Are marketing and communications the same – There are countless opinions and theories around the difference between Communication and Marketing , whether they are the same or not. The two generate great controversy to the point that there are different theories. But the truth is that for me, a journalist and a very purist when it comes to terms, I have to say no. Communication and Marketing are not the same and now I will tell you why.
What is marketing
- These two disciplines complement each other and are equally necessary for your business, but their main objective is completely different. That is why it is important not to put them in the same bag because you can get to confuse their objectives. And this can lead you to think that the communication or marketing strategies are not working and, therefore, that you decide not to invest more time or money in them.
What is marketing
- Marketing is the discipline that is in charge of the relationship of your company with your public or with the market. It has a very clear ultimate goal: to sell more . For this reason, it is in charge of studying and defining 4P calls :
Thus, marketing seeks to obtain a short-term economic benefit from all those actions or strategies that you are going to implement. But there are also other more secondary and equally important objectives. For example: make ourselves known, get more followers to grow our community and, therefore, the number of potential clients, or gain visibility, among others.
Marketing strategies
As I know that said like that it sounds very abstract, here are some examples of marketing strategies that you can do with your business:
- A campaign with ‘influencers’. When you decide to send your product to an influencer or invite her to try your service, what you are looking for is to make her audience talk about you. This determination allow you to reach out to their community and make yourself known. Therefore, it is important that you choose the profiles with which you want to do these actions well in order to obtain good results.
- Raffle or contest on Instagram. In this case the purpose can be twofold. On the one hand, get more followers and grow our community. And, on the other, have more visibility. In this way, you will get your product or service to reach more people and increase the chances that they will buy or hire you.
- paid advertising. Allocating a portion of your annual budget to advertising on social networks like Instagram is also considered a marketing strategy. Paying for more visibility will bring you more followers and some more purchases.
What is communication
Unlike marketing, the main objective of communication is to connect with your audience. With it you can transmit your values and brand essence, become a reference, be in the collective imagination of people, consolidate your brand prestige, reach a wider audience… In short, gain credibility.
What does my business need? A communication plan or a marketing plan?
Are you clear about what your story is and how to tell it? Have you worked on a message that represents you to share with your clients and followers? Do you know what your universe of keywords is? If you have answered yes to all this, then you can start with the marketing plan because you are well connected to the essence of your business.
