32- Organic or paid?

To make yourself known, should you run organic campaigns, paid campaigns, or a combination of both? Our customers often ask this question. What does organic mean? Quite simply, it means that the media or influencers don't earn anything from the resulting article, blog post, or social media post. In such cases, the journalist or influencer has chosen to talk about you for free. As you might expect, being mentioned in an organic article will lend you a lot of credibility. Algorithms and search engines (SEO) love organic mentions. Knowing this, we often suggest that our clients who are as yet unknown to influencers and the media start with an organic campaign. Press releases, content, or images – created by our organization or by a member of your team – will be sent to those influencers and media. Naturally, if you start with a campaign where you’re paying influencers (think Coca-Cola, for example), it’s a long shot that any journalists or influencers will talk about you, since your current paid campaign is already “commercializing” you. Obviously, it's not all black and white in the world of promotion. If your product is already known, you could develop a 100% organic campaign first, before following it up with a paid campaign. On the other hand, if you’re not well known in the market, consider running a 100% organic campaign for as long as journalists and influencers want to tell their readers and followers about you. Besides, an organic campaign is really workable, and much less expensive than a paid campaign for a high-value product. If you want to boost your sales with a campaign of influencers who would recommend their followers go to your site, using the influencer’s code to get a discount, for example, then your odds of success are very high – in exchange for payment, or a discount on a high-value product. If we think of, say, very expensive photo equipment, a photographer with a large community might give the company access to their followers through a trade-off arrangement. Retaining the services of a public relations agency like ours (NATA PR) means you’ll get sound advice and profitable contacts. Any agency with more than 10 years’ experience has influencer connections, which could be a goldmine for you. So, organic or paid? The most important thing is to take the time to assess your goals and, first off, consider an organic campaign. It’s always less expensive than a paid campaign, and it will help promote you and raise your profile. However, if you’re self-employed or have a limited budget, consider our customized training. It shows you how to combine PR with social media to generate fast results. We’re here to answer your questions if you want to find out more about the powerful tools that PR and social media can be. Contact us and subscribe to our lists: www.natapr.com.