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Most business owners I meet think marketing equals promotion. You know, social media posts, ads, email blasts: the “stuff” you put out there. And yep, that is part of marketing, but it’s only one piece of the puzzle.
Believe it or not, marketing actually covers pretty much every aspect of your business.
It’s the seven Ps (product, price, place, people, process, physical evidence, and promotion). Yep, seven. Not just one.
Don’t worry, I’m not about to give you a uni lecture. But it’s important to know that promotion is only one of those Ps.
When you focus only on promotion, you’re missing the bigger picture. And without the bigger picture, your promotion efforts are basically just noise.
I can’t tell you how many times I’ve scrolled through socials and seen businesses selling, selling, selling. Or they’re chasing viral followers like that’s going to magically bring sales in the door. Spoiler: it doesn’t. Especially, if those followers aren’t your ideal clients. Then it’s just vanity numbers.
Marketing covers your whole business
The seven Ps sound technical, but they’re really just common sense when you break them down.
- Product: what you’re actually selling.
- Price: what you charge and the value that signals.
- Place: where people find and buy from you.
- People: your team, your clients, everyone involved.
- Process: how you deliver what you do.
- Physical evidence: the proof that you’re legit (think reviews, packaging, branding, your shopfront or website).
- Promotion: the advertising, socials, and campaigns that most people think marketing is.
When you look at it like this, promotion is just one slice of a much bigger pie. And if you ignore the rest, it doesn’t matter how often you post or how much you spend on ads, things won’t click.
The mistakes I see all the time
Thinking sales and marketing are the same thing
A lot of business owners see sales and marketing as the same thing, but they’re not.
Sales is the process of moving someone from being interested to actually committing: everything from that first enquiry through to the proposal, follow-up, negotiation, and yes, eventually the close.
Marketing is what makes that sales process possible. It’s the awareness, credibility, and positioning that gets people in the door, and it’s also the product, price, people, and process that back up sales.
When business owners blur the two together, things fall through the cracks.
What to do instead?
Keep them separate but connected.
Map out your sales process step by step, then look at how marketing supports each stage. For example:
- Do your reviews (physical evidence) build trust?
- Does your pricing strategy match the value you’re presenting?
- Are your processes making it easy for people to move forward?
That’s how the two work best together.
Expecting a silver bullet
There’s no single post, campaign, or ad that will suddenly transform a business. That’s because marketing isn’t just promotion.
If your product doesn’t match client needs, your price doesn’t reflect value, or your processes are clunky, no amount of advertising will work.
What to do instead?
Step back and look at the whole picture. Review your product, price, people, process, and positioning.
Once those foundations are right, promotion can actually deliver results. Without them, it won’t.
Focusing only on “salesy” content
This one shows up when businesses create content that’s all about themselves: “we do this, we sell that, we’re the best at X.”
The problem isn’t just that people tune out, it’s that it ignores the other parts of marketing.
Clients don’t only buy because of a flashy ad; they buy because your product solves their problem and delivers value, your process is easy, and your people deliver a great experience.
What to do instead?
Shift the focus to your ideal clients. Show them:
- How your product or service fits their life
- Why your pricing reflects value
- The kind of experience they can expect from working with you.
Your content should add value and tell the bigger marketing story, not just shout “buy now.”
Setting marketing goals that don’t align with business goals
This is a really common trap.
A business might set a marketing goal like “grow Instagram followers to 20,000,” while their actual business goal is “increase revenue by 20%.” The two don’t line up.
Marketing goals need to connect directly to your business outcomes, and that connection goes well beyond promotion.
For example: if your business goal is more revenue, you might need to:
- Review pricing strategy
- Tighten your processes to improve conversions
- Build stronger physical evidence (like reviews or case studies) to increase trust.
What to do instead?
Start with the business goal, then decide which parts of marketing (across all seven Ps) will actually help achieve it.
Stories that show the difference
When businesses step back and look at marketing as a whole, not just promotion, that’s when the magic happens.
Take Dash Cakes.
We worked together on a full marketing strategy. Not just posts, but figuring out their vision, mission, goals, ideal clients, why they do what they do, and how that impacts their marketing.
Their words, not mine: “Dash has had its best year on record and it all started with a conversation with you.”
Or VetaFarm.
After a strategy workshop (which involved both their sales and marketing teams, as well as a couple of executives), they shifted how they approached their marketing.
Two months in, they said their outputs had increased considerably, and they felt clearer and more confident about what they were doing.
Both examples show that when you stop thinking “promotion = marketing” and look at the bigger picture, results follow.
Quick self-check: are you too promotion-heavy?
It’s really easy to get caught up in the doing part of marketing: the posts, the ads, the emails. They’re visible, they feel productive, and you can tick them off your list. But if that’s all you’re doing, your marketing might (will) be a little one-dimensional.
