I’m certain that you market your business. But, do you advertise your business?
I’ve heard so many web-based small business owners do their best to avoid using the word advertise that I’ve begun to wonder why. I’ve worked with enough clients offline to know that it’s not small business owners in general. Offline businesses use advertising constantly to get the word out about their business.
But it seems different for online small businesses. Somehow it seems that the word advertise is unclean or dishonest or something. While I haven’t quite put my finger on it, it is obvious that online small business tend to look at advertising differently. They often don’t consider placing ads – even Google Adwords.
This strikes me as odd because a few, well-placed advertisements can often drive far more than business than their cost.
But the more interesting thing is watching how web-based small business owners avoid using the term altogether. Sure, they talk about marketing, but rarely about advertising. Why do you think that is?
Yet advertising is simply a part of marketing. The best, simple, explanation of the difference between marketing and advertising was written by Rick Cockrum some time back.
“Marketing is the sum of the activities you perform to get the word out about your business and attract the customers you want. Advertising is one marketing activity. It usually entails publishing paid announcements about your business. At our theatre we advertise in the local paper weekly. Our marketing consists of a website, word of mouth from our customers (our best marketing), involvement in local activities, public service functions, involvement with local business groups, (etc)… . You can see that advertising, while important, is only a small part of marketing.”
Rick goes on to suggest that you should “use both.”
I fully agree. I’m a huge – I mean huge – proponent of word-of-mouth marketing and client referrals. Yet it can be difficult to grow a successful business just by word-of-mouth. I’m not saying it can’t be done. Heck, I did it myself. But I know that the right ads in the right places can speed up the growth process immensely.
And advertisements work. No doubt about it. Otherwise Pepsi, McDonalds, Ford and every other company in the world wouldn’t spend the money on it. Even spam email works. And that’s basically what spam is – a paid advertisement sent to your inbox. What makes it spam is that you’ve not given the sender permission to email you about their product. Yet spam must work otherwise no one would be paying spammers to send their messages.
Advertising, for good or bad, simply works. That’s not the question.
The question? Is adverstising working for your business? If so, how; what sort of results have you gotten? If not, why not; what have you tried and how did it turn out?
And if you’ve not tried paid advertising on the web, why not? What keeps you from jumping in?
Let’s talk about it.
(note: image from Pink Ponk on Flickr, 
some rights reserved)
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My name is Dawud Miracle and I'm a
98 responses so far ↓
Good writing. Keep up the good work. I just added your RSS feed my Google News Reader..
Matt Hanson
Dawud, it occurs to me that the webworld is a very incestuous one. Unless you are spending a great deal of time in front of the computer, you have other channels for either purchasing or marketing. I suspect that this is the reason why there is so little advertising for online businesses.
I need to learn how to use adwords. Or pay someone to set it up for me. I just haven’t taken the time/invested the effort. Yet.
I will have some media products soon, so it is on my list!
The approach of marketing is what makes people avoid the word advertising like a plague.
Most ads use hard selling approach. I never click on them. I use Google to locate information, never directly to a product.
However, I found myself clicking on WebTrends ads in the past, since I’d like to download their white papers. Using this approach certainly helps increase click through. With proper lead nurturing process, this can also be very profitable.
I don’t yet advertise because I currently have more work than I can handle, coming from word of mouth, referrals and as a sideline from my blog.
As for when I do get around to advertising, I’m not going to do so online. First off, for one portion of what I do (build small websites for small business), there’s a lot of competition. But locally to where I am there’s ONE company in the whole county who does anything remotely similar and they make very pretty but ultimately not very functional or easy to use sites (from the client’s perspective) for literally ten times what I charge. I could easily and quickly make a list of ten things they don’t do that hurt their client’s sites. (javascript navigation for starters)
But hey, they sure do look nice.
So back to the advertising – I’m going to focus on my offline local market.
Interesting. I didn’t know “advertising” should be a dirty word, so I am doing some advertising, but I only just started, so I can’t tell you much how it’s doing yet.
