Tuesday, May 26th, 2009

Marketing vs. Advertising — The Difference

marketing-smThe biggest problem that many beginner marketers have to deal with, when it comes to making money online is,  to understand the difference between marketing and advertising.

Simply defined:

  • Marketing refers to the procedure that is used by the business firm to introduce its good and services in the market.

On the other hand:

  • Advertising is something that has been adopted by the business to make its products or services look attractive in the eyes of the consumers in order to encourage them to buy.

When you make money online being able to market effectively is everything. In fact, even businesses that aren’t online need to market effectively or else they are doomed to failure.

In fact, many small business owners don’t understand the exact meaning of marketing, the difference between marketing and advertising; therefore,  confusing advertising for marketing is one of the most common misconceptions.

To explain the difference between marketing and advertising you need to understand the fact that marketing is much larger and broader than advertising when advertising actually is only one part of marketing.

But there is much, much more to marketing than advertising.

Obviously advertising is to get what you’re selling in front of other people and there are ways to advertise free and ways that cost money to advertise.

Fortunately, online you have many different ways to advertise your products and services while  some of the free ways to advertise include writing articles, writing blogs, and creating videos on YouTube.

Marketing as we mentioned earlier, includes everything you do and everything that’s a part of your business. Every email you send, every forum post you make, every Website you own, all the content you put on the Web, and anything else you do that’s related to your business is part of your marketing. This is especially true of the way you treat your customers.

Your relationship with your customers and your customer service is a huge part of your marketing also.

Always remember this: Everything you do is marketing your business, you can either help your business or hurt your business. So before you do anything try to evaluate first how it is affecting your marketing plan, how it is affecting your business.  Make sure that everything you do is helping you make your business better and improve the bottom line. Just keeping this in mind will help your business tremendously.

Another thing to remember and never forget is, the difference between marketing and advertising. If you think marketing is only advertising then you’re ignoring great chances to effectively market your business. And you’re probably hurting your business in ways you don’t even realize.

The mistakenly thinking that marketing and advertising is the same thing results in a substantial amount of marketing being ignored.

  • Always remember that everything you do that’s even remotely related to your business is part of the way other people see you and your business. Therefore it’s all part of your marketing and should be treated as such.
  • Your business will suffer if you do not address entire segments of marketing in your business. So, as long as you are in the business you need to remember the difference between marketing and advertising.

There is no need to say that one who’ve never studied Advertising, need to learn what it is all about: learn the basics and even more advanced techniques to market better his business.

The advertising genius, Claude Hopkin’s book — Scientific Advertising — is a classic and required reading for anyone serious about their business.

Check this to better advertise your business »