Tom Wilson's Marketing Blog

When Advertising can be the Wrong Strategy

In small business marketing books and articles, one of the first things you're told is to get out there and advertise your products or services. Even if you're not told it, as a non-professional marketer you tend to assume that this is the right thing to do.

Wrong. Of course, there are times when it's proper for you to advertise, but think carefully before embarking on any advertising expenditure. Advertising is costly. It can quickly eat up your limited resources. And it's not always effective. In fact, in many instances it can be entirely the wrong strategy for you. There are plenty of other cheaper, even free, marketing strategies that might prove much more effective.

To find out more about "When Advertising can be Bad News for the Small Business", read my complimentary White Paper on the subject.

This will help you decide if you want to use advertising and if it's relevant to you.

The Role of Advertising in Marketing

Hi there!

I can't tell you how many times people have said to me either that marketing is advertising or that  marketing and advertising are separate functions. On other occasions, I've seen advertising listed alongside marketing, suggesting they have equal status. None of these positions is correct.

Marketing is the business function that's concerned with selling. It covers every aspect of selling, amongst other things from: deciding what products or services to sell; who to sell them to; what prices to charge; the channels to the end user; and how you will sell your products and services.

Advertising comes into the last of these categories. Advertising is a selling strategy. And it's by no means the only selling strategy. Others include the likes of PR, sponsorship, trade shows and exhibitions, sales promotions, networking, personal (field) selling, direct mail, and so on.

What's more, there are various situations in which you would not even consider using advertising as one of your selling strategies. For more information on that, read my Complimentary White Paper: "When Advertising can be Bad News for the Small Business".

So, let's keep "advertising" in its marketing context.