When a company reaches out to Skyrush Marketing, many times they ask us about “advertising.” However, advertising is just one piece of the marketing puzzle and it’s a common misconception that the two are interchangeable. In fact, marketing and advertising are two different terms with different meanings. Because we get this question a lot, we decided to write this post on the difference between marketing and advertising to offer businesses the opportunity to learn more about the services needed to promote their brand. To start, we want to cover the basics – advertising is a subset of marketing. Once you understand that, it is much easier to comprehend the nuanced differences in terms of logistics and costs. The following sections will provide overviews of marketing and advertising.
What is Marketing?
Miriam-Webster Dictionary defines the word marketing as “the process or technique of promoting, selling, and distributing a product or service.” But isn’t that pretty much the same as advertising? Well, yes and no. Advertising is putting out an ad to promote something you sell like homemade lemonade while marketing is everything leading up to that ad, including handing out free samples at the grocery store on a sunny afternoon. There’s lot more that goes into running a successful business than just having a quality product. This is where marketing comes in….to define questions like: Who is your target market? What are their needs and how does your product or service address those needs? How do you want to drive traffic? You may have a wide audience ranging from 18 years of age all the way through 65. And marketing means effectively getting your message across to each customer.
Advertising: A subset of marketing
Advertising is one of the many components that make up a brand’s marketing plan. Unlike marketing, advertising is a one-way form of communication and is usually served in front of a broader audience. This kind of advertising can be communicated through a variety of channels such as broadcast, print, native, social media and many more. Part of your marketing strategy is figuring out which channel works best to catch the attention of your target audience and this is where technology comes into play. The evolution of digital marketing has helped so many brands pinpoint the best tactics to match targeted consumer behavior and drive results.
Marketing vs. Advertising
As we said, advertising is one component of marketing, but there are others too. Check out the figure to the right for the multiple tactics that make up a comprehensive marketing strategy.
Skyrush Helps You Get the Best of Both
At Skyrush, we understand that a big part of marketing is advertising, which is why we often emphasis digital ads for our clients. However, we also want to stress that there are many more components needed to development, create and implement your digital marketing strategy. Skyrush provides a range of digital marketing services to make up a holistic approach and make sure your brand is well marketed. For instance, our web team works closely with our development specialists to ensure that our clients’ websites are built on sound architecture and are mobile-responsive and our SEO experts chime in to make sure the sites are fully optimized for organic search. Likewise, our team of content marketers create their unique content that gets added to the mix to enhance websites and advertisements. If you’re interested in learning more about how Skyrush Marketing, your New York Digital Marketing Company, can help you grow your brand, contact us for a free consultation.
