What's The Difference Between Advertising & Marketing?
These two terms are often used interchangeably. When you talk about marketing your business, you might also say that you’re advertising it. Indeed, marketing and advertising share a very close relationship, although they do refer to two different things.
So, what’s the difference and why should you care?
Marketing
On a simple level, marketing involves everything to do with identifying your target customers and figuring out their wants and needs. From here, you will develop a strategy that focuses on meeting these demands. Marketing can include a whole variety of techniques and ideas, such as:
Search engine optimization
Direct mail marketing
Email marketing
Social media marketing
PR work
Hosting events
Guerilla marketing
The aim is to develop a brand image that your customers can connect with while promoting your products and services to them. It’s all about drawing in the people that will be interested in your business and convincing them to choose you.
Advertising
By contrast, advertising is more to do with paying to put your brand in certain places. You are still promoting your business, but you’ll pay to place adverts in places that will attract the attention of your customers. In this respect, advertising is basically a component of marketing. You can add it to the list of techniques above, and many advertising agencies will also have marketing expertise. After all, you can’t advertise without marketing your business. You need to develop your brand image, identify your target customers, and then develop adverts that reflect your marketing strategy.
Furthermore, just like marketing takes many forms, so does advertising. Here are some of the most common types of adverts you’re likely to see or use:
Print ads - usually found in newspapers or magazines
Billboard ads
Poster ads
Paid articles promoting your business/product
Broadcast ads - on TV or radio
Online ads - this opens up a whole other section of different ads: display ads, social media ads, video ads, etc.
The list goes on and on, but the key thing to remember with advertising is that it’s primarily a paid thing. Your business will pay to get your message out there, while other marketing techniques are technically ‘organic’. This means that people find and interact with your business of their own accord, rather than you paying to make your brand appear in their faces.
Why do you need to know the difference?
It is important to know the difference between marketing and advertising as it will help you develop your overall marketing strategy. The key thing is to understand how the two elements work with one another. Once you understand that advertising is part of your marketing strategy, you will be able to produce better adverts. You can develop ads that are built around your customers and their needs, ensuring you don’t waste money on adverts that aren’t made for your target audience. This will increase the efficacy of the advertising you put out!
Overall, every business needs a solid marketing strategy that includes various marketing techniques, alongside an advertising strategy as well.
