Advertising VS. Marketing: What's The Difference?

[00:00:00] She would bring a fresh baked batch. And I remember at the time I was scoffing at it as a 20 something

[00:00:05] year old. I was like, what the heck? What does that do for your business besides dropping off cookies?

[00:00:11] Okay. Can I say real quick as a 26 year old now, I'm thinking marketing genius.

[00:00:18] Yeah. Hey everyone, welcome to the S.O.B. Marketing Podcast where we celebrate the S.O.B. that you are.

[00:00:26] And if you haven't figured it out yet, we mean small owned business. We don't mean S.O.B.

[00:00:31] Listen, we know that as a small business owner, you are working hard on the daily to keep your

[00:00:36] business fully operational while trying to promote it. And while some days it may feel like the business

[00:00:43] is owning you, if we're being honest with each other, I bet you would admit that you wouldn't

[00:00:48] give up the insanity for anything. Our commitment here at the S.O.B. Marketing Podcast is to give

[00:00:54] you the real talk, what works when it comes to advertising, marketing, promoting your business,

[00:01:00] and then what doesn't really work. And Chelsea and I promise to always keep the conversation real.

[00:01:05] Hey everybody, and welcome back to the S.O.B. Marketing Podcast. S.O.B. as in small owned

[00:01:10] business. I promise we are not calling you guys names. Before we get started, just a little bit of

[00:01:16] housekeeping. Thank you so much for listening. If you are enjoying this podcast, please, please,

[00:01:21] please consider leaving us a review. It helps us get in front of other S.O.B.s so we can help you

[00:01:27] guys feel more confident and comfortable when it comes to running your own marketing. We don't need

[00:01:33] to be outsourcing, right? We got this. And really quick, if you do not have time to listen to this

[00:01:39] entire episode, I mean, we would prefer if you did, but we get it. You are busy. So we have a TLDL,

[00:01:46] too long, didn't listen. Chapter, go ahead and click on that and you will get sent to the synopsis

[00:01:54] or the summary of this episode. But again, it will be really cool if you listen to the entire thing.

[00:02:00] Vivian, what are we talking about today? Yeah. If you guys go skip to that TLDL,

[00:02:06] come back and listen to the full length episode at a later point in time because,

[00:02:10] you know, we're trying to share some valuable insights with you guys when it comes to marketing.

[00:02:14] And today we are actually covering a very big misconception. I am so excited about this,

[00:02:21] Chelsea, because I cannot tell you how many times people use the words marketing and advertising

[00:02:29] interchangeably because they think it is the same. And we are here to clear the air and to set things

[00:02:38] straight today to tell you guys marketing and advertising are not the same thing. Okay.

[00:02:44] Yeah. They are completely different things. And we're going to explain a little bit about that

[00:02:49] today. So Chelsea, where do you want to start the conversation? Well, you know what? I want to

[00:02:55] start this conversation by saying this misconception, you know, we also brought it upon ourselves. I think

[00:03:02] marketers have a really bad habit of saying marketing and advertising and using it interchangeably.

[00:03:10] It's not the same thing. And we're going to try to keep the analogies to a minimum.

[00:03:16] Try is the key word. Try is the key word. But a really great analogy that I want to start off with

[00:03:23] is y'all, a square is a rectangle, correct? But a rectangle is not a square because a square has to

[00:03:33] have equal sides, but a rectangle doesn't have equal sides. So just like the square and the rectangle,

[00:03:39] advertising is marketing, but marketing is not advertising.

[00:03:44] Yes. I love that you brought this up. And if any of you out there are like me and you love a good

[00:03:51] definition, okay, what does the Encyclopedia Britannica tell me? Because I'm old school and

[00:03:57] I remember a time when you had to actually open these books and flip through the pages and find the

[00:04:02] definition. I don't think Chelsea remembers those days, do you?

[00:04:06] No, I just Google the word.

[00:04:09] Yeah. See?

[00:04:10] Urban Dictionary.

[00:04:12] Urban Dictionary. They make us do hard work back in the day. So according to the American

[00:04:18] Marketing Association, okay, and this is the end all be all, like these, we trust these people,

[00:04:23] the American Marketing Association, because this is what they do, right? So when they're explaining

[00:04:28] the terms marketing and advertising, this is how they put it, quote, marketing is a business practice

[00:04:35] that involves identifying, predicting, and meeting customer needs. Okay. Let that soak in.

