Application programming interface (API)
An API is a piece of technology that allows two different systems to talk to each other. These APIs provide ways for other websites and tools to consume each other’s data and extend their services. If you’ve ever signed into an app or service using your Facebook or Google credentials, you’ve been in the presence of an API.
Audience segmentation
A marketing strategy in which you identify subgroups within your target audience. These subgroups can be based on demographics or activities.
Blog
A collection of articles written about a specific topic and posted on a website. Blogs can make money on their own through affiliate marketing or they can be used as part of the marketing for a company to sell a product or service. They typically offer value to their readers and highlight knowledge and expertise of the writer/publisher.
Bounce Rate
The percentage of people who visit a page on your website and then leave without clicking on anything else or visiting other pages on your site.
Brand
The intersection of a company’s unique identity, image, and connection with its audience and how people experience that company.
Buyer persona
A representation of your ideal customer based on your market research and data compiled. It can include demographics, pain points, buying habits, and other information that helps you understand their needs and how to attract them.
Call to action
Text, images, buttons, or links that encourage readers to take a specific action, usually that moves them along your marketing funnel. This can include ‘Subscribe now’ buttons, ‘Download our whitepaper today to learn how you can attract more website viewers’ links, or even just a note to visit your website or book an appointment.
Churn rate
A metric that shows what percentage of your recurring customers are leaving your business within a given period. This is most effective for companies that have recurring revenue, such as subscription or monthly revenue businesses. If you have 100 clients on September 1 and 90 clients on September 30, your churn rate is (Number of customers at the start of the period – number of customers at the end of the period) divided by number of customers at the start of the period. In this case 100-90=10 10/100=10%, so your churn rate is 10%.
Clickthrough rate (CTR)
The percentage of your audience that advances through your marketing campaign, for example, who start with a blog post and click through to download an ebook.
Content marketing
A strategy of creating content–such as articles, videos, and podcasts–to attract, engage, and retain clients and customers.
Content management system (CMS)
A web application that makes it easy for users to create, edit, and manage their website even if they have no technical knowledge or experience.
Content optimization system (COS) (Content optimisation for AUS/NZ/UK)
A content management system that is designed so that customers can have a custom/personal web experience.
Conversion rate
The percentage of people who completed a specific action on a webpage. This might include filling out a form, downloading a lead magnet, or subscribing to a newsletter.
This term can also be used to refer to the percentage of people who attend an initial consultation and convert to becoming a client.
Digital marketing
Marketing that uses online devices to promote their message and measure the effectiveness of that message. This includes online ads, social media posts, and Youtube videos.
Drip campaign
A series of emails that are automated and encourage the reader to take a specific action. The emails are typically designed to be personal and include the contact’s name, and references to the action they recently took. For example, you could send an email drip campaign to someone who downloads your ebook.
Dynamic content
Content that shifts depending on information that you have about the customer. For example, someone who is visiting your website for the first time might see a special offer for first-time visitors.
Ebook
A type of content typically used to generate leads by showcasing the offerer’s expertise in an area. They typically go more in-depth into topics than blog posts do because they can be longer and are often gated so readers must submit their email to access the content.
Editorial calendar
Sometimes called a content calendar, this is a schedule that shows what type of content you want to create, who the content will target, what topics you’ll cover, and how often to publish.
Email marketing
Using email to promote your products and services. Usually these emails are sent in bulk, to multiple people at once.
Engagement rate
A metric used on social media to show the rate at which readers are interacting with your comment. This includes interactions such as likes, shares, and comments. Higher engagement means your messages are resonating with your followers.
Evergreen content
Content that is useful and valuable to readers no matter when they read it. Whether they read it the day after it was published or a year or two later, the reader will still find the content useful.
HTML (HyperText Markup Language)
The language used to write webpages.
Hyperlink
A piece of text or an image online that can be clicked to take the reader to another page.
