Hi everyone, I hope you're well. Today's video is all about paid versus organic Instagram marketing. If you are that person who requested this video for me six months ago, I am so sorry. If you are any of the people who are like, "Well, I did request a different video six months ago and I've still not done it," I'm so sorry. I am getting there. The good news is I have so much content that this is just—I'm gonna be uploading every week for the rest of my life at this point. So I apologize that this has taken me a while to create, but it's such an important topic. I get a lot of DMs about it. So let's just get straight into it.
So first, I feel like I need to talk about what the difference is between organic Instagram marketing and paid Instagram marketing and just what they are in general, right? So organic Instagram marketing is quite literally Instagram content which hasn't cost any money, basically. So it's any content that you share on Instagram which has had no spend or money put behind it. So you know those reels that you posted yesterday or that carousel you posted last week, all of that stuff that you posted and you didn't press that boost button or you didn't put money behind it through Facebook advertising, you just shared it to your page—that content was organic because you have not put any money behind it to increase its reach, okay? That's essentially what organic Instagram marketing is.
Paid Instagram marketing is the opposite in that it's any activity that you are doing on Instagram which you have put money behind to increase its reach or to increase its performance. So when you're on your home screen on Instagram and you're scrolling away and you see a post pop up from someone who you don't follow and it has like a call to action that says something like "Shop now" or "Visit this profile," that is an ad, and that is an example of paid Instagram marketing. That brand has decided to spend money to increase the reach or performance of that piece of content. So that is what paid Instagram marketing is.
So one of the ways that you can actually think about paid Instagram marketing versus organic is by relating it to a really common theory, which is of course a marketing theory. I hope you're ready. It's time for Jade's marketing lesson. And which is basically called push and pull marketing. The idea behind push—you know what, if you're not interested in marketing theory, you could just skip straight past this part. But the idea behind push and pull marketing is that push marketing is any marketing which pushes your brand in front of your audience. So we're talking about things like TV ads where a brand has paid to be pushed in front of that audience. So anything where you feel like you are pushing your brand and your messaging and your content in front of an audience is a form of push marketing. Now, the opposite is pull marketing. Pull marketing is any form of marketing where you are pulling a consumer towards your brand. So you are doing something which is making the consumer want to come to you. So an example of this, which is Instagram-related, is like PR. You get a really good article published about your brand in Vogue or something and the result is that people seek out more information about your brand. So you've got that article and then you've pulled all of these people towards you. Right? So if we think about push marketing and pull marketing, how they relate to kind of Instagram and paid versus organic is that push marketing, when you're pushing your marketing in front of people, that is paid advertising. You are pushing your brand onto other people's home feeds so that when they are scrolling, they see it. Right? Pull marketing is very closely related to organic marketing. You are creating content which you are not putting any money behind. You're just creating it and because it's so good and it's so effective, people are seeing it, the algorithms pushing it out to people and therefore people are coming to you. They're seeing your post on the Explore page and they're like, "Oh, that looks great." And they're looking at your content, they're interacting with you, they're following you. They're literally coming to you. As you can imagine, pull marketing, if you've managed to do it properly, is incredibly effective.
The pros of organic marketing is that it's free. What you're doing shouldn't really cost you any money in regards to you having to pay Instagram. It might cost you money to produce your content and all of that kind of stuff, but in a nutshell, when it comes to you posting it and, you know, actually setting it live, that part's actually free of charge. The other pro to it, in my opinion, the biggest pro that a lot of people overlook, is that it forces you to get really good at your content strategy because you are literally trying to create content which is pulling people towards you. You have to spend the time, the resources, whatever it is, to get really clear on who your audience is, get really clear on what your content pillars are, really clear on what your marketing strategy is. And the result is that you end up having a very, very powerful Instagram channel which is basically working for free for you, but which is actually effectively pulling people into your brand.
The pros of paid Instagram marketing is that it allows you to get in front of a lot of people. And Facebook has really great targeting functionalities where it basically allows you to target people who are specific age, who have specific gender, specific location, have specific buying habits or interests. It gets really granular so that is a huge benefit to paid advertising. It is guaranteed to get you in front of people. You don't have to worry about like the algorithms if you don't want to spend the time learning how to do them. Also, something which I teach you in my course but if you don't want to spend the time learning how to do them, paid gets rid of that for you and it just basically guarantees that your content is going to be seen by this specific audience.
I'm guessing that you watched this video because you were like, "Oh, I don't know which one to choose." Maybe you're like, maybe you already have paid advertising, you don't know whether you want to go to organic or maybe it's the other way around. I don't know. But you're probably wondering, you know, what do I think is the best one for you to have? And you may have guessed if you've watched this entire video. My biggest recommendation to you and any of the clients I ever work with is to nail your organic Instagram marketing first. This process of nailing your organic Instagram marketing allows you to really get down to grips with what type of content your audience responds well to, what type of content they convert to, what features you need to be using on Instagram, what messaging you need to be using, all of that stuff, what goes into your strategy. When you have that nailed, that's when you move over to paid advertising and that's when you start spending your hard-earned cash on promoting this proven content that you know is going to do well for you. You follow those two steps and you do it in that order. That is, in my opinion, how you are going to see the most success.
Q: What is organic Instagram marketing?
A: Organic Instagram marketing is Instagram content that has not had any money spent on it to increase its reach. It includes posts that have not been boosted or promoted through paid advertising.
Q: What is paid Instagram marketing?
A: Paid Instagram marketing refers to any activity on Instagram that has had money put behind it to increase its reach or performance. This includes sponsored posts or ads that have a call to action to promote a brand or product.
Q: What is the difference between push and pull marketing in an Instagram context?
A: Push marketing involves pushing your brand or content in front of an audience through paid advertising, while pull marketing attracts consumers to your brand through engaging and high-quality content that is not promoted through paid means. Pull marketing is more closely related to organic marketing.
Q: What are the pros and cons of organic marketing?
A: The pros of organic marketing include being cost-effective as it does not require spending money on promoting content, and it forces you to develop a strong content strategy. However, the reach may be limited compared to paid marketing. The cons include slower growth and limited reach without paid promotion.
Q: What are the pros and cons of paid marketing?
A: The pros of paid marketing include reaching a larger audience through targeted advertisements and guaranteed exposure to specific demographics. However, it can be costly and may not always result in engagement or conversions. The cons include potential oversaturation of ads and reliance on budget for visibility.
Q: Why is it recommended to focus on organic marketing before paid marketing on Instagram?
A: Focusing on organic marketing first allows you to understand your audience better, refine your content strategy, and identify what works best for your brand without the immediate cost. It helps in establishing a strong foundation before investing in paid advertising, leading to more effective and targeted campaigns.