I just paid my web designer for a Flash ad on my website to sell my services and e-Book. I have noticed a few more views of those pages in my analytics, but no conversions yet. I think you need traffic first.
So, I just tried 2 small ads on 2 small-ish blogs to try it out. I do not expect too many hits, but wanted to fine-tune any “issues” I might have before I get thousands to my site (hopefully LOL), kwim?
I think the only thing you can really do with advertising is try something and see if it works for your business. I ignore so many ads subconsciously that I really don’t know how anyone makes money advertising on blogs, but I figured the “big boys” wouldn’t do it if it didn’t work, so I tried it. But, I don’t see advertisements for Big Macs on blogs, either.
We’ll see what happens.
well, i don’t see a big difference however, marketing sounds a little bit professional
Advertising is an optional tactic. Marketing is necessary for survival.
Dawud–
I dislike advertising as a general rule. I’ve placed my clients in glossy magazines and online ads, but really they never get the response the client wants (I try to tell them 1% or less but they don’t hear). I do much better with press releases and newsletters.
I recently bought a Marble Slab Creamery and decided to remove my prejudice and do some advertising. Thhh. Very low results. We did better heavily handing out buy one get one free cards.
That being said, I agree with Rick about advertising being a component of marketing. Whether it’s necessary for all businesses, that’s a question each business has to find out for themselves.
Deceptive advertising is a dirty word often associated with web banner ads and adwords ads. They get higher click-thru rates than honestly placed branded ads, but whats the point. Conversion rates will be much higher with targetted and honest ads, while bringing the click-thru budget down.
Well, this is intersting. The best way to distinguish between advertising and marketing is to think of marketing as a pie, inside that pie you have slices of advertising, market research, media planning, public relations, product pricing, distribution, customer support, sales strategy, and community involvement. Advertising only equals one piece of the pie in the strategy. All of these elements must not only work independently but they also must work together towards the bigger goal. Marketing is a process that takes time and can involve hours of research for a marketing plan to be effective. Think of marketing as everything that an organization does to facilitate an exchange between company and consumer.
We definitely advertise online. And it has been a fantastic decision. Using mainly PPC set up on various medical website. Our Advertising has has a good conversion rate (which we can actually track) and the ads act as a form of marketing via brand impression.
Great post however I would like to comment about the SPAM part. CA did a study, and you can find it by googling, “accepting SPAM for a free computer.”
Most SPAM is nefarious and designed to engage in fraud or deliver spyware. The small amount of that is legitimate is for pharmacuticals and porn. Those two businesses probably do not need the advertising, but someone still thinks they do.
Advertising is a great way to build name recognitiono and advice for small businesses, SPONSOR LOCAL TEAMS AND CHARITY NEWSLETTERS!
You get your name out, you may get press, and hey your team could go to nationals!
I definitely agree that advertising does work. However, PPC can be very tricky. You have to be very cunning and detailed to be able to have a successful campaign. With PPC you will find that certain word arrangements or web addresses perform better than other ads with basically the same message. Therefore, I think that the work involved with running this kind of campaign deters a lot of people from using it(me included).
I accept we just started up a website to help our society .We trying to bring some positive ideas into the websites world since it seems like most of the time negative ideas seem to sell much better bigger than positive ideas. I agree there is too much room for exploitation in the web marketing line.The most funnniest thing is what you learn before getting to your desired goal .
nice post, i just visited your site through google search for marketing info. found great and informative.
I think after reading everyones comments people are just scared of spending some money in advertisement when they feel the return won’t be as much as they put in. I think most people are just scared especially with Adwords and PPC campaigns which can soak up tons of money and never result in conversions. It’s as if the mentality of the big boys use it but it won’t work if we competing against them and certain terms. I do believe that small business should at least try different mediums of advertisement and see if any works best for them not just write it off.
difference ? not really, just that marketing sounds more professional…other than this, both words mean the same thing
Advertising I have always viewed as the promotion or presentation of a product or service to potential or existing customers, whilst marketing implies (for me at least) planning of different activities designed to bring buyers/end users and sellers together to transact. Advertising is one way of marketing a product or service, or is one component of a marketing strategy.
