Log InJoin 

Small Business Marketing vs Advertising

Small Business Marketing vs Advertising

Small businesses have to use a combination of marketing and advertising to reach their target market to attract customers and increase sales. Marketing is a core business concept and is essential when creating a successful business plan. Advertising is a subset of marketing and uses specific tools to encourage consumers to purchase an organizations products or services. Is important to understand the difference because it will affect the foundation of your core business and its efforts to grow over time.

What Is Marketing?

Marketing as a concept is used to convey what products or services are offered to the buying public and why they should be interested. Its primary function is in attracting new customers and explaining what value the company is offering while managing consumer relationships. There is a common implementation of marketing efforts called the Marketing Mix or 4 P's of Marketing. The marketing mix is used to establish the price, promotion, product and place when attracting customers and driving sales.

Pricing determines what is charged for an offering which is based off expected profit margins and competition. Place is relevant to local, regional or national scope when focusing on target market groups. Promotion includes what advertising tools are to be used to reach your target market. And finally, product describes branding and how your customers interact with your offering. As you can see we haven't talked about TV spots or Little League sponsorships because these are tools of advertising which is part of a marketing campaign. Marketing is the big picture of how you relate to your customers through what you offer for sale and advertising allows you to accomplish your overall marketing goals.

What Is Advertising?

Advertising is the public face of most marketing campaigns since it is what consumers are likely to experience when choosing among different products or services. Advertising includes television commercials, radio spots, promotional efforts with co-branding, special limited time offers, percentage off coupons, direct mailings, athletic sponsorships and generally any other material or activity which requires a specific costs outlay when attracting customers to increase sales. What is interesting are items which are considered marketing materials but not specifically advertising like business cards and brochures. This is because these items are more informational about the business as opposed to speaking about a specific product or service to generate a sale.

Most small businesses have limited advertising budgets but that does not mean they do not engage in marketing efforts. Building brand awareness by creating a connection with customers is marketing but doesn't necessarily mean advertising dollars are being used. While there will be some expense to any marketing effort, advertising is a specific amount which includes metrics that can be evaluated for effectiveness in generating sales. All small businesses will conduct marketing efforts but their advertising budgets will determine whether they use more traditional forms of advertising or if they have to be more creative.


A small business will need to incorporate all aspects of marketing and utilize at least some forms of advertising to be successful. Marketing is a pro active attempt to interact with the community by building your brand and providing information about your product or service. Advertising will be based on available financial resources and in an ideal scenario could be limited to word-of-mouth advertising only. It is the very rare small business that is able to have successful marketing with no advertising due to great customer service and brand awareness. Evangelizing your customer base so they spread the word of your great company and wonderful product through social media is a way of fulfilling a marketing plan with zero advertising expense. If you're lucky, your customers will advertise your small business for you leaving you to focus on attracting new customers.