Marketing Terms Everyone Should Know

Question 1

A/B Testing

Answer 1

The process of comparing two variations of a single variable to determine which performs best in order to help improve marketing efforts.

This is often done in email marketing (w/ variations in the subject line or copy), calls-to-action (variations in colors or verbiage).

Question 2

Analytics

Answer 2

The discovery and communication of meaningful patterns in data.

When referred to in the context of marketing, it’s looking at the data of one’s initiatives (website visitor reports, social, PPC, etc.), analyzing the trends, and developing actionable insights to make better informed marketing decisions.

Question 3

API

Answer 3

Application Programming Interface

APIs are a series of rules in computer programming, which allow an application to extract information from a service and use that information either in their own application or in data analyses.

An API literally “calls” one application and gets information to bring to you to use in your software.

Question 4

B2B

Answer 4

Business to Business
An adjective used to describe companies that sell to other businesses.

eg.) Google and Oracle are primarily B2B companies

Question 5

B2C

Answer 5

Business to Consumer
An adjective used to describe companies that sell directly to consumers.

eg.) Amazon, Apple, and Nike are primarily B2C companies.

Question 6

Blogging

Answer 6

This is short for web log or weblog. An individual or group of people usually maintains a blog.
A personal blog or business blog will traditionally include regular entries of commentary, descriptions of events, or other material, such as photos and video.

Blogging is a core component of inbound marketing, as it can accomplish several initiatives simultaneously- like website traffic growth, thought leadership, and lead generation.

Question 7

Business Blogging

Answer 7

Retains all the attributes of “regular” blogging, but adds a tasty layer of marketing strategy on top.

It helps marketers drive traffic to their website, convert that traffic into leads, establish authority on certain topics, and drive long-term results.

Question 8

Bottom of the Funnel

Answer 8

Refers to a stage of the buying process leads reach when they’re just about to close as new customers.
They’ve identified a problem, have shopped around for possible solutions, and are very close to buying.

Typically, next steps for leads at this stage are a call from a sales rep, a demo, or a free consultation– depending on what type of business is attempting to close the lead.

Question 9

Bounce Rate

Answer 9

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.

A high bounce rate generally leads to poor conversion rates because no one is staying on your site long enough to read your content or convert on a landing page.

Question 10

Email Bounce Rate

Answer 10

The rate at which an email was unable to be delivered to a recipient’s inbox.

A high bounce rate generally means your lists are out-of-date or purchased, or they include many invalid email addresses.

Question 11

Buyer Persona

Answer 11

A semi-fictional representation of your ideal customer based on market research and real data about your existing customers. While it helps marketers like you define their target audience, it can also help sales reps qualify leads.

Question 12

Call-to-Action

Answer 12

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.

eg.) “Subscribe Now”, “Download the Whitepaper Today”.

These are important for marketers because they’re that “bait” that entices a website visitor to eventually become a lead.

Question 13

CAN-SPAM

Answer 13

Controlling the Assault of Non-Solicited Pornography and Marketing.

A U.S. law passed in 2003 that establishes the rules for commercial email and commercial messages, it gives recipients the right to have a business stop emailing them, and outlines the penalties incurred for those who violate the law.

Question 14

CASL

Answer 14

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.

CASL covers email, texts, instant messages, and automated cell phone messages sent to computers and phones in Canada.

Question 15

Churn Rate

Answer 15

A metric that measures how many customers you retain and at what value.

To calculate churn rate, take the number of customers you lost during a certain time frame, and divide that by the total number of customers you had at the beginning of that time frame.

Churn rate is a significant metric primarily for recurring revenue companies.
Regardless of your monthly revenue, if your average customer does not stick around long enough for you to at least break even on your customer.

Question 16

CTR

Answer 16

Clickthrough Rate.
The percentage of your audience that advances (or clicks through) from one part of your website to the next step of your marketing campaign. As a mathematic equation, it’s the total number of clicks that your page or CTA receives divided by the number of opportunities that people had to click.

Question 17

Closed-Loop Marketing

Answer 17

The practice of closed-loop marketing is being able to execute, track and show how marketing efforts have impacted bottom-line business growth. An example would be tracking a website visitor as they become a lead to the very last touch point when they close as a customer.

When done correctly, you’d be able to see just how much of your marketing investment yielded new business growth. One of the biggest business benefits of implementing an inbound marketing strategy and utilizing inbound marketing software is the ability to execute closed-loop marketing.