Communication and marketing are sometimes integrated with each other. Apart from the many similarities, they are also different in many aspects. You might also want to check out how branding and communication can help your business thrive.
Let’s first understand the concepts of marketing and communication before delving into the relationship between them.
What is marketing?
Marketing is the process by which a business promotes the purchase or sale of its products or services. Branding, Advertising, Direct Marketing, Social Media Marketing, Affiliate Marketing, and Influencer Marketing are a few common examples of marketing.
Marketing is when professionals in a company’s marketing and promotion department use strategies to attract the attention of the company’s target audiences. Celebrity endorsements, catchy taglines, distinctive packaging or designs, and holistic media exposure are all examples of targeted promotions.
What is communication?
In simple terms, communication is the exchange of meaning between two or more parties. It may seem easy to understand what it is and its purpose, but it’s much harder to execute it effectively. Communication, regardless of whether it is happening between two friends or a group of strangers, can be difficult. These same difficulties are present in the marketing world as well.
However, at times it doesn’t matter what is being said. What matters more is how the other party is receiving the message (in a marketing context, this is the potential customer). As a result, we must think carefully about how we communicate.
Communication can be classified into two types:
- Internal: when the communication activities are limited within an organization or parties belonging to the same unit
- External: communication activities that involve parties belonging to different organizations or units
Common communication and marketing tools
There are a few tools that can be considered the vessel for communication or marketing activities. To get a clearer understanding of tools of such kind, let’s check out some examples of widely used tools:
Communication tools
For internal and external communication, a variety of communication tools are employed. Mail, email, mobile phones, telephones, smartphones, computers, social networking, video and web conferencing tools, and online productivity and collaboration platforms are all examples of these tools.
Mail systems may seem outdated, cumbersome, and less popular than other tools. However, mail continues to be the standard and official mode of communication. All official, professional, and notice documents are still sent via mail.
Emails are possibly the most widely and commonly used tool for communication. Emails can be professional, formal, bureaucratic, diplomatic, and confidential. Depending on the nature of the communication, emails can adapt to the necessary format.
Landlines, mobile phones, and smartphones
Landlines may seem like they’re out of style. But they are still quite popular for households and office use. Mobile phones and smartphones are perhaps the most widely used means of communication since everyone has a smartphone or at least a mobile phone nowadays. Thanks to technological advances, smartphones are now used for a myriad of activities instead of just simple communication.
Internet calling, instant messaging, and web conferencing
Instant messaging services have been around for quite a long time now. They are reasonably popular for internal communication. On the other hand, web conferencing and internet calls are free services that allow multiple participants to communicate at the same time. These have been more popular than ever, especially since the beginning of the COVID-19 pandemic.
Social networking sites
Due to their countless features and functions, social networking sites are well-known means of communication. Facebook, Instagram, Twitter, Pinterest, etc., are some of the leading social media platforms.
Marketing tools
The following is a list of popular and effective marketing tools for accurate audience targeting, improving sales, boosting conversion rates, and increasing profits:
- Social media
- Online advertising
- Customer relationship management (CRM)
- Content design, creation, and circulation
- Event promotion
- Lead generation, consideration, and conversion
- Project management
What are the differences between marketing and communications?
The following are some of the most common differences between marketing and communications:
- Numbers are more important in marketing. Marketers research industries, and economic trends, evaluate campaign performance, and use ad campaign results to make detailed reports.
- More emphasis is placed on words in communication. Writing appealing copy to attract prospective customers and retain them is what communicators are concerned with. Their voice varies based on the audience they’re trying to reach. Communicators are adept at writing in various formats, including paragraph-style for catalogs and a quick print ad list-style.
- Customer activity is tracked by marketing. Marketers track website visits, information requests, email activity such as opens and clicks, and total purchase rates.
- Customer attitudes are measured by communication. Customers’ attitude toward a company or brand is difficult to analyze and measure. How they communicate with the brand can help communicators in gauging customer happiness.
Conclusion
In short, marketing is the process of attracting customers and communication is how you help customers relate and connect with your business by telling convincing stories.
Hopefully, the specific information presented in this article is sufficient to improve your basic understanding of communication and marketing concepts.