A Comprehensive Guide to Important Marketing Terms

Marketing can be overwhelming, especially with all the new terms and jargon thrown around. Let's break it down to the basics.

A lead is a potential customer who has shown interest in your product or service. They're the ones who have filled out a form or downloaded an e-book.

Inbound marketing focuses on creating valuable content that attracts and engages your target audience. This approach is all about being helpful and providing value, rather than just pushing sales pitches.

A landing page is a dedicated webpage designed to convert visitors into leads. It's like a one-stop shop that makes it easy for people to take the next step.

SEO stands for Search Engine Optimization, which means optimizing your website to rank higher in search engine results. It's a crucial part of digital marketing that helps you get found online.

Marketing Fundamentals are essential for any business looking to succeed. The Four Ps of marketing are a great place to start: Product, price, place, and promotion are the building blocks of a solid marketing strategy.

Neil Borden popularized the idea of the marketing mix in the 1950s. He identified the Four Ps as the key elements that make up a company's marketing efforts.

A company's product is the foundation of its marketing efforts. It's what sets it apart from the competition and meets the needs of its target audience.

The price of a product is a crucial factor in its marketing strategy. It needs to be competitive and appealing to customers.

Place, or distribution, is another important aspect of marketing. It refers to how a product gets to its customers.

Promotion is the final piece of the marketing puzzle. It's how a company communicates with its target audience and builds brand awareness.

Marketing strategies are a crucial part of any business, and there are many different types to choose from. The industry is constantly evolving, so it's essential to stay up-to-date on the latest methods.

Traditional marketing strategies were the primary way companies marketed their goods before the rise of technology and the Internet. Outdoor marketing includes public displays of advertising, such as billboards and printed advertisements on benches.

Print marketing involves small, easily printed content that can be replicated. This can include things like brochures, flyers, and business cards. The flexibility in printing processes today means that materials can be tailored to specific customers.

Direct marketing is a form of print marketing that involves delivering specific content to potential customers. This can include things like coupons, vouchers, and pamphlets. The goal is to grab the customer's attention and encourage them to take action.

There are five main types of traditional marketing strategies: Outdoor Marketing, Print Marketing, Direct Marketing, Electronic Marketing, and Event Marketing. Here's a quick rundown of each:

Event marketing involves trying to gather potential customers at a specific location, such as conferences, trade shows, or seminars.

Digital marketing has revolutionized the way companies reach customers, with innovative strategies like search engine marketing and social media marketing.

The first recorded spam email message was sent in 1978 by Gary Thuerk to 400 people using ARPANET, the first public packet-switched computer network. This marked the beginning of digital marketing.

Digital marketing refers to promotional activities that primarily use the Internet and electronic media. This is a direct counterpart to traditional marketing, which relies on offline channels.

The most common digital marketing channels include social media platforms, website advertising, and email marketing. These channels are coupled with techniques like analytics and search engine optimization to create effective experiences online.

Here are some key digital marketing strategies:

Content marketing is a vital part of any marketing strategy, and it's essential to understand its key terms. Below are some important content marketing terms to get you started.

Content marketing is a wide umbrella, and it can be overwhelming to navigate its intricacies. However, knowing specific terms and phrases can give you a well-rounded understanding of the industry.

A content marketing strategy involves creating and distributing valuable, relevant, and consistent content to attract and retain a clearly defined audience. This type of content can come in many forms, such as blog posts, videos, podcasts, and more.

Content marketing is not just about creating content, but also about distributing it effectively. This includes using various channels, such as social media, email, and search engines, to reach your target audience.

Understanding content marketing metrics is crucial to measuring its effectiveness. Key metrics include website traffic, engagement rates, and conversion rates.

A content marketing plan should be aligned with your business goals and target audience. This involves creating content that resonates with your audience and drives them through the sales funnel.

Social media is an umbrella term used to categorize online platforms designed mainly around communication and other community-based interactions.

These platforms have their origins in early services like Bolt and Six Degrees, which were designed for email, forums, and instant messaging.

Today, social media has evolved to include features like e-commerce, crowdsourced reviews, and interest groups, making it a prime space for marketing campaigns.

