Is It Marketing Or Advertising?
 By Stephen A. Lanvil

Many small-business owners use the terms marketing and advertising interchangeably. That’s a big mistake.

Marketing and advertising are not the same thing. To be successful, you need to understand not only the differences between them, but also how to use each one effectively in your business.

Marketing Versus Advertising
To understand the differences, let’s start with a definition of each.

Marketing is the systematic planning, implementation and control of a number of different activities that are designed to attract customers. In short, it is the task of creating customers for your business.

Advertising is one of the many different activities that could be included within an overall marketing plan. It’s the mechanism by which you place a persuasive message in front of potential customers where, when and how you want to.

Marketing is strategic. Advertising is tactical.

Marketing lays out the big-picture plan for how you will attract customers, while advertising represents one of the tools that can be used to help accomplish this objective.

If you think of marketing as a pie, then advertising would be one slice, along with public relations, promotions, media planning, market research and personal networking.

The Marketing Plan
The first step to successful marketing and advertising is creating an overall marketing plan that details how various components will be used together to help create customers for your business. Your marketing plan should define:

• How you will make potential customers aware of your business, your products or your services
• The messages you want to convey to potential customers
• Specific methods (like advertising or networking) you will use to deliver and reinforce your messages
• How you will convert interest on the part of potential customers into actual sales

Although the term “sales and marketing” is common, note that there is a clear difference between marketing and sales. Sales will happen as a direct result of effective marketing, and may encompass such tactics as telemarketing and making sales calls.

The Four Ps of Marketing
In crafting your key marketing messages, focus on what are known as the four Ps of marketing:

1. How you will make potential customers aware of your business, your products or your services
2. The messages you want to convey to potential customers
3. Specific methods (like advertising or networking) you will use to deliver and reinforce your messages
4. How you will convert interest on the part of potential customers into actual sales

Where Advertising Fits In
With a marketing plan in place that provides strategic direction for your activities, you can begin to determine which types of specific activities will best help you reach your goal of attracting customers and making sales.

A number of different activities may help you reach this goal, one of which is advertising.

Today, there are myriad different advertising opportunities available to small business – everything from traditional Yellow Pages and newspaper ads to radio and television spots and Internet advertising.

Few businesses have unlimited advertising resources, so you must plan your advertising strategies carefully to get the most bang from your ad bucks.

First, look for inexpensive and cost-efficient ways to get your marketing messages across. Local media such as community newspapers, local radio, city magazines and billboards, will always be less expensive than national, so focus on these if your customers are local.

And don’t forget about word-of-mouth advertising: Satisfied customers can be walking and talking ads for your business, and they don’t cost you a penny.

Similarly, be sure to target your advertising carefully so you waste as little money as possible speaking to audiences that aren’t good prospects for you. For example, if you provide landscaping services within a defined geographic area, limit your advertising reach to homes within this area.

Finally, if you decide to try Internet advertising, look into technologies like search engine optimization (SEO) and pay-per-click (PPC). These can help you target your online strategies effectively and draw more prospects to your Web site.



(Posted August 2008)

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