Have you only been focusing on paid traffic in an ‘attempt’ to grow your business? When you hear the word organic, do you think of sliding into DM’s and becoming another Spammy Tammy? Organic traffic is often the highest quality traffic one can attract.
Do it the right way, and this will help you create a thriving online community, and ultimately supercharge your businesses sales. Do it the wrong way, and you’ll have booked yourself a one-way ticket out of business. Let’s take a look at how to do organic growth, the right way.
What does growing organically mean? Organic growth is brilliantly defined on Terakeet.com as “the process of expanding your business through your own strategic efforts, resources, capabilities, expertise, marketing, content, relationships, etc.” Inorganic growth is defined as buying growth through paid advertising or corporate mergers and acquisitions.
There are so many advantages of growing organically, such as withstanding long term success and building a strong community. Additionally, if you are using strong search engine optimization you are mirroring how your customer is thinking - entering the conversation they’re already having and becoming the solution to a problem they’ve been searching for an answer to.
One of the best platforms to increase your exposure and grow organically is TikTok. According to Backlinko.com, TikTok currently has over 1 billion users, and the opportunity to reach that large of an audience doesn’t currently exist anywhere else. TikTok is also the most engaging app, with users spending an average of 10.85 minutes on the app daily.
How do you grow on TikTok and start driving organic growth to your page? There are so many professional TikTokers sharing their top tips & tricks (a great way to get noticed for your expertise). One person that stands out above all else is JT Barnett. He specializes in helping companies grow their TikTok and social media accounts, and offers some of the most valuable content for creators that we’ve seen on the platform to date. JT and Kevin chopped it up on the Systems For Success Podcast recently and discussed how to create viral sensations (like these posts he created, Post 1 / Post 2 / Post 3) as well as why everyone should be building a personal brand. To listen to the episode and get some amazing viral content hacks, click here.
We have never lived in a time where there has been a greater opportunity to grow your dream business online, and in this article I will be walking you through 12 Ways to Grow Organically Online so you will never feel lost in the overwhelming and seemingly endless social media space ever again.
In this article I'll be covering:
One of the easiest ways to grow organically online is to post on social media daily. Some of the most popular social media platforms are Instagram, TikTok, LinkedIn, and Twitter, which you really should be leveraging and posting some form of platform specific content every single day.
One platform is time consuming… How am I going to create the time to post on 5+? Batch your content! Take 2 days out of the month to create a content strategy, shoot content, and schedule it. Be yourself (everybody else is taken) and post things that are relative to your niche or what you’re passionate about.
Another great way to get more bang for your buck (content) is to repurpose your content for many different platforms and in many different ways. For example, you could take a picture of your product, program or service as well as a 3 second video. Use the 3 second video in a reel and as a story post to show some “behind the scenes” content, and use the photo in your newsletter linking back to your content. Additionally, you can also repost your TikTok videos on Instagram as a reel.
Pro Tip - We suggest using a website like SnapTik to remove the watermark so that Instagram is more likely to push the reel onto their explore page.
There are multiple online platforms that allow you to schedule a post in the click of a button, such as Loomly, HubSpot, and Planoly.. We recommend testing posting at different times to see what resonates most with your audience and choosing 3-5 branded hashtag groups. Hashtags should definitely not be a focus, but can be added as an addition to your content. Posts will get way more attention if they are being shared, rather than having the correct hashtags.
The Instagram algorithm favors videos because it increases the time they’ll spend on the app (which is great for business), and posting on TikTok has the potential to reach millions of people seemingly overnight. Videos are the easiest way to grow your audience, and if they like your content on TikTok they will naturally flow to your other social media platforms like Instagram and Youtube.
Some tips for going viral on TikTok include:
Ask people to be a guest on your blog! Have you ever considered sending someone that inspires you an email requesting 5-10 minutes of their time and a list of interesting questions so they can be a featured guest? Similar to a podcast, but without taking an hour or more of someone’s time or having to organize the scheduling of the episode. Who doesn’t like to be featured, and If they share the blog post this could bring thousands of new eyes to your blog!
Pro Tip - This grants you instant credibility with their audience, so choose your guests wisely and ensure there is a positive overlap for you and your business goals.
Curious how to find featured guests? Leverage your social media channels! Ask on your Instagram stories if anyone is interested, in your Facebook community, and people subscribed to your newsletter. People love to talk about themselves and would be thrilled to be a part of your blog because you’re positioning them as the expert on a given topic. Once the blog post is finished, send them an email with some sharing or content ideas for their social media so that they don’t even have to think about it.
The days of posting just to post are over… you know what I’m talking about! People want what you can do for them, and they will not hesitate to mute you. When creating content, this must be at the forefront of your mind.
“That’s great, Anna, but what does value mean?”
Some questions to keep in mind are:
A great way to get feedback on your content is to simply ask your community. Post a poll on your story and have people vote for what kind of content they want to see more of. You may be genuinely surprised by the results and feel inspired to start posting different content… but remember, don’t sacrifice what is authentic to you for a vanity metric.
Ask your audience questions, and actually value their opinion. Once they realize that you care about them, you’ll gain their trust… and once you gain their trust, you’ll start creating raving fans (this is the goal). People follow you, because of you… let them into your life and let your personality shine through.
Sharing relatable stories time and time again allows your audience to feel as if they’re a character on this journey with you. When you get really good at storytelling you can focus on a pain point that your ideal customer will relate to and will feel connected with… and eventually purchase from.
