Blog Post

The Ultimate Marketing Dictionary

by: Kristin Crabb July 3, 2019

Table of Contents

As any experienced marketer knows, there really is no clear cut answer for generating positive ROI every single time. And as you know, there can be equal confusion and frustration when it comes to knowing all the modern marketing terms – and acronyms – especially when it comes to the digital world of online advertising!

So, to gain a clearer understanding of everything marketing, we should all take some time to get familiar with today’s growing list of terms. As much of a chore as this can seem to be (at first), improving our vocabulary will help us further understand what pieces make modern-day marketing function together as a whole.

Your Guide To Modern Marketing Lingo

Without further adieu, here is your Ultimate Marketing Dictionary!

This page contains some of the many marketing terms that you’ll repeatedly hear about, read about, talk about, and even think about… especially when it comes to today’s digital age.

Terms in Search Engine Optimization, or SEO

Domain – this is the main address of your site.
Anchor Text – this pertains to the actual text of web page link. On the majority of sites, this particular text is often underlined and in dark blue or purple if you have already visited such link before. Anchor text assists search engines in understanding what destination page is all about and describes what you can see when you click through.
Keyword – word entered by users during their search. Every web page must be optimized to draw more visitors who searched for particular keywords before.
Meta Description – this is a brief description of fewer than 160 characters of a web page’s content and reasons individuals are visiting it. This is usually displayed in the search engine results below the page title as a sample of contents on the page.
Search Engine Results Page or SERP – this is the page you’re sent after running a query on the search engine.

Terms in Content Marketing

Conversion Rate – this measures the percentage of individuals who qualified as a sale, or a lead. For this metric to effectively work for your favor, you must define what classifies a sale or a lead.
Analytics – this is the short term for Google Analytics. This is a service provided by Google, which offers statistics and data on several website success measures like traffic, sales, and visits.
Anchor Text – this is the text displayed in a hyperlink that users click to visit or access a new page. Anchor text is being used by search engines and must be used naturally and be relevant or else, and it might be penalized by search engines.
Dynamic Keyword Insertion – advertising tactic wherein search terms are used in the question is placed to adverts that are shown on SERP. This helps increase the relevance of adverts seen.
Backlinks – also referred to as incoming or inbound links, and these links point back to the website from the other external sites. Backlinks might be utilized by search engines in assessing a site’s popularity and what can affect a website’s ranking.

Terms in PPC Marketing

Clickthrough Rate – this pertains to the measure of Social Media Pay Per Click or PPC Performance, which is determined using dividing clicks that have been received by a number of the impressions received. This term is being tied to PPC ads and keywords.
Ad Extensions – these are like add-ons into your paid ads. These provide added information as well as revenue opportunities like company address, page links, phone number, product images, and more. An ad extension is another way of customizing your PPC strategy.
Cost Per Click or CPC – the amount of money that advertisers pay to search engines and internet publishers for one click on ads which bring the visitor to websites.
Cost Per Lead or CPL – the amount of money that advertisers pay to search engines and internet publishers for the lead generated in its ad.
Geographical Targeting – display your paid ad but only to users who are within a particular geographical location.

Terms in Social Media Marketing

Engagement Rate – Engagement rate is a popular social media metric used to describe the amount of interaction — likes, shares, comments — a piece of content receives.
Follower – In a social media setting, a follower refers to a person who subscribes to your account in order to receive your updates.
Handle – Handle is the term used to describe someone’s @username on Twitter. For example, HubSpot’s Twitter handle is @HubSpot.
Segmentation – analysis of different ways a target audience can be divided to tailor interventions effectively. Social marketing doesn’t use a single way in segmenting audience. This moves beyond using the traditional ‘targeting’ approaches.
Inbound Marketing – in social media marketing, this is a style of marketing that uses permission-based marketing techniques to get found by potential customers, convert them into leads, customers, and advocates, and analyze the process along the way. Inbound marketing leverages tactics and tools such as SEO, blogging, social media, lead generation, email marketing, lead nurturing, marketing automation, surveys, personalization, and CRM.