I think that our society has been over marketed to and this has given advertising a bad name. I do believe you’re right when you say advertising can make more than it costs. It can also cost more than it makes. It is a matter of how good your marketing is.
Advertising is extremely effective… when done well. Part of the problem is that web advertising is still a young and poorly understood field, which makes life difficult for small businesses looking to the web for cheap marketing solutions. It’ll be a while yet before the internet becomes the marketing panacea that so many people are already making it out to be.
Advertising is often looked at as being the promotion of, or presentation of a particular product or service. Marketing, is perhaps a more long term strategy that can build brand and followers on a continual basis, perhaps more about creating image in the long term.
Great tips about advertising and marketing. Great to know the exact difference advertising and marketing
Advertising I have always viewed as the promotion or presentation of a product or service to potential or existing customers, whilst marketing implies (for me at least) planning of different activities designed to bring buyers/end users and sellers together to transact. Advertising is one way of marketing a product or service, or is one component of a marketing strategy.nice
Yes Usualy Marketing Is More Important Then Advertising, Both Can Help But Marketing Is More Expensive And Get More Results Cause Marketing Is Mean You Can promote By Flyers,Radio,TV, Etc…
Marketing: The systematic planning, implementation and control of a mix of business activities intended to bring together buyers and sellers for the mutually advantageous exchange or transfer of products.
Advertising is a single component of the marketing process. It’s the part that involves getting the word out concerning your business, product, or the services you are offering. It involves the process of developing strategies such as ad placement, frequency, etc. Advertising includes the placement of an ad in such mediums as newspapers, direct mail, billboards, television, radio, and of course the Internet. Advertising is the largest expense of most marketing plans, with public relations following in a close second and market research not falling far behind.
Advertising is really needed now.I mean the blogosphere is already crowded with too many blogs vying for their share of the pie.If you want to stay ahead of them you really need to have advertising as a part of your marketing strategy.
Isn’t this the age-old question!! I’ve always thought about it as advertising has to show a direct ROI but marketing can be a bit less direct. An ad should get you business immediately but with a marketing campaign it can take some time.
Advertising is any activity that seeks the attention of potential clients, so maybe all marketing efforts can be seen as advertising. Marketing activities have the same goal as advertising ones. Promotional products are an example of how marketing and advertising efforts can be so closely related.
Advertising is a dirty word. As a guy with a marketing degree, it amazes me how often “marketing” is used as a nice way of saying “advertising”. I’m even more amazed at how many small business owners actually advertise without understanding the marketing they should be doing. Without research, competitive analysis, and understanding one’s positioning in an industry, I think advertising is a game of chance.
The one negative aspect of advertising in some people’s minds is that companies advertise what they cannot sell otherwise. Sometimes we see certain businesses start advertising like crazy – you come across their ads everywhere. You might think – oh, they are probably expanding, oh some might think – are they having problems which they are trying to fix by excessive
advertising?
Advertising is a part of marketing. Both are really needed to become successful.
Good point. Especially at the end – it’s all about return. “Your Marketing Sucks” is a great book that I recommend to people, where the point is very clearly made that the only metric that matters for advertising is sales. If it wins awards for creativity but doesn’t make you money, who cares?
There is a difference, but they are very related. Both are essential in both online & brick-n-mortar marketing.
Great points, sometimes it is difficult to know the difference between the two and they get lumped together.
Nice and interesting article, thank you for sharing. Please keep on blogging.
Best regards.
Hi all,
I am agree with those who said that the marketing is more powerful.
clevo repair
Good points when people market with out adverting it does not work
Marketing is when you have a focused plan to a specific market with targets and an offer. Advertising is a biproduct of marketing.
I think the more forms of advertising you use the better. It is important to try to figure out what your clients will be looking at or listening to and get in front of them as often as possible. Good Luck.
