Jargon-Busting Marketing Glossary Part 1: A-M

Marketing is notorious for overusing buzzwords and acronyms. And at times it can feel like you’re trying to decipher hieroglyphics when analysing campaign results, website performance or search rankings.

To help you cut through the jargon, we’ve put together this useful glossary. In part one, we round up and define the most common marketing terms from A-M.

A:

A/B Testing

A/B testing is also known as split testing. The term refers to the practice of testing two versions of the same variable to identify which is the most effective. A/B testing is commonly used to test email subject lines, calls-to-action, and creative assets.

Affiliate Marketing

Is a tactic which allows affiliates to earn commission for marketing another organisation’s products. It’s a mutually beneficial relationship that begins with the affiliate (can be an individual or business) promoting a product or service they like, in return the affiliate earns a percentage of the profits from each sale. Win, win.

B:

B2B

Is the abbreviation for business-to-business. B2B describes companies that sell their products or services to other businesses - for example, organisations like Hootsuite, AECOM and Intel.

B2C

B2C is commonly referred to as business-to-consumer and is seen as the opposite of B2B. B2C describes companies that sell their products or services directly to consumers. For example Amazon, Apple and Netflix.

Backlinks

Backlinks play a key role in off-page SEO. Backlinks are created when one website links to another (like this). Major search engines, such as Google and Bing, use backlinks to identify if a website has accurate and relevant content. High-quality backlinks, acquired from other reputable websites, can help to improve your site’s search rankings and visibility.

Bounce Rate

Refers to the percentage of people that visit and leave your website without visiting any other pages. Generally, a bounce rate of 55% or lower is considered to be below average, and anything over 55% could indicate there are some serious flaws in your site.

Before we move on, it’s worth noting that a higher bounce rate isn’t always a bad thing. In some cases, a higher bounce rate could mean that users are able to immediately find what they’re looking for, which is usually the case on contact pages or single-click order eCommerce sites.

C:

Call-To-Action

A call-to-action (CTA) is a web link that encourages users to visit and interact with your content. CTAs are used across a wide range of marketing channels including website landing pages, social media posts and email newsletters. Most CTAs come in the form of text or button and are supported with leading statements like “subscribe now” or “download our whitepaper”.

Calls-to-action are one of the most effective ways to convert your audience into consumers. To improve your overall conversion rate, it’s important to create an enticing and valuable offer that appeals directly to the customer.

Get in touch today to discuss how our copywriting experts can help you create compelling calls-to-action (yep, you’ve guessed it, that’s a CTA).

Click-Through-Rate

Is the percentage of your audience that clicks through from one stage of your campaign to the next. Click-through-rate, also known as CTR, is a useful metric that allows you to analyse which channels and types of messaging is most appealing to your target audience.

To work out your CTR you need to divide the total number of clicks your CTA receives by the number of opportunities that people had to click it (for example number of page views, email opens and ad impressions).

Content Marketing

The purpose of content marketing is to provide your audience with accurate and relevant information. Content comes in a variety of formats such as blogs, infographics and videos.

With a balanced approach to content marketing, you can develop and retain a highly engaged audience that is open to learning more about your products and services.

Content Management System

Content Management System, often abbreviated as CMS, refers to a type of software that allows you to build and manage a website.

Customer Relationship Management

When people talk about customer relationship management (CRM), they’re often referring to cloud-based software. CRM tools help businesses manage their relationships with customers, users, colleagues, suppliers and any other person or company that is associated with their organisation.

D:

Direct Mail

Direct mail describes the process of advertising your products and services through printed collateral or physical samples. These items are then posted directly to the business or office address of your target audience.

Display Ads

Display ads, also known as banner ads, are a type of paid online advertising. Display ads are typically text, image or video-based and are designed to encourage users to click through to your desired landing page.

E:

eCommerce

eCommerce refers to the process of buying and selling products or services online. Strictly speaking, eCommerce describes the transfer of money and data to execute any type of commercial transaction through the internet.

Check out this case study to discover how an eCommerce website could help you grow your business.

Engagement

Marketers use engagement rates to determine the number of interactions on social media. Likes, shares, followers, comments and retweets are all different types of engagement.

F:

Focus Group

Focus groups are a qualitative research method that brings together a group of people to discuss a guided topic. Focus groups are a great way to get feedback from your customers on a particular product or service.

For the best possible results try to create an open atmosphere that encourages all participants to voice their opinions.

Follower

In layman terms, a follower refers to an individual or business that subscribes or opts in to receive updates from you on a particular social media platform. Followers are a great metric to track when you’re looking to grow brand awareness.

G:

Google Analytics

As the name suggests, this is Google’s free web analytics tool. Google Analytics provides insights into how people find and use your website. There are numerous metrics such as bounce rate, page views and referrals, that you can use to assess your website performance and return-on-investment

H:

HTML

HTML is a markup language that describes the structure of your website. HTML code formats images and text to ensure that web browsers display your site exactly as you intended. With HTML you can create paragraphs, headings and links to develop a coherent structure for your web pages.

I:

Impression

Impressions describe the number of times that your content was displayed across an ad network or social media platform. Impressions can be useful for measuring the size of your audience.

But it’s also worth remembering that impressions are simply the number of times your content was displayed in a social feed or the search engine results page. Therefore, impressions don’t account for how many users engaged with your content.

Influencer Marketing

Influencer marketing refers to the practice of using popular content creators to endorse or review your products and services. Successful influencer marketing campaigns feature an individual who has a highly engaged social network.

J:

JavaScript

JavaScript is a scripting language that is used to create dynamic web content. Elements like animated graphics, image slideshows and interactive forms, are all types of JavaScript. Major web browsers such as Chrome, Safari and Firefox, can all render JavaScript.

K:

KPI

KPI is the abbreviation for key performance indicator. KPIs are used to evaluate the success of campaigns, activities and marketing channels. For example, you can track keyword performance, backlinks and search engine rankings to assess the effectiveness of your content marketing and SEO strategies.

L:

Landing Page

A landing page is a web page that is primarily used for lead generation. Effective landing pages are designed to promote an enticing offer like a new product, webinar or whitepaper. Landing pages capture user information through a contact form in exchange for the content.

Lead

Refers to a person or company who has an interest in buying your product or services. In most cases, the individual has agreed to share their contact information in exchange for a marketing offer, such as a product guide, discount code or newsletter.

M:

Microsite

Is the middle ground between a landing page and website. Typically, microsites have their own domain name and distinctive branding, which help to create a unique user experience that differs from the main website.

And that’s the end of part one! We hope this article has helped you brush up on your marketing knowledge. Part two will of this glossary will be released shortly, in the meantime if there are any other terms you’d like us to cover, let us know on Twitter and Instagram.