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Social marketing practitioners use techniques developed and refined by commercial marketers to "sell" healthy behaviors to children and adults around the world. It became a formal health communications discipline in the 1970s after Philip Kotler and Gerald Zaltman published an influential article in the Journal of Marketing titled "Social Marketing: An Approach to Planned Social Change."

According to noted social marketing practitioner, Nedra Kline Weinreich, the social marketing "planning process . . . [addresses] the elements of the 'marketing mix.' This refers to decisions about: 1) the conception of a Product, 2) Price, 3) distribution (Place), and 4) Promotion. These are often called the "Four Ps" of marketing."

The primary purpose of social marketing is to achieve a "social good." This generally involves achieving long-term and measurable changes in attitudes and behaviors. Mass communication is only one tactic used in social marketing campaigns. Effective social marketing involves carefully considering other factors, including the price of the health "product," where it is going to be promoted, and the policy environment.

Recently, some organizations and individuals have begun to refer to social media marketing using the term social marketing. This began to occur after JupiterResearch used the term to describe its social media optimization efforts. The two marketing disciplines are separate and should not be confused for one another.