Before we get started on how to grow your business with organic marketing, let's talk about what organic marketing means. Organic marketing is a more subtle approach to marketing that generates traffic to your business over time rather than using paid methods. Some examples of organic marketing are blog posts, case studies, guest posts, updates to social media channels, and user-generated content, such as reviews, testimonials, videos, or podcasts. Let’s not forget about one very important way to grow your business without investing, and that is networking. We will cover some topics on how to get started on organic marketing.

Create Your Buyer Persona Profile First

Remember that before you post anything on social media or start spreading the word about your company, you have to identify your audience. In this section, we will discuss how to create a buyer's personal profile. A buyer persona is a detailed representation of who your ideal customer is. This profile will help you cater messages that resonate with your audience based on the service or product you provide. Think about what your ideal clients are like, from age, gender, income, education, geography, etc.

Here are some additional questions to ask in order to create your profile.

What problems do they have? And how can you solve that problem?
How do different buyers relate to each other?
What does their complete buyer’s journey look like?
What are the features that each buyer cares about?
What’s holding buyers back?

Example:

Working mom in her mid-30s looking to buy a new car. Her current vehicle is constantly giving her trouble. She is searching for a reliable, eco-friendly car, and with child safety features.

In this example, you know the approximate age of the buyer, gender, concerns, and what she is looking for. With that in mind, you can now craft content related to that profile.

One good way to get information on who your ideal client is to look at your social media platform analytical tools. You can find useful information there such as geography, gender, age, and even active hours. Learning the time your audience is most active online will help you choose the ideal time to post and increase engagement.

Now you are ready to craft a message that will be specific and will resonate with the needs of your audience. The goal should be to show what your product/service is or does. And show how your product or service makes your customer’s life easier or better. Once you have your profile ready, you can start spreading the word on social media and other platforms.

Facebook Community Groups

Joining Facebook community groups is ideal for local businesses. This will help you reach a local audience who are right around the corner. Whether it’s reposting previous content or posting the latest updates about your business, this is the way to reach your local audience immediately. And it goes without saying that this is FREE promotion.

Interact With Similar Accounts

Interacting with similar accounts on your social platforms is important. This will help your algorithm and the algorithm of users. If someone follows a similar product or related account, you are likely to appear in their searches or relevant content as well. When interacting with other accounts, be engaging and make the best of what you have on hand to increase visibility. Remember to constantly be posting creative content, liking others' posts, following, commenting, and be active in general. Liking a post, and sharing stories goes a long way when it comes to reaching an audience. Especially if you are tagging or reposting content from other users with a large following.

Ask Your Audience

It's a good idea to ask your audience what they want. Whether it’s sending a quick survey, a poll, or asking them to comment on what they are looking for. Listen to your audience's wants and needs. This is crucial for retention and creating customer loyalty. Sometimes we tend to focus on bringing in new clients but we tend to forget about retention.

Give Before You Ask

Always give before you ask. Give something of value to your audience before you ask them to buy something from you. This can be in many different forms. You can give advice or provide educational content by using blogs and posting tips on your social media outlets. Giving free classes, free webinars, and even free consultations. Do a live QA where you answer questions your audience may have regarding your company or product. You can even send or deliver physical gifts to clients. There are many ways you can give first but never sell first.

Networking

Never underestimate the power of in-person networking. Networking should be a big part of what you do to get your business known. You should incorporate this as part of your yearly marketing plan. Make sure you always have a business card with you or something memorable where the person that met you has something to remember you by. Building that personal relationship is more impactful than someone learning about your business online. When networking, a key thing to do is create a commitment, what does this mean? Do a small ask, whether it’s asking to go visit your website, or follow your social media accounts. You will not be asking them to buy something. But introduce yourself, do an elevator pitch (more details to come in the future), and ask them to keep your company in mind for any future needs.

You Are a Public Figure

One last thing worth mentioning is that as a business owner, you become a public figure. You become a public image which means everything you do in person and online can go back to affecting the image of your company. You have become part of the company culture and must protect it by taking care of your personal image as well. This is especially important when it comes to social media, nothing is private on the internet. Make sure you think before you post or comment on things that can potentially harm the image of your company. Most of the time your friends and family are the ones that will recommend your business, so be aware of what you post on your personal accounts as well. Use social media for good to help grow your business.

There are several things that you can do that will help brand awareness without spending money. Organic marketing can generate traffic to your business over time rather than using paid methods. Networking, blog posts, case studies, guest posts, updates to social media channels, and user-generated content, such as reviews, testimonials, videos, or podcasts are a great way to get started. Of course, investing in promotions and paid advertisements will have the largest and fastest impact on your business. These are a couple of things that are in your control to help you grow without spending so much.

Be on the lookout for more blogs in the future where we will discuss more on how to grow your brand and personal brand. If you haven’t checked out past blogs, you can find them here.

Establishing Organic Marketing Strategy