The Difference Between Marketing and Advertising

It’s the age-old debate and, at times, raging flame-war that makes Superman vs. Batman seem like a minor skirmish. On the one hand, you have advertising experts who claim superiority, and on the other you have marketing experts who do the same. Both want to win their clients’ trust and work their magic.

But guess what? In truth, the difference between marketing and advertising is not a matter of choosing one or the other. It’s really a question of strategy or tactics. And we know this, because here at Leap Clixx we do advertising and marketing – both for our own company, and for our customers nationwide.

Marketing: It’s All About Strategy

The essence of marketing – and what fundamentally distinguishes it from advertising – is that it’s strategic. That is, all marketing production, distribution and even tracking and analytics should not be driven exclusively by what a business wants to achieve now or imminently, but more importantly, by where it wants to be positioned a month, quarter, year and years from now if it continues on its current path.

Another way to look at the difference between marketing and advertising, is that marketing is a long-term approach, and as such is always about the future. Yes, today’s gains matter. But next year’s wins matter even more. This requires both vision and patience. When either (or worse, neither) of these are present, then marketing itself is no longer being done. This explains why some businesses have experienced more marketing setbacks and triumphs. Fundamentally, they were never actually doing marketing in the first place.

Advertising: It’s All About Tactics

Advertising is tactical, and as such it’s best grasped as a tool to help support strategic marketing campaigns. For example, advertising may be used to create brand awareness that generates new leads, drives prospects to a product, service or offerings, and so on.

The fact that advertising is typically expensive doesn’t make it strategic, any more than creating and distributing an ebook is strategic (which it’s not: the decision to do an ebook in the first place should be strategic, but the actually production and delivery of it is tactical). This is a major source of confusion when it comes to grasping the difference between marketing and advertising. Advertising is still tactical no matter how much it costs or how long it takes, and as such must clearly fit into a campaign in order to deliver full value.

The common problem, however, is that advertising can sometimes take weeks or months to plan, and by then campaigns may be over, or the tactical value of the ads may diminish because they’re no longer in alignment with other tools. For example, many businesses launch campaigns on social media, and instruct their sales team to use campaign-related messaging months before their ads launch (in whatever media – radio, magazines, journals, newspapers, TV). To avoid this major mis-step, a robust editorial calendar mapped to a strategic game plan is essential.

Learn More

To learn more about the difference between marketing and advertising, contact Leap Clixx today. As mentioned, we leverage both marketing strategies and advertising tactics for our company and our customers, and know how to create the right mix to maximize effectiveness and minimize costs. That formula allows us to identify the shortest path to ROI, which is the ultimate goal whether the budget is less than $10,000 or over $1 million.

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