75 Digital Marketing Terms And Definitions You Need To Know

Amy Smith
13 min readMar 25, 2021

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Table of Contents:

  • 14 General Marketing Terms
  • 27 Must-Know Inbounding Marketing Terms
  • 15 Most Important Social Media Marketing Terms
  • 19 Can’t-Live-Without Email Marketing Terms
  • Conclusion

If you are new to the digital marketing industry then understanding the complexities of digital marketing terminology and jargon that rules the industry can be complicated. Digital marketing companies in San Diego and elsewhere use hundreds of common digital marketing terms and these are the things you need to understand.

This article is divided into 4 digital marketing categories: general, inbound, social media, and email.

14 General Marketing Terms

These terms are known as key marketing points. No matter what your field is, you will want to know these marketing terms.

A/B Testing:

A/B testing is used in e-newsletters, email lines, social ads, call to action, and landing page copy. A/B testing also called split testing, is when two versions of the landing page are shown to visitors to see who performs better.

The difference can be as small as the color of the button or as big as the change in the copy. The biggest reason to do A/B testing is to know which version of the landing page, CTA, etc. is more likely to give you the desired results.

Analytics:

Analytical data is used on websites as well as social media and email campaigns. When reviewing or monitoring the performance of any online campaign, analytics provides meaningful statistics. Website analytics provides you with data such as website visitors, time on site, viewed pages, demographics, and more.

Source: Neilpatel.com

B2B (Business to Business):

The term B2B is straightforward and refers to the business done between two businesses when selling a product or service.

B2C (Business to Consumer):

A business that sells directly to consumers is defined as B2C. They control their product from start to finish, from development to final sales.

Churn Rate:

Your Churn rate usage is the number of customers you have lost over some time. If you start the month of April with 100 customers and end at 95, your rate will be 5%. This is a very important factor for a renewed membership business.

Closed-Loop Marketing:

Closed-loop marketing is when your sales team informs the marketing team about the leads they receive. Marketers are then able to decide which of their lead sources should be focused on their ability to convert through the sales team.

Click-Through Rate (CTR):

Click-through rate is the number of people who click on a link on a website page, out of the total number of email, social ad or call to action (CTA) viewers.

Conversion Path:

A conversion path is a series of events designed to move a website or social visitors to a path that turns them into a lead.

Conversion Rate:

The conversion rate is the percentage of people who take action on your website or social media ads. Conversion rate doesn’t just mean converting non-users to users. This may include converting a website visitor’s lead or marketing qualified lead (MQL) into a sales qualified lead (SQL).

Customer Acquisition Cost:

The customer acquisition cost is the amount it takes to convert a single person into a customer. This number is mainly focused on marketing costs. When this numerical value is determined, companies can predict how much they will need to spend to create the desired number of customers.

Customer Lifetime Value (CLTV):

The lifetime value of a customer is a predictor of how much revenue a customer will bring in their lifetime as your customer. This measurement is used to determine how much a company should or could spend to acquire a new customer.

On-Page Optimization:

On-page optimization includes the steps you take to improve your organic search engine rankings on your website, including improving meta tags or improving your website content.

Off-Page Optimization:

Off-page optimization is everything you can do to improve your organic search rankings, not including your actual website. There’s anything you can do to build high-quality backlinks and further your exposure.

Organic Traffic:

This is the traffic your site receives from unpaid search results, so it is considered organic. This is one of the main goals of seo agency san diego and content marketing as it provides a powerful platform for long-term growth.

27 Must-Know Inbounding Marketing Terms

A large part of digital marketing these days focuses on inbound marketing. Inbound marketing strategies include techniques that bring in customers rather than sending a sales team to find them.

Automation:

Marketing automation is software, used by HubSpot, marketing departments, and businesses to automate repetitive tasks. Automation is used in conjunction with lead nurturing. Depending on the user’s behavior, they are automatically sent different information based on which they are interested.

