A/B Testing
This means comparing two versions of one thing to find out which is best to help drive better marketing results.
Abandoned Cart
When an individual adds an item to the internet-based shopping cart of an e-commerce site but does not proceed to checkout and complete the purchase.
Ad Copy
The words in your marketing messages to clients.
Ad Extensions
Specific info you can tack onto your Google Ads to help them do better.
Ad Network
A solution that offers internet-based ad space for sale to advertisers.
AdSense
A Google marketing program that pays website publishers for allowing relevant ads from Google to run on their sites automatically.
Advertising Budget
The money a company puts toward promoting its items and solutions to its target audiences.
Advertorial
Advertising and editorial content combined.
Affiliate Marketing
Marketing is based on a relationship between an internet-based advertiser and website publishers where the advertiser pays for leads or revenue from the publishers‚ sites.
Affiliate Network
A specially selected group of website publishers who partner with an advertiser to deliver leads or sales and receive a commission based solely on their performance.
Alt Text
Text that shows in place of images or pops up when you hover your mouse over an image.
Analytics
What I sometimes refer to as the ‚ eyes of inbound marketing, analytics is the discovery and communication of meaningful patterns in data.
Anchor Text
The wording of a link on a website, in an email, or within another digital asset. One example of anchor text is ‚read more. Anchor text is an important part of the individual experience.
Application Programming Interface (API)
APIs are a series of rules in computer programming, which allow an application to extract info from a solution and use that info either in their application or in data analyses.
Audience Segmentation
A marketing plan based on identifying subgroups within the target audience to deliver more tailored messaging for stronger connections.
B2B (Business-to-Business)
An adjective used to describe companies that sell to other businesses.
B2C (Business-to-Consumer)
An adjective used to describe companies that sell directly to consumers.
Backlinks
Links on websites other than your own that go back to a page on your website.
Banner Ad
A standard horizontal ad placement at the top of a web page.
BIMI
Brand Indicators for Message Identification (BIMI) is an emerging security technology that helps authenticate your email marketing and builds trust with your clients.
Bing Ads
Pay-per-click (PPC) ads that run on Bing and Yahoo search engines spanning desktop and mobile devices.
Black Hat SEO
“Not a great idea“. Black Hat SEO refers to unethical and manipulative techniques used to improve a website’s search engine rankings. These tactics violate search engine guidelines and can result in penalties or bans. Examples include keyword stuffing, cloaking, and link spamming.
Blog
The short form of “web log.” A blog is a collection of journal-like articles written about a particular topic and published on a website.
Blogging
Blogging entails regularly updating an online platform, like a website, to share thoughts, experiences, or expertise on various topics. Blogs cover diverse subjects and serve entertainment, educational, or marketing purposes.
Bottom of the Funnel
Since we are going alphabetically, the last part of the funnel process is first! So, bottoms up, I suppose.
Bounce Rate
The percentage of visits to your website where only 1 page was viewed.
Brand
The experience a customer has with an item or solution that makes it different from others in the same category.
Brand Identity
The experience a customer has with your item or solution visually.
Brand Image
How your clients perceive your items, solutions, and company. A solid brand identity and relentless brand management are 2 keys to success.
Brand Manager
A marketing professional is responsible for making sure the customer experience with a brand is brand-worthy.
Breadcrumbs
If you are thinking “Hansel and Gretel,” you are right.
Business Blogging
Business blogging retains all the attributes of “regular” blogging but adds a tasty layer of marketing plan on top. When blogging for a business, marketers should create posts that are optimized with keywords that their target audience is searching for and provide helpful, educational material to these readers.
Buyer Persona
A semi-fictional representation of your ideal customer based on market research and real data about your existing clients.
Call to Action (CTA)
What do you want your target audience to do after receiving your marketing message?
Call-to-Action
A call-to-action is a text link, button, image, or some type of web link that encourages a website visitor to visit a landing page and become of lead. Some examples of CTAs are‚ Subscribe Now or‚ Download the Whitepaper Today.
Canonical URL
The “master version” of a page on your website that you want search engine crawlers to find.
CAN-SPAM
CAN-SPAM stands for “Controlling the Assault of Non-Solicited Pornography and Marketing.” It’s a U.S.
CASL
CASL stands for “Canadian Anti-Spam Legislation.” It’s a Canadian law passed in 2013 that covers the sending of “commercial electronic messages” that may be accessed by a computer in Canada.
Churn Rate
A metric that measures how many clients you retain and at what value.
