various search engines so that their website can be displayed up in the Search Engine Page Result (SERP)

The best platforms for SEM are Google Adwords and Bing. 

To give you an idea of cost – the average cost of an advertisement on Google Ads (AdWords) is $2.32 per click on a search network.  And an average small business spends between $9,000-$10,000 per month on their online advertising campaigns on Google advertising. 

Simple maths – it’s a whopping $100,000 to $120,000 per year for paid online advertising. Wow…really!

You can also visit The Comprehensive Guide to Online Advertising Costs for detailed information about paid online advertising costs.

But some people including me prefer and trust organic listings more than paid ads. The reason for this is very plain and simple – because getting the ranking on search engines due to online advertisement doesn’t guarantee the quality of the business to us. 

For the same reason, such people might completely ignore the website in paid results until it is ranked organically too.

Therefore, even if as a business you will rank high on a page because you are willing to bid a high price for an advertisement is no indicator that people will click on the link.

In order to organically rank in search engines, you can use Search Engine Optimization

• In which you optimize your content – your website copy and Blogs
• Research your target audience and see what they want
• Understand the terms and keywords they use to search for you / your business
• Use those keywords and terms in your content in a meaningful way

This will improve your page’s visibility in the search results and will get the attention of your target and/or prospective customers.

2. Social media – I’m posting Ads on social media – where are my followers?

There are so many social media platforms these days – Facebook, Instagram, LinkedIn, Youtube, Twitter, Pinterest, Reddit, Quora…etc.

74% of people use social media when making a purchasing decision.

And as a small business, if you start to advertise on all these social media, it will deplete your marketing budget in a few months if not in days. 

Let me explain by giving examples here –

Facebook has more than 1.4 billion daily active users, therefore it is one of the most preferred channels for any business to advertise. The average cost per click for online advertising on Facebook is $0.97. 

Can you take a moment to guess what is the average cost per click for paid advertising on Instagram? Hint – Instagram has a higher engagement rate than Facebook. 

So, if you have guessed around $3.50, bingo! you are right It’s $3.56, but for others – surprise surprise…

Check this article for more detailed information on Social Media advertising costs by platform.

So, think about a situation now that on one fine day a business owner decides to advertise on Facebook and Instagram. For that, they created an extraordinary ad for these social media channels for the target audience.  

The target audience also showed a fair amount of interest in the ad and visited the social media page of the business. But if the social media page is not engaging to the target audience, or is not updated, gone is their CPC (the cost-per-click)

Therefore, it is extremely important for any business, especially a small business to maintain a remarkable social media presence where its target audience is. 

And the way to do it organically is to have a content strategy for social media.

• Research your target audience
• Create content that is of target audience’s interest – a non-promotional content 
• Use easy language while focus on customer’s content experience
• Post regularly on social media platforms

By following this routine, you may not even need to spend so frequently (or maybe ever) on social media ads. That’s some savings I see there! huh!

3. Competitions – I’ve got rich competitors; how can I compete? 

In any business, competition is inevitable. As a small business, you might have already faced competition from bigger players in the market. 

This competition gets even more fierce in the online arena. How much competition you are facing in online paid advertising depends on factors like location and industry. 

The big companies may have comparable products and services that you are offering as a small business, but one thing where it is difficult for you to compete with them is the marketing budget.

Therefore, for paid online advertising, the paid search becomes expensive for competitive queries – and it is very easy for big companies to outrun small businesses there.

And the solution to stay competitive is not by spending more money on paid online advertising but to create good content for your website and for your social media pages.

A well-crafted content marketing strategy earns your business a thought leader reputation, establishes a trust relationship with current and prospective customers, and in generating leads and revenue. 

Examples of Content Marketing are – Blogging, videos, webinars, ebooks, podcasts, graphics, content offers, infographics, whitepapers, etc.

Conclusion: 

Content marketing is the future of digital marketing. It’s where your customers are, and it’s a proven strategy for increasing conversions and driving revenue.  Investing in organic content marketing is an effective way to drive traffic to your website and build brand awareness. 

So, invest in an organic content marketing strategy first before you decide to invest in paid online advertising. But, if you are already investing in paid online advertising, and if it is generating a positive ROI for you then you should keep on investing in it. However, you should also explore content marketing to multiply that profit.  

What is your digital marketing strategy: organic content marketing or paid online advertising, don’t forget to mention this in the comment below? 

Start today by following @JindalzShruti on all social media for more information on how to get started with content marketing!