I think the issue is sometimes that people think that advertising and marketing are mutually exclusive – ie should I do marketing or advertising? In reality, as any marketing student and university will tell you marketing is an all emcombassing area including Product (offering), Price (discount, premium etc), Place (distribution, where and how your sales are made) and Promotion (including advertising). If you don’t promote your business in some way though advertising, PR, etc etc, you won’t get anywhere – as it’s no use having the best price or product if noone finds it. In reality most of these “online marketers” have little training in traditional marketing – which can be a good or a bad thing – and are just playing word games.
Advertising is great for the brand to funnel traffic in, but conversion is even more important then and being able to differentiate the different traffic and conversions. You have to keep up with it all.
I never really though too hard about the difference between the two, but you’re right that there is a distinct method for each. Most companies need both to be successful and build their brand.
Hey Dawud,
Nice post, you certainly ask the right question. I don’t think there is one definitive answer to which is better, advertising or marketing… it is all about what is best for YOUR business. An appropriate assessment of your own needs, goals and target market.
BUt I definitely think advertising/marketing across a variety of platforms can really work… it is only a dirty word when it is mis-used or poorly executed, which is unforetunately far too often!
Great article. Would like to say in my opinion you have to strike a balance between the two as I see both marketing and advertising as something of a pair that need each other to work properly.
Maketing and advertising are different, I would use both! Advertising is the part that involves getting the word out re your business, product or services you are offering. It includes the placemtn of an ad in newspapers, direct mail, billboards, tele, radio and of course the internet! Whereas marketing is intended to bring together buyers and sellers for the mutually advantageous exchange or transfer of products!
I think the main reason for the use of marketing over advertising is the management-theory idea along the lines of; we don’t have a problem, we face a challenge. Small business owners know that all of their outgoing communications are important, and for some reason they asses that “advertisement” is an anti buzz word…
A good advertising campaign starts first with a good marketing strategy. These things can’t be done randomly. Depending on the audience, one has to use the best tools available for a specific environment.
In the online environment the ads are the most used, and the viral videos.
Advertising and Marketing are definitely different and fundamentally so, but advertising, negative connotation or not, works.
Our business (FinallyFast) uses television advertising, Adwords, and other kinds of “paid announcments about [our] business” on a regular basis and have found nothing but success. The fact is advertising, especially on television, can expose your brand to a TON of people. It’s just a numbers game. The more people hear about your brand in relation to a certain product or service the more likely they are to relate your brand to that product or service. They may not act on the advertisment then or there, but if your brand has made the product-brand connection in their mind they will search out information about your brand when they need that product.
I think it’s also important that while marketing and advertising are different, there are also different kinds of advertising as well. I would suggest that all businesses of any size try advertising, but different kind of advertising will have different levels of success dependent on the kind of product or brand. As common sense would dictate you can’t just throw anything on TV and expect to sell a million units.
Hmmm! I’m quite confuse to see the big difference on marketing with advertising or vice versa. And, I think there is nothing more difference between the two. One thing I’m assure that having marketing and advertising collaborate with each other can put your business to substantial growth.
Yes . But Marketing Is More Expensive And Get More Results Cause Marketing Is Mean You Can promote By Flyers,Radio,TV, Etc.Advertising is often looked at as becoming the promotion of, or presentation of the specific item or service. Advertising, is perhaps a more lengthy term strategy that will construct brand and followers on the continual foundation, maybe much more about making picture inside the lengthy term.
Basically the term advertising is related to the messages and advertising channels you use to acquire new or repeat business, build your business and your brand. Whereas the Marketing is the combination various factors such as strategies of research, preparation and planning leading up to your campaign, the execution of your campaign and what’s required after your advertising has finished.
I can imagine very well that people don’t for example want to be part of the whole Adwords thing. Before I tried to market this webshop, I – as a customer – didn’t like the sponsored links in Google. So I wouldn’t want to belong to this group myself.
Now as a marketeer I have seen how great the impact of adwords can be on a webshop. No business without them!