Most social media platforms, such as Facebook, Twitter, YouTube, LinkedIn, and Google+, can be joined for personal or business use.

Social media is a core component of Inbound marketing, providing marketers with additional channels to spread reach, increase growth, and reach business goals.

As a social media manager, you'll oversee a business's or brand's social media accounts, setting content strategy and driving engagement.

Social media is also a key factor in social proof, which refers to the psychological phenomenon where people seek direction from others to determine how to act or think in a given situation.

SEO and local SEO are two key terms that can boost your online presence. Local SEO is the process of improving visibility for local businesses that need to reach more targeted markets in a specific geographic area.

Websites that receive many inbound links can be more likely to rank higher in search engines. Inbound links are links coming from another site to your own website.

Receiving inbound links can also help folks receive referral traffic from other websites.

Local SEO is the process of improving visibility for local businesses that need to reach more targeted markets in a specific geographic area.

This approach is particularly important for businesses that rely on in-person transactions, such as restaurants, shops, and service providers.

Local SEO helps businesses establish an online presence and reach customers who are actively searching for their products or services in their area.

By optimizing their website and online listings for local search terms, businesses can increase their chances of appearing in search engine results pages (SERPs) for relevant searches.

A well-executed local SEO strategy can drive foot traffic, boost sales, and ultimately, grow a business's bottom line.

Local SEO also involves creating and publishing high-quality, location-specific content that appeals to a business's target audience.

This can include blog posts, social media updates, and other forms of content that showcase a business's expertise and build trust with potential customers.

Geofencing is a way to target customers who enter a defined area.

By using digital tools like GPS or wi-fi, businesses can set up a digital parameter around a certain area and trigger an action, like a text message offering a coupon, when a person enters the area.

This location-based marketing technique can be especially effective for businesses with a physical location, as it allows them to reach customers who are actually in their vicinity.

Geofencing can be used to send targeted messages, offers, or even reminders to customers who are nearby, increasing the likelihood of conversion and driving foot traffic to the business.

Businesses can also use geofencing to track customer behavior and movement patterns, providing valuable insights into their target audience.

An inbound link is a link coming from another site to your own website. Inbound links can be a game-changer for your online presence.

Websites that receive many inbound links can be more likely to rank higher in search engines. This means more visibility and credibility for your business.

Inbound links also help folks receive referral traffic from other websites. This can lead to new customers and increased sales.

Receiving an inbound link from a reputable source is a great way to boost your online authority.

Measurement and Optimization is a crucial part of marketing, and it starts with Conversion Rate Optimization (CRO), which involves using design techniques and key optimization principles to improve your site conversion.

CRO is often applied to web page or landing page optimization, and it can also be used for social media and CTAs.

Marketing channels are the building blocks for an effective integrated marketing strategy.

There are different types of marketing channels, including physical and digital modes. Marketing channels can be categorized by manufacturers, retailers, and consumers in distribution.

The platforms used to promote and/or sell a product or service include print, email, websites, and social media.

Marketing Concepts are the foundation of successful businesses, and understanding them is crucial for any entrepreneur. The 4 P's of marketing, popularized by Neil Borden in the 1950s, are the key to creating an effective marketing mix.

The Four Ps are Product, price, place, and promotion, and they collectively make up the essential mix a company needs to market a product or service.

An integrated campaign is a cross-channel marketing strategy that delivers consistent messaging to a specific audience across different platforms.

This approach helps to create a cohesive brand image and reach a wider audience by using multiple channels such as social media, email, and advertising.

By delivering consistent messaging, an integrated campaign can increase brand recognition and engagement.

For example, a company might launch a social media campaign on Instagram and Facebook, followed by targeted email promotions and print ads in industry publications.

This helps to reinforce the brand message and reach customers at different stages of their buying journey.

A customer's lifecycle is the length of time from their first interaction with your business to their eventual cancellation or removal from your customer base.

This lifecycle can be influenced by various factors, including customer acquisition costs and lifetime value.

Customer lifetime value (CLV) is a key metric that determines how much revenue a business might earn from each customer over the course of their relationship.

