Marketing, Advertising, And Promotion: Looking Beyond The Jargon

Most founders don’t know the difference, and it costs them customers

Ever met that overconfident startup founder who swears they’ve “nailed marketing?”

Then they host a big product launch, only to the sound of silence as potential customers collectively shrug.

These kinds of awkward flops often happen when founders throw around words like “marketing,” “advertising,” and “promotion” like interchangeable buzzwords. Spoiler: they’re not to be mixed up.

Before you do the same and end up setting your budget on fire, let’s break it down.

Untangling Marketing and Promotion

Marketing and promotion often sound like siblings—they dress alike, hang out together, and show up at the same time. But they’re not the same. Promotion is just one cog in the marketing machine.

So what is Marketing? It’s the whole strategic shebang. It’s how you take a product from napkin sketch to mass-market darling. It’s identifying who you’re selling to, what they care about, how you’ll reach them, and why they’ll choose you over the others.

Meanwhile, promotion is just your megaphone—it’s how you tell the world about that shiny product once you’ve figured out everything else.

Diving deeper into the two, you’ll see the role each plays.

Marketing: The Full Buffet

Marketing includes your strategy, your positioning, and your playbook:

It means surveying potential customers, aka understanding who actually wants this thing you’re selling. It includes researching what makes your audience tick—what they love, what they loathe. It includes crafting ads, yes, but also refining your product, packaging, pricing, and even your customer service voice.

Marketing comes in all shapes and sizes.

• Inbound Marketing: This is for when you don’t want to chase, you want to attract. Inbound marketing is when you create value so good (blogs, webinars, memes, TikToks, you name it) that customers come to you asking for more.
• Outbound Marketing: Cold calls, direct mail—old-school but still kicking.
• Digital Marketing: This is for the playground that is the internet—Social media, email newsletters, PPC ads, SEO blogs—digital marketing is all about creating and amplifying your brand’s story online.
• Relationship Marketing: It’s about creating long-term connections with your customers so they stick around—and bring friends. Think loyalty programs, exclusive offers, and heartfelt thank-you emails.

Promotion: Your Spotlight Moment

Now, promotion is your flashy moment on stage. It’s the activity where you push your product into the spotlight—whether through sales, contests, ads, or viral TikToks.

Promotion is how you get noticed (because no one buys the best-kept secret in town), drive sales fast (more eyeballs = more credit cards swiped), and solve problems (aka, show why your product is the hero).

Here’s what promotion in action looks like:

• Advertising Promotions: TV spots, billboards, radio ads—Don Draper’s playground.
• Sales Promotions: Limited-time offers, flash sales, “BOGO” deals—anything that makes your customer feel like they’re onto something special.
• Digital Promotions: SEO-optimized landing pages, influencer collabs, email blasts.
• Promotion is a slice of the marketing pizza. It leans heavily on the brand-building foundation that marketing lays. Without marketing, your promotion is like shouting into the void.

For marketing at its finest, blend the two like the pros.

1. Plan It: Don’t wing it. Make sure every promo aligns with your brand’s voice and audience.
2. Keep It Simple: No jargon. No fluff. Clear beats clever.
3. Mix Your Channels: Combine old-school (print ads, trade shows) with new-school (Instagram Reels, PPC).
4. Measure It: Track KPIs—clicks, conversions, customer retention.
5. Ask Customers: Feedback is free gold. Use it.

Oh, and while we’re here—there are seven ‘Ps’ of marketing of which ‘promotion’ is just one (there’s also product, price, place, people, process, and physical evidence), but more on that there.

What Tesla Knows That You Don’t: Marketing Beyond Advertising

Some companies, like Tesla and Telegram, have scaled into giants without spending a dime on traditional advertising.

Does that mean “a good product sells itself”? Sort of—but also, no.

It means they invested heavily in brand, community, buzz, and storytelling. Their products became part of a cultural conversation—without relying on Super Bowl spots or splashy banner ads.

The takeaway? You don’t need to put all your chips on paid ads. Advertising, like promotion, sits within a broader marketing strategy. You need to think bigger.

What Exactly Is Advertising?

Advertising for beginners? Ads are one type of promotion of ideas, goods, or services. They’re one part of the marketing toolbox.