I think most people are just scared especially with Adwords and PPC campaigns which can soak up tons of money and never result in conversions. It’s as if the mentality of the big boys use it but it won’t work if we competing against them and certain terms. I do believe that small business.
Deceptive advertising is a dirty word often associated with web banner ads and adwords ads. They get higher click-thru rates than honestly placed branded ads, but whats the point. Conversion rates will be much higher with targetted and honest ads, while bringing the click-thru budget down.
We have been trying some PPC campaigns for our optical business, and my biggest issue is measuring the ROI. With our other advertising campaigns, like ValPak, etc, we can physically see the coupons that come in and track the success of the ad that way, but with the PPC campaign, because we don’t have a way for a patient to schedule their exam on the website, I’m not really sure how to track it. We ask patients when they come in how they heard about it, but “Google” or “Internet” is about as specific as it gets. Any thoughts about tracking the PPC?
Im one of those who tends to avoid advertising directly and I think it’s because in the cyber world, using other more indirect marketing channels is simply a lot easier (and arguably more effective) than in the real world.
As a few other people have suggested, the words advertising and internet when used togethor seem to be a bit grubby to a lot of surfers…..
I always think of marketing as grass roots style advertising and advertising as corporate style advertising.
I worked selling advertising for AT&T yellow pages for 15 years before taking the early retirement buy out in 2008. My take is successful businesses advertise.
Back then you’d find unsuccessful businesses that used the address book method of attracting clients – they said their best customers were referral and word of mouth, so that’s all they were going to do. Unfortunately, that meant the profitability of their business was dependent on whether their satisfied customers were talkative. Nowadays, people think that networking, friending etc. might be all they need to do -but when I’m ready to hire a plumber, I’m still going to look at a list – and online,that plumber either paid to get on that list or spent some cashola on SEO.
Marketing is really a good way and specially getting online marketing, less expensive than the live advertising.
advertising is one of the key as[ect of marketing. A survey tells that in the developing economicies advertising accounts for the 60% for the market share. nice article thanks for sharing.looking forward for more updates.
I think that whether you call it marketing or advertising,it is the same thing and your business needs it until and unless you are already a big and branded name.
Advertising: The paid, public, non-personal announcement of a persuasive message by an identified sponsor; the non-personal presentation or promotion by a firm of its products to its existing and potential customers.
Marketing: The systematic planning, implementation and control of a mix of business activities intended to bring together buyers and sellers for the mutually advantageous exchange or transfer of products.
It’s a blurred line between marketing and advertising, IMO.
What I can say is that I’ve been entrepreneurial for years and my businesses and income only started taking off once I started taking marketing seriously. The typical “build it and they will come” idea just doesn’t cut it.
So, whether it’s marketing or advertising, whatever you do, make sure you actively get your message in front of the right people.
Advertising is an optional tactic. Marketing is necessary for survival.
The point is a lot of small businesses and new company think they can build an internet presence without advertising, in one word without investing much in marketing. To me, advertising have always been a part of marketing.
Advertising is a tactic. Marketing is a business chance to become a champion.
Good points when people market with out adverting it does not work
Conversion rates will be much higher with targetted and honest ads, while bringing the click-thru budget down. ..
I read your article and it catch my attention, you have a very interesting topic here, and i enjoyed reading it and also the comments. Really wonderful piece of information about marketing and advertising!
You must get both right! if you don’t there is only a very slim change of your success for the future!
I am not really a businesswoman, but base on my observation it is better to do both because they can really help for the success of your business. You have also to find a good strategy so that you can improve your prowess.
Marketing has always been a good role in having a business. Without it, the business will just not grow bigger. Only locals will just check on your products and services. Better to have a good marketing strategy,
Thought provoking thoughts. Good thing you cleared up the difference between marketing and advertising otherwise I never would have bothered. Paid advertisements like text links etc definitely work, but it can be quite tricky to determine whether a particular advertisement scheme is worth its price.