[00:04:43] Advertising is a business practice where a company pays to place its messaging or branding

[00:04:50] in a particular location. All right. So this is the analogy I'm going to use throughout this episode.

[00:04:56] And y'all, please bear with me. If any of you have ever been in a relationship or you've dated someone,

[00:05:04] and if currently you aren't dating someone, you can email us, you know, and Chelsea and I can become

[00:05:10] little matchmakers for you guys. But I didn't consent to that. Don't email me. You can email Vivian.

[00:05:17] So if you've ever dated somebody, you know that first and foremost, you go on a date first, right?

[00:05:24] So you have your first date. Now, the way we equate this is advertising is going to be equal to

[00:05:31] asking somebody on a date because essentially that is kind of what you're doing for your business.

[00:05:36] You're out there looking for people to your, I don't want to use the word luring because that

[00:05:43] kind of feels a little, I don't know, a little weird. But with advertising, that's what you're

[00:05:49] doing. You are paying to put feelers out there to get people interested into your product or service

[00:05:56] or your business overall. Advertising is the first step in that relationship. Just like dating,

[00:06:03] going on that first date is the first step in a relationship. But if you want a long-term

[00:06:10] relationship, if you want it to go from dating to actually being boyfriend, girlfriend, girlfriend,

[00:06:16] girlfriend, girlfriend, boyfriend, boyfriend, whatever you guys do, okay? Whatever you're into,

[00:06:20] then it requires massaging of that relationship. And what I mean by that is then it's going to include

[00:06:28] how are you guys communicating, right? How are you ensuring that that person is getting their needs

[00:06:35] fulfilled? You're doing in marketing. You are essentially doing the same thing. You are going

[00:06:41] to your customers. You're checking in. It's in the way that you communicate with them. It's in the way

[00:06:47] that you put surveys out to gather feedback to ensure that you are delivering on what you promised.

[00:06:54] So marketing is going to be the overall relationship. So just think of it that way.

[00:06:59] Advertising is like you're asking people on a first date, hey, give my business a try.

[00:07:04] See if you like it. Marketing is the overall stuff you are doing to keep them in the relationship and

[00:07:12] to keep them there with you. Vivian, can I say, I don't want to say that I doubted you,

[00:07:20] but I was really nervous about this analogy because I was like, I don't think I fully understand.

[00:07:27] Perfect. You explained that. You described that perfectly. That makes perfect sense.

[00:07:32] I'm going to try to sum it up in one little sentence. Advertising is just one small piece of

[00:07:39] what marketing can be, but creating ads is not doing marketing.

[00:07:45] Yes, absolutely. I think the overall thing and reminder here is that the reason this discussion

[00:07:53] is so important is because if you are saying, if when you're having a conversation with somebody

[00:08:02] and you're talking about your business growth or your business overall and you're saying,

[00:08:07] oh, yeah, yeah, yeah. I, you know, my marketing is good. I'm doing good on my marketing. And they're

[00:08:12] like, oh, well, what, what are you doing for your marketing? And you're like, uh, basically I have ads

[00:08:18] everywhere. That's not, that is just your advertising, but you need to be paying more attention to stuff.

[00:08:27] Like, um, what does your brand voice say about you? Right? How are you approaching people? How

[00:08:32] often are you checking in? Do you have an email that you are sending once a month, once a week to

[00:08:39] nurture that relationship? How many different avenues are you giving people to give you feedback?

[00:08:45] Do you send surveys out once, you know, a month? Are you asking people for Google reviews? Because

[00:08:51] those Google reviews could be extremely valuable and they could give you insight into how your

[00:08:57] restaurant staff is treating people or new services that you need to add on. That is all part of that

[00:09:04] marketing function. And so I just want to be sure that when you guys are having these conversations,

[00:09:09] that you're not confusing one portion of it. Yeah. I want to be sure you're not saying

[00:09:15] you're in a relationship with people when you actually just went on one date. Okay. That's what I want.

