Marketing Dictionary of Industry Jargon
Aug 27, 2018
This Marketing Dictionary Includes Some Common Industry Terms Used (sometimes abused) by Marketers
Every industry has jargon used to define the key pieces of that profession. This marketing dictionary lists out the commonly used jargon that marketers often say. Like any other industry, some terms are used so often that we forget to explain ourselves better. On behalf of all marketers out there, I would like to apologize for the abuse of marketing jargon.
What's Included Here:
Content Marketing Dictionary of Jargon
Content Marketing – A strategy that uses the creation and distribution of valuable, relevant and consistent content (i.e. blog posts, news articles, videos) to engage your audience. (Read More from the Content Marketing Institute)
Call-to-Action (CTA) – This is a copy you use to instruct your audience to take an action. In the digital space, it is usually part of a link, button or image. Whereas in the non-digital space it may be something like “Visit Us” or “Call This Number”.
Content Distribution – This describes the paid distribution of content through downstream channels including web, email or social media. The goal of a CDN (Content Distribution Network) is to serve content to end-users with high availability and high performance. (Learn More About Content Marketing Platforms)
Content Calendar – Also called an editorial calendar, a content calendar is a schedule for what and how you will distribute your content. Get a sample content calendar here.
Influencer Marketing – This is a marketing practice involving the power to impact purchasing decisions by reaching those who have a sway over the things other people buy. Usually, the person has expertise, popularity, or reputation in a specific area.
Media Relations – Marketers or communications professionals developing relationships with journalists and bloggers directly, whereas public relations extends that outreach beyond the media to include the general public.
Premium Content – The most valuable and relevant content that you deliver to address a target audience’s needs and wants. It is usually gated content (forced to fill out a contact form) or paid for content such as a white paper, ebook, case study, or instructional video.
Digital Marketing Dictionary Jargon
Anchor Text – This is the visible, clickable text of a hyperlink on a website. On most websites, this text is blue and underlined. Search engines use this text to help determine the subject matter of what it is linked to.
TIP: If two links are targeting the same URL, then only the anchor text used in the first link is counted by Google for SEO or search (source: Moz: Anchor Text)
Bounce Rate – The percentage of visitor sessions to your website where the person left your site from the entrance page without further engagement. A bounce is defined as a visit to your website with a single engagement “HIT”. A HIT is some form of engagement that will impact time on page or time on your site (i.e. clicking on a link, visiting another page, sharing on social media).
Click-Through Rate (CTR) – The ratio of clicks to impressions of an online ad or email marketing campaign. This is a way to measure the success of a digital advertising campaign for a particular website or the effectiveness of an email campaign by the number of users that clicked on a specific link.
Content Management System (CMS) – The system used to manage and publish the editorial content of a website. Among the most popular are WordPress, Joomla, and Drupal.
Conversion Rate –This is the percentage of users who take the desired action, such as filling out a form or making a purchase. (Source: Google)
Impressions – The number of times a webpage, digital ad or other online content (such as a social post) is delivered to the audience. Unique impressions are the number of unique visitors to a website, social post or ad (compared with multiple views by a single person).
TIP: For ads, keep in mind the difference between CPI (cost per impression) and the CPC (cost per click), which is not impression-based.
Landing Page – This is any page on the web that someone might land on that has a form and exists for the purpose of capturing a visitor’s information. You may also hear this called a squeeze page or a lead page. (More about Landing Pages)
Opt-In Email – When someone is given the option to receive email from a business. Without obtaining someone’s permission before sending an email to them, the email is considered unsolicited bulk email, better known as spam. (Read about email opt-ins)
Search Engine Optimization (SEO) – A methodology of strategies, techniques, and tactics used to increase traffic to your website by obtaining high-ranking search results – including Google, Bing, Yahoo, and other search engines (Learn More About SEO).
Paid, Earned, Owned, & Shared Media – A mix of media types that online marketers leverage to create a connection between brand information and consumers.
- Paid – online advertising through display ads, pay per click search ads, and sponsorships
- Earned – brand presence in media without having to advertise through public relations & media relations
- Owned – Media, content, and assets that the brand controls, including websites, blogs, email, and social media pages
- Shared -participation and interaction with consumers on social media sites that result in content & shared interactions
User Experience (UX or UE) – This encompasses all aspects of the end-user’s interaction with your company, services, and products. This is most commonly considered for website design in areas such as branding, buttons, forms, and page layout.
