Despite their interchangeability in everyday jargon, marketing and advertising are two different concepts.  Marketing refers to the research and branding, and strategy related to selling your services or products.  Advertising is just one of the ways that marketing is implemented.  Advertising is a message to the public announcing your company, services or products.

Advertising ties into your marketing strategy by staying on message.  Frequency and medium are factors to consider in ad marketing.  How can you best announce your company?  Billboards and signage are probably the most basic methods of advertising.  However basic, these strategies still get the message across and can work well for your marketing campaign.  Radio, television, and newspaper are advertising mediums that have been around for quite a while also.  Unlike signage, which is more static, media advertising can focus on a specific demographic via market, time of day, and related programming.

The newest marketing and advertising tool is the internet.  Virtual ads can draw traffic directly to the products and services on your website.  Because of the sheer amount of information available online, you can reach your targeted buyer even more efficiently through keyword search engine optimization.  In the past, you might have set up a billboard along the highway, hoping someone looking for your services would drive by, and be able to recall your company in the future.  With internet marketing, your ads show up right on the target customer’s doorstep as soon as they search for your keywords.

While search engine related company ads would be classified as advertising, there are other ways to market your company online.  One instance of online strategic marketing is blogging.  A blog is like an online journal.  It is interactive, meaning people can comment on your entries and you can reply to them.  It’s a great way to start a dialogue with existing and potential customers.  Blogs are meant to be fluid.  Ideally, new posts are added often, enticing blog followers to come back again and again.  In this way, your company can develop a loyal consumer population online.  While they may not be in the need of your products or services at the moment, when they are in need they will know they can go straight to your company.

Marketing and advertising are vital to your company’s sales and growth.  In the past, print, television, and radio have been great media for reaching your consumers.  However, it’s important to take a serious look at internet marketing to maximize your pool of potential customers.