Paid vs. organic traffic
Are you a small businesses that struggle to get the traffic you need to generate sales? Even with busy websites like Etsy, without pay-to-play tactics, generating sales may be hard. You’re often disappointed that the world isn’t seeing your beautiful product, but it’s expensive to include advertising. Or even with 30 hashtags on each daily post you still aren’t getting customers to your site.
Another option is to spend loads of time and effort trying to go viral. Getting in front of your customers, providing education, value and entertainment comes at the cost of time. Working on SEO takes effort to build back links, keyword research and LOTS of writing.
Marketing is never free, it either takes money or time.
Let’s review some pros and cons of paid vs. organic traffic.
Paid traffic can also be know as fast traffic. Social media advertising gets customers directly to your site and purchasing a product. They are also getting on your email list because they like your products or because they made a purchase. This revenue generation buys you time and a customer base to start building “know, like and trust” in more traditional avenues. Facebook offers in-depth targeting to get your ideal customer to your website. Your dream customer is no longer a dream, we can specifically find them on Facebook. With your beautiful products appearing on social media to a curated audience, the traffic comes quickly and easily to your site.
Paid traffic is great, if you have the money. The downsides of paid advertising include:
making an investment to learn or pay for expertise
additional spending on the advertisement
gambling with the algorithm
With slow traffic a.k.a. organic traffic, YOU spend a lot of time and energy building the content for your audience. You are often working on providing entertainment with the hopes that people will buy later. You have to gradually build a community that enjoys your product and content. It’s a slow nurturing campaign of emails, blogs and social posts. Maybe one day you’ll go viral, but even that 15-seconds of fame doesn’t last long. There are also some financial costs of organic traffic like buying a camera.
When all you have is time, here are some ways to reach a wider audience with your organic content:
share information to a Facebook group
offer a free service along with your product
offer a niche product that customers can only get from you
partner with another service
Marketing is never free. You’re either investing in an expert for paid traffic or time for organic traffic. When you do balance paid and organic traffic the time and money on both help create a higher return on your investment.