Unfortunately the public doesn’t know who to believe. Since it is not their everyday profession or situation you need to open their eyes and gain their trust.
Thanks for the education. I’ve tried paid advertising and found it not very useful, until I tried facebook ads. I found it easier to identify target markets that actually found our site useful.
There is not big difference, both marketing and advertisements are used to make people aware about your brand/product/business. Marketers and advertisers use different mediums to increase the sales, they use TV, Radio, Banners, posters, flyers, websites, affiliate marketing programs and more.
“Yet it can be difficult to grow a successful business just by word-of-mouth. I’m not saying it can’t be done.”
is fundamentally wrong statement. IMHO
I would say it is really difficult to achieve the word-of-mouth effect with a help of social networks. People spend tons of dollars on Facebook advertisement but only 1 or 2 of them actually success. Therefore, word-of-mouth is the final stage (the greatest) that you can get out of your marketing
campaign.
General perception by people says a good product is always marketed, but a failed product needs a lot pf advertising, i guess hence worth they stay away from advertising.
Advertising is important, and works. The hard part is to decide where to place the advertising money.
It is very easy to spend in the wrong area, and get no results. But once you have found the correct avenue to market your site, the dollars you spend, usually do make the investment worthwhile.
But it seems different for online small businesses. Somehow it seems that the word advertise is unclean or dishonest or something. While I haven’t quite put my finger on it, it is obvious that online small business tend to look at advertising differently. They often don’t consider placing ads – even Google Adwords. totally agree with you.
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James Smith
Yes. marketing is the key point for nay kinds of business. A business can run seldom without marketing plan. In this regard advertising in various media , email, affiliate etc are good practice.
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Your are totally right in when you say that advertising is a huge part of marketing and it is. People some how come up with this idea that advertising is deceiving. I never understood that lol
In the company I work for, I’m in the marketing department and, yes, word of mouth is a good way of spreading the word about what you’re selling. But being in the selling-buying business, it is unavoidable to get unsatisfied customers and so negative reviews can spread by word of mouth as well
Without advertising, among other means of promoting one’s business, it would be pretty hard to… stay in the business really and to get a profit from what you’re doing.
People often think that the terms advertising and marketing are interchangeable. Advertising is marketing but marketing isn’t advertising, in the same way that a panda is an animal but all animals aren’t pandas.
I think people online tend to gravitate more towards social marketing because SEO can be time consuming and marketing via PPC can be expensive.
What they don’t realise is that networks like FB and Twitter aren’t just for marketing and networking, they can also be great platforms for targeted *advertising*.
Advertising is a form of communication used to persuade an audience (viewers, readers or listeners) to take some action with respect to products, ideas, or services. Most commonly, the desired result is to drive consumer behavior with respect to a commercial offering while Marketing is the process used to determine what products or services may be of interest to customers, and the strategy to use in sales, communications and business development.[1] It generates the strategy that underlies sales techniques, business communication, and business developments.
Web based advertising is very cost effective service. But surely it needs to be implemented in correct technique. Main thing to focus is about the contents to be displayed in advertisement and the location to place the ad. Contents should be interesting for the users.
Advertising I should say is one of the effective ways of marketing as it draws attention directly to your target audience.
the make or break of your business does not fully depend on advertising- it’s on your marketing strategy.
Marketing is a broad term for satisfying consumers wants and needs (with a profit for your company). This involves the 4Ps, or in today’s terms it is 5 Ps – Product, Promotion (Advertising), Place (Distribution), Price, and People(Target Market).
So, essentially, advertising may be seen as part of the promotional aspect of your marketing mix.
Hello admin,
just i read your posting really great and helpful post i like it
keep up your great work
I think the only thing you can really do with advertising is try something and see if it works for your business.
Marketing is necessary for survival.Advertising is an optional tactic.
Very highly effective publish. My biggest purpose of course is to generate income for my family. Variety two purpose is because I’m sick and worn out of reading problem reports about PC organizations.
I never thought about their differences thank you for sharing this great post