[00:09:21] I love it. Can we also talk about how your goals when it comes to marketing and your goals,

[00:09:29] when it comes to advertising are that are very different. They're very different because

[00:09:33] advertising is about, you know, optimizing that initiative, getting maybe as many clicks as

[00:09:40] possible, as many eyeballs on it, that sort of thing. Your marketing goals are going to be broader.

[00:09:47] They're going to be, I want to increase my new patient. Look at me going back to healthcare.

[00:09:55] It's like, we just can't get you out of healthcare. We can't get out of healthcare. Oh my God. But

[00:09:58] my example is a marketing goal is going to be, I want to increase new patient visits by 30%.

[00:10:07] A advertising initiative in your advertising goal is going to be, I'm going to get this many clicks

[00:10:16] so that I can convert these people. Your goals are going to be very different. Also think about what

[00:10:23] what goes into creating your marketing goals and your marketing plans. It's going to be your SWOT

[00:10:29] analysis. It's going to be an analyzing your target audience, as well as understanding what your

[00:10:37] abilities are when it comes to marketing. Advertising put simply is a marketing tool and initiative.

[00:10:45] It's a way to reach your marketing goals.

[00:10:48] And I think what it also does is when you correctly know how to identify an advertising function versus

[00:10:56] a marketing function, it allows you to kind of do the touchy feely stuff. Okay. And yeah. And Chelsea,

[00:11:07] you and I both know this because we do come from healthcare marketing where we give credence to some

[00:11:12] of that touchy feely stuff that sometimes you can't attach hard numbers to. What I mean by that is this,

[00:11:19] and I'll use a perfect example. When I was a young buck

[00:11:25] and I was working at the chamber of commerce locally, we had a local state farm agent who's

[00:11:31] very well known around here and does, I mean, this man makes a ton of money. Okay. He's, he does very

[00:11:37] well for himself because he's a very smart businessman. And I remember he would hire these like

[00:11:44] reps or marketing coordinators. And at the time he had one who would come into the chamber and about,

[00:11:51] I want to say maybe like once every two weeks, she would bring homemade cookies, not homemade,

[00:11:56] but they had bought like a little oven in their office. And literally they were the,

[00:12:01] I think Otis Meyer cookies, like, you know, the good ones. Yeah. Yeah. Yeah. Okay. So she would bring

[00:12:07] a fresh baked batch. And I remember at the time I was scoffing at it as a 20 something year old. I was

[00:12:12] like, what the heck? This isn't like, what does that do for your business besides like dropping off

[00:12:17] cookies? Give me a break. Okay. Can I say real quick as a 26 year old now, I'm thinking marketing

[00:12:24] genius. Yeah. I'm thinking this is amazing. She is in a whole other level because we tend to,

[00:12:32] we tend to forget that people are emotional. People want that connection. I just saying as a 26

[00:12:41] year old now, love it. If you guys ever want to sway Chelsea in any way, give her cookies apparently,

[00:12:47] but absolutely. But you're, you're right. And here's the, the logic behind it is that, so here's

[00:12:54] the thing from a marketing, uh, from a advertising perspective, is it hard to, would you consider that

[00:13:02] an advertising function? And would you be able to correlate data and numbers to it? It'd be a

[00:13:07] little hard as a marketing function. What that does is let's say one of your marketing initiatives

[00:13:13] is to grow your customer base within this specific County, right? By X amount. This could be a function

[00:13:23] of that marketing initiative because what she's doing is for one, she's making consistent because

[00:13:28] we saw her on a consistent basis. She's making consistent visits into these businesses. She's

[00:13:34] bringing them something they look forward to, they enjoy, and she's dropping off some type of material

[00:13:41] every time she's doing that. So there's always some type of promo or, uh, marketing material that

[00:13:47] promotes his name as a state farm agent when she's doing that. And the genius part of it, which is not

[00:13:54] about the cookies and not about anything else is it is giving her a touch point and an opportunity for

[00:14:02] open conversation to get to know these people and to get to know the gatekeepers. Okay. Y'all back in

[00:14:09] the day, I hate to say it, but they had it figured out whenever they would obviously swoon the front desk

[00:14:16] people, the secretaries to the people that had the big positions because they knew at the end of the

[00:14:22] day, they're the ones kind of controlling the calendar and they're the ones that are closest to

[00:14:26] that person in that position. And therefore, if I can, you know, um, get myself in her, his good graces,

[00:14:35] then they will mention to their superior, to their boss, like, Hey, you should really, you know,

[00:14:41] give this person, like you have someone on your team that's helping you make that pitch. Right.