A simple way to check is to ask yourself a few questions.
Are most of your marketing activities just ads, posts, or pushing sales?
If the answer’s yes, you’re leaning way too heavily on promotion. That’s like building a house and only putting up the front door.You need the rest of the structure for it to actually work.
When was the last time you reviewed your pricing, your product fit, or how your clients actually find and buy from you?
If it’s been “ages ago,” that’s a red flag. Things change. Your clients, your market, even the way people prefer to pay. If you’re not checking in on these regularly, your promotion might be sending people to something that no longer works for them.
Do you have a strategy written down that covers more than just “what to post”?
If the answer is no, you’re probably stuck in what I call “promotion-land.” That’s where businesses spend time creating content and ads without the bigger picture in place. And it usually leads to frustration, because results are inconsistent.
Your clients are changing. Your marketing should too.
Consumer behaviour is changing faster than ever. I’m currently reading How AI Changes Your Customers by Mark Schaefer, and one line really stood out:
“Artificial intelligence isn’t just changing how people shop, search, and scroll. It’s rewiring how they think, feel, and connect to our brands… They’re becoming different humans.”
That means your customer journey is shifting, whether you’ve noticed it yet or not.
For example, let’s say you last reviewed your customer journey two years ago. Back then, your clients might have discovered you via Google search and followed you on Facebook before buying. Now, they might be asking AI tools for recommendations, checking peer reviews first, and expecting instant chat support before they even consider clicking “buy.”
If your marketing strategy is only focused on promotion, “let’s run more ads”, but you haven’t updated your process, people, or physical evidence to match how your clients actually buy today, those ads are going to fall flat.
So, if your answers to the self-check questions are yes, ages ago, and no… chances are you’re relying too much on promotion and not enough on the other parts of marketing.
The fix?
Step back, review all the Ps, and make sure your promotion is actually supported by everything else in your business. Especially as your ideal clients keep evolving.
So what should you do instead?
Start with strategy.
Always.
Without it, you’re just guessing. And guessing usually means wasted time and money.
A good strategy doesn’t have to be complicated, but it does need to connect what you’re doing with where you’re heading. It’s about understanding your goals, who your ideal clients are, and how the different parts of your business (what you offer, how you price it, where people find you, and how you deliver it) all work together to make your marketing actually mean something.
Bring in marketing experts.
You don’t have to know everything (and honestly, you shouldn’t try to).
Marketing touches every part of your business, so having someone who can step back and see how it all fits can save you a lot of frustration.
Think of it like having a builder manage your renovation instead of trying to coordinate every trade yourself. You could do it, but it’ll take longer and probably cost more in the end.
Review results and tweak.
Marketing isn’t set-and-forget.
What worked last year might not work this year, and that’s okay.
The important part is keeping an eye on what’s actually happening and adjusting as you go.
Maybe your clients’ needs have shifted, or your pricing no longer reflects the value you deliver. Regular reviews stop you from coasting on autopilot and help keep your marketing aligned with your business goals.
Make your marketing specific to your business
When asked a marketing question, us marketers often respond with “it depends”.
This is because there’s no one-size-fits-all formula (no matter how many slimy, wealth-signalling marketing gurus tell you “Here’s my formula to make millions”).
That’s because your business isn’t like anyone else’s. Your clients, your goals, your pricing, your team, they’re all unique. What works brilliantly for one business can completely flop for another. That’s why copying someone else’s approach rarely works long-term.
So, while sometimes you can refine and adjust as you go, the less strategy you have, the more you’re flying blind.
If you take the time to set your strategy first, every bit of marketing after that has purpose and that’s when it starts to actually work.
Seeing marketing differently
Marketing is bigger than promotion. It’s about aligning your business, your goals, and your ideal clients, and then using promotion to tell that story.
Promotion might feel like the “fun” part (and sometimes it is), but it won’t deliver on its own. If your marketing feels one-sided, it’s probably time to zoom out and look at the bigger picture.
That’s where I come in. I work together, with you and your key stakeholders, to create a marketing strategy that makes sense for your business. If you’re ready for your marketing to work smarter (and actually support your goals), get in touch and let’s make it happen.
Why is marketing more than just promotion?
Marketing goes beyond advertising and social media. It includes everything from your product and pricing to your people, process, and customer experience, all working together to attract and retain clients.
What are the seven Ps of marketing?
The seven Ps are product, price, place, people, process, physical evidence, and promotion. Focusing on all seven ensures your marketing strategy supports your overall business goals.
How can I make my marketing more effective?
Start with a clear strategy. Understand your ideal clients, align your marketing with your business goals, and regularly review your product, pricing, and processes. That’s how you make marketing work as a whole.
