Modern Marketing & Advertising Platforms are the bloodlines of any business. That’s because these two are the avenues via which you will shorten the distance between you and your potential customers and consequently close sales. Ultimately, you want your business to make sales.

But what is the difference between marketing and advertising?

Marketing will help you identify the needs of your prospective customers and figure out how to meet them. Advertising is about the paid promotional efforts you put into giving your business, products, and services exposure.

Modern Marketing & Advertising Platforms; How it was vs. How it is Now

Traditional marketing is also known as push marketing. 

For a reason…

Traditional marketing is more profit-oriented, and push marketing strategies are applied to achieve this goal.

If you work with traditional marketing and advertising, your focus with be to increase exposure in the shortest time possible rather than building a relationship aimed at brand loyalty.

You will therefore go for the more traditional platforms to help you achieve that. Those will include:

• Broadcasting like TV and Radio
• Out-of-home advertisements like billboards and signages
• Print advertisements like newspapers, magazines, flyers, and brochures
• Telephone marketing
• Business cards
• Direct sales mail

Modern Marketing and Advertising Platforms You can use to Leverage Your Business.

Let’s jump right into it.

Quora

You have probably heard about Quora but didn’t realize it’s a goldmine for your business.

In addition to social media and search engines, you can market and advertise on Quora by sharing knowledge with over 300 million active users to help build content around your brand.

Unlike social media and search engines, people come to Quora to specifically discover new things. Some to find new products and services. That means that advertising on Quora, you will be targeting a high-intent audience. 

Here are reasons why you should advertise on Quora:

• Quora Feed and Quora Digest will give you exposure to millions of users without the need to invest in building a following.
• The content you put up on Quora will still fetch valuable leads years later as it remains evergreen.
• The audience on Quora is receptive since they came to Quora to discover or find out something. If that relates to your brand, you are in luck.
• Ads placed on Quora are measurable.

Facebook

Like other social ads, you can build a following on Facebook to turn them into customers later.

Wondering why other entrepreneurs are using Facebook as a platform to market and advertise their business? Here are some of them:

• Budget flexibility; Facebook will run your ads until you hit your set budget.
• Facebook is considered the best social media platform for your ROI. On average, people spend 40 minutes on Facebook. There’s a high chance they will bump into your ad if well targeted.
• Facebook allows you to create a buyer persona by specifying age, gender, location, marital status, e.t.c. It also has a filter feature to help you optimize your ad by targeting only those interested in your product or service.

Market leader Facebook was the first social network to surpass one billion registered accounts and currently sits at more than 2.79 billion monthly active users. The company currently also owns four of the biggest social media platforms, all with over one billion monthly active users each: Facebook (core platform), WhatsApp, Facebook Messenger, and Instagram. In the first quarter of 2021, Facebook reported over 3.45 billion monthly core Family product users.

Google AdWords

There are several search engines out there today. However, Google holds 70% of the market share, making it the most popular. The remaining 30% shared among the other six.

It is, therefore, safe to assume, whenever a customer is searching for a product on the Internet, there’s a high chance they will Google it. If the search has anything to do with your brand, your ad will pop up in their search results.

Precisely at the moment when they need it!

Google AdWords has a very high chance of converting such people into customers. According to Statista “Google is not only the leading search engine worldwide but also one of today’s most profitable digital ad sellers. Advertising on Google has become a staple marketing practice for companies from many different industries, as ranking high on the market leader’s result page can increase brand exposure, drive traffic, and ultimately boost sales. In the United States, where Google’s search market share stands at over 62 percent, the company accounts for roughly one-third of digital ad revenue, making it the leading online advertising platform nationwide. Paid search advertising spending on Google has seen monthly double-digit growth since the beginning of 2021, with ad spend on retail search campaigns increasing particularly fast amidst the pandemic.”

Amazon’s advertising business

Amazon is one of the leading advertisers in the United States, holding almost 90 percent of the country’s retail media ad spend. As of 2021, the e-retail giant accounts for 19 percent of U.S. search advertising spending, and considering the company’s impressive e-commerce sales and user count, it comes as no surprise that Amazon itself has become a highly popular advertising destination. In 2020, Amazon’s U.S. ad revenue exceeded 15 billion U.S. dollars, and according to the latest projections, this figure will double by 2023. The lion’s share of Amazon’s digital ad revenue is generated via search advertising for sponsored brands and product listings, as companies of all sizes have come to value the benefits of promoting their products on the platform. Shoppers who search for items on the website or app are generally looking to make a purchase, and seeing that consumers choose Amazon over brick-and-mortar stores more frequently than ever, marketers are unlikely to search for Amazon advertising alternatives anytime soon.

Instagram

1 billion.

That is the number of active monthly users on Instagram. It is one of the most popular social networks in the United States. The photo and video sharing app connects users from all age groups who use this platform to connect with friends, family, and other people on the internet.

If you are not already advertising on Instagram, you are not doing any justice to your business.

Is your product or service visually engaging? Then Instagram is where it should be.

Why?

• There’s still an untapped potential on Instagram as the platform has been predicted to keep growing.
• Facebook has a lot of personal data for your customers. With Facebook and Instagram recently connected, targeting potential customers is now more precise.
• Your ads will show like any other post. It’s therefore not pushy, and the customer will not feel pressured.

LinkedIn

LinkedIn is home to more than 740 million professionals and one of the most popular social media platforms. Because of its professional outlook, advertising on LinkedIn may be somewhat different from other social media.

Marketing on LinkedIn will work best if your target market is other businesses, i.e., B2B. In the U.S. LinkedIn is the seventh most used social network with Facebook in first place. Other key figures:

By marketing and advertising on LinkedIn, you will be able to:

• Improve visibility and build credibility by increasing online presence and networking.
• Contribute to LinkedIn communities to position yourself as a thought leader ultimately, becoming a trusted advisor
• Identify potential leads from questions posed, engage those who ask, and convert them into customers. That will increase your chance of closing a sale directly on the platform, consequently increasing sales.
• Build links and drive traffic to your business by sharing business content on your status, which could become viral.

Blogs

Blogs that can help you get the attention of your potential customers can either be:

• In-depth analysis
• How-to guides
• Industry trends
• Helpful statistic insights

With about 440million blogs out there all competing for your customers’ attention, you can rise above the noise.

1. Use your competitors’ blogs as a benchmark to create epic content for your customers. You have to do better.
2. Use high-quality images to create an unforgettable first impression.
3. You will find yourself blogging about the same thing as your competitors. However, you don’t need to copy and paste. Instead, build unique content based on your experiences.

Putting it All Together

Marketing and advertising are different posts the rise of technology.

Companies understand that the customer experience they offer to their customers is a significant contributor to the growth of their business.