Marketing Versus Advertising

Is marketing the same thing as advertising? 

Hardly.

Advertising or “building your brand” is fine if you run a massive company with money to burn.

But advertising can be a major waste of money if you run a small to medium-size company. 

Here’s why…

Advertising has the following flaws:

1. It’s effectiveness is not measurable.
2. It tries to target a wide audience (…thereby connecting with few people).
3. It lacks a strong call to action.
4. It often fails to build a relationship with your prospects.

If you can’t measure the effectiveness of your advertising dollars, it’s easy for advertising firms to hide behind “building your brand.”

Marketing considers your market, your customer’s psychology, your products, your competitors, cross-selling, up-selling, down-selling, pricing, your sales funnel, your selling and servicing systems, behavioral economics, customer behavior, and more.

Marketing is more comprehensive and more personal.

Good marketing is highly targeted within a narrow niche of prospective customers.  You can track the response rate, identify campaigns that are winning or losing, and you can quickly move prospects from digesting your marketing to buying your product or service.

Forget advertising in an effort to “brand” your product.  Instead, use marketing to get to know your customer, help your customer get what he or she wants, and build a long-term relationship.

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