Regardless of the type of marketing you and your brand may be pursuing, there are fundamental constants that must be considered. While these constants are important, cultivating a large-scale, multi-channel digital marketing effort requires understanding the nuances of each main channel and platform being used.

As a marketer, most platforms boil down to two main types of search components from users. While various forms of highly successful marketing (such as email marketing and social media marketing) may not rely heavily upon these elements, search engine and retail marketing efforts focus heavily on reaching users who perform specific searches.

Today, let’s examine the two main types of marketing and explain how they’re both valuable to marketing efforts.

Organic Search in a Nutshell

Perhaps the first type of marketing that most brands develop experience with is organic marketing. Simply put, organic marketing involves generating attention for your brand and its content without having to pay for visibility. Virtually every major digital platform through which content and offerings can be seen have organic search components.

Most notably, search engines offer immense organic search and marketing potentials. Through the use of SEO, brands can elevate their content in search rankings without spending any money and be seen by relevant audiences. Another prime example is social media: sharing content via your profile or your brand’s page can lead to organic visibility – and more specifically – opportunities for the content to be found through organic social media searches performed by users.

Paid Search Basics

Organic marketing requires a lot of work to be visible in most search results, which is why many decide that pinging links and posts in exchange for a fee is a better choice. For brands that are new or otherwise facing stiff competition, paid marketing tactics provide the ability to be immediately visible to targeted audiences. Particularly popular via PPC search campaigns, paid search revolves around targeting specific keywords and/or users depending on the platform chosen.

Through platforms like Google and Bing, paid search strategies can yield immense results in little to no time. However, ample research is necessary to deliver optimal results. With organic marketing, brands can trust search engine algorithms to push their content to relevant audiences when optimized. With paid marketing, however, brands must carefully select their targets and pick the right niches to target if their marketing solutions are to deliver the desired results.

Which Is Best for You?

Highly successful brands ultimately focus on both forms of search marketing, but you may not be in such a situation just yet. If your brand is new, young or otherwise cash-strapped, then building an organic marketing approach that helps content proliferate through organic search results is recommended.

If your brand has a marketing budget and can afford to run ads for various products, services or subscriptions, then targeting paid search can yield big returns on investment in little to no time.

Ultimately, knowing your brand’s long-term goals and abilities will determine whether it’s a better idea to start pinging links via paid or organic forms of marketing.

These two forms of search are crucial to marketing professionals and provide different types of benefits. While both help drive brand recognition, sales, clicks and other desired types of conversions, each one has strengths and weaknesses depending on your brand’s exact focus. Sit down, evaluate your marketing strategy, and decide which is the better choice right now for your brand!