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Where does advertising fit in the marketing mix?

Many people are confused about the role of advertising in the marketing mix, so here is a simple view of where it fits in.

In the traditional marketing model, we talk about the 4 P’s

o Product

o Prices

o Place

or Promotion

The last section – Promotion is what we mean when we say you are “doing your marketing”. They are your actual communications or marketing activities.

But first, let’s clarify the OBJECTIVE of marketing and why you want to be good at it.

“Tea PURPOSE of marketing or your biggest task is

persuade potential customers to visit you online or offline to

you can submit your offer. Well done, they come waving their

credit card and ready to buy, so no need to sell. “

Whenever and wherever you are in front of your potential market is your marketing opportunity: you are communicating or getting your message across.

You could say that this started as early as Babylon, when the town crier was the only method of delivery! They would go around the city yelling at people to go to the market and you would go to the market with your products to “present your offer”.

With the invention of printing and other technologies, you now have a smorgasbord of delivery methods or means to reach people like

o Printing: newspapers, magazines, catalogs, newsletters

o Telephone, mail, fax

o Radio and TV,

o Internet – via websites, blogs, social media sites, email, video and audio podcasts

o Teleseminar and webinars

o Mobile media: Blackberrys and mobile or cell phones

o And let’s not forget to speak in public and network in person

Now that range adds a level of complexity. But the choice is good and you don’t have to use all of these, but they are available to you.

In either case, you will be speaking or writing. Just narrow down what makes sense for you and your business and use your strengths to come up with a plan.

JUST remember that the principles of marketing remain the same regardless of the medium, so the PURPOSE of your marketing remains the same. To persuade potential customers to visit you online or offline so that you can pitch your offer.

So where does advertising fit into this?

Advertising it is simply a subset of your marketing activities. It is the function of SALES when you make the sales pitch or “present your offer”. This could be verbal or written in the same medium that you use for your marketing communications. What adds to the confusion is that sometimes large companies use image-based ads to publicize, so the “sales pitch” is not obvious.

But the primary the purpose of advertising is to SELL.

So you create ads in one form or another and present them to your audience.

Small businesses cannot afford to spend money on image advertising designed for the masses to promote a well-known brand. It’s just not designed to sell, NOW.

What I do and recommend is direct marketing, which is based on personal relationships and uses proven direct response advertising techniques rather than mass advertising.

The purpose of a direct response ad is to get a response, NOW! Which means that these ads are actually asking the potential customer to DO something.

Whether you’re building a list, selling a product or service, a quote, or even something you’re giving away, you still need to “sell” it to your potential customer. And ask them to take the action you want them to take to advance the sales process.

Simply put, advertising is a subset of marketing and direct response marketing, and advertising is the small business champion.