As marketing experts, we thought it would be a good idea to put together a quick guide to some common marketing terms and what they mean. We know from experience that sometimes people in specialised industries tend to forget that not everyone knows what their lingo means and we’re aware our clients aren’t experts in what we do!

How many times have you been sat in a meeting and an acronym has been used that has gone straight over your head – so much so you’ve had to search Google afterwards or ask it to be clarified? It happens to the best of us – so we thought we’d put a ‘cheat code’ guide for you to refer to before that happens!

A/B Testing
This is a way to compare two different versions of a marketing campaign to see which performs better. For example, subject line A vs subject line B could be tested to see which generates a better open rate with an initial 10% of a contact list. The winning subject line (after a period of time) then goes forward to be sent to the rest of the contacts. This ensures that you are generating the best possible chance of recipients opening your email and, in turn, read your message!

Analytics
Analytics are how data is interpreted and analysed to assess how something has performed. This could be an email campaign, a text message or something like website views. Analytics give us insights into data and that data is simplified, readable and presentable (to an extent).

Attribution
This is the word for assigning credit for a conversion (explained below) or a sale to a marketing tactic. So, for example, if you read this blog, thought we were the absolute bee’s knees and decided to take us up on our services. We’d be able to attribute your website visit from our Analytics with the ‘Contact Us’ CTA (again, look below for an explanation) below and attribute credit to this blog!

Bounce Rate

The bounce rate is the percentage of visitors to a website that leave after only viewing one page.  IF 100 people visit a website, and 70 of them leave after only viewing one page, then that site has a bounce rate of 70%.  A higher bounce rate is an indication that visitors to site aren’t engaging with the content or they have reached their ‘end goal’ and found what they were looking for (or submitted a CTA, more later on that!)

Branding

Branding is the process of creating an identity for a company and or/persons that is recognisable through its name, design, and image.  If we were to show you a picture of a bright yellow ‘M’ on a red background, you would already know what brand we were referring to.  Similarly, if we called that same ‘M’ the golden arches, the image (logo) you think of in your head is an example of effective branding. If you are struggling – we’re talking about McDonalds! Branding is more than just colours and logos though – it can be tone of voice, presentation and experience (think of Karen’s Diner a popular ‘insulting restaurant’ themed dining experience, the experience there is part of the brand!)

Call-to-Action (CTA)

A CTA is a marketing message that prompts a user to take an action, for example making a purchase, or clicking a button.  If you visit a retail website for instance and see a button that says, “Shop Now”, clicking this button prompts you to begin browsing products, and potentially make a purchase. The “Shop Now” button is the CTA!

Click-Through Rate (CTR)

The click through rate refers to the percentage of people who clicked a link on a website, or in a marketing campaign.  For example, if an email marketing campaign is sent to 1,000 subscribers results in 200 clicks within the email, then it would have a click through rate of 20%. This rate can be driven by good CTA’s within the email and good data.

 Content Marketing

The bread and butter of marketing in the modern age, content marketing is creating and distributing content to engage and attract a specific target audience.  For instance, a marketing agency creating a list of “25 marketing jargon and what they mean” blog post.  They then share this to their social media and email campaigns in order to reach and interact with their target audience of those interested in employing a creative marketing team.

Conversion

Conversions can be measured a variety of different ways.  They refer to the completion of a desired action by a customer, for example filling out a form on a website, or making a purchase.  If a customer visits a comparison site, then fills out a form with their details in order to get a quote, that action is a conversion.

Cost-per-Click (CPC)

Cost-per-Click is the amount of money that is paid for each click on a paid advertising campaign.  If you were charged 25p every time a customer clicks your ad link during a paid advertising campaign, then your cos per click would be £0.25p,

Cost-per-Action (CPA)

The amount of money paid for a desired action, such as a customer sign-up or a sale.  For example, if an online retailer has to pay £5 per completed form fill that is generated through a specific ad campaign, then the CPA for that specific ad campaign will be £5.

Customer Acquisition Cost (CAC)

The cost of acquiring a new customer though marketing, whether that marketing is a single source, or multiple different sources of marketing.  For example, if a company spends £10,000 on a marketing campaign, and gains 100 customers through that campaign, then the customer acquisition cost would be £100 (£10,000 divided by 100 customers).

