The terms "Marketing" and "Communications" go hand in hand for many outside of either fields of study and practice. Both professions can look very similar to the audience - but there's a goal and strategy at the heart of each.
For starters: Marketing's academic home is in Business schools, while Communications lives in Liberal Arts.
As a Communications Professional, I have studied strategies that can assist an organization in reaching audiences with intended messages, and building campaigns around a mission statement. To achieve that, I either create visuals or work with a graphic designer, write copy and articles, manage website content, and craft social media campaigns. I assemble newsletters, and am present at events to gather images, meet leaders, and find the tone of the discussion we want to focus on in future initiatives.
After publishing, I take measurements of a sampling of analytics to see which approaches worked - and which ones missed. This is where marketing techniques enter into communications, and the fields work together to show a return on investment. To be clear: I am concerned with click-throughs, followers, and engagement rates because they let me know that humans received something from the content.
But...as a Communications Professional, I'm much more concerned with messaging alignment, quality responses, resulting relationships, and building a broader rapport that leads to a longer-term investment in a mission and vision. This is typically why I am OK with a "slow and steady" approach rather than "attempting to go viral." Finding the right audience means engaging everyone's connections, contributions, and aligning it for an audience around the core message of an organization.
Yes, marketing and communications do work together. Our products can look similar on the audience’s end, and we do need to work together for a cohesive voice across an organization. Communications is about engaging human audiences for the long-term, earning trust, and responding to concerns in a trustworthy way. What we create is the underlying feeling that will continue with your brand and organization when the marketing campaign ends.
Want to learn more? I love talking about this sort of thing. Reach out to me here.