A high CLV can help you lower customer acquisition costs because you don’t have to spend as much to attract new customers when you have loyal customers who return regularly to make a purchase.

To calculate CLV, you can use the formula: revenue - gross margin ÷ estimated churn rate.

For example, if a customer pays you $100,000 per year where your gross margin on the revenue is 70%, and that customer type is predicted to cancel at 16% per year, then the customer's CLV is $437,500.

A good CRM system can help you manage customer interactions and improve customer retention, which in turn can increase your CLV.

By understanding the lifecycle of a customer, you can tailor your marketing efforts to prioritize and optimize for each segment's unique needs.

Here are some key metrics to track during a customer's lifecycle:

The sales funnel is a consumer-focused marketing model that illustrates the theoretical customer journey toward the purchase of a good or service.

It's a crucial concept in marketing, and understanding it can help businesses tailor their marketing efforts to each stage of the customer journey.

The sales funnel is typically broken down into stages, with the top of the funnel (TOFU) being the initial stage where customers become aware of a brand, product, or service and are made aware of its existence.

At the top of the funnel, marketing efforts focus on achieving a wide reach and creating awareness, which can be done through helpful content that aids leads in identifying a problem and providing next steps toward a solution.

As customers move through the sales funnel, they progress from the top of the funnel to the middle of the funnel, where they begin to evaluate options and consider making a purchase.

The bottom of the funnel (BOFU) is the final stage, where customers are at their most interested in a specific product or service and are evaluating final considerations to see if business is worth doing.

In this stage, marketing and sales efforts focus on clarifying any remaining doubts about the value of a product or service to the individual customer, often through additional content, trial experiences, or direct responses to inquiries.

The ideal outcome is the conversion of a lead into an actual customer, which is a key metric for businesses to track and optimize their sales funnel strategy.

Marketing concepts are diverse and ever-evolving, making it essential to understand the various types of strategies that exist.

The industry continues to evolve, and the strategies below may be better suited for some companies over others.

Digital marketing is a broad category that encompasses various tactics, including social media marketing, email marketing, and search engine optimization.

Some companies may find that content marketing is a more effective approach, creating valuable content to attract and retain a clearly defined audience.

The internet has made it easier for businesses to reach a global audience, but this also means that competition is fierce.

Influencer marketing is a strategy that leverages the influence of popular individuals or brands to promote products or services.

Word-of-mouth marketing is a powerful tool that can drive sales and build brand loyalty, but it requires a high level of customer satisfaction.

Marketing is a crucial aspect of any business, and understanding the different types of strategies can help companies make informed decisions.

Traditional Strategies are a crucial part of marketing, and they've been around for a while. They were the primary way companies marketed their goods to customers before technology and the Internet took over.

The main types of traditional marketing strategies include Outdoor Marketing, Print Marketing, Direct Marketing, Electronic Marketing, and Event Marketing. These strategies are still effective today, and many companies use them in conjunction with digital marketing.

Outdoor Marketing involves public displays of advertising external to a consumer's house, such as billboards, printed advertisements on benches, sticker wraps on vehicles, or advertisements on public transit. It's a great way to reach a large audience.

Print Marketing involves small, easily printed content that's easy to replicate. Traditionally, companies mass-produced printed materials, but today, more flexibility in printing processes means that materials can be differentiated.

Direct Marketing involves specific content delivered to potential customers, such as coupons, vouchers for free goods, or pamphlets. It's a targeted approach that can be very effective.

Electronic Marketing involves the use of TV and radio for advertising, conveying information to a customer through visual or auditory media. It can be a great way to grab a viewer's attention.

Event Marketing involves attempting to gather potential customers at a specific location to speak with them about products or demonstrate products. This includes conferences, trade shows, seminars, roadshows, or private events.

Here's a breakdown of the traditional marketing strategies:

Customer segmentation is the process of sorting a customer base into different groups based on shared characteristics, such as demographics, behavior, and preferences. This helps companies tailor their marketing efforts to meet each segment's unique needs.

To effectively segment customers, you'll want to consider creating buyer personas, which involves computing for customer profitability. This involves analyzing data to understand which customer segments are most profitable and prioritizing marketing efforts accordingly.