Customer Lifetime Value (CLTV)

A customers lifetime value is the amount of total revenue that a customer will bring a business over their lifetime.  If you owned a subscription-based business like a gym, and your average customer stayed subscribed for 18 months at £15 a month, the CLTV for that customer would be £270 (18 months multiplied by £15). CTLV can be increased by trying to generate additional purchases (for gyms, protein shakes…, adding extra services (for gyms, anytime membership instead of restricted times…) or impulse buys (got gyms, activewear…) in high footfall areas – all in attempts to increase CLTV!

Digital Marketing

Any use of digital marketing channels like websites, search engines, emails, and social media to promote a product is considered digital marketing.  An example of this would be running targeted ads on platforms like Facebook and Google AdWords to promote a line of athleticwear products, in order to reach potential customers who are interested in fitness and athletics.

Direct Mail

Direct mail is one of the most traditional forms of marketing.  It involves sending physical mail to a target audience as part of a (probably) wider marketing strategy.  A great example would be a luxury fashion brand sending a curated collection of their clothing in a catalogue to select customers directly through postal mail.

Engagement Rate

The engagement rate is the percentage of people that interact with a campaign or content piece.  There are various different ways to measure an engagement rate, but generally it involves dividing the number of interactions your campaign has by the total number of people it has reached, then multiplying that number by 100 in order to see it as a percentage.

For instance, a social media post that receives 1000 likes, 200 shares, and 25 comments from an audience of 10,000 would be calculated as (1225/10,000) x 100 to give you an engagement rate of 12.25%.

Geotargeting

Geotargeting involves sending specific marketing campaigns to specific geographic locations in order to target a location-based audience.  This could look like a business sending an SMS containing a specific discount code to customers in a certain postcode in order to encourage them to visit their nearest, or a newly opened branch.

Impressions

Impressions are simply the number of times that a campaign or content piece is shown to an audience.  For example, if an online banner ad is displayed 1000 times across various websites, then it generates 1000 impressions.  Regardless of how many clicks it gets.

Influencer marketing

Influencer marketing is one of the newest terms to break into marketing lingo.  It involves promoting a product or service through a partnership with an influential person or persons.  There are many examples of this across different social media platforms, for instance when a cosmetics brand partners with a beauty YouTube star to use and review their products on their YouTube page.

Key Performance Indicator (KPI)

One of the classic phrases used in offices and among marketeers across the globe, KPI’s refer to the metrics used to measure how successful marketing campaign or strategy has been.  Almost anything can be a KPI, for example, for an E-Commerce website, a conversion rate that measures the percentage of website visitors who make a purchase could be a KPI or quite simply – sales could be!

Landing Page

A web page designed to convert visitors into customers or leads.  Landing pages are a dedicated page that customers are driven towards and tend to be used to measure campaign success as this page could be created for those campaigns sole purpose (sometimes called a micro-site).

Lead Generation

Lead Generation refers to the process of identifying potential customers (or leads) for a business’s products or services.  This can happen in many ways, for instance, a comparison site collecting the contact information of customers who have requested a car insurance quote.

Marketing Automation

Marketing automation refers to any use of software to automate workflows and marketing tasks.  For example, when a travel agent uses software to send a personalised follow up email to customers who have begun to look at flights and hotels but left the site before booking a holiday.  This email could include discount codes or other potential locations to encourage them to finish their booking, but the process of sending it is automated based on time and/or data factors.

Market Segmentation

Market Segmentation is a relatively simple process that involves splitting a target market into smaller groups with specific needs and characteristics.  A great example of this would be a tech company separating a target market into “tech enthusiasts” and “casual users” then tailoring their marketing to each audience differently based on their interests.

Mobile Optimisation

Mobile optimisation is one of the most important parts of marketing in today’s world.  It’s the process of making a website or marketing campaign user-friendly and easy to access on a mobile device.  For example, when visiting a restaurant’s website and it is easy to view the menu and make bookings or place orders on either a phone or tablet.