Many people get confused about the role of advertising in the marketing mix, so here’s a simple look at where it fits.

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

Product
Prices
or Square
oh Promotion

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

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

“Tea Marketing PURPOSE or your biggest task is

persuade prospects to visit you online or offline so they

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

credit card and ready to buy, so there’s no need to sell.

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

This could be said to have started in Babylon when the Crier was the only method of delivery! They went around town yelling at people to go to the market and you went to the market with your produce to “put in your bid.”

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

o Printed: newspapers, magazines, catalogs, newsletters
o Telephone, email, fax
or radio and television,
o Internet: via websites, blogs, social networking sites, email, video and audio podcasts
o Teleseminars and webinars
o Mobile media – Blackberrys and mobile or cell phones
o And let’s not forget to speak in public in person and network.

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 no matter the medium, so the PURPOSE of your marketing remains the same. To persuade prospects to visit you online or offline so you can present your offer.

So where does advertising fit into this?

Advertising it is simply a subset of your marketing activities, it is the SALES role when you make the sales pitch or “make your offer”. This could be verbal or written in all the same mediums that you use for your marketing communications. Adding to the confusion is that sometimes big companies use image-based ads to build awareness, so the “sales pitch” isn’t obvious.

But the primary The purpose of advertising is to SELL.

So you create ads one way or another and put them in front of your audience.

Small businesses cannot afford to waste 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 one-to-one relationships and uses proven direct response advertising techniques instead of mass advertising.

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

Whether you’re building a list, selling a product or service, dating, or even something you’re giving away, you still need to “sell” it to your prospect. And ask them to take the steps you want them to take to move forward in the sales process.

In a nutshell, advertising is a subset of marketing and direct response marketing and advertising is the champion of small business.