Advertising vs. Marketing

The Different Roles of Advertising and Marketing in Your Business

You’ve probably heard of advertising and marketing. Likely you’ve heard them in the same sentence. While advertising and marketing may seem to the same thing, they are in fact different. While the goal of both advertising and marketing is to sell a product or service, they are separate processes. To get the most out of your marketing and advertising plans, it is important to understand those differences.

Marketing

Marketing refers to the process of preparing your product for the marketplace. This involves knowing who your ideal customer is and what they want from your products and services. The design of your logo, the colors of your product packaging and the wording on your website can help align whatever you’re selling with your customer base. Marketing also includes how a business promotes itself, which can include advertising, public relations and branding. In essence, marketing has to do with every way customers encounter your business. While some business owners may have a good grasp of their marketing strategies without much thought, most need to carefully consider how their marketing affects their ability to connect with customers and clients. A sloppy approach to marketing can hurt profits.

Advertising

Advertising, then, is a marketing tool used to make your business and what is has to offer known in the marketplace. While marketing involves the ways in which you convince potential clients that you have the right services for them, advertising is how you communicate to them that those services exist. Advertising can occur online, in newspapers and magazines, on television, and a number of other places. Once you have a solid marketing strategy, consider which venues will help you best communicate with the people who want what you have to offer. Because your marketing strategy has identified your target audience, you can focus your advertising budget on the media that is most likely to help you successfully acquire new customers.

If you’ve already got a marketing plan in place, great! If not, consider a free consultation with a marketing professional at NWA, Inc. about how to better reach your ideal customer base.