Inbound marketing
Marketing activities that bring visitors in, rather than you going out to find them. This includes blog posts, lead magnets, and other content that attracts your customer’s interests and brings them to your website. The opposite of inbound marketing is outbound marketing, which is more traditional advertising.
Inbound link (also called a backlink)
A link coming to your website from another site. If you have more inbound links that are high quality, the search engines will rank you higher.
Infographic
A piece of visual content that depicts complex concepts in a more graphic way.
Integrated marketing
A practice in which all marketing tactics are aligned to ensure a consistent customer experience.
Key performance indicator (KPI)
A measure of performance that evaluates an activity’s success. These vary depending on the activity being carried out. Some KPIs include homepage views, number of subscribers, or conversion rate.
Keyword (sometimes known as keyword phrase)
Topics that webpages are indexed for in search results. Keywords are part of ensuring your website gets found by search engines, so you’ll want to ensure you have keywords that your audience would use to find you but not words that are so popular that you can’t rank. You can do this by being more specific with your keywords. For example, getting ranked for “accountant” would be difficult, but adding the industry you work in and your location would likely be more successful.
Landing page
A website page that has a form used for lead generation, typically related to a marketing offer. For example, if you offer an ebook as a lead magnet, you’ll have a landing page that readers will visit first where you market the ebook and request their email in exchange for access to the ebook. You may even use different landing pages to attract different personas.
Lead
A person or entity that has shown interest in your product or service, either by subscribing to your newsletter, or giving you their contact information.
Lead magnet
A high value item typically offered for free if the website visitor submits their email address through a website form. Common examples are ebooks and guides. The idea is to give valuable content away in exchange for a lead’s contact details.
Lead nurturing
The process of using a series of communications to keep leads engaged, qualify them, and move them along the sales funnel. Someone who downloads an ebook might receive a series of emails encouraging them to further interact with your company or book an appointment.
Marketing automation
A way of automating your marketing so you don’t have to manually do it each time. You can set up a series of emails to automatically be sent to leads after they download an ebook, so you don’t have to be responsible for it yourself.
Marketing collateral
Materials–digital or print–that accompany your campaign. These include banner ads, websites, landing pages, and ebooks.
Net promoter score (NPS)
A metric that reflects how satisfied your customers are with you based on how likely they are to recommend your company to others. They sit on a scale from detractors who are not likely to recommend you (around 0-6 on the scale) to promoters (around 8-10). Someone who is at a 9 on the scale is highly likely to recommend you to others.
Organic search
The unpaid results that are returned after someone has made a search inquiry.
Product differentiation
Something that makes your product or service different from those offered by your competitors and gives you a competitive advantage.
Qualified lead
Someone who has opted to learn more about your company and is in a position to make a purchasing decision in the near future, as opposed to someone who is just seeking information but not ready to make a decision.
QR code (Quick response code)
A matrix barcode readable by QR barcode readers that often create a quicklink to websites or landing pages when they are scanned.
Search engine optimization (in AUS/NZ/UK, optimization) (SEO)
Enhancing a website by using different methods to improve the search results ranking. This can include using title tags, image tags, keywords, and inbound links to help search engines determine how high your website should rank in the results.
Social media marketing
The use of social media to advertise your company, brand, products, or services. This includes Facebook, Instagram, LinkedIn, and other forms of social media.
Social proof
The psychological desire for people to seek guidance from those around them when determining how they should act and what purchasing decisions they should make. Social proof can come in the form of the number of followers you have on social media, your online reviews, and your recommendations.
Target audience
The people you most want to reach with your marketing. These are people who are most likely to become customers by buying your products or services.
Unique visitor
The number of individuals who come to your website within a period of time. If one person visits a page on your website 10 times in a month, that counts as one unique visitor and 10 page views.
Viral content
A piece of content that has become wildly popular and widely spread across the web.
Word-of-mouth marketing
A conversation between people that promotes a company’s product or services.