Starting a business is hard. I should know, having started three of them myself. Lately, though, I’ve been tangled up in another startup, one in which I am comically referred to as the Director of Marketing. We’re about five months past our official launch date, which is a good time to take a hard look at what we’re doing organically and through paid ads. 

In our reading this week, Charlie Rose addresses some things worth keeping in mind when considering just how long one might “wait” to see organic results in search engines (2018). In my case we bought a domain name from a reseller with next to no idea if it was scarred by past owners. And, we started with minimal content, though the domain name itself is keyword-rich. For the most part our position at launch was such that organic recognition would be slow.

Benefits  of organic, SEO strategies

I have long been a proponent of organic SEO and I recognize its long-term value. A common misconception I see often is the notion that when a client gets a new website, in time it naturally will work its way up to page one on search engines. While it does seem true that amount of time in existence is a factor in SEO, it also seems clear that fresh, relevant content is hugely important. The first five or six months are not a wait and see kind of thing: they are best spent investing time and effort into creating great content your audience will find valuable (DeMers, 2015). So, while there may not be a price tag for organic content, I stop short of calling it free. 

The benefits here are many. For example, you (or your business) will own the content, and you can use and present it in multiple ways and places. Organic content also has staying power: a meaningful blog post can stay relevant for years. And, at least to me, there is no better way to build brand awareness. In this sense, organic content and its application to SEO principles can be a compliment to paid strategies.

Benefits of paid ad strategies

A new business often cannot wait for the world to discover its compelling, paradigm-shifting content on its own. Happily, paid advertising is much faster: in theory one can design an ad and landing page, get them both approved and running, and start collecting conversions in a single day. Even when it takes a bit longer, paid strategies typically provide a path to much faster results. For a startup, often they are crucial in the effort to get a business name out and get potential customers in. 

Speaking of potential customers, paid strategies offer the opportunity to be selective in targeting (Fuchs, 2020). Choices abound, and depending on the platform include options like geographic and demographic targeting, and even can be narrowed by education level, job title, or interests. In other words, paid ads allow exposure to a very specific type of customer: yours. And, while you are paying for access and, ultimately, clicks or impressions, these days your budget doesn’t have to be huge. 

Cons of both organic and paid marketing strategies

Both organic and paid advertising have their obstacles, most of which have been noted here already. It is a given that organic SEO typically takes a long time. What’s lost on many is that it also takes a lot of work. Creating content can seem easy. Creating meaningful content can be hard, and doing so repeatedly can be exhausting, particularly in an instant gratification world where results may not be evident for months. 

Paid content fits nicely into the vein of instant gratification. If everything comes with a price, paid strategies are, at first glance, pretty straightforward. Where it gets hazy is in the ROI, considering things like cost per click, cost per conversion, and more (Bump, 2019).. In this sense, just like with organic content, one might reasonably expect to improve his or her effectiveness using paid marketing over time.

Final thought

In my current business, now five months in, we use both paid and organic strategies. Both have their place, and as content accrues our organic material compliments our paid strategies more. I do not think a sustainable business is easily built if modeled on paid ads alone, and being a bit of a strategic thinker, I embrace the staying power and future, stable growth associated with organic SEO. This is not to suggest there will be a time when paid marketing isn’t important, but a healthy business might find the long-term scales tipped slightly to owned organic content.

About those three businesses? Two were successful, the other a spectacular failure. Hard work and a break or two along the way makes a difference, whether the strategy is paid, organic, or both.

References

Bump, P. (2019, July 17). A Simple Guide to Marketing ROI [Formula & Examples]. Retrieved from https://blog.hubspot.com/marketing/measure-content-marketing-roi 

DeMers, J. (2015, January 13). How To Set Realistic Expectations For Your SEO Campaign. Retrieved from https://www.forbes.com/sites/jaysondemers/2015/01/13/how-to-set-realistic-expectations-for-your-seo-campaign/?sh=4d8aca0f56e5 

Fuchs, J. (2020, June 16). Optimize or Advertise? Comparing Organic vs. Paid Social Media. Retrieved from https://blog.hubspot.com/marketing/organic-vs-paid-social-media 

Rose, C. (2018, January 15). SEO 101: How Long Does SEO Take to Start Working? Retrieved from https://www.seomechanic.com/seo-101-how-long-does-seo-take/