Classified Advertising
Ads appear on the same page and are grouped into categories in a list-like format.
Clickthrough Rate (CTR)
The percentage of your audience that advances (or clicks through) from one part of your website to the next step of your marketing campaign.
Click-Through Rate (CTR)
The percentage of individuals who click on the link in your digital marketing message after seeing it. CTR is a key success metric for a marketing campaign.
Closed-Loop Marketing
The practice of closed-loop marketing is being able to execute, track, and show how marketing works have impacted bottom-line business growth.
Contact Form
A page on a website that contains a brief questionnaire allowing individuals to provide info about themselves and show an interest in being contacted about your items or solutions.
Content
About inbound marketing, content is a piece of info that exists to be digested (not literally), engaged with, and shared.
Content Management System (CMS)
A web application designed to make it easy for non-technical individuals to create, edit, and manage a website.
Content Marketing
Content marketing is a plan businesses use to attract, engage, and retain clients by creating and sharing relevant articles, videos, podcasts, and other media.
Content Optimization System (COS)
A COS is a CMS (Content Management System) but optimized to deliver clients the most personalized web experience possible.
Context
If content is king, then context is queen. Serving up valuable content is important, but ensuring that it is customized for the right audience is equally (if not more) important As buyers become more in control of what info they digest (again, not literally), it is important to deliver content that‚contextually relevant.
Conversion Path
A conversion path is a series of website-based events that help lead capture.
Conversion Rate
The percentage of individual actions taken after total clicks on a display ad or other digital asset.
The percentage of people who completed a desired action on a single web page, such as filling out a form.
Conversion Rate Optimization (CRO)
The process of increasing the percentage of individuals who take the actions you want them to, such as clicking on a website link or purchasing an item internet-based. Two key conversion rate optimization (CRO) strategies are A/B testing and personalized marketing.
Cost Per Acquisition (CPA)
How much do you spend to win a single-paying customer?
Cost Per Click (CPC)
A fee that a website publisher charges to serve your display ads on its site.
Cost-Per-Lead (CPL)
The amount it costs your marketing organization to acquire a lead.
CPM
Cost per thousand impressions of an internet-based ad.
Creatives
The items of copywriters, graphic designers, and other creative marketing people are simply the people themselves.
Crowdsourced Content
Creating your content can take more time than you have to lend to it – which is where crowdsourcing comes into play.
CSS
Cascading style sheet (CSS), is a language that dictates how a web page looks. CSS stands for Cascading Style Sheets, and it’s what gives your entire website its style, like colors, fonts, and background images.
Customer Acquisition Cost (CAC)
Customer acquisition cost (CAC) is the amount of money a company spends to get a new customer. Your total Sales and Marketing cost.
Customer Data Platform
A customer data platform (CDP) is a central location for customer data from a variety of sources.
Customer Journey
Think of a customer journey as a detailed map that shows the full experience a customer has with your business.
Customer Relationship Management (CRM)
A set of software programs that let companies keep track of everything they do with their existing and potential clients.
Digital Marketing
Any marketing that uses electronic devices to convey promotional messaging and measure its impact.
Direct Mail Marketing
A type of direct marketing that is delivered physically to a prospect‚ mailbox through the United States Postal Service or other delivery solution.
Direct Marketing
Marketing that is delivered directly to the customer via the company selling an item.
Display Ads
A type of internet-based ad that combines text, images, and a URL that links to a website where a customer can learn more about or buy items.
Distribution Channel
The path an item or solution takes as it travels from where it is created to the person who will use it.
DMARC
Domain-based Message Authentication, Reporting & Conformance (DMARC) is a widely recognized email protocol that helps people and businesses protect their email addresses and domains from being misused by third parties.
DNS
A domain name system (DNS) takes a human-friendly internet address, such as Website.com, and translates it into a computer-friendly IP address a web browser can use to find and display a website.
Domain
A domain or domain name is what comes between the @ in your email address and the .com, .org, .net, etc.
Drip Campaign
A series of automated emails are sent to people who take a specific action.
Dropshipping
An e-commerce model where the seller does not own any inventory or handle any of the shipping responsibilities.
Dynamic Content
A way to display different messaging on your website based on the info you already know about the visitor.
Ebook
Ebooks are a common type of content that many marketers use, often to help generate leads.
E-commerce
E-commerce is the buying and selling of goods and solutions using the internet.
E-commerce Website
A website allowing people to buy and sell physical goods, solutions, and digital items over the internet rather than at a brick-and-mortar location.
