Marketing and sales are two different things and one should not be confused for the other. Marketing covers various aspects of business including advertising, public relations, sales, and promotions. Marketing will involve all the activities related to getting your product or service into the market, promoting it through advertisements, influencing customer behavior, and encouraging and increasing sales to increase profits of the business. Sales refer to the actual transaction of handing over the product/service to the customer for a price.

Marketing strategies have evolved many times over since the introduction of the guerrilla concept over 20 years ago by Jay Conrad Levinson. What was radical and revolutionary has become routine and out dated. Creativity is the name of the game and the aim is to send the message across to the customer - one way or the other.

A well placed marketing strategy and a detailed plan are essential for survival of companies in the competitive market environment. Those companies that are product centric and insensitive to the needs, desires and expectations of their customers are on the path to destruction. It is important for the company to know and exceed the perceived expectations of the customer as this is the key to success. It is necessary to pay attention to the customer lest he walks away and takes the business elsewhere.

Marketing is not an exercise that can be evaluated in definite terms. The returns are not tangible and apparent to the naked eye. Many managers opine that their staff waste scarce dollars on marketing plans that do not work. Little do they realize that this is an investment that comes back to you many times over. Not all campaigns are star performers. While some may yield mediocre returns, others may zoom past the expectations.

Because marketing can sometimes be seen as a vague term, some people who work outside of the industry have a view that it's "easy" and that anyone can do it. If you take this view then stop do not undertake marketing with out enlisting the help of a competent marketing agency or an independent consultant, who will oversee your marketing efforts.

The outside marketing agency or the professional marketing consultant will be able to focus on all the company's marketing requirements without being bothered by the aspects like internal company politics or employee relationships etc. These professionals are very aware of the strategies that work for various products and the strategies that will not work. For devising your marketing strategies you definitely should take assistance from these marketing professionals.

Scott F. Geld is the proprietor of Marketing Blaster, Inc. , a pay-per-click traffic source that repeatedly beats the major search engines in conversion ratio and ROI.