Whether you’re new to marketing or a seasoned professional working to keep up with the latest industry developments, there’s a lot of jargon to remember.
To help you get the most from marketing specific content and save you from repeatedly heading to Google to remind yourself of acronyms, we’ve defined our most used terms in this guide.
Keep it to hand while you’re working through your own content in your daily marketing role or if you're going through our marketing strategy programme, and you’ll soon be able to reel them all off without a thought.
A
A/B testing
Split testing to see which out of two possible routes works best. Can be used within a variety of content marketing tactics.
Awareness
The extent to which consumers are aware of your brand. It describes how easily your brand is recognised within your current customers and wider target audience.
Advocacy
Once customers are invested in your brand, they can promote you within their own networks through word of mouth, testimonials or online content. Advocacy is the final and most valuable stage in the customer journey funnel.
Analysis
The strategic review of results to discover the strengths and weaknesses of your activities, as well as the opportunities you have to improve your strategy.
B
Bounce rate
In analysing website and e-newsletter user behaviours, bounce rate shows how often people are viewing content and then leaving without browsing further or making conversions.
B2B
Stands for ‘business to business’, describing the sales process of providing goods or services to a company rather than an individual.
B2C
Stands for ‘business to consumer’, describing the process of selling directly to an individual person or group of consumers.
Brand
The identity under which your organisation sells to audiences. A brand is made up of a logo, colour pallet, values and tone of voice.
Blog
A key part of a content marketing strategy, blogs are an online journal sharing information and value-added content to audiences.
C
CTA (call to action)
Used at the end of a piece of content such as a social post or blog, a call to action mobilises audiences, encouraging them to make specific action. This might be to make a purchase or subscribe to a stream of content.
CPC (cost per click)
Calculated using your ad spend and number of clicks, cost per click shows the price you are paying for each click earned through PPC (paid per click) campaigns.
CTR (click through rate)
Measured in percentages, click through rate shows the amount of people who view your content and click on the call to action or link. The higher the CTR, the more successful your campaign has been.
Content marketing
With an objective to make meaningful connections with audiences, content marketing is the creation, publishing and promotion of content that subtly advertises your brand and adds value to your audience’s lives.
Community
A community is a more genuine way to think of your engaged audience. They are the people who are advocating for your brand. It’s important to make connections with them and
Conversions
When a person you target with marketing tactics performs an action you have asked them take, they have made a conversion. All your tactics should have a conversion in mind, so that your audience continues to engage with your brand.
D
Data
Data is the facts and statistics that you learn about your audience and content that informs your marketing decisions. These insights are key to making your activity relevant and valuable to the people you are reaching.
Demographics
Information about your audience such as age, gender, location and education are demographics. They are important to understanding your target audience but remember that your personas should always go much further than demographics.
E
Earned media
One of the three key types of media, earned media is any publicity that your brands get that you have created or paid for. It includes press coverage, influencer reviews and social media mentions.
Engagement
The meaningful interactions you have with audiences are engagement. It could come in the form of social media comments, online reviews and content shares. Engagement is key to building a thriving brand community.
F
Funnel
Think of your marketing funnel as the path people take when they are interacting with your brand. In the shape of a funnel, it begins with awareness and leads to advocacy, getting smaller as the path goes on as you distil your audience down to the people who are regularly purchasing from your organisation.
Forum
A forum is an online space where a group of like-minded people discuss a topic or organisation of interest. They can be useful to get detailed insights on your audiences interests and opinions.
G
Google Ads
Google’s online advertising platform, Google Ads allows you to place adverts on search results pages, websites, apps and videos. It’s a versatile, paid tool which can help you reach a wide, target range of potential customers.
Google Analytics
If you have a website, Google Analytics is the key to understanding how it works. You can use it to see how people behave on your website, which pages get the most views and where traffic is coming from.
H
Hashtags
Starting with the # symbol, a #hashtag attached to your content allows people interested in that tag to find your content, on a blog or social media platform.
I
Impression
An impression is a view of your digital content. You should aim to get a high number of impressions on your content from relevant people in your target audience.
Inbound marketing
You can attract customers to your organisation using inbound marketing. It is a methodology that involves drawing in consumers by putting out engaging content and providing value that encourages them to make a purchase.