Editorial Calendar
It’s like a road map for content creation, showing you what kind of content to create, what topics to cover, which personas to target, and how often to publish to best support your plan.
In its most basic sense, email stands for ‚ electronic mail. Is a core component of marketing because it is a direct connection to a contact inbox. However, with great power comes great responsibility, meaning it is important for marketers to not abuse the email relationship with a contact.
Email Automation
The use of predefined rules to trigger email messages based on specific actions clients take.
Email Bounce Rate
Email bounce rate: The rate at which an email is unable to be delivered to a recipient’s inbox. In email, not all bounces are bad, so it’s important to distinguish between hard and soft bounces before taking an email address off your list.
Email List
A list of email addresses that your business can send marketing emails to.
Email Marketing
The use of email to promote business items and solutions.
End User
The person who uses an item or solution.
Engagement Rate
A popular social media metric used to describe the amount of interaction Likes, shares, and comments a piece of content receives.
Error 404
File not found, an error your web browser flags.
Evergreen Content
Evergreen content is content that continues to provide value to readers no matter when they stumble upon it.
Extensible Markup Language (XML)
A human- and machine-readable coding language that adds structure, meaning, or context to a text document.
Eye Tracking
Measuring and recording the movement of eyes as they look at a web page.
Facebook is a social network you’re likely quite familiar with already but it has become so much more than just a platform to publish content and gain followers.
Facebook Ads
Ads that run exclusively through the Facebook marketing platform.
Facebook Ads Manager
Mission control for your Facebook ads.
Facebook Business Page
Your business home on Facebook.
Facebook Profile
Your personal home on Facebook.
FCC
The Federal Communications Commission (FCC) is a United States government agency that regulates communication devices and systems, which includes the Internet.
Featured Snippet
A section of Google search engine results page that tries to answer a question without a person having to click through to another web page.
Form
The place where your page visitors will supply info in exchange for your offer.
Friction
Any element of your website that is confusing, distracting, or causes stress for visitors, causing them to leave your page.
FTC
The Federal Trade Commission (FTC) is tasked with promoting competition in the United States marketplace and protecting consumers.
Google Ads
Google Ads is the software platform Google uses to power its ad network. Advertisers choose which keywords are most relevant to their items and how much they want to pay for their campaigns The ads appear at the top of Google search engine results page (SERP) or on third-party websites and apps when someone searches for one of these keywords.
Google Algorithm
Algorithms are a list of mathematical calculations and if/then statements that decide what action a computer program should take.
Google Analytics
A platform that measures and reports on website traffic.
Google My Business
A free solution that lets you provide more detail about your business when it appears in search.
Google Remarketing
Also called retargeting, Google remarketing is the technology that lets your Google Ads follow potential clients as they move across the internet.
Google Search Console
A Google tool that helps you optimize your website content to make better its doance and your search engine optimization (SEO) works. You can submit URLs and full sitemaps to Google Search Console to make sure your most important pages are indexed in the Google search engine.
Google+
Google+ (referred to as “Google Plus”) is a social network allowing you to join and create circles in which you can mix and match family members, friends, colleagues, and fellow industry members.
Go-to-Market Strategy
A plan that helps you launch your new business, item, solution, or brand to your clients. It usually includes target audience research, the key differentiators in your market, and a planned approach for marketing and distribution.
GPT-3
GPT-3, or Generative Pre-trained Transformer 3, is a remarkable language model that has taken the world by storm.
Gross Rating Points
A math equation that multiplies the number of times an ad is run by the percentage of the target audience that sees it, multiplied by 100.
H1
An HTML tag is used to identify the highest level of info on a page. H1s play an important role in search engine optimization (SEO) and make it easier to index content If something is in an H1 tag, search engines know it is important.
Hard Bounce / Soft Bounce
An email that is rejected by an email server for a permanent reason.
Hashtag
A hash or pound sign (#) is used after a word or phrase to label content and make it easier to find.
Heat Map
A visual representation of data that uses color to communicate areas of highest use or likelihood.
Hreflang Tags
An HTML tag that helps search engines find and display content in a specific language when a website uses multiple languages.
HTML
Hypertext markup language (HTML) is the coding language used to create web pages.
HTTP (HTTPS)
Hypertext transfer protocol (HTTP) is the application (or program) that a web browser uses to ask a web server for information.
Hyperlink
A piece of text or an image on a website that takes you to another web page when you click on it.
Iframe
An iframe is a section of a web page that contains content that comes from another page.
