Small business owners tend to confuse marketing and advertising as the same thing. Advertising is a very important component of marketing, but it is not the same. Marketing is the process of creating interest in customers for products and services. Marketing generates the strategy that underlies sales techniques, business communication and business development. Marketing is the complete package and advertising is a component.
Advertising is an important element of your marketing strategy and probably the most expensive. Advertising is about sending messages about a company, its products and services. Advertising also includes putting together a number of methods for targeting viewers and engaging them in becoming customers. Advertising includes placing ads, deciding what media to use, how often and when the ad will run. Different types of media are used to distribute the ads. TV, direct mail, newspaper, Internet, emails, radio, magazines, text messages, flyers, billboards, etc. They are among the different means used to distribute advertisements. Different media for different businesses, not all media are for everyone.
Advertising is simply one part of the marketing mix. The other parts include product research, product design, media planning, public relations, product pricing, customer satisfaction, customer support, and the list goes on and on. All these elements work independently but they all work to achieve the goals and objectives set by the company, sell products or services and build a reputation in the market. Advertising alone will not produce results, and copying what others do will certainly fail. What works for some does not necessarily mean that it works for others.
Advertising is not effective if proper research is not followed. Research is understanding the needs and expectations of customers. Product design is next and can be time consuming. Followed by advertising and sales. Marketing brings it all together as you strategize to be successful.
Advertising can become very expensive and worthless if it is not done correctly and if important steps are not followed. Branding is important, but a logo does not guarantee sales, a logo represents the values and reputation of a company and it takes time to build and be recognized. Small business owners must first invest time and money in knowing their customers, knowing their expectations, and educating them. After getting to know your customers and aggressively building a database, they should go into advertising and promoting their products and services. In this way, a complete marketing campaign will be successful and generate sales.