Learn the Lingo to Level Up Your Marketing Game
It’s time to level up your marketing strategy!
If you’re a new business owner or thinking about starting a business, sometimes it can be confusing when you read or listen to others talk about marketing.
They may use terms or phrases that you aren’t familiar with.
So to maximize your marketing efforts, it's best to understand common marketing lingo.
First, let’s definite what we mean by marketing lingo. This includes common marketing terms, acronyms and jargon used in the industry, such as “ROI,” “lead magnet,” and “conversion rate.”
Why is it important to learn marketing lingo?
For one thing, it can improve communication and collaboration. Knowing these terms can be crucial to communicate effectively with team members, contractors and clients, as well as understanding marketing content and trends. By using the right terminology, you can clarify your message and ensure that everyone is on the same page. In addition, understanding marketing lingo can help you refine your marketing strategy and better serve your audience.
How can you learn marketing lingo?
There are several ways. You can read marketing publications or attend conferences. You can take online courses and certifications. You can simply use Google when you come across a term you’re unfamiliar with.
To help speed up your learning, here are some common acronyms and marketing terminology that business owners should know and a brief explanation of each. Please know that the explanation is in its most basic form but definitely not all-encompassing. Many of these acronyms and terms can be studied so in-depth that they are specializations within marketing itself.
Acronyms:
SEO - Search engine optimization (utilization of various functions to make website pages findable in search engines)
ICA/ICC - Ideal customer avatar / Ideal customer community (the targeted group of persons best suited for your business offerings)
CTA - Call to action (a phrase, button, etc. that prompts your audience to take a specific action, such as booking a discovery call)
PPC - Pay=per-click (a form of advertising where the business pays a fee each time an ad is clicked)
CTR - Click-through rate (the number of times an ad or link is clicked. Example: if you send 100 emails with a link to your blog and 10 readers click on the blog link in the email, your click-through rate is 10% = 10 clicks/100 emails sent)
ROI - Return on investment (a calculation of the value of an investment versus its cost. Example: if you spent $100 for an ad that brought in $1000 in business, your ROI would be 90%)
CMS - Content management system (software or application that functions as a database for your content and data. Examples: WordPress, Squarespace, Showit, etc.)
CRM - Customer Relationship Management (technology for managing your client relationships and interactions. Example: Hubspot, Salesforce, Dubsado, Honeybook, etc.)
KPI - Key performance indicator (a quantifiable measure of performance over time. Example: number of website visitors, number of email subscribers, etc.)
CPC - Cost-per-click (the calculator of dividing the total cost of ads by the number of clicks the ads received. Example: if you spend $100 on ads and 20 people click, your cost per click is $5)
CPA - Cost-per-acquisition (a calculation of the cost to acquire a customer. Example: if you spent $100 on ads and 4 people purchased from you, your CPA is $25)
Terminology
Target audience - The specific group of people or demographic that your marketing efforts are aimed at
Branding [visual] - the unique name, logo, image, colors, etc. for your business that helps distinguish it from your competitors
Content marketing - the creation and distribution of high-value, informative content to attract and engage your target audience
Conversion rate - a calculation of the number of people who take a desired action (Example: if 100 people visit your website in a month and 30 sign up for your newsletter based on your pop-up, your conversation rate is 30%)
Lead magnet - a free resource or special offer provided to your audience in exchange for their contact information, such as email (also referred to as a freebie or opt-in)
Landing page - a standalone web page created specifically for a marketing campaign, designed to prompt a specific action
A/B testing - the process of testing two different versions of a webpage, email, subject line, etc. to see which performs better with your target audience
Social media marketing - the use of social media platforms (Instagram, Facebook, etc.) to promote your business, product or service
Influencer marketing - the use of influential individuals to promote a product or service to their followers
Analytics - the collection, measurement and analysis of data to improve performance and marketing efforts
Although, definitely not a comprehensive list, this should provide you with a good start in understanding some of the more common marketing terms.
By understanding common marketing lingo, you can communicate effectively with others, refine your marketing strategy and better serve your target audience.
So your homework is to utilize some of the terms above and apply them to your business and marketing to better understand efforts and work smarter, not harder.
If you have any questions, DM me on Instagram @aynsli_co