Advertising includes most tactics you already know: TV (for mass appeal, still huge for certain demos), Radio (for regional and niche targeting), Online (Your Google Ads, Instagram Stories, banner ads.), and Local Ads: (Billboards, flyers, and community newspapers—yep, still alive).

Russell H. Colley (the OG of ad strategy) identified 52 possible advertising objectives and ‘DAGMAR’ method for “Defining Advertising Goals for Measured Advertising Results”.

According to him, an advertising goal is a specific task to be accomplished, with a defined audience, within a specific timeframe.

So an example of an advertising objective would be: “Convince 30 million homemakers that Brand X cleans clothes better—moving from 10% belief to 40% belief within one year.”

See? Specific. Measurable. Time-bound. SMART before SMART was trendy.

There are different flavors of advertising:

• Informative: “Hey! Did you know yogurt has probiotics?” (Used when introducing new products or categories.)
• Persuasive: “BMW > Mercedes because driving pleasure > status.” (Used when fighting for market share.)
• Reminder: “Coca-Cola still exists, don’t forget to stock your fridge.” (Used to stay top-of-mind in mature markets.)

Marketing vs. Advertising: What’s the Difference?

Both are trying to win customers over. Both get measured by conversions, engagement, and revenue.

The difference? Marketing is the entire playbook—from audience research to product design to PR. And advertising is the tactical, loud-speaker moment when you shout about it.

If you need fast sales, targeted ads might do the trick.

If you want to build a brand people love and trust, you’ll need a holistic marketing strategy.

Just like with promotion, great businesses use both in sync.

The Sales Funnel: Bridging Marketing and Sales

Marketing and sales aren’t enemies; they’re teammates. Picture the classic funnel:

Step 1: Marketing warms up leads, educating them about the problem and solution.

Step 2: Sales swoops in to close the deal when the customer is ready.

Startups often fumble by skipping the marketing part and diving straight into sales pitches. Don’t be that startup.

The Five Marketing Concepts (a.k.a. Philosophies That Rule the World)

One golden rule: Marketing should inform product development from day one.

There are five marketing concepts, also known as ‘marketing management orientations,’ to help design a marketing strategy. You see these concepts all around you – it’s not just about marketing products to customers, but also about how they’re created.

1. Production Concept. “Make it cheap and available.” Think: Henry Ford’s Model T.
2. Product Concept. “Make it the best widget ever.” Sometimes leads to overengineering (ever seen a remote with 100 buttons you never use?).
3. Selling Concept. “Sell hard, sell fast.” Think pushy insurance sales.
4. Marketing Concept. “Customer first, product second.” Apple didn’t just sell iPods—they sold a lifestyle.
5. Societal Marketing Concept. “Make money and save the planet.” Think Patagonia, Ben & Jerry’s, or anyone on a mission to be good and do good.

The Art of Storytelling in Marketing

A landing page isn’t just a landing page—it’s a story where the customer is the hero, the villain is their problem, and your product is the plot twist that saves the day.

Humans are wired for stories. When you position the customer at the center of the story or even weave them into your campaigns, customers lean in.

The Forrest Gump Principle: Keep It Simple (and Repeat Yourself)

A Fortune 500 CEO once said: “I keep my messages so simple that even Forrest Gump could write them. Then I repeat them. Again and again.”

Marketing isn’t about sounding smart. It’s about being understood. It’s about communicating effectively across all channels. Clarity wins.

Digital Marketing = Data-Driven Marketing

Forget “digital” as just “online stuff.” A true digital marketer is a data nerd in disguise, obsessed with patterns and numbers.

Modern marketers must speak in metrics, whether they’re running TikTok ads or printing flyers for a farmers’ market. To increase conversion rate by X% = do Y. To improve customer retention by Z% = tweak funnel A.

Takeaways

A cohesive brand message inside and outside your company builds trust, loyalty, and (most importantly) cash flow.

Startups that crush it don’t treat marketing as an afterthought. They bake it into the product, listen to data, and tell better stories. Less “spray and pray” promotions and advertising, and more “track and tweak” marketing.

The next time someone tells you “We just need a killer ad,” politely remind them that you don’t just need a megaphone; you need a plan.