Inbound Link
An inbound link is a link coming from another site to your website.
Inbound Marketing
A marketing plan that encourages people to actively seek out and engage with your brand.
Infographic
A highly visual piece of content that is very popular among digital marketers as a way of relaying complex concepts simply and visually.
Though initially a haven only for younger generations who wanted to post, edit, and share unique-looking photos, Instagram has grown into a premier social network that’s a viable opportunity for content marketers.
Instagram Ads
Instagram posts that showcase a business’s products or services.
Integrated Marketing
The practice of aligning all marketing tactics to the same core messaging for a consistent customer experience with your brand.
IP Address
Internet protocol (IP) address, is a unique number much like your street address that uses commas and periods to identify a device accessing the internet.
JavaScript
A coding language that works with HTML to make dynamic web page content possible. JavaScript is also a key player in responsive web design, which uses the same code for desktop and mobile devices, making the individual experience (UX) seamless.
Key Performance Indicator (KPI)
A type of Performance measurement companies use to check an employee’s or an activity’s success.
Key Success Factors
The 5 elements that find out whether or not a company will be effective in capturing its target audience. The key success factors are strategic focus, people, operations, marketing, and finances.
Keyword
A word or phrase in the content of your web pages that matches the words and phrases individuals are entering into search engines as closely as possible. The keyword is the cornerstone of search engine optimization (SEO).
Landing Page
A landing page is a website page containing a form that is used for lead generation.
Lead
A person or company who’s shown interest in an item or solution in some way, shape, or form.
Lead Nurturing
Sometimes referred to as “drip marketing,” lead nurturing involves developing a series of communications (emails, social media messages, etc.) designed to qualify a lead, keep it engaged, and gradually guide it down the sales funnel.
Lifecycle Stages
These divisions serve as a way to describe the relationship you have with your audience, and can generally be broken down into three stages: awareness, checking, and purchase.
LinkedIn is a business-oriented social networking site.
LinkedIn Advertising
A platform for promoting your company items or solutions on LinkedIn.
List Broker
A business that specializes in sourcing contact lists that direct marketers can rent for an email or marketing campaign.
Long-Tail Keyword
A long-tail keyword is a very targeted search phrase that contains three or more words.
Market Share
The percentage of the market for your item or solution that you want to capture. They may also buy key competitors.
Marketing Analytics
A math-based discipline that seeks to find patterns in data to increase actionable knowledge.
Marketing Automation
A process that lets technology take over repetitive marketing tasks from people, freeing people to focus on plans.
Marketing Collateral
Digital or print materials that accompany a primary marketing campaign.
Marketing Mix
The 4 “P” are price, product, promotion, and place (point of sale).
Marketing Research
Gathering and analyzing info about a market to inform how best to offer an item or solution to clients.
Meta Description
A summary of what a web page is about in the HTML code of the page.
Meta Keywords / Meta Tags
Words and phrases in the HTML meta keywords tag of a web page.
Middle of the Funnel
This is the stage that a lead enters after identifying a problem.
Mobile Marketing
With mobile search queries officially surpassing desktop queries, now is probably the time to explore mobile marketing.
Narrowcasting
Sending a media message to a highly targeted audience.
Native Advertising
A type of internet-based marketing that takes on the form and function of the platform it appears on.
Net Promoter Score (NPS)
A customer satisfaction metric that measures, on a scale of 0-10, the degree to which people would recommend your company to others.
News Feed
A news feed is an internet-based feed full of news sources.
Nofollow
A meta tag in the HTML code of a web page that tells search engines to disregard the page.
No-Follow Link
A no-follow link is used when a website does not want to pass search engine authority to another webpage.
Nonprofit Marketing
Marketing with goals that advance a nonprofit organization’s cause versus driving a business’s profitability.
Offer
Offers are content assets that live behind a form on a landing page.
Off-Page Optimization
This is the free-spirited cousin of on-page optimization.
Omnichannel Marketing
Omnichannel marketing creates a cohesive, integrated shopping experience across brand‚ sales including brick-and-mortar locations, events, mobile devices, and internet-based stores.
On-Page Optimization
This type of SEO is based solely on a webpage and the various elements within the HTML. Ensuring that key pieces of the specific page (content, title tag, URL, and image tags) include the desired keyword will help a page rank for that particular phrase.
Organic Search
The natural and unpaid results individuals receive after making search queries.
Page View
A request to load a single web page on the internet.
Paid Search
Online marketing is triggered when individuals do searches using keywords that a company has purchased.