Marketing collateral includes all types of media used to promote a product or service, from digital and audio-visual to printed materials. Examples of marketing collateral include blog posts, social media posts, commercials, webinars, videos, e-books, and posters.

Here are some key marketing terms to know:

A brand is more than just a logo or a name - it's a distinct amalgamation of voice and visual appearance that differentiates and communicates its vision to its consumer.

Brand identity is the foundation of a brand, and it's what sets it apart from others. It's like a personal style that makes a brand recognizable and memorable.

A brand's point of view (POV) is what it stands for in the world, and it's a crucial aspect of its identity. It's like a guiding philosophy that shapes the brand's values and mission.

A brand strategy is a plan of action that determines the image an organization wants to establish with its target audience. It's like a roadmap that helps the brand achieve its goals.

Brand equity refers to the value of a brand, and it's a key factor in determining its success. The more valuable a brand is, the more loyal its customers are likely to be.

Brand loyalty is when customers prefer a brand and continue to purchase its products or use its services over time. It's like a long-term relationship that requires effort and commitment from both parties.

To achieve thought leadership, a brand needs to position itself as an expert and authority within its industry. This can be done through marketing content, such as blog posts or videos, that showcase the brand's knowledge and expertise.

A social media manager is responsible for overseeing a brand's social media accounts, setting content strategy, and driving engagement. They need to be skilled at creating content that resonates with the brand's target audience and tracks its performance to ensure ongoing success.

Brand loyalty is a key aspect of building a strong brand. It's when customers prefer a brand and continue to purchase its products or use its services over time, typically without requiring significant marketing efforts.

Brand loyalty is a direct result of effective marketing efforts, which can be measured using metrics like the Net Promoter Score (NPS). A high NPS indicates that customers are more likely to recommend your brand to others, which is a strong indicator of brand loyalty.

To foster brand loyalty, businesses can focus on creating a positive customer experience through effective customer relationship management (CRM). By understanding customer needs and preferences, businesses can tailor their marketing efforts to meet those needs, increasing the likelihood of customer loyalty.

Customer lifetime value (CLV) is another important metric for measuring brand loyalty. It represents the total amount of income a business can expect to bring in from a specific customer relationship. By calculating CLV, businesses can identify high-value customers and focus their marketing efforts on retaining them.

Here's a table summarizing the key metrics for measuring brand loyalty:

By understanding and leveraging these metrics, businesses can build strong relationships with their customers and foster brand loyalty, ultimately driving long-term growth and success.

Promotion is a crucial aspect of marketing that involves getting your product or service in front of potential customers. It's one of the Four Ps of marketing, along with product, price, and place.

The Four Ps were popularized by Neil Borden in the 1950s, and they collectively make up the essential mix a company needs to market a product or service. This mix can be used to create effective marketing strategies.

Marketing collateral is a key part of promotion, as it includes all the media used to promote a product or service. This can range from digital media like blog posts and social media to audio-visual media like commercials and webinars.

Inbound marketing is a buyer-centric approach that uses helpful content to pull in and interact with customers. It involves using search engine optimization (SEO) to make your content more visible online.

Outbound marketing, on the other hand, uses direct and widespread means to reach a large general audience. This can include advertising, cold calling, and mailings.

A lead, or MQL, is a prospective customer who is not yet in the sales cycle but has been identified as more likely to complete a purchase.

Inbound marketing uses helpful, relevant content to pull in, interact with, and maintain a specialized customer base, which can help identify potential leads.

A qualified lead is a contact that opted in to receive communication from your company, became educated about your product or service, and is interested in learning more.

To become a lead, a person typically goes through a series of communications, such as emails and social media messages, as part of a lead nurturing process.

Marketing automation is a platform with associated tools and analytics to develop a lead nurturing strategy, which can help trigger emails and other communication based on user activity.

A landing page is a website page containing a form that is used for lead generation, serving to capture visitor information in exchange for a valuable offer.

In a sales funnel, a lead is one of the stages a consumer goes through towards purchasing a good or service, and lead nurturing is the practice of developing a series of communications to qualify a lead and keep it engaged.

