Organic Marketing…Inch By Inch
January 27, 2011
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Organic digital marketing (social media, SEO) happens inch by inch. It is an ongoing process, one that requires you show up consistently. Without that, what possible momentum are you building?
The web doesn’t mark the death of the campaign. You can do things that create buzz more effectively than ever (and track everything). That still matters. What is different and perhaps even more important now is the stuff in between. Incremental content, connections, links and contributions matter a lot. In aggregate that’s how you grow.
If you want to win in organic marketing, you need to have consistency down with a mix of effective tactics before anything else. Skipping ahead to create big, larger than life plays will produce fleeting results if you aren’t also moving forward inch by inch.
Get agile, get motivated and build a team organized around execution. And while executing – if you are overthinking it, you’re doing it wrong. It will feel forced and unnatural. Plus you’ll never keep pace with the not necessarily increasing, but steady amount of time it takes to build up organic returns.
Worth your effort? Of course: inbound traffic generated through organic efforts is the highest volume, quality and most sustainable. Even if your niche is small you can dip into complementary and supplementary categories to keep growing the right KPIs. Can’t talk about your industry? Is your category boring? Nothing says you can’t get creative and talk about other things your market is interested in and pull them to you. There aren’t many excuses to not engage in organic marketing except for laziness.
Small wins are the new big wins. Having a strategy that takes advantage of them contributes to the overall trend up.
Many marketers still think everything they do has to be perfect, but I would take consistency over perfection any day.
image credit: Shutterstock
Mark Harai replied | Jan 27, 2011 (4 comments)
I love this post Adam – If you’re not famous, there are no quick-fixes – only hard work, patience and consistency can establish a credible presence in social media – now just need to learn how to monetize it — that’s my focus now :p
Adam Singer replied | Jan 27, 2011 (552 comments)
Thanks Mark – there are many ways to monetize communities. This site is focused on helping you create them – but I’m not opposed to doing some content around monetization as well too.
Peter Paluska replied | Jan 27, 2011 (7 comments)
Yes. I love the idea of the slow, steady build. Quality over quantity. We have to be warriors of excellence!
Thanks, Adam!
Peter
andrew replied | Jan 28, 2011 (35 comments)
Absolutely the right line of thinking here. It’s not about the glamor, it’s about the grindstone. Putting forth the effort on a daily basis is the big idea that many aren’t willing to do. It’s not always fun, there aren’t a lot of celebratory moments (at first), but it has the payoff in the end. It’s the grasshopper versus the ant (sort of).
Janet Callaway replied | Jan 28, 2011 (1 comment)
Adam, I agree with you 100%–especially your last comment about consistency being more important that perfection. Too often people get so “stuck” wanting a blog or post to be so perfect, that they never launch. Aloha. Janet
Niall Harbison replied | Jan 29, 2011 (12 comments)
I wonder sometimes if the huge amount of time and effort that I am putting in to promoting my business online actually works and if I walked away would the business grow as much anyway? With the online world (and the stuff that you can’t measure) you just have to go ith your gut and keep doing the things that you think and hope are working!
Adam Singer replied | Jan 29, 2011 (552 comments)
Niall – by measuring the right KPIs and tracking all the way to revenue, you should be able to draw a clear line between promotions and results. I think “going with your gut” isn’t as scientific an approach to measuring success. The going with your gut, or creativity is part of the tactics & strategy, yes, but the success should involve less gut feel and more hard numbers. I know this isn’t easy. And not EVERYTHING is quantifiable in numbers, for sure. But if you are winning in quantitative results, the qualitative (gut feel) will be there too.
Claire replied | Feb 7, 2011 (2 comments)
Thanks for the reminder that it is an ongoing process that evolves over time. AND that a plan is essential. Digital marketing can get overwhelming and discouraging when the results don’t show up straight away!
Nick Stamoulis replied | Feb 7, 2011 (15 comments)
When it comes to SEO it’s important to understand that it takes time. When first developing a website and implementing SEO strategies, your rank in the search engine won’t jump to #1 in a week. In order for it to eventually rank in a better position, it’s important to have a long term strategy planned well in advance.