[00:14:44] So I think it was genius on her part in my twenties. I didn't see that because I was, you know, I was

[00:14:52] 20. I knew everything, like whatever, that wasn't marketing that wasn't, but it really was a, um,

[00:14:58] a great way for him to expand his brand recognition within those small businesses, the businesses that

[00:15:07] ultimately would need insurance at some point. Right. So, and interestingly enough, still to this

[00:15:14] day, I mean, that was how many years ago, cause I'm now in my forties. He still does it. So obviously,

[00:15:20] and this man is a very smart businessman. So I promise you, he's not going to keep doing something

[00:15:25] for 20 years if it is not working in his favor. And now he actually has, I want to say he's got like

[00:15:32] four or five locations. He's expanded into other areas. So, um, very smart, but I think that's where,

[00:15:39] when you put these things in perspective, if you were looking at that as just an ad,

[00:15:46] right, a function of an advertising opportunity, he would have probably pulled the plug way too soon

[00:15:53] because that takes time to build that relationship. Yeah. Are you a small business owner feeling

[00:15:59] overwhelmed by marketing? We understand. That's why we created the SOB community just for you.

[00:16:06] Imagine having access to expert marketing advice every week through our interactive zoom calls,

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[00:16:30] Join the SOB community today. Vivian, I loved that example. I have an example that's kind of the

[00:16:39] exact same thing, but it's healthcare marketing. I worked for the allergy place, the allergy office.

[00:16:46] We don't give names around here. Uh, one of our goals, I feel like it needs to be, uh,

[00:16:52] what is it they say in Harry Potter? The he who shall not be named. Is that what it is?

[00:16:59] You can tell Vivian and I were really into Harry Potter.

[00:17:04] Not. Not.

[00:17:07] The Sholomant is like Harry Potter, but cooler. Check that out series. Check out that series.

[00:17:12] I was going to say, I'm more into like, uh, Conair and what's the, um, Dante's Peak.

[00:17:20] Remember Dante's Peak? No. I love anything that's like the world exploding.

[00:17:27] Okay. This is like fantasy magic, but like cooler than Harry Potter. Look, anyways. So example,

[00:17:34] allergy office. One of our marketing goals was to bring in more referrals from other physicians.

[00:17:43] So what I would do as the marketing director is I would actually coordinate lunches with these

[00:17:51] providers. So I would bring a provider with me. I would bring a nurse practitioner or an actual doctor

[00:17:57] and we would go and sit down. We would go to the office and sit down and have lunch with them.

[00:18:04] And we would provide lunch for everyone in the office. And that did more bringing in new patients

[00:18:14] than any advertising could do because you're creating that relationship. You're building a bond.

[00:18:22] And, and also if there is a problem, you can hash it out right there. You know, like I had a provider

[00:18:31] once say to me, well, you know what? I would feel more comfortable if I knew for a fact, anyone I

[00:18:37] referred to you guys had to see this specific doctor. And I said, easy. I can just write that down.

[00:18:45] Anyone who's referred from this office has to be put with this doctor. That's simple. I can do that.

[00:18:51] But he had never gotten the chance to talk with someone to say that. So he just didn't send any

[00:18:58] of his patients to that office until I can make sure that that happened for him.

[00:19:03] Yeah. And I think that's where the feedback part of it comes in. You know, when we,

[00:19:08] when I was using that comparison of like keeping a long-term relationship and then, or just dating,

[00:19:14] which advertising is just the dating part of it, the marketing part of it, that overall relationship,

[00:19:20] doing things like this, like in healthcare, in healthcare specifically, that was your avenue

[00:19:25] to going and figuring out, well, what is the roadblock? Why is this particular practice or this

[00:19:32] doctor not referring patients to us? Because literally he sent us zero in the last like four

[00:19:38] months, like what's up with that. And so that gives you that avenue for that feedback to then be like,

[00:19:46] oh, it's just because either there's a misconception of something we're doing,

[00:19:50] or they have a preference in the way one doctor practices versus the other, whatever it is.