Analytics is the process of analyzing and extracting meaningful patterns and insights based on data or statistics. This involves using various tools and techniques to collect, process, and interpret data so businesses can make informed, data-driven decisions to aid performance.

Analytics is critical in reporting, especially for managing stakeholders. It helps businesses understand what's working and what's not, and make adjustments accordingly.

Marketing analytics refers to marketing-specific data that teams can track to explain a range of efforts, including engagement, bounce rate, and conversion rate. This helps marketers understand the effectiveness of their campaigns.

Some important marketing metrics include Return on Ad Spend (ROAS), which determines the success of an ad campaign by quantifying how much a business spent on ads compared to the increase in sales that those ads generated.

To track progress toward marketing goals, marketers look at Key Performance Indicators (KPIs), such as Customer Acquisition Cost (CAC), blog traffic sources, and homepage views. A KPI Alignment Wheel can help match marketing goals to performance measurements.

A/B Testing is a performance measurement and optimization tool that compares two versions of an element to determine which is more effective under a given metric. This can be done in email marketing, calls-to-action, and landing pages.

Conversion Rate is a key performance indicator (KPI) for the effectiveness of a marketing strategy, translating to the percentage of customers who accomplish a specific action. A high conversion rate is a sign that certain elements do well to encourage users to engage with your business.

Here are some common types of analytics tools:

By regularly determining your company's Net Promoter Score (NPS), you can identify ways to improve your products and services so you can increase the loyalty of your customers.

Native advertising is a type of online advertising that aims to make ads feel less like ads and more like part of the conversation.

Its purpose is to create a non-intrusive experience for the consumer, often by matching the media format being published. This can include sponsored articles and videos.

Native ads usually look and feel similar to their editorial environment, making them blend in seamlessly. They're often seen in news sources, social media, and blogs.

To comply with advertising laws, full disclosure that the content is advertising is still required. This means that sponsored content is usually marked as such.

Native advertising can come in many forms, such as promoted listings that rank higher in search results. It's essential to note that these types of ads are not interruptive, making them a more engaging experience for consumers.

Paid marketing strategies involve paying for ads to reach a targeted audience. Paid media includes digital marketing efforts like video ads, banner ads, and search ads.

To get started with paid advertising, you can consider Pay-per-Click (PPC) campaigns. PPC is the most common type of paid search, where you pay for your ad to appear on the top page of a search engine results page (SERP).

PPC campaigns can be bid-based, where advertisers compete against each other to set a maximum spend for a given ad spot. This means that the more people who click on your ad, the lower PPC you'll pay and vice versa.

Paid search is a digital marketing strategy where businesses pay search engines to place their ads in more visible positions. This can drive additional traffic to a business's website.

To measure the success of your paid campaigns, you can use Return on Ad Spend (ROAS), which determines how much a business spent on ads compared to the increase in sales generated by those ads.

Here are the two ways to pay for PPC ads:

A Google Ads specialist is someone who manages Google Ads campaigns, usually by researching, planning, and implementing a campaign.

Inbound marketing is a buyer-centric approach that uses helpful, relevant content to pull in, interact with, and maintain a specialized customer base.

A key component of inbound marketing is blogging, which can grow website traffic, establish thought leadership, and generate leads.

Blogging is a traditional form of digital content that includes regular entries of commentary, descriptions of events, or other material like photos and video.

Thought leadership is a marketing strategy that positions someone from a brand as an expert and authority within their industry, often through the authorship of marketing content.

A content management system (CMS) is software that simplifies and optimizes the process of managing digital content, allowing users to create, organize, and publish content to various platforms.

WordPress is a prominent CMS that enables users with little technical experience to build functional, high-quality websites for various uses.

Owned media refers to all the media channels that a business has direct control over, such as email, newsletters, and blogs, which require investment and oversight.

An ebook is a type of content that many marketers use to generate leads. It's a more long-form content type than a blog post, going into in-depth detail on a subject.

Ebooks are commonly used as a marketing offer on a landing page. This is because they're valuable and can help capture visitor information in exchange for the offer.

