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In these days of internet marketing and ecommerce it is some what difficult for many online marketers to really know the difference between marketing and advertising. But for a business marketing online it is crucial to know what these two terms really are so as to effectively apply them to ones benefit.

Although Marketing and Advertising sound similar but in reality they are not. Advertising is only a part of the bigger game called Marketing. While marketing encompasses complete conceptualization of a brand right from research to designing to advertising and sale, advertising, on the other hand, is a component of the marketing process.

Advertising is nothing but conveying the message through variety of mediums to promote the product.

Advertising is one of the most important component of a marketing strategy and also the most expensive. Advertising constitutes sending the message across to the public about your company, product or service.

For advertising to achieve it's purpose there are processes to be followed. These include formation of various strategies and of course coming up with a right one to target your prospects.

Some of the strategies you will need to take care of consist planning things like:

>>> Placing ads

>>> Deciding what media to use

>>> Deciding on the timing

>>> Deciding on the frequency, etc.

As an online marketer your primary medium of advertising is of course the internet. However, mediums like the television, snail mail, newspapers, radio, magazines, mobile messaging, flyers, billboards etc. can also be used in advertising your business.

To better understand the difference between advertising and marketing simply consider marketing as a cake, cut that cake into pieces. Advertising is one of the pieces of that cake. The other pieces of the cake are market research of your product, product design, media planning, PR, product pricing, customer satisfaction, customer support, sales and many more.

When marketing online, all these components or pieces of the cake should work independently but collectively in achieving your bigger goal i.e. sell your product(s) and build your company's reputation in the market.

Marketing is a marathon process involving many tasks which takes hours, sometimes days of research. The market research part takes the longest duration as it involves thoroughly understanding the behavior of people towards a product. But trying to avoid the research part of marketing because of the time involve will not help in any way. Designing the product and developing advertising strategy is also a time consuming process.

The mistake most small businesses online make is confusing advertising with marketing. They try to ape big companies like Coke and Pepsi in advertising but they simply ignore the work that goes behind that. The classical example of this is, take the case of logo advertising for instance. Many business owners are so hysterical about their logo because they think that it will simply bring in the sales. But the secret of logo advertising and why it works is none other than the reputation of the company. Companies spend fortunes on advertising which a new start up business or a small business online can't.

The better option for a small business is investing money and time in communicating to the consumers in a way that they can address their expectations. And this is most effective in marketing online since the internet is about information. Besides, educating the consumers also helps as it will give them an understanding that you know what you do and are best at doing that.

If your desire therefore is to market profitably online then you must be smart and aggressive in your approach rather than passive. Understand the whole picture of your marketing campaign. Provide information and educate your potential customers. Learn also how to provoke reader's minds by prompting them to do something rather than just making them knowledgeable of the product. Having a good marketing campaign speaks a lot about your business and your products. And advertising gives that finishing touch to the hard work you have done in selling your products.

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Copyright by Chadrack Irobogo 2007. All rights reserved.

Chardrack Irobogo is a writer with a passion for helping people achieve their personal and professional dreams through the provision of inspiring and empowering content.

The over-riding mission of his website http://www.themarketingmouse.com is to reveal proven and tested tactics and strategies to help you generate real and consistent revenue from your online business even when you are on a shoestring budget.

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