What’s the difference between marketing, sales, and branding?

If you’re a business owner — especially a small business owner or a solo — it’s likely that you started your business to go pro at something you were naturally good at and loved to do. You may have ‘backed into’ your understanding of the grand trio — marketing, sales, and branding — learning about it as you went, on a ‘need to know’ basis, and figuring out what worked for you and didn’t. (It’s okay that you’re still figuring this out. Every business is!)

It’s time for some basic definitions of these three foundational business terms. Most importantly, it’s time to understand why the difference between them matters.

What follows are the working definitions Katie and I use with clients at The Voice Bureau.

The definition of marketing is sharing what you have to offer with the people likeliest to buy — & sharing in a way likely to lead to the conversion you want (opt-in, sale, social share, etc.). Sometimes marketing is extremely targeted — i.e. you create a Facebook ad campaign that’ll be shown to just a certain segment of your page Likers. Other times, marketing is designed in the hopes of ‘netting’ the Right People through specific use of certain signals, triggers, and emotional cues. Marketing is taking your offer to market so that people can see what you’ve got, begin to experience it, and form an opinion or a perception of the value of it to them.

The definition of branding? Branding is the “suite of signals” that are signature to your brand, emblematic of your style/essence/approach, by which you are known and remembered. Your brand’s suite of signals incorporates everything people can see, taste, touch, smell (think of that store you love to go that always! smells! so! good!), listen to, perceive, and hear about from other people. The suite of signals is both concrete and abstract — it’s the sign above your front door, your website’s color palette, and your reputation in your community. You can isolate the elements in the suite and/or you can look at them all together.

Now on to the definition of sales. Sales are the mechanics of selling whatever you offer, and the intentional steps you invite people to take to get nearer to conversion. Sales can be looked at as a multiple-step process — this way, it’s easy to see where your sales process is breaking down. Sales is a human process. If it feels cold, you’re doing it wrong. ♥

How marketing, branding, and sales relate to each other

In a healthy business, marketing, branding, and sales are intertwined. They leverage and influence each other.

When it comes to business training and education, sometimes separating them out and teaching one without the other is problematic. It can leave HUGE gaps in people’s learning. I can’t tell you how many times I’ve worked on beautiful brands for businesses that didn’t have a sales process thought through, much less a sales funnel in place or even under construction. Not to mention lack of understanding and education around the type/nature/volume/mechanics of marketing they’d need to make their business model viable.

These are NOT criticisms — these are the realities of doing business in a fluid marketplace where small businesses are easy to start but not as easy to make thrive.

So, why is it important to distinguish between marketing, branding and sales, especially as a solo or small business owner?

In our perspective, it’s important to know the difference so that we know what we need to understand. In my view, every business owner is strong or not so strong in one or more areas. Some businesses are naturally adept at marketing, recognizing opportunities to share their good news and start creating value for potential customers even before a dollar is ever exchanged. Others are strong at sales — helping people who are ready and able to say yes, “closing” the deal on a phone call, etc. Others are keen at branding — they have an intuitive feel for what works for them visually, artistically, in terms of creative messaging. 

It is SO important to celebrate what you’re already doing well. And consider doing more of it!

You’ve probably recognized that when you change one thing in your business, every other thing needs to change at least a fraction to accommodate the newness. You try out a new sales process and your marketing has to come into alignment. You reposition your brand and your sales process needs to take a cue. You buff up your marketing and your brand needs some iteration.

This is normal. This is positive. This is growth. This is how you alchemize all the awesome, innate stuff you’ve got going on into something your Right People will treasure. This is how you go for the gold.

Recognizing where you need to grow — in marketing, in sales, in branding — is respectful of the entirety of your business and your brand. It’s creating the conditions where your brand can be received the way it’ll make the most impact, by the people who will value it most.

Katie and I developed The Voicery in response to this very need. We would be beyond honored to support you in 2016 with your brand voice development and your content strategy, which is integral to your marketing system and supportive of a robust sales process.

Our specialty is brand voice and content. We know just how integral these pieces are to the grand trio: branding, marketing, and sales. Let us show YOU how by creating results for you — in your very own brand, using what comes naturally to you to make it work.

Learn more about entering The Voicery.