Pay-Per-Click (PPC)
An internet-based marketing campaign that a company pays for only when individuals interact with the ads.
Personalized Marketing
The practice of using analytics to make marketing messages and item experiences feel unique to each customer.
Personalized Product Recommendations
Suggestions to customers for products they may be interested in based on products they already bought or viewed online.
Product Differentiation
What makes your item or solution different and more appealing to clients than other options in your category?
Product Positioning
The image of your item or solution that you want members of your target audience to have in their minds.
Product Range
A set of versions of one item from the same brand, each tweaked to appeal to a different audience segment.
Promotional Mix
The combination of promotions (marketing, sales promotion, personal selling, publicity) you use to deliver marketing messages to your target audience.
Promotions
Marketing communications are designed to inform target audiences about items or solutions and persuade them to buy them.
Qualified Lead
A contact that opted in to receive communication from your company, became educated about your item or solution and is interested in learning more.
Redirect
Sending an individual to a different web page than the one they requested with a URL.
Referral
When a website sends traffic to another website.
Responsive Design
This is the practice of developing a website that adapts accordingly to how someone is viewing it.
Responsive Web Design
An approach to website design that lets a single page be displayed comfortably whether it is on a phone, tablet, or desktop.
Return on Ad Spend (ROAS)
The ratio of the amount of revenue generated by an ad campaign to its cost.
Return on Investment (ROI)
A performance measure is used to check the efficiency and profitability of an investment or to compare the efficiency and profitability of multiple investments.
Robots.txt
A file placed on a web server that gives instructions to search engine crawlers, which are the robots that index web pages for search engines.
Schema Markup
Bits of code are added to a web page that helps search engines understand the content of the page.
Search Engine Marketing (SEM)
Paid marketing on a search engine results page (SERP).
Search Engine Optimization (SEO)
Changes made to the content and structure of a website to make better ranking on a search engine results page (SERP).
Search Engine Results Page (SERP)
The page that a search engine returns after an individual submits a search query.
Search Engines
Software is used to find info and websites on the internet. Then they display results based on the keywords in the search query Search engines play an important part in inbound marketing through search engine optimization (SEO) and search engine marketing (SEM).
Search Query
The string of words individuals enter into a search engine to receive a result.
Sender Score
An email marketing term that is a reputation rating from 0-100 for every outgoing mail server IP address.
Service Level Agreement (SLA)
For marketers, an SLA is an agreement between a company’s sales and marketing teams that defines the expectations Sales has for Marketing and vice versa.
Sitelink
An ad extension that places more than 1 link in a paid search ad.
Smarketing
A fun phrase used to refer to the practice of aligning Sales and Marketing works. But since this isn’t always how the cookie crumbles, it is important for marketing and sales to align and impact the bottom line the best they can through coordinated communication.
Snapchat
A social app allowing individuals to send and receive time-sensitive photos and videos known as “snaps,” which are hidden from the recipients once the time limit expires.
Social Media
Social media is designed to be disseminated through social interaction and created using highly accessible and scalable publishing techniques.
Social Media Marketing
We are using social media to advertise a brand, items, or solutions.
Spam
The digital equivalent of junk mail.
SSL
Secure Sockets Layer (SSL) is a method of encryption that protects data being sent between websites.
Target Audience
The people you want to reach with your marketing works.
Title Tag
An HTML tag that designates the title of a page. Title tags are an important part of search engine optimization (SEO) and should contain 1 or more keywords to help with search engine ranking.
Top of the Funnel
Sometimes called the top of the funnel is the very first stage of the buying process.
Unique Visitor
A person who visits a website more than once within a period.
User Experience (UX)
The overall experience a customer has with a particular business, from their discovery and awareness of the brand through their interaction, purchase, use, and even advocacy of that brand.
User Interface (UI)
A type of interface allowing individuals to control a software application or hardware device.
Viral Content
This term is used to describe a piece of content that has become wildly popular across the web through sharing.
Website
A website is a set of interconnected webpages, usually including a homepage, generally located on the same server, and prepared and maintained as a collection of info by a person, group, or organization.
Website Bounce Rate
The percentage of people who land on a page on your website and then leave without clicking on anything else or navigating to any other pages on your site.
Workflow
A workflow is another way to describe a lead nurturing campaign.
XML Sitemap
An XML sitemap serves as a coded file residing on your web server. It meticulously catalogs all pertinent URLs within the framework of your website structure.
YouTube
YouTube is a video-sharing website on which individuals can upload, share, and view videos.