Business Marketing and Advertising are cut from the same cloth. It’s easy to confuse the two.

Why? Businesses in the business of selling advertising are really selling space on paper or space in time. It’s up to you, the buyer, as to how you use it. The content in your ad determines if your material falls under the heading of marketing or advertising.

How do you tell the difference between business marketing and advertising? Here is my simple sorting technique:

Does your message have a time-limited offer?

If it does, that is advertising. If it does not, then it is a marketing message.

Advertising

Advertising is a subset of marketing. Advertising allows you to attract buyers when things like urgency and price point and special added value items are included in the offering. Advertising allows you to attract buyers who are prepared to make a purchasing decision in the moment. Advertising may allow you to expand your customer base in a much shorter time than marketing may require.

Marketing

Marketing is not a one-shot ad in a magazine. Marketing, on the other hand, is the total package of messages that promote you, your company, your products and your services over time. Marketing is what you do over the long term. A carefully designed marketing program requires a budget that will see you through an entire year or even longer. When you can display longevity in your marketing approach, it tells your audience you are in business to stay. That alone can build confidence in you and your company and attract customers to do business with you.

Marketing is what you do to keep your message top of mind.

Take the social media sites on the internet, for instance. Do you tweet on Twitter? Do you keep your Facebook audience informed? Do you write blogs? Have you posted promo videos on Youtube? It is important to connect with your community both live and in person and over the World Wide Web. These are two separate aspects of doing business today and one supports the other.

Off line marketing involves both your personal presence and your land-line media presence. Are you investing in print publications? Have you done any air time promotions through radio or television? Are you purchasing booth space at trade shows? Are you sponsoring events? Are you participating in local networking opportunities? These approaches can come with a higher price tag in both time and money. As a result, these may be your second stage marketing strategies but this depends on what you are prepared to invest in yourself and your company and it depends on your current stage

of business development.

Caution

I strongly advise that you don’t do any marketing or advertising unless and until you have established a clear purpose, a reasonable budget, a timeline, target audiences and goals.

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Donna Dahl, author, speaker, trainer and marketing strategist, offers “Stuck to Start™” 90 minute consultations. She can be reached at donna@makoye.com Visit her show at www.thewinonline.com/shows/tenacious-marketer.com