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Marketing vs Advertising: What’s the Difference?

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Nov 6, 2018

Marketing vs Advertising: What’s the Difference?

Marketing and advertising are two necessary components for making your business grow and thrive. Marketing vs advertising isn’t a competition as much as a comparison. Too many businesses lump them together.

It’s best to think of marketing as a giant umbrella that covers many different divisions. One of them is advertising. It’s a very important aspect of marketing, but its only one slice of the pie. Who doesn’t like pie?

It’s important for businesses to differentiate the two. This helps create a marketing plan that is efficient and effective. Believing marketing is just advertising is like eating an omelet with just cheese and leaving the ham, bacon and sausage out. You’re missing out on a tasty meal.

Marketing Vs Advertising: Why the Confusion?

There’s a reason why marketing and advertising are often compared. Before the digital revolution, many small businesses primary method of marketing was advertising. It all started with local newspaper advertising. Radio and television ads came next, but that was all they did.

Small businesses were limited when it came to marketing options. Many didn’t realize what they were doing was marketing. When the grocery store created a float for the local parade, it was a form of marketing. The float was part of the civic pride and they didn’t even realize it was also marketing their business.

This is called public relations. It’s when you do something that makes your company look good to your customer base. Many times public relations incorporates social responsibility as well.

This is when the company does something that gives back to the community. It could be a can drive for the local food bank or building solar panels to power your factory with green energy and then releasing that news via a press release.

Advertising Isn’t Chump Change

When someone uses advertising, they’re using a paid ad in a specific medium. There are many mediums for advertising including newspapers, radio, television, online, billboard, and even bus benches and taxi cabs. It’s anything that a business pays for that’s designed for customers to see. This entices them to visit the store or website.

The cost of advertising depends on the size of the ad and how long people see it. A small ad seen once in a weekly newspaper will cost less than a full page ad seen five times at a daily newspaper.

Look Mom, I’m on “the Google”

Online ads are a little different. The primary method they’re shown is through a pay per click approach. Google, Facebook, and other agencies use this method. You bid on specific keywords, phrases and target audiences and create an ad based on these targeting measures.

Other companies also bid for these phrases and you compete for placement. Your bid and your ad score work together to get you placed. Online ads include search ads placed at the top and bottom of search pages. Mobile phones and apps show mobile ads. Websites show display ads. Video ads are videos you can show on YouTube and other sites.

There are many different types of advertising for the Internet. There is even more to marketing.

What is Marketing?

Marketing is a blanket term for anything you do to promote your business to customers. These methods could cost money or they could be free. They’re all aspects of your marketing plan. It could be word of mouth from customer to customer or search engine optimization for specific keywords on your website.

The marketing blanket includes advertising. It’s a step by step process that has many moving parts. Each of these parts acts independently. They also work together to create an overall marketing plan.

Marketing is anything you do to create an interaction between you and customers. It includes social media, advertising, market research, public relations and more. Marketing is more like a quilt than a blanket with each aspect making up a patch on the quilt.

Digital marketing is an offshoot of overall marketing. It deals with efforts on digital platforms.

Marketing Goes Digital

Anything you do to promote a business or website online is digital marketing including advertising.

SEO

Search engine optimization is the effort to make your website more visible on organic search pages, primarily Google. It includes keyword research and implementation on your site, the creation of valued content and user experience on your website. Over 50 percent of traffic comes from organic searches.

Social Media

Instagram, Facebook, Pinterest, and other social media platforms engage and interact with existing and potential customers. Everyone watches those crazy cat videos and shares with everyone and their cousin.

You don’t need cats to get social media traction… but it doesn’t hurt. Social media posting is free, but if you want to reach more people then use paid options such as paid advertising and boosted posts.

Here is an instance where two separate marketing areas interact.

Reputation Management

There are many business listing and review sites on the Internet. Many times they rank well in searches. It’s important that your listings are correct. People may get the wrong information about your site and that could keep them from your website or business. Reviews are also important as they impact how people see your business.

Negative reviews may keep people from trusting your business or visiting your site. Good responses to negative reviews can turn it into a positive. It shows your business cares about the customers and their experience.

It also shows you care about how your employees conduct themselves. Sites such as Yelp and Facebook are popular for reviews. People trust online reviews as much as opinions from friends and 90 percent of people check out reviews before buying.

Drive It Home… One Headlight Optional

It’s important all your marketing efforts work towards a common goal. This is where your marketing plan comes into play. It governs all your marketing efforts and keeps them on track for specific goals.

For example, if you have a sale and want to promote it, then social media, advertising, content marketing and more all create a buzz for it.

If you want to learn more about marketing vs advertising and how they work together to better your business, then visit our website.

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