Last month, the SYNCHRONICITY team read Building A Story Brand by Donald Miller. A great starting point for anyone looking to clarify their message and master their marketing strategies through sharing their story authentically.
There are several courses you can take and YouTube videos to watch to help improve your SEO. Our favorite is the SEO Certification Course by HubSpot. It’s an outstanding A-Z course that covers everything from site mapping to topic clusters and how to attract and engage your audience.
You’ve heard the term before, but what exactly is SEO? Search Engine Optimization According to Optimizely.com is “the art and science of getting pages to rank higher in search engines such as Google. Because search is one of the main ways in which people discover content online, ranking higher in search engines can lead to an increase in traffic to a website.”
*Only 2-3% of people click beyond the first page of Google.
This is why it is so important to optimize your SEO so that your website ranks when people are searching for keywords your company or brand would benefit from being attached to.
A testimonial a day keeps the wicked witch of the west… that’s not right! Adding testimonials to your website and videos to your Instagram & Youtube channel is a fantastic way to leverage those who have already begun drinking your Kool-Aid. Not only does this give your audience a chance to be seen and feel heard, it creates a connection with members of your audience who don’t know you yet.
When people want to purchase from you the first thing they check are the reviews from past clients and/or customers. We are interpersonal beings who all crave connection… The funny thing is we often trust complete strangers' opinions more than our own instinct. Not something I’d recommend, but understanding how the human mind works is your first step in using it to your advantage.
Be careful not to make it overwhelming. 3-4 testimonials is sufficient. Choose ones that express your audience's deepest pain points and how they’ve used your product, program, or service to overcome them. Nothing seasons the buying atmosphere more than a great comeback story!
Repost these testimonials to your Instagram stories and add the link of your product, program, or service. The more that people see other people are working with you, the more they’ll start to trust you, and the more you’ll be at the forefront of their mind the next time they'll be actively looking for help.
Pro Tip - Create an Instagram highlight to feature all of your storied testimonials.
Ever tried to hold a conversation with someone who only talked about things you have absolutely zero interest in? Yeah… DON’T do that! Stick with what makes you insanely passionate and lights you up inside. You may feel called to go in 10 different directions, but it’s extremely important you start with one. Simplicity scales, complexity fails… Choose a niche. Stick to it. Expand later.
If you can’t figure out what that is, list out everything that you are exceptionally passionate about.
Ask yourself these questions to get the creative juices flowing:
When it hits, you will know because you will feel fulfilled. No matter how hard the work gets, you will never feel like you need a vacation to escape your current reality… and this is how you design your destiny!
Spending 10-15 minutes each day scrolling through Twitter, Instagram, and TikTok will allow you to stay up to date with what is trending, and quickly enter the conversation. This mostly applies to TikTok, but can be applied to other platforms if you add Newsjacking to your repertoire. Save trending songs and videos to come back to when you are reading to make content, but don’t sleep on this opportunity as TikTok naturally pushes content that is already trending.
Additionally, there are hundreds of TikTok accounts where people share trends before they take off. For TikTok optimization, spend time researching and compiling a list of the top keywords people are currently using within your niche… If you do this effectively, you’ll never have to think about what content to create again.
One Instagram account that does this exceptionally well is Eat Deux @eatdeux. They are an edible cookie dough brand that uses all the current trends & memes to create hilarious posts that catch your attention and leave you thinking “did they really just post that?”
Create content that other people want to share. This should be aesthetically pleasing and provide value. People will not repost images or quotes with huge logos, ugly text, or tacky layouts. We like using Canva to create nice graphics because they have pre-made templates and lots of high quality copyright free images.
Pinterest is a great social media platform to get inspiration. Once you have your brand's colors, create templates, font, and start creating your content. Before you post it, ask yourself, “would I repost this?”
At the end of every blog post, add a “send to a friend” button. At the end of every podcast, add a “send to a friend” button. Add the end of every post purchase page, add a “refer to a friend” button. Referrals are one of the best ways to get information spreading fast. If you did something to change someone's life they will share it with someone else. Make it easy for them to do so.
The power of referrals won’t become noticeable until you begin to track it. If you are online you can add a questionnaire to see where people found you. You can also track leads through HubSpot. If you have someone taking your sales calls, one of the first questions that you should ask is “Where did you hear about us?”, and "What initially sparked your interest to book this call?".
Once you realize how many people are coming to your website through referrals you may want to implement a larger incentive for people to do so. This blog linked here goes into more detail about different referral programs that you can sign up for. When people have a monetary incentive to refer a friend, they are even more likely to do so.
Dropbox created one of the best referral programs of all time. They offered an extra 500 MB of storage to each person that referred someone and the new person who signed up. As a result, membership for Dropbox went up 60% in 2010.
Find events to go to with other people in your field. If you can’t find any, create your own. Message people in your area on Instagram, post in your Facebook community, record your podcast LIVE! The options are endless. Spend time creating these connections every single day. LinkedIn and Eventbrite are also great ways to build community and find out about events going on in your area.
One of my friends was telling me that he gathers every single year with his 2 largest competitors. They take all of their employees to Mexico once a year and brainstorm ideas for a week. It seems crazy that someone would do this with their competitors, but at the end of the day the most sustainable relationships are win-win.
Thank you so much for taking the time to absorb all the information. I am so excited for you to get started implementing all of this organic traffic knowledge and see your business grow to levels you never thought possible.
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