J
K
KPI – key performance indicator
A key performance indicator allows you to measure the success of your content. Your KPI should be tailored to the type of content and could be clicks, downloads or shares.
Keyword
In SEO, a keyword is a word or phrase that a user searches to find information they need. Choosing the right keywords to include in your website content and paid adverts is important to reaching relevant audiences.
L
Landing page
A landing page is a single web page that contains information on a specific topic within your marketing activity. If you are running a campaign, or launching a new product, a landing page is the perfect place to direct people to in your marketing activities.
Lead nurturing
Lead nurturing goes hand in hand with a purchase funnel. It’s the process of nurturing a lead from awareness through to purchase and building a meaningful relation along the way.
M
Messaging
Messaging is a key set of phrases that are used within all marketing communications. They should summarise the essence of your business and be easily recognisable to your brand’s audience.
Metrics
Useful for tracking your marketing activity, metrics are measurable values that indicates how effectively your tactics are performing. A metric could be page views, brand mentions or social followers.
Market research
If you want to understand your marketplace and the viability of your product or service offering, market research is essential to carry out. Your research might involve surveys, interviews or online research.
N
NPS – net promoter score
Net promoter score is a popular market research metric that helps you understand how positively your customers experience your brand and if they are likely to recommend your products or services to others.
O
Owned media
One of the three key types of media, owned media is a channel that is owned and controlled by your organisation. Your owned media channels include your website and social channels.
Organic
You’ll see the term ‘organic’ used in a verity of ways in marketing, but it essentially means unpaid. It’s the most natural and authentic way of marketing, but it does take more time than using paid tactics.
Objectives
An objective is a specific, measurable target that you set at the start of your marketing strategy, which should guide all of your activities.
P
PPC - pay per click
Pay per click adverts are digital adverts which appear in search results, on social media and on websites, which you pay a fixed amount for every time a user clicks on your ad.
Paid media
One of the three key types of media, paid media is any type of marketing that you pay for. It could include PPC adverts, display adverts, boosted social media posts or influencers.
Persona
A buyer persona is a detailed personal profile of your ideal target customer. It goes beyond demographic information and explores the feelings and emotions of your audience as well as their aspirations, behaviours, attitudes and buying habits.
Purpose
Purpose is the ‘why’ that underpins everything your organisation does. It unites the practical and emotional reasons that consumers make meaningful connections with your brand and should shine through in everything you do.
Q
Quantitative
In research and data, quantitative is something that can be counted, measured and communicated using numbers.
Qualitative
In research and data, qualitative means something is descriptive and conceptual, and will be communicated using language rather than numbers.
R
ROI – return on investment
Return on investment is a financial metric that you should use to measure the profitability of your marketing spend. The higher your ROI percentage, the more money you have made compared to the amount that you spent.
S
SEO – search engine optimisation
Search engine optimisation is a part of digital marketing which increases the quantity and quality of traffic to your website by ranking it higher in search results.
Strategy
Strategy is at the heart of everything we teach at Fabric. It’s an actionable and measurable plan for your marketing activity which works towards a set of clearly defined objectives.
T
Third Sector
Any organisation that is not-for-profit or a registered charity is part of the Third Sector. If you work at a Third Sector organisation you will probably need to market to both consumers and businesses.
Touchpoint
Anywhere a consumer or business comes into contact with your brand is a touchpoint. It can be something physical, like a shop or something digital like a website. Everything you plan in your marketing strategy is a touchpoint.
Target audience
Your organisation’s target audience is the ideal group of people you want your organisation to reach and connect with. It can be segmented into smaller groups to better target them.
U
UX – user experience
When designing a website, designers will consider user experience to ensure that anyone using your website has a smooth and meaningful experience. It influences the design and function of the website.
V
Voice
An organisation’s voice or ‘tone of voice’ is a defining characteristic in a brand. It is about what your brand says and how it says it. Your brand’s voice should be unique and recognisable, and sound consistent across all touchpoints.
Values
A company’s values are a fundamental part of any organisation’s DNA. They’re the things that your brand and team consider to be the backbone of everything your do and how you do it.
W
WOM – word of mouth
Word of mouth is a form of promotion that happens when your customers tell other people about their experience of your brand. It’s closely linked to advocacy and is a powerful way to grow your audience.
X
Y
Z