Organic vs. Paid, What Matters?! : Elifunt B2B Content Meetup 5th

Organic or Paid, which marketing should our team focus on more?

This is a question that B2B marketers are bound to ponder deeply. Have you found your own answer?

Elifunt's last meetup of the year, We have arranged a time to share insights on Organic Paid marketing from active B2B marketers!

Held with great success at Maru 180 on Wednesday, December 4th at 7 PM, this seminar was the last meetup hosted by Elifunt in 2024. Thanks to our impressive lineup of speakers and participants from various industries, the venue was packed to capacity.

Elifuntits organic marketing strategy, Jellyfishshared its paid marketing strategy. To ensure this wasn't just theory, EventUs, Bungee, and Ringleshared real-world examples of how Organic + Paid strategies are applied. We have summarized the highlights of this meetup, which was more informative than ever. Check it out right now! 👇

Elifunt CEO Kim Ye-ji: Successful Organic Marketing Strategies for B2B Companies 📈

In the first session, CEO Kim Ye-ji of Elifunt for B2B firms under the title "Successful Organic Marketing Strategies forB2B Companies." In particular, the session provided an opportunity to explore the future direction for B2B marketers through the emerging trend of SGE (Generative Search Experience). What does Elifunt suggest for the present and future of B2B organic marketing?

Where should I start with organic marketing? 🛣️

Organic marketing is crucial for B2B companies. This is because well-crafted content accumulates as an asset, becoming a weapon that creates a significant competitive edge over rivals as time goes on. In particular, achieving top rankings for content through SEO generates consistent traffic over the long term, playing a vital role in the process of customers recognizing our services and making decisions.

So, where should Organic marketing begin? It starts right at the website. Since the website is the first space where all potential customers encounter us—whether for Organic or Paid marketing—you must ensure that every aspect, from the structural design to the actual content published, is high-quality.

Good B2B content = Content that satisfies both potential customers and search engines 📖

Elifunt believes that B2B content must be able to satisfy two types of readers simultaneously. Here, the two types of readers are potential customers who actually enter the service through search, and search engines that display content at the top of search results .

First and foremost, good B2B content must satisfy our true readers: our "potential customers." We need to build a strong relationship of trust with our audience based on the messages and stories we wish to convey through our website, blog, customer case studies, and more. Potential customers can only be converted into valid leads when we genuinely empathize with their problems and present solutions.

Secondly, you must satisfy search engines. To achieve this, an SEO (Search Engine Optimization) strategy is essential. No matter how much effort you put into creating content, it cannot reach potential customers if search engines do not understand it. Since search engines must understand the message our content (website) aims to convey in order for it to be exposed for desired keywords and for it to rank highly in search results, B2B companies must consider SEO as the most essential factor when writing content!

If asked which of the two readers is more important, it is obviously our real potential customers. SEO is merely a mechanism to ensure our content is exposed to the world. It is about (1) refining good content that can help customers (2) so that it can be found when they search!

The New Trend in Organic Marketing: GEO 🤖

The primary objective of traditional organic content marketing was to convert readers acquired through SEO into leads. However, a new acquisition trend has emerged recently alongside changes in the customer search journey: GEO, or 'Generative Search Experience Optimization.'.

I am also personally experiencing the trend of information retrieval through generative AI. Lately, when searching for information, I have been using Copilot, Perflexity, or Search GPT instead of Google. I am satisfied with the fact that, unlike traditional search engines, I can search for desired information in the form of unrefined sentences.

Similarly, traffic from generative search is also on the rise in the B2B market. Achieving high rankings in generative AI search differs slightly from achieving top search result exposure through SEO.

Generative AI is known to learn from recognizable brands and prioritize their exposure. Therefore, for GEO, a new search trend, we must cultivate brand consistency and strengthen our expertise in our topics. Of course, efforts to improve content quality should naturally come first!

5 Common Insights from the B2B Content Meetup

At this 5th meetup, there were common insights emphasized by the four speakers. As if by prior agreement, they delivered similar messages from different perspectives. I have summarized the five insights that the speakers repeatedly mentioned.

1. 1. Organic and Paid should be viewed as a single flow.
   All the speakers emphasized the importance of viewing the two channels not as separate entities, but as a single stream. I was reminded that true synergy is achieved only when we understand the distinct characteristics of Organic and Paid and utilize them in a complementary manner
2. 2. Ultimately, the key is content quality!
   Both SEO and paid services are meaningless without high-quality content to back them up. Please remember that, especially in B2B, content must become a tangible asset that helps solve customers' problems,!
3. 3. Streamlining marketing channels is a necessity, not an option.
   To achieve maximum results within limited resources , accurately measuring and optimizing the efficiency of each channel is essential. I was particularly impressed by the insight—as seen in the Ringle case—that it is crucial to flexibly manage marketing resources, such as B2C or B2B, depending on the season!
4. 4. A long-term strategic perspective is particularly important in B2B.
   while immediate results are important, building sustainable marketing assets is even more critical. Especially in B2B, since consistent trust building is key rather than a one-time campaign, it is necessary to have a big picture in mind and take a step-by-step approach.
5. 5. Actively utilize new technologies to increase work efficiency.
   You can rapidly improve work efficiency by actively utilizing rapidly emerging technologies such as GEO (Generative Search Experience Optimization), AI-powered content creation, and Performance Max.

It was fascinating to see similar messages repeated despite the sessions being conducted from various perspectives. Haha. I think they felt even more persuasive because they were insights gained from actual on-the-job experience.

See you in the upcoming 2025 for an even more insightful B2B meetup! 🙋‍♀️

Thanks to the enthusiastic participation of various B2B marketers, Elifunt was able to successfully complete a total of five meetups this year. Although all meetups prepared for 2024 have concluded, we look forward to sharing deeper conversations with even more people at next year's events, which we are ambitiously preparing!

Elifunt's B2B meetups are always packed with content—self-proclaimed and acknowledged by others (haha). If you are looking forward to the 2025 event, please subscribe to Elifunt Newsletter ! You will be the first to check event news!

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