E-commerce has taken the world by storm. More and more businesses have established their presence on the internet owing to the ease of operating and the manifold increase in their access to a worldwide customer base. One thing that every eCommerce store owner realizes is that the key to growing their business is advertising and marketing.
Difference Between E-commerce Marketing And E-commerce Advertising
However, most people do not know the difference between the two. Advertising and marketing are two different things but are often used interchangeably. Let us see how the two are different from each other.
- Ecommerce advertising
Ecommerce advertising or advertising in general simply means creating paid promotions for your business to inform people about your products and services and to urge them to buy them from you. E-commerce advertising includes various different ways and methods of displaying ads to the public.
- Social Media Ads
Today, one of the most popular ways of advertising online is through the many different social media platforms that are popular amongst people. Businesses design their ads and pay platforms like Facebook and Instagram to show those ads to the targeted audience.
- Google Ads
When you pay Google ads to put up your advertisements, they show up on the top in Google search results as well as on other platforms like YouTube and some mobile apps.
- Ads on blogs
A wonderful way of targeting a large chunk of people is to place ads for your business on famous blogs preferably writing content that matches your niche.
- Ecommerce marketing
Ecommerce marketing, simply stated, is a broader term than advertising. In other words, E-Commerce advertising is just a part of eCommerce marketing. While advertising is just focused on paying to let people know about your business and potentially turn them into customers, marketing involves understanding the market for your product/service, creating a product/service to fulfill people’s needs and drive up sales, strategizing the various ways of reaching potential customers, including advertising. Some other ways in which eCommerce marketing reaches and targets its audience are:
- SEO content
When you are trying to reach people on the internet through the power of content you have to understand what enables your content to reach the people; it is the use of appropriate keywords. Using keywords that match your audience’s interests and usual searches makes your content search engine optimized. This means it will rank higher up when people search for the particular keywords thereby increasing your audience and consequentially potential customers.
- Affiliate marketing
Affiliate marketing has become popular in recent times. It is when someone Else markets your product through a referral link and you give them a commission every time someone makes a purchase using that link
- Newsletters and Emails
As the world advances, an old marketing method that still stays relevant is using emails to send your customers and targeted audience information about your business such as the launch of new products, available discounts, sale season, etc. Similarly, newsletters are also a way of building a loyal customer base and keeping them informed about your products and services.
- Using the reach of influencers
While you can place paid ads on social media sites, you could also use the reach of famous social media personalities or influencers to promote your product/ service either by paying them or collaborating in some way.
Conclusion
Ecommerce marketing and e-commerce advertising are two different things, advertising being an integral part of the broader term ‘marketing’. The two differ not only in their strategies but also in their overall goals. While advertising aims at creating awareness about the brand and attracting customers, marketing has a more comprehensive set of goals such as increasing sales, understanding and meeting customer needs in terms of quality, pricing, delivery, etc., and also advertising through various mediums like social media, YouTube, etc. Whereas, marketing involves methods like SEO content, emails, affiliate marketing, and newsletters.
