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We know from experience that marketing jargon can be intimidating. And for busy traders, it’s hard to keep up with the latest lingo. But when you’re getting in touch with a lead generation agency, the last thing you want to do is have to ask for clarification (either from us or from Google!).
So, to make the process of getting qualified leads from us as painless as possible, we’ve created a “cheat code” guide to marketing jargon for you to refer to.
We’ve compiled the terms that our installers ask us about most. So, you’ll never be scratching your head when you get in touch.
Most Useful Marketing Terms
Before the full list, here are some of the most useful marketing terms you’ll come across and their quick definitions (we’ll go more in-depth below).
- Conversion rate: The percentage of potential customers who complete a desired action, such as filling in an enquiry form.
- Digital marketing: The use of online marketing channels to engage, nurture, and convert leads, including social media, search engines, and websites.
- Lead: A potential customer that has shown an interest in, or need for, your products or services.
- Lead generation: The entire process of attracting and identifying leads who have a high chance of making a purchase, with the end goal of converting them into buyers.
- Qualified lead: A high-quality lead that fits your ideal buyer profile and has been vetted for genuine intent, budget, timeframe, and more.
Common Marketing Terms: A-Z
Now, let’s decode the marketing jargon! Here are all the common marketing terms that installers and contractors will ever need to know.
A/B Testing
A/B testing is a way to compare two different versions of a marketing campaign to see which performs better. This could be anything from the design to the copy.
Let’s say that we create two different lead forms to capture contact details. One has four fields while the other has six fields. We’d test the form on a portion of your audience to see which one generates the most submissions. The winning lead form (after a period of time) is then rolled out to the masses.
This ensures you’re generating the best possible chance of leads submitting their details.
Analytics
Analytics are how data is interpreted and analysed to see how campaigns perform. This could be anything from an email or SMS campaign to a landing page or lead form.
Analytics give us insights into data, and that data is simplified so we can evaluate the success of marketing activities.
Attribution
Attribution is the word we use to tie a sale, form-fill, or another type of conversion to a specific marketing activity.
So, for example, if you read this blog, thought we were the absolute bee’s knees and decided to use one of our lead generation services, we’d be able to attribute this blog to your action. Specifically, we’d use analytics to see that you clicked on a specific CTA (more on that later!).
Bounce Rate
Bounce rate is the percentage of website visitors who leave after only viewing one page. If 100 people visit your homepage, and 70 of them leave after only viewing that one page, then your homepage has a bounce rate of 70%.
A high bounce rate often indicates that your site offers a poor user experience or unengaging content. But sometimes, it suggests that your visitor has reached their “end goal”, found what they were looking for, and/or submitted a form.
Branding
Branding is the process of creating an identity for a company that’s recognisable through its name, design, and image.
Let’s say we show you a picture of a bright yellow “M” on a red background. You instantly know the brand, right? Or, if we called that same “M” the golden arches, you’d instantly think of the logo. Now that’s an example of effective branding.
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 branding.
Call-to-Action (CTA)
A CTA is an action-driven marketing message that prompts a user to take an action, such as making a purchase or booking a call.
Here’s an example: we create a targeted ad for you. At the bottom of the ad, there’s a blue button that says, “Request a Callback”. Clicking this button prompts the customer to fill in a form and submit an enquiry. The “Request a Callback” button is the CTA.
Click-Through Rate (CTR)
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 sent to 1,000 leads results in 200 clicks within the email, then it would have a click-through rate of 20%.
Click-throughs are driven by engaging content and strong, actionable CTAs. We track CTR ourselves to see how successfully our campaigns resonate with your target audience.
Content Marketing
Content marketing is the bread and butter of modern marketing. It describes creating and distributing content (such as blogs, social media posts, e-books, and case studies) to engage and attract a specific target audience.
For example, an insulation company might create a blog post titled “How Loft Insulation Can Reduce Your Energy Bills” to spark interest. A kitchen installer might share before-and-after renovation photos on their social media page.
As well as gaining traffic via search engines, they’ll share the blog post across their social media and email platforms to reach and interact with their target audience.
Conversion
Conversions refer to the completion of a desired action by a customer. This could be filling out a website form, booking an appointment, or making a purchase.
If a lead visits a comparison site and then fills out a form with their details in order to get a quote, that action is also considered a conversion.