Terms in Email Marketing

Funnel Automation – pertains to the process of properly setting up email marketing software, sending predetermined email campaigns to prospects and customers based on the set of triggers you’ve predefined.
Bounce Rate – this is the rate that your emails aren’t delivered. The two types of bounces are soft and hard bounces. Less than 5% is the acceptable bounce rate.
Email Campaigns – emails or the series of lead-nurturing emails especially designed to accomplish overall marketing goals.
Authentication – this is a ‘security’ means of establishing the identity of the sender and ensuring that the sender is permitted to send from a particularly given domain.
Transaction Email / Confirmation Email – this is an automated email triggered by a customer’s purchase, sign-up, or transaction. This is usually the automated ‘delivery’ or transaction confirmation email they receive, which is sent directly and automatically to consumers after they take an action and submit their information.

Terms in PR (Public Relations) Marketing

Press Release – this is traditionally known as a detailed, written publication distributed to different channels to announce something newsworthy or of value.
Customer Relationship Management or CRM – this is a system managing the interactions of a company with potential and existing customers.
Inbound Marketing – this is a type of marketing that pulls audiences through offering information they’re already interested in, which is highly leveraged in many modern day sales funnels. Such information is usually available as e-book or downloadable paper, and leads might be nurtured through online marketing programs aiming to convert prospects to customers.
Targeted Audience – group in a community chosen as the most appropriate for a certain marketing schedule or campaign. The target audience can also be defined in psychographic or demographic terms or a combination of both.
Pitch – this is the concise verbal, previously recorded, or sometimes Live visual presentation of ideas for a story, generally created to media outlets hoping to attract positive coverage for clients.

Terms in Website Development

Adaptive Web Design – a site with various specific constructions for the screen sizes and then switches them for smaller and larger screens.

Cookies – the data recorded on the browser when users visit a site; which captures their visit into the website and is eventually used in customizing their experience with the website.

E-commerce – this can be transactions are done or product purchases over the internet. This involves directly paying through the business website.

Javascript – coding language which controls interactive elements of web pages like the actions triggered through clicking buttons.

Landing Page -Initial web page individuals see whenever they visit a website from another website like when they click on the search result or advertisement. Landing page can be a home page or page with particularly targeted information that pertains to link which drove users here.

Terms on Amazon

Amazon API – a web program or service is giving programmers access to the product catalog data in Amazon.
Categories – Amazon is known to categorize products to groupings. This essentially helps customers to narrow down their searches in their search relevant. There are open and exclusive gated communities, but these require approval from Amazon.
Listings – Amazon listing pertains to the product page listing including product descriptions, image, price and shipping method, and quality.
Promotions – these can be any discounts giveaway or deal or can be special tactics to easily connect with targeted customers to enhance brand awareness as well as promote social proof and to also boost sales.
Unverified Review – user feedback coming from a customer who has not yet made a product purchase through Amazon. This tends to carry on less weight in terms of optimization than the verified reviews.

Terms in Influencer Marketing

Influencer – this pertains to a person or can be a group of people with higher than the average advantage potentials to influence — this is because of attributions like frequency of communication, size of the social network, personal persuasiveness, and centrality to the social network.
Influencer Engagement – this is the function of the relationship-based approach that tends to work with influencers. Ongoing engagement might take many forms ranging from social sharing, content co-creation, commenting up, to program collaborations. This is a transactional approach to interact with influencers and a form of engagement technically.
Reach – this is the measure of the audience size of the influencers. An influencer usually has above an average number of followers on a specific market or niche.
Brand Awareness – this is a means of increasing exposure and recall of your brand among customers and consumers. Brand awareness tends to be the common goal of influencer marketing technique, particularly for the brands that are launching or maybe releasing a new product and wanted consumers to know about this product.
Engagement – this is a general term which means where consumers take some actions on content available. Take for instance the sharing, commenting, reacting, and more. These are all considered forms of engagement.

Building Your Foundation

These are a few of the many marketing terms that we all need to learn and brush up on.

While this skimmable list is by no means “complete,” it is a collection of some of the most common – and important – terms when it comes to becoming more well-versed in this field of business.

Feel free to bookmark, save, or even print this guide… remember that you can revisit it over and over again and also share it with other professionals who may need it!