[00:19:56] But the same can be done across the board for all industries. And I know, you know, for let's say

[00:20:03] you're, I don't know, if you're more of like a content creator and you're thinking like, well,

[00:20:08] how would this translate into what I'm doing? The engagement part of it, right? So like, hey,

[00:20:14] whether it's, I'm going to send a survey out via email every once in a while, we do this here at

[00:20:20] the Season Marketer. So at the end of every year, and I try to do it also in June, we send an email

[00:20:26] that's a very brief, like three minute survey. And it basically asks people, hey, where are you in

[00:20:33] your small business marketing? Like, what would you like for us to cover more of? And some of those

[00:20:38] are actually very surprising to me, because what I would think is the holdup, like let's say everyone

[00:20:45] talks about social media marketing now, right? So a lot of creators are thinking businesses have a

[00:20:51] problem with keeping up with social media trends. That's not really their big thing. Like,

[00:20:56] last time we sent that survey out, they were identifying things like, I don't know, like how

[00:21:02] much of a marketing budget to invest in throughout the year, right? Or I don't have a marketing budget

[00:21:09] and I need to figure out other ways to be able to promote my business on a tight budget. And so these

[00:21:15] are important conversations and things to know if that's your target audience. If our target audience

[00:21:20] is small business owners, which it is, I need to hear from small business owners. I can't be making

[00:21:26] assumptions. Absolutely. I also want to say, why does this matter? Right? Why are we even talking

[00:21:33] about this? Like, okay, it's really cool that you want to make sure that we understand that

[00:21:37] a square is rectangle, but a rectangle is in a square. It can be such a big disservice to you

[00:21:45] and to your small business if you're only focusing on advertising when it comes to marketing your small

[00:21:52] business. I mean, we just explained why networking is such a strong tool when it comes to marketing.

[00:21:58] Let's think of community events. Being a part of your community and actually engaging with other

[00:22:06] people, like that's not advertising. That is still a part of marketing. And that is a strong,

[00:22:13] strong initiative when it comes to marketing. Let's think about ribbon cuttings. Ribbon cuttings

[00:22:19] aren't advertising. You're not spending money to put your business in front of other people,

[00:22:25] but it's still such a powerful tool when it comes to getting your small business in front of other

[00:22:31] people. Yeah. And just to go back to the definition, because I'm a girl that constantly has to look at

[00:22:37] this stuff. If we're thinking about advertising versus marketing, advertising is going to be specific.

[00:22:45] Facebook ads, Google banners, billboards, radio spots. There's an exchange of money there where

[00:22:52] you're exchanging money to tap into an audience, right? The marketing is the bigger picture stuff.

[00:22:59] It's everything that you do to attract and to retain the customers. So your branding, your social media

[00:23:06] presence, customer service, how your business looks, the PR part of your business, right? The what people

[00:23:15] associate your business with, you cannot minimize those things. And I think that's the part where

[00:23:21] if you're using those terms interchangeably, then you're shortchanging yourself in one of those areas,

[00:23:28] right? It means you're probably thinking of either marketing, but you're saying advertising,

[00:23:33] or you're thinking advertising and saying marketing. And either way, it means that you're missing the

[00:23:38] mark in one area. Well, yeah, I think this was a short and sweet episode. So let's do really quick,

[00:23:44] the TLDL, too long, didn't listen. Again, if you skipped all the way over here,

[00:23:50] I understand you guys are busy, but when you have the time, go listen to the entire conversation,

[00:23:55] okay? But TLDL, basically advertising and marketing are not the same thing. Advertising is a market form

[00:24:03] of marketing. It's a marketing initiative, but marketing is going to be the big picture. It's

[00:24:08] your small business sitting down and finding who your target audience is, how you're going to connect

[00:24:14] them all of those concepts. Advertising is going to be exchanging money to get in front of a target

[00:24:22] audience. It's going to be an ad, correct? Why is this important? Because you need both to be

[00:24:30] successful when it comes to your small business. So remember, create clear goals so that you can figure

[00:24:36] out the best way to reach your target audience and to figure out if it's going to be a different type

[00:24:41] of marketing initiative, or maybe it will be advertising. So thank you guys for listening

[00:24:47] and go out there and be the best SOB you can be.