Paid vs. Organic Social Media
In the work that I do, “sustainability” usually means the integration of environmental, social or governance into business as a way of prolonging and regenerating natural resources available to sustain humanity. But in this blog, I want to explain my thoughts on creating the best way to get sustainable results from your social media marketing. I created an Instagram reel the other day to capture this thought as it popped up for me, as I often do. In that reel, I explained briefly about a company that approached me wanting to do some paid-for social media advertising and I advised against that for them. So this is a deeper dive into what I meant by that.
In this blog, I’ll start with a couple of common misconceptions, explain another marketing framework that’s important for me to make this point, and then hopefully you’ll understand what the difference is between paid and organic social media, and when might be best to use each and why.
Misconception 1: As consumers (we all are in one sense or another), we often are exposed to advertising through the TV, sponsored ads via social media, pop-ups on websites etc. So it's pretty natural to assume that advertising and marketing are one and the same. Spoiler: they ain’t.
Misconception 2: Small business owners often mistakingly think that paid social media marketing is a tap you can turn on and off to bring in leads, customers or eyes on your brand. Sometimes that can be the case - but it's certainly not the most efficient, cost-effective nor sustainable way of marketing, especially if you’re not doing any organic social media to accompany it.
So let’s explore why...
Top corporate brands will have a big team of marketing people, agencies on tap and a multi-million-pound budget - which is very rarely the case for SMEs. We need to be smart with our decision-making to make our investments in marketing go further. And in order to do that we need to make sure that all of the marketing bases are covered. Enter, the marketing funnel...
There is a sh*t load of types and styles of marketing funnels on Google images…
There are a million and one versions of this concept and it’s easy to get bogged down in the theory of which ones are ‘correct’. But in reality, all you need to know are these three things:
Your target audience go in the top, through the marketing funnel, and come out the bottom as customers
The position in the funnel (TOFU, MOFU, BOFU)
Each stage in the funnel requires a different type of marketing activity
The ‘marketing funnel’ framework
What is TOFU, MOFU, and BOFU?
On the left-hand side of the funnel image above are the three approximate phases of marketing on a customer’s journey.
TOFU - Top of the funnel - casting the net wide to generate awareness
MOFU - Middle of the funnel - giving useful information to educate people that helps them make informed decisions and trust your brand (like this blog ;) )
BOFU - Bottom of the funnel - incentivising or encouraging a purchase by asking for the sale or offering a promotion
FYI: This is most often “marketing-speak” for approximating the type of activity required at each stage of the customer journey.
What are the different stages of the marketing funnel?
On the right-hand side of the image above, we have the AIDA framework: Awareness, Interest, Desire, and Action. These are the stages of progression each customer will (hopefully) take, from first becoming aware of a brand to making the decision to buy.
There are more complex versions that go into more detail about how to retain customer loyalty, but that’s overkill for this explanation.
Most often, brand awareness marketing activities are at the top of the funnel, marketing activities like PR, partnerships and sponsorship are in the middle, and things that convince people to make the sale such as promotional offers are at the bottom of the funnel.
Which is better, paid or organic social media marketing?
So, now you know what the marketing funnel is, and how it’s used as a framework in marketing planning, I can explain more about what type of social media marketing is best used when, and why.
For most SMEs with limited resources, top-of-the-funnel organic social media marketing is the most cost-effective way to reach new customers build awareness of your brand and communicate your value to your target audience. It’s relatively cheap to consistently build your brand through organic social media marketing by reminding people consistently (Please note: I've used the word ‘consistently’ twice in one sentence on purpose to hammer in the point!) about who you are, what you do and the value you bring to your customers.
TOP TIP: Top-of-the-funnel activity is the good stuff you want to be doing the most of because the more people that go in the top, the higher the probability is that they’ll convert into customers down the line.
On the converse, if you go straight to the bottom of the funnel activities like paying for sponsored posts on social media without doing the brand-building top-of-the-funnel stuff first, then you’ll be spending a lot of money trying to fill the top of your funnel - which means you're paying more money to acquire each lead or prospect.
Paid advertising on social media works best when you’re boosting (to use a Meta phrase) a promotional post that invites people to make that purchase after they’re already aware of you, like you and trust you.
Like anything to do with marketing, ‘it all depends’ and there are exceptions to this rule so I don’t want this to be taken verbatim for every SME that reads this. For most of my clients, who are SMEs whether for or non-profit, this is often the case, so my advice comes with a lot of experience of this within this specific audience type.
Was this helpful? Let me know cath@ipsaconsulting.co.uk