What's The Difference Between Marketing, Advertising, And PR?

You might be under the impression that marketing, advertising, and PR are all the same thing, or at least similar. Well, you're not alone. 🙌 So here is a quick and simple breakdown of their differences and a short introduction to each to help with your small business.

👉 Marketing

The Oxford Dictionary definition of marketing is as follows:

The action or business of promoting and selling products or services, including market research and advertising.

Although this definition encompasses the aspects of marketing and the role of a marketing expert, it is rather vague. Marketing is a key component in any business from start to finish, as it involves researching and understanding your consumer to be able to then influence them into purchasing your product/service. 🗣

This makes marketing essential to any business venture, as every goal in any business comes back to increasing the number of consumers. 💰

So, to put it simply, marketing is the stepping stone to making money in the business world. For further insight into what marketing is and its history, take a look at this helpful blog by Hubspot. 🔍

One of the reasons marketing is hard to define is because of its various methods. Some argue there are four types of marketing, while others say there’s over 150 (and counting❗). As a starting point, it is important to know that there are two main strategies in marketing.

This is B2B (business to business) and B2C (business to consumer) marketing. B2B is the most common option, so here are a few ways to promote your product/service to your consumers:

1) SEO 📊– Search Engine Optimization involves producing online content that appears regularly and at the top of search results. For some tips on improving SEO specifically for blog posts, take a look at our previous GuidedPR post!

2) Internet 💻– Internet marketing is rather self-explanatory, as it encompasses all marketing strategies used online and promoted through various platforms.

3) Print 📚– Print marketing is a traditional method of reaching your target audience, often achieved through sponsored articles and images.

4) Cause 🙌– Cause, or cause-related, marketing involves combining your business with a current social issue.

5) Social Media 📱– Social media marketing, much like internet marketing, involves using various platforms to get to your consumer. To read more on how to use video in social media marketing, read our helpful blog post!

6) Word of Mouth 📢– Word of mouth may seem like an outdated marketing method, however, for small, localised businesses, it can be the most effective way to access your target consumer.

And the list goes on…

If you want to look at further marketing strategies and need guidance on implementing them, take a look at this informative blog on Yodiz.🥳

👉 Advertising

Advertising is most commonly confused as the same thing as marketing, however, it is defined as:

"The activity or profession of producing advertisements for commercial products or services."

You may be thinking that is the same as marketing… ❗❓

Well, the key difference is that marketing is about promotion, and advertising concerns the production of adverts that are then used in marketing campaigns. Essentially, advertising is a specific step in marketing. If you are still confused take a look at Creating Successful Professionals for an in-depth explanation.

Unlike marketing, advertising does not involve the market research stage. Instead, it is focused on communication with potential consumers, and specifically, trying to influence them into becoming regular customers. 🤞

For more on specific comparisons between marketing and advertising, and how they work together, take a look at this detailed article by Inc.🔍

The key thing to remember is that advertising is a targeted, and specific, method of promotion that is involved in the types of marketing listed above. 📝

👉 Public Relations

Although Public Relations, or PR, is directly linked to marketing and advertising, it is defined as:

The practice of deliberately managing the release and spread of information between an individual or an