The organic growth plan and why it doesn’t just apply to SAAS businesses

Key points:

• Organic growth is about building and growing a funnel of content, assets and tools designed to move users into customers.
• SAAS businesses typically structure their websites around such a funnel with the primary goal of conversion.
• Typical business websites typically do not.
  ‍

Conclusion: by borrowing from the strategies of SAAS and other conversion businesses, businesses would see a far better return from their website and digital investments.
‍

A crash course in organic growth.

Organic growth is utilising your internal efforts to propel growth in your digital product.

I’m not talking about organic traffic generation (i.e., SEO, organic social), though efforts on or off-site designed to turn prospects into leads and customers.

Organic growth’s chief benefit is that you are utilising internal knowledge and capabilities to produce content and tools pertinent to your offering, which should differentiate you from your competitors.

The downside to organic growth is that it is slow-going, and your bandwidth limits you.

Organic growth is a long-term investment.
‍

Why don’t typical businesses utilise organic growth?

Your accounting practice, so you’ll look like an accounting practice.

Of course, there are other explanations:

1. A business is not seeking to sell. Its website is informative or a statement, though that is as far as it goes, e.g. a gas exploration business.
2. The business does not believe its website should overtly sell. For instance, a large law firm wishes to make a statement and would like the right people to make contact, though that is as far as the brand extends.
3. The business is too small to resource a program of organic growth.
   ‍

It is the first category, however, that can benefit. Businesses - large and small - that could and should invest in organic growth.

And it doesn’t have to be overt.
‍

What is an organic growth funnel?

An organic growth funnel illustrates the buying and owning stages:

1. Awareness: buyers become aware of the business, either through being made aware (social) or having an intent to purchase (search): efforts to provide initial background on the problem or opportunity the business’s product or service seeks to address.
2. Consideration: buyers are considering and comparing the product or service offering.
3. Conversion: nurturing buyers through converted leads or buyers.
4. Retention: where relevant to your business, tools and support to retain buyers.
   ‍

Here is the inverted funnel:

Organic growth funnels are not linear despite appearances.

To be clear, organic growth funnels are not linear, or at least the journey customers take is no longer linear.

The loyalty loop is arguably a better way to illustrate a customer's broader online and offline journey before they trial, buy, and recommend your product:

Visualising the linear funnel offers the advantage of being easy to understand and plot the efforts companies might make depending on where a customer is on their purchasing journey.
‍

Organic is slow, though its results are the best.

Organic customers are the best in all metrics: intent, attention, leads, and conversion-to-customers.

I mentioned before that organic growth was not organic traffic, though they are often related and the numbers are in:

💡Organic traffic converts (performs a desired action such as filling in a form on a landing page) at an average of 2.4%, while paid traffic from sources like AdWords converts at a lower rate, averaging 1.3%. (First Page Sage)

💡68% of online experiences begin with a search engine. (BrightEdge)

And now, let’s touch on the effectiveness of some of the activities you could consider in your business’ growth strategy:

Awareness: infographics

I pulled some amazing 2024 statistics on infographics for another article, and overwhelmingly, they dominate as a performing form of content and interaction.

💡Infographics outperform all other content with a 61% information retention.

💡Infographics are shared more than any other content.

💡And as an added SEO benefit, infographics produce 178% more backlinks than other forms of content.

Awareness: Webinars

Webinars are a great and inexpensive way to engage with early-stage buyers. The value exchange is clear: you get their data and they can ask questions and learn about your business, product or service.

💡The average conversion rate of a webinar registration page is 30% from new traffic. (ConvertKit)

💡Over half (53%) of marketers say that webinars (with an online signup form) are the top-of-the-funnel strategy that generates the most high-quality leads. (Demand Gen Report)

💡Webinars are the most popular type of content for B2B influencer marketing, with 81% of B2B marketers citing them as the most effective type of content (Search Engine Journal)

Awareness: Organic research reports

Otherwise known as whitepapers, which are replete with relevant and interesting statistics and data, whitepapers are shareable and valuable as part of the purchase process.

💡White papers are the most influential content type in the purchase process: 33% for small businesses, 52% for the mid-market and 69% for enterprises. (Eccolo Media)

Here is a great example from one of our clients.

Awareness: Free tools

Searches for tools such as calculators are often where the volume of searches are.

💡Interactive content, such as online surveys and calculators, can increase conversions by 4x. (Rock Content)

Consideration: Case studies

Case studies allow buyers to understand the long-term value your product or service could offer.

The key is to find a format that generates trust and is supported by data.

Then, refine your case studies based on engagement and reading time.

💡62.6% of marketers say that case studies are effective in generating leads. (eMarketer)

Conversion: Lead Magnets

Lead magnets give buyers access to free content or a valuable tool in order for them to sample your product or service.

For our digital agency, for example, it could be a free website teardown or SEO audit.

💡Companies that included a lead magnet in their email marketing saw a $44 ROI for every $1 spent. (Cision)

Conversion: Sales email journey

Collecting email addresses is a vital part of an organic growth strategy. I would need another article to list the multitude of impressive email statistics out there, though let’s agree:

💡Companies that excel at lead nurturing generate 50% more sales-ready leads at a 33% lower cost (Adobe).

Which organic growth strategies are suitable for my business?

It is important to stress that shaping a business website around a funnel does not mean it has to be overt and sales-looking.

Your brand and the customers you are after will determine how far and bold you go in that respect.

However, merely building a business website and assuming it will drive growth and accelerate from there is not enough.

Organic growth involves investing in content, tools and tactics to help customers become buyers.

Choosing which of these tactics is right for your business will come down to your business.

Start somewhere, monitor and optimise and grow from there.

‍