Marketing definitions: A glossary to cut through the jargon
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Posted: Fri 21st Oct 2022
Every industry has its own set of acronyms. One set of such acronyms I find hard to digest are those that schools use – there are just too many!
However, they’re not alone. The marketing industry has its own exclusive range, and there are many terms you may often have heard, without realising their meaning.
We’re going to bypass the cat to get to the cream, to provide you with a greater understanding of what the heck it is that we’re talking about. And while we’re at it, let’s start with one that many business owners may have come across.
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SEO: Search engine optimisation
Processes and techniques for ranking your website higher in the natural (organic) search results listings, for people who are looking for your products or services.
SEO incorporates many factors to improve your website’s ranking, including website navigation, menu structure, links to internal and external pages, title tags and alt tags, metadata, keywords — the list goes on.
Other ranking signals also include social network activity (Twitter, Facebook etc), visitor behaviour, and other off-page factors.
The key reason behind all these checks is to establish relevancy in the results pages. Relevancy is the cornerstone on which search engines’ reputations are based.
PPC: Pay per click
The amount you pay for each click for an online advertisement. Advertisers pay a publisher (i.e. Google, Bing, Facebook, business directory) an agreed or pre-capped amount each time someone clicks on your website link. Potential customers are drawn to your website link based on a list of keywords
When someone types in a keyword that matches one on your keyword list, your company will appear in the results. Only when they click on your link will you then pay.
CTR: Click-through rate
In a PPC campaign, this describes how many people saw your advert (impressions) and decided to click on your website link. In mathematical terms, this is the number of clicks divided by the number of impressions to reach a percentage. Industry-standard is currently around 3%.
It also reflects how many people clicked through to the next part of your marketing campaign, whether on your website, a newsletter or other means.
ROI: Return on investment
A calculation of the profitability from an investment. For example, companies look at how much they are spending on marketing campaigns, versus the financial returns they experience directly from them.
SERPs: Search engine results pages
A list of results that are returned once you have inputted a query into a search engine.
CRO: Conversion rate optimisation
Creating a website experience with the aim of converting an increased percentage of website visitors into customers. This can be done by using analysis and customer feedback, which combined, will enhance the performance of your website. The better your conversion rate, the higher your return on investment.
SMM: Social media marketing
The use of social media accounts such as Facebook, TikTok, LinkedIn etc., for the purposes of marketing a business, product, or service.
The ultimate aim of SMM is to create engaging content that users will share across social networks, leading to brand exposure and attracting new customers, as well as building a loyal following.
CMS: Content management system
Software that allows non-technical users to manage their own websites. Users can create sales campaigns, update newsletters, add and delete products, adjust product prices, edit information, make content searchable, change menus, and more.
CTA: Call to action
Buttons, text links, and pictures are the most commonly used call-to-action features, which stimulate a web visitor to take action to either make contact, sign up for a newsletter, download a white paper, or make a purchase.
UI: User interface
The method by which a user can control a hardware device or software application. It can include, but is not limited to, windows, buttons, menu bars, and toolbars.
UX: User experience
Describes the overall experience a visitor has on any website. This begins with how easily they have found your products and services, through to how easy your website is to navigate, how they interact, and whether they make contact or a purchase.
LP: Landing page
Any chosen page on your website where you decide to send website traffic, mostly after someone has clicked on your advert from a PPC campaign.
You could also build a dedicated one-page website which is optimised for generating enquiries and send traffic there instead. This is also regarded as a landing page.
GA: Google Analytics
A tool provided by Google, which measures in intricate detail how a website is performing. It identifies user locations, demography, website engagement, user behaviour, and how people found your site, amongst many other metrics.
Marketers use it to understand their audience and study their paths through the website, in order to learn how best to engage further with potential customers.
BR: Bounce rate
The percentage of web traffic leaving your site without clicking on any Call to Action buttons or visiting other pages. A higher bounce rate leads to a lower volume of enquiries and diminished relevancy in search engines.
URL: Uniform resource locator
A reference to a unique website address, displayed in the address bar at the top of any web browser.
SaaS: Software as a service
Instead of buying and installing software to your own PCs, (or a network), this is a cloud-based software solution that allows you to effectively rent the service. To many businesses, this provides many benefits, such as
no huge upfront costs
greater ability to customise it to the needs of your business
any software issues are dealt with by the hosting company – no need for your IT support team to get involved if issues arise
All these marketing acronyms only really scratch the surface of the overall terminology marketers uses.
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