Marketing 101

When I studied for my Master of Arts in Communication Management (UTS) there was much discussion about whether marketing was a subset of communications, or communications a subset of marketing. Given that I was studying Communication Management, you can probably guess which side our lecturers came down on - marketing is a subset of communications.
I think I'd agree because marketing is really about communicating specific information about a service or a product.
Here's an official definition of marketing from the American Marketing Association: "Marketing is the activity, set of institutions, and processes for creating, communicating, delivering, and exchanging offerings that have value for customers, clients, partners, and society at large." (Italics - mine)
The discussion is a bit like the chicken and the egg - which came first, but here are some simple observations about how you can communication (or market) 'your story' to your 'customers, partners, and society at large.'

1. Your message:  Distill down to a few words what you do in your business. What is the essence of your brand or product? 'Telling your story' is what I use
2. Your audience: Who needs to hear your message? (Once you decided this, its a lot easier to work out what channels to use to get your message to them.)
3. Be consistent:  Make sure everything you do, say, print, e-mail, blog, video, tweet or facebook has the same message. 

So whether you're marketing or communicating, keep these three steps in mind.