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Business promotion is communicating with the public in an attempt to influence them toward buying your products and/or services. Generally we promote our businesses, our products, and our services by trying to bring them to the forefront of our target audience's attention in the hope that they will act as we want them to (i.e. see our product; want to buy our product).

You might promote your business, product or service in person through direct selling or in a retail store, via the internet through a website or social media platform, electronically through email or text messaging (SMS marketing), just to name a few of the more popular business communication channels, but it's the intention to influence the consumer that defines promotion and sets it apart from other communication with customers and/or clients.

Promotion Definition: Promotion and Advertising Are Not the Same

The words promotion and advertising are often used interchangeably, but they're not the same thing.

Advertising is one specific action you could take to promote your product or service. It's one type of promotion. (See the examples of business promotion below for other types of promotion that small businesses commonly use.)

Promotion, as a general term, includes all the ways available to make a product and/or service known to and available to purchase by customers. Someone starting a business, for instance, might ask themselves how they're going to promote their products or services; advertising would be one of the ways although of course there are many others. (See The Marketing Plan Section of the Business Plan for how advertising fits into the promotional mix.) An ad on a bus shelter is promotion. So is a marketing campaign or offering a discounted price for a set amount of time.

The word promotion is also used specifically to refer to a particular activity that is intended to promote the business, product or service. A store might advertise that it's having a big promotion on certain items, for instance, or a business person may refer to an ad as a promotion. Businesses also often create or buy promotional merchandise, products that often have been branded with a company's logo, to give away at events such as trade shows or as thank yous to customers.