Customer Driven Marketing Dictionary of Jargon
Customer Relationship Management – Customer relationship management (CRM) refers to the business strategies, processes, and technology that businesses use to organize and improve relationships with customers and other key contacts such as vendors and partners. We like using Zoho CRM for our software that helps us to manage these relationships.
Customer Persona or Avatar – This is a character description that represents a person who is your ideal client. Think about your target clients in terms of who they are on an individual basis. This makes it easier to understand what motivates them and why they choose your product or service. (Read More about Customer Personas)
Customer Journey Mapping – Identify each of the steps in your business process that your customers experience. Begin by assessing the moment a prospective customer becomes aware of your business. Continue to identify each step until he or she is a loyal fan/customer. Read more about customer journey mapping.
Lead Nurturing Campaign –The goal of a lead nurturing campaign is to assist leads through your sales funnel – keeping them actively involved and engaged in your company. This is closely tied to CRM.
Market Research –The activity of gathering information about customers’ demographics, needs, behaviors, and preferences. The two methods for reading and understanding this kind of information are qualitative or quantitative analysis.
Lead Generation Marketing Dictionary of Jargon
Demand Generation – Targeted marketing programs to drive awareness and interest in a company’s products and/or services. These are the touchpoints throughout the conversion optimization and sales cycles.
Inbound Marketing – A marketing strategy that pulls readers into your website, rather than you reaching out with something such as an email. This kind of marketing earns the attention of customers and makes the company easy to be found. It also draws customers to the website by producing interesting content and drives those customers to sign up for newsletters and other opt-in offerings.
Marketing Automation – Software platforms and technologies designed for marketing departments and organizations to more effectively market on multiple channels online. These tools allow companies to nurture prospects with highly personalized, useful content – using tactics such as customer segmentation, customer data integration, and campaign management. Automation tools help to convert prospects to customers and then into happy loyal customers. (Read More about marketing automation)
Niche Market – A small and specific group of your target audience that may be overlooked by competitors. This group may be small, but they are a profitable segment of your market. You may want to focus specific attention on them. Market niches are created by identifying needs or wants that are not being met by competitors. If your offering does satisfy that need, then you are serving that niche.
Retargeting List / Remarketing Lists – You may also want to call it “Follow-Up Digital Marketing” because these lists are essentially a digital way of following up with the prospective buyers who have shown interest in some way. As I recall, this term first came to be with the advent of Google Ad Words. If someone types “blue socks for men” into a search, then an ad targeted to that person is delivered.
How It Works: cookies are placed on the computer of website visitors when they do something that meets the criteria you’ve set. The individual’s cookie ID is added to your retargeting list for publishing retargeting ads.
Retargeting Ads – Online advertising that targets consumers based on their previous interactions with your website. Think of it like a “reminder” ad delivered to people more frequently once they have visited the website. It is also referred to as “behavioral retargeting” since it is based upon the customer’s online behaviors.
General Jargon from Marketing Dictionary
Branding – This commonly abused term can mean many different things. Your business brand is represented by the tone, voice, visuals, and values of your business. These can look like a logo, wordmark, style guide, brand language guidelines, and mission statement. Get the Branding Template >
Marketing Campaign – A marketing campaign is a sustained effort to promote your product or service through a defined series of activities.
Marketing KPIs – KPI stands for Key Performance Indicator. When you set goals in business, it's vital to have benchmarks along the way to reaching those goals. That is what a KPI does for you.
ROI (Return on Investment) – You always want to know if the marketing you spent money on returned anything to you in sales or income. This is called your ROI. You can calculate your marketing ROI based on your gross profit for the product/service.
TIP: The formula is (Gross Profit – Marketing Investment) divided by the Marketing Investment
Learning Management System (LMS) - A website that hosts your online courses. I recommend using Kajabi for an LMS.
Business Administration vs. Business Management: These two terms are often used interchangeably, but there are distinct differences. Business management professionals are more focused on jobs that include working with people and employees in a company. Whereas business administration professionals maintain the flow of a company from the front desk to top management. (Read More at Cornerstone.edu)
