marketing online vs selling online


What is the difference between marketing online and selling online?



Marketing online = make people aware of the brand
Selling 
online = get them to buy it 


When most people think of marketing, they think "selling," as if they are the very same thing. But the two are different, so let me explain a bit further...

Marketing is a larger function and includes a range of activities such as doing research, analyzing data, defining a target market, creating a strategy around a desired goal/outcome, creating your delivery system and testing it out to make sure if functions optimally, planning then implementing various components for reaching the target market, analyzing the results, and then finally tweaking for even better results.

Selling is a piece of this pie, and should ideally always include a "call to action" (CTA.)

Regarding LinkedIn, the "product" is you and me. So when we talk about marketing ourselves, we first need clear goals, and then we create a plan for how to use this platform optimally for meeting those goals.


No one likes to be "sold to," so even if our goal on here is, for example, to get more clients or attract people to our websites to see what we have to offer, we first need to do more than just introduce ourselves to others.

We need to help others know us and trust us by first giving such as by offering information, help in achieving their goals, or even providing some of our time that we might typically charge for. Then, if this helps out others, they may be more likely to help us meet some of our goals/objectives.

Following protocol and honoring others' time is crucial. 



Marketing: The act of increasing brand and product awareness, interest, and recognition. Marketing is not selling. Marketing online is much like a television or radio commercial or billboard designed to increase access to product information and increase value of the brand.

Selling (particularly as it applies to your question about doing it online): The act of performing a sales transaction. Chances are that if you are selling a product or serviceonline, the customer knows what she wants and will execute the transaction on youronline selling site.

LinkedIn is not a marketing or selling website. LinkedIn doesn't take credit card orders for your product or service. LinkedIn describes itself as a networking site. There is, however, opportunity to do marketing on LinkedIn. After all- they do have advertising space that you can buy.

The best strategy for accomplishing both on LinkedIn is to network and find someone who can lead you to an 
online service that you can hire to help you. Because it is free, lots of people will try to post their website on LinkedIn, but it isn't really an effective to use this valuable resource.


There are a number of similar tactics related to both online marketing and sales, but the goals are very different.

While many web sites and their related 
online marketing activities to drive their traffic pose as "sales", they are really marketing. You can find a number of good definitions for marketing including the AMA and Wikipedia - think positioning and education of the marketplace with the brand value, benefits and value propositions.

One clear distinction I would make is if the site can really sell, that is have the customer complete a transaction without a sales person representing the seller, I would consider 
online selling - think eCommerce sites.

Based on my definition LI would be all about marketing, not actually selling. It can drive demand and interest to the top of the sales funnel, but the sales process would take over from there...

Strategies for marketing on LI:
1. Answer questions
2. Be specific on your keywords/description of past projects and current activities
3. Make sure to be a contributor to others
4. Recommendations make a difference, provide them to folks you trust and get them from those you know
5. Become an "expert" in something

Here are a few web sites that might help.

Links:



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