Conversion Rate
Your conversion rate measures how many leads actually completed the desired action, compared to your total audience size.
So, let’s say we’ve just created a digital ad for an insulation company. The ad has a lead form that invites potential customers to enter their details to make an enquiry. If 1,000 people viewed the ad and 100 people filled in the lead form, the conversion rate would be 10%.
This is one of your most critical metrics. You’ll use it to determine how many of the leads we send you actually go on to book appointments and close deals.
Cost-per-action (CPA)
This is the total cost spent on an ad to receive a desired action, such as a customer sign-up or a sale. So, a £500 ad campaign that generated 100 sales would have a CPA of £5.
CPA measures how cost-effectively your ads drive the actions that you want leads to take. So, it’s crucial for maximising the results of digital marketing campaigns.
Cost-per-click (CPC)
Cost-per-click is the amount of money you get paid for each click you earn on a paid advertising campaign. You calculate your total CPC by dividing total ad costs by the number of clicks received.
So, if you spent £100 on an ad and gained 200 clicks, your CPC would be 50p.
CPC is a valuable metric. It helps you optimise your budget, improve campaign efficiency, and boost ROI.
Cost-per-lead (CPL)
Another “cost-per” metric you’ll want to know is cost-per-lead. This is how much it costs you to acquire a new lead in your pipeline.
If you were to buy leads from Sales Fuel at £25 per lead, your CPL would be £25. It gets much more confusing to calculate CPL when you handle lead generation in-house.
Customer Acquisition Cost (CAC)
The cost of acquiring a new customer through marketing, both via a single source or multiple sources, is known as your customer acquisition cost.
For example, if you spend £10,000 on a marketing campaign that directly generates 100 customers, then the CAC would be £100 (£10,000 divided by 100 customers).
Customer Lifetime Value (CLTV)
A customer’s lifetime value is the total revenue that a person will bring a business over their lifetime.
While it’s primarily used in industries that have a lot of repeat buyers, CLTV can also be useful if you typically have one-time buyers. For example, a home improvement brand could increase CLTV by offering exclusive upgrades or regular check-ups to generate more sales.
Customer Relationship Management (CRM)
Customer relationship management involves using data-driven CRM software to manage and track all your lead data in one place.
It centralises contact details, customer interactions, follow-ups, and more.
This gives you a unified view of your sales pipeline and allows you to respond to enquiries quickly, follow up automatically, and spot your most promising opportunities. It’s why we deliver our qualified leads to your CRM in real-time.
Digital Marketing
When you use online marketing channels like websites, search engines, emails, and social media to promote a product, you’re doing digital marketing!
An example of this would be running targeted ads on platforms like Facebook and Google AdWords to promote your bathroom fitting services to leads who are actively seeking a remodel. Done right, digital marketing can expand your reach, build trust and social proof, and generate high-quality leads.
Engagement Rate
Engagement rate is the percentage of people who interact with a campaign or content piece. Usually, it involves dividing the number of interactions your campaign has by the total number of people it reached.
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. This gives you an engagement rate of 12.25%.
Geotargeting
Geotargeting involves sending tailored 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. This encourages the customer to visit the business while they’re close by.
Influencer Marketing
Influencers can market your products and services for you – hence the term, influencer marketing! It takes various forms, but it usually involves a brand partnering with a social media influencer.
Let’s say you’re a hardware company. You might partner with a YouTuber who has a DIY channel. In exchange for an incentive, they’ll advertise your brand to their thousands (or maybe even millions) of followers.
Key Performance Indicator (KPI)
One of the most common marketing terms used among marketers and lead generation experts is KPI. Key performance indicators refer to the metrics used to measure how successful a marketing campaign or strategy has been.
Almost anything can be a KPI: organic traffic, engagement rates, appointment bookings – and, of course, conversion rates and sales.
Landing Page
Landing pages are website pages that have one clear goal – to convert visitors into leads or customers.
The best landing pages are strategically designed with value-driven copy and CTAs that urge visitors to take desired actions. They tend to be used to measure the success of campaigns, as you can create landing pages to support individual campaigns.
Lead
A lead is a potential customer who has shown interest in your product or service but hasn’t yet made a purchase. There are two main types of leads: Marketing-Qualified Leads (MQLs) and Sales-Qualified Leads (SQLs).