Backlink:

This is a link that takes users from another website to your page. Collecting quality backlinks is one of the aspects of search engine optimization (SEO), as it is one of the factors determining the relevance, popularity, and/or importance of a page.

Blogging:

Blogging is the act of writing or sharing content on a website regularly. An individual or business can own a blog. Blogging involves a combination of words, videos, photos, or any or all of these forms of media. Business blogging is done to provide valuable content to attract leads and retain existing customers or clients.

BOFU:

BOFU means the bottom of the funnel and the last stage of the buyer’s journey, the decision stage. When a decision comes to the forefront, they are ready for your sales team. Sales offerings such as demos or strategy sessions are currently leading the way.

Bounce Rate:

A bounce rate is when a visitor lands on your website immediately clicks on the back button or leaves your website. They are “bouncing” away from your website.

Buyer’s Journey:

The buyer’s journey from awareness to decision making is a process. A new lead has to go through three stages of awareness, consideration, and decision to be ready for sale.

Call-to-Action (CTA):

Call to Action website visitors are instructed to process the message. The action can be by clicking on a link, filling out a form, subscribing to an e-newsletter, or making a phone call. A call to action can only be presented as a text or a visual image.

Content:

Content is any kind published on the Internet. Inbound marketers often recommend publishing quality content (engaging, informative, relevant) to build brand awareness, build expertise and authority, and drive traffic to your website.

Content Offer:

A content offer is what you provide in exchange for information to convert your website visitors into leads. Content offerings can be an e-book, guide, white paper, or webinar that is given to the visitor after providing certain details, such as name, email, and business name.

Context:

Not only do you need to provide great content for your audience, but you also need to make it relevant to the context. By knowing your target audience, their behavior, preferences, and goals, you can provide content that meets their needs.

HubSpot:

HubSpot is an inbound marketing software platform that helps companies attract visitors, convert leads and reach nearby customers.

Keyword:

A keyword is a single word or multiple words that people use when searching for a particular article online. Keywords are also targeted when writing content online. Blog posts and pages on a website focus on keywords, so this SEO has been improved.

Landing Page:

Any page that receives traffic to your site from anywhere other than a single page. A landing page usually consists of a copy, images, and a form. The landing page is used to persuade website visitors to accept content offers or sign up to purchase a product. Landing pages can be long or short, depending on the process by which you want to reach your visitors.

Lead Generation:

Lead generation is the process of getting new leads. Online lead generation is done by providing valuable content to website visitors in exchange for their contact information.

Lead Nurturing:

When a visitor turns to lead on your site, they are most likely not ready to buy. Lead nurturing is providing these early leads with valuable information about your industry or product until they are ready to purchase. By taking care of your leads, you build relationships and show that you care.

Link Building:

Link building is about increasing the number of external sites linked to your (backlinks). This process usually involves creating high-quality content (interesting, compelling) that others want to share.

Marketing Qualified Lead(MQLs):

Qualified marketing leads are usually prospects who have shown some interest in your company by engaging with your content and then providing identification details that can help you turn them into a popular lead.

MOFU:

MOFU means the middle of the funnel and the reflection phase of the buyer’s journey. Medium-distance lead has shifted from awareness to reflection and is ready to receive information about your product or service. A brand is offered to provide maximum information and eliminate any pushback.

Page Performance:

Page Performance Page-SEO takes into account SEO, website traffic, CTA conversion rate, and links received.

Page Rank:

How reliable your page rank is when your specific site is determined by Google’s algorithm. Sites are ranked on a scale of 0 to 10, with 0 means you don’t rank them in search engines (not good) and 10 is given to less than 150 sites (mostly Google, Apple, or Adobe-owned).

Persona (or Ideal Buyer):

In marketing, a persona is the best representation of what you want to buy your product or service. An ideal buyer is a complete breakdown of personal behaviors, pain points, goals, desires, dreