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By Rachel Doran, Tell Your Tails | February 2023

Organic vs. paid social-media marketing: what’s the big difference? Should you be budgeting for paid social-media marketing in your pet-sitting business? We’ve got the full scoop on the difference between organic and paid and how to choose. Plus, how you can integrate the two!

What is Organic Social-Media Marketing?

Organic social-media marketing refers to posts that are posted without any payment. If you’re currently using social media for your pet business, this is likely what you’re already doing. Any free content that you post—whether posts, Stories, videos, etc.—is considered organic.

So, who sees these organic posts? Well, firstly, your followers, or more accurately, a percentage of your followers, are shown these posts. This is called your ‘organic reach.’ At first, your post is shown to a chunk of your followers, and if it performs well, the social-media algorithm will often show it to a wider net of your followers.

These organic posts can also be seen through any of the hashtags you use. Anyone following a hashtag or searching for a hashtag you use may possibly see your post.

So, what does this all mean? What are the results or effects you can expect to see from organic social-media marketing? Organic social-media marketing is incredibly important. It is the backbone to your social-media marketing, and without it, your paid marketing wouldn’t have anything to stand on.

At organic marketing’s core, it is all about building your brand, increasing brand awareness, and nurturing your customers. This means, your primary focus should be on your existing followers. Your existing followers are likely a good amount of current customers plus some potential customers interested in learning more about your services.

Tailor your organic content to your existing followers! Think:

• “What do my customers need to see to… learn more about our brand and what we stand for?”
• “What do my customers need to see to… feel safe and comfortable using our services?”
• “What do my customers need to see to… refer other customers our way?”

This doesn’t mean that organic social-media marketing can’t get you new followers. Through post sharing, hashtag usage, and just the way the algorithm works, there are opportunities to show up on the feeds of people who don’t follow you. But, keep in mind, those opportunities are slim in comparison to how many followers’ feeds you’ll show up on.

So, again, focus on your existing followers. If you provide them with information and a brand to really rally behind, new followers will flow in naturally.

P.S. If follower count is your primary goal right now, we suggest taking a look at this helpful blog post, Setting social-media goals for your pet-sitting business, to help you reconsider and reframe your goals!

What is Paid Social-Media Marketing?

Think of paid social-media marketing as today’s advertising. Gone (well, mostly) are the days of TV or radio commercials. Instead, social-media posts are advertised to users when they’re scrolling through an app.

Paid social-media posts are exactly what they sound like. You pay for them to be posted, and in turn, the posts are shown to a larger, and more targeted, audience.

So, unlike organic social-media marketing, the goal of paid social-media marketing is to grow your audience and get new eyes on your content.

Paid social-media posts can do a wonderful job of bringing in new potential customers, but of course, they come at a price (literally). This means that most brands can’t exist solely with paid social-media marketing. Instead, a combination of organic and paid is what you’ll most commonly see.

Should You Use Organic or Paid?

First and foremost, do what you think is best for your unique pet-sitting business. Consider your goals.

Are you trying to grow your business and get new clients? Consider paid posts.

Or are you trying to keep things low-stress and easy with your current client load? Organic may be the place to be.

P.S. Keep in mind that, as business owners, we get that we always want growth in some form. Having a waitlist of clients is certainly a nice, comforting feeling. But if your money, time, and resources are better spent on things like… growing your team or improving your existing service offerings, skip the paid posts for now. You can always start to add paid posts once you’re in a position to take on new clients.

Reminder:

• Organic posts are for your existing followers.
• Paid posts are for getting new followers.

Many businesses only use organic social-media marketing. And that is totally okay!

But, if you’re interested in paid social-media marketing, and want to make sure you’ve got a good strategy in place, then here are some tips and things to keep in mind.

• Always, always, always have a goal in mind when you’re brainstorming a paid post. What is the purpose of this post? And most importantly, what do you want your viewers to do after seeing your post? Are they booking a consultation call with you? Are they joining your email list? Always have a specific, actionable goal in mind.
• When crafting a paid post, you can either ‘boost’ an already existing post or create an ad totally from scratch. No method is better than the other. It simply depends on what you’re trying to achieve with your post.
• Be particular about what you make into a paid post. Money doesn’t grow on trees. We really can’t stress it enough, but make sure your post is clear and actionable. There’s something very specific a reader should do after they see your post. This means that cute picture you popped up on Instagram of Buster on a walk? Not the type of post to boost!
• Most social-media platforms will ask you to fill in parameters for your paid post. Things like demographics and time period should always be something that you get to fill in. This gives you control over the ad to ensure it’s reaching the right people at the right time.
• Target your posts to people who are similar to your organic audience. Look at who follows you currently and consider your current clientele. Match their demographics and other details when targeting your ads.
• It's so important to analyze. Slapping up a post and throwing some dollars at it is just that; it’s dollars lost. Instead, you want to make sure you have a strategy in place. And a big part of that strategy is making sure that you’re analyzing results. There are lots of numbers that you can look at, but at the very least, ask yourself: How did this ad do? What changes can you potentially make to improve your next ad’s performance? These are key questions that need to be discussed with every single paid post.

Now tell us, have you used paid social-media marketing for your pet-sitting business? What are your top tips? What has worked well for you? We’d love to hear!