Marketers often create ebooks to appeal to different personas at various stages of the buying process. This can be a hefty endeavor, but it pays off in the long run.

Ebooks can be downloaded in digital format, making them easily accessible to a wide audience.

A landing page is a website page containing a form that is used for lead generation. This page revolves around a marketing offer, such as an ebook or a webinar, and serves to capture visitor information in exchange for the valuable offer.

A landing page is a standalone web page designed exclusively for a marketing campaign. It's where customers "land" when they click on an advertising link, whether that's on social media or email.

The primary goal of a landing page is to usher users into your sales funnel, in contrast to a traditional website where they can be overwhelmed by a wide range of information and links.

Landing pages serve as the gatekeepers of the conversion path, separating a website visitor from becoming a lead.

A QR code is a specific matrix barcode that's readable by dedicated QR barcode readers and camera telephones.

QR codes consist of black modules arranged in a square pattern on a white background.

The information encoded in a QR code can be text, a URL, or other data.

A QR code starts with the letter "Q", which is a rarity among marketing-related terms.

PPC ads are used to direct traffic to an advertiser's website, and the cost effectiveness of paid advertising campaigns is assessed using PPC.

PPC ads can be paid for in two ways: flat rate, where the advertiser and publisher agree on a fixed amount per click, and bid-based, where advertisers compete for ad spots and pay a lower cost per click if their ad is clicked more often.

Keywords are essential for search engine optimization (SEO) and help increase visibility online. They are used to help websites rank higher on search engines.

Long-tail keywords are very targeted search phrases that contain three or more words. For example, "unicorn games online" is a long-tail keyword that contains the head term "unicorn" and two additional words that refine the search term.

Paid search is a digital marketing strategy where businesses pay search engines to place their ads in more visible positions, driving additional traffic to their website.

Here are the two ways to pay for PPC ads:

Analytics is the discovery and communication of meaningful patterns in data, helping you make better informed marketing decisions.

Pay-per-click (PPC) is a common type of paid search where you pay to have your ad appear on the top page of a search engine results page (SERP). The fee you pay is connected to how many people click on your ad.

ROAS, or Return on Ad Spend, determines the success of an ad campaign by quantifying how much a business spent on ads compared to the increase in sales that those ads generated.

Conversion occurs when an individual targeted by a marketing message performs the action intended by that message.

ROI, or Return on Investment, compares the cost of a marketing campaign to how much money it brought in, expressed as a percentage or ratio.

The Customer Acquisition Cost (CAC) is the average cost required to secure new customers, helping inform the cost-benefit analysis of marketing campaigns.

Key Performance Indicators (KPIs) are used to evaluate an employee's or an activity's success, and successful marketers constantly evaluate their performance against industry standard metrics.

Here are some common KPIs used in marketing:

Customer lifetime value determines the total amount of income a business can expect to bring in from a specific customer relationship.

Return on Investment (ROI) can be calculated using the formula: (Gain from Investment minus Cost of Investment), all divided by (Cost of Investment).

SaaS (Software-as-a-Service) is a category in cloud computing that describes using applications over the Internet without downloads. This approach is also known as on-demand, web-hosted, or web-based software.

Many productivity applications offer SaaS alongside local applications, such as Slack, Zoom, and Adobe. Workamajig is a cloud-based solution for marketing and project management needs.

The opposite of SaaS is "on-premise", where applications are installed locally on a computing device.

A microsite is a specialized website created for a marketing campaign.

It's often separate from a company's main website, bringing focus to the product or service being promoted. Microsites still offer room for exploration, which can include interactive content, informative sub-pages, and other media to drum up interest.

ElfYourself.com is a great example of a microsite, offering a unique online experience separate from its main website. Microsites often have their own domain names and distinct visual branding.

Compared to a landing page, a microsite provides more space for exploration and engagement. Its most common applications include new product launches and large events, where it can help observe messaging and themes distinct to the subject and/or the larger company behind it.

ElfYourself.com, as an example, has a distinct visual branding that sets it apart from the main website. This type of microsite is perfect for creating a buzz around a new product or service.