An MQL is a customer who’s interested in your products but isn’t ready to buy. A SQL is on the brink of making a purchase and is ready to talk to your sales team. Knowing the distinction between the two helps you know what type of content to target each lead with.
As we mentioned above, we only send SQLs to clients, maximising the chances of conversion.
Lead Generation
Lead generation refers to the process of identifying potential customers (or leads) for a business’s products or services. It’s an ongoing strategy that aims to increase brand reach and targeting. The ultimate goal is to drive a consistent flow of form-fills, enquiries, and sales.
Still confused? Head to our blog post “What is Lead Generation?” for an in-depth look at the key processes and benefits.
Or, why not check out our lead generation services to see how it works for installers and contractors across solar, insulation, windows & doors, roofing, spray foam removal, and more? We’re lead gen experts, after all!
Marketing Automation
Marketing automation refers to any use of software to automate workflows and marketing tasks.
For example, we use automations to track browsing behaviour, which allows us to target leads with the right messages at the right time.
Other automatons include sending automatic text messages to leads that fail to answer the phone after requesting a callback. Or, it could be sending a reminder email to a lead who hasn’t completed their quote form.
These automations can be triggered based on timing, browsing behaviour, and many other data points.
Market Segmentation
Market segmentation involves splitting a target market into smaller groups with specific needs and characteristics. A great example of this would be a solar installer separating a target market into “savings-driven customers” and “eco-conscious buyers”. Then, they’d tailor their marketing strategy to each audience 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 accessible to people viewing your content on mobile devices.
For example, you’d check that your page loads quickly and correctly on smaller screens, with images and text that’s clearly legible and not blocked by pop-ups.
Qualified Lead
A qualified lead is a lead that’s been vetted against specific criteria to make sure that they’re a genuine potential customer.
Let’s say that you sell loft insulation services. Before you pitch to the lead, you’ll want to check they have the right budget for the job and a property that’s suitable for the type of insulation they want (among many other things!).
How you qualify leads will vary a lot by industry and product. Want to know how we do it? Check out our lead qualification checklist for installers to see how we pre-qualify leads before sending them to our clients!
Return-on-Investment (ROI)
ROI measures how profitable your marketing efforts are compared to how much you spend. So, if you spent £1,000 in one month on marketing and made £10,000, your ROI would be 90%.
ROI is crucial for optimising budgets and gauging the success of your marketing investments. We created our very own ROI calculator for this very reason! Use it to see exactly how much return you can get when you invest in lead generation.
Social Media Marketing
Social media marketing involves showcasing your brand and products across social media platforms like Facebook, Instagram, LinkedIn, and TikTok.
From promotional ads and video reels to text-based posts and carousels, the opportunities for sharing engaging content are endless. Right now, it’s one of the best ways to expand your reach, boost awareness, promote your products, and generate leads.
We use it to boost your brand’s visibility and attract new leads who are actively searching for your products and services.
Verified Lead
Ever followed up on a customer’s form-fill enquiry only to find they’ve given you a dead number? A verified lead is a lead whose contact details are real, active, and up-to-date.
At Sales Fuel, we verify every phone number, email address, and postal address. So, you’ll never have to deal with this headache!
Video Marketing
Video marketing is exactly what it sounds like – targeting leads with videos to engage and convert them into paying customers.
For example, a solar panel installer could create videos debunking common myths to educate audiences considering solar (and move them down the funnel faster). Or, a kitchen installation company could use video marketing to show off their stunning renovations.
Zapier Integrations
Zapier is a tool that lets you connect two pieces of software through an API integration. This lets the data flow automatically and securely between both apps, leading to higher-quality data and boosted productivity.
To learn more about it, visit our API integrations page, where we break down the tech and explain how we use Zapier to send leads to your CRM.
Marketing Jargon: Decoded!
And that’s it! Hopefully, our one-stop guide to marketing jargon has given you a better understanding of what these common marketing terms mean. If you ever hear one in the wild (or while you’re on the phone with us!), just head to this guide.
In the meantime, check out our lead qualifications checklist to see how we qualify leads for genuine intent, budget, authority to buy, and more. Or, go to our FAQs to learn more about how our lead generation services work.