These are standard business terms, but do we really know what each of them does?
Often you hear these terms used together, and many times you hear them used interchangeably.
In some businesses, these are three separate departments, and they rarely work together.
And then the owner can’t figure out why they can’t reach their sales goals with all the money spent.
Let’s spend a few minutes identifying what each one does and then how they can work together to support each other.
We’ll start with Advertising:
Advertising’s main job is to make sure your target market knows about you.
They run the ads online on Google or Facebook or radio or TV or . . .
You get the idea. It’s advertising’s job to make sure you’re known.
At Go Social Experts, one of our specialties is making sure you are known to your target market.
Then Marketing:
Once advertising has made your company known to their target market and you’ve started getting leads or traffic to your website or people interacting on social media, then marketing takes over.
The critical job of marketing is to move the people who have expressed interest in your product or service and move them to become a customer.
Making these people familiar with you is usually done via content you offer them or via specials you offer and stories about people who have used your service and had success. You get the idea.
When Marketing knows what Advertising is doing, they can support Advertising and make sure their messages and offers support the ads.
After all, most people in any market aren’t ready to buy right now. Instead, they need some nurturing and encouragement, and when they’re ready, they will think of you as long as marketing has been doing their job.
Sales:
Sales are where the rubber meets the road, and the money is collected.
Sales job is to do what the title says, make sales.
Now, when advertising has brought them good people to talk to, marketing has nurtured these people until they are ready to buy and convinced them that you are the ideal solution.
Then sales steps in and gets the contract signed or collects the money.
Marketing can support sales by providing material sales can use to move people to customers and clients.
Marketing can create case studies and other materials highlighting people who have successfully used your product and service.
They also can make sure their messaging is congruent with the core sales message, so your prospects aren’t confused by getting conflicting messages.
As you can see, when these three departments work together, you have a high-performance team reaching their goals.
But when they are working in separate silos, you can get different messages that confuse the customer.
All businesses have these three functions. Sometimes one person does all of them, and in others, there are large departments in each of the three areas.
How well they work together and support each other will determine how easily you reach your company goals.
Have a great day!
P.S. Have you gotten your copy of my book, “The Facebook Formula, How Business Owners Find Big Profits”? If not, you can get a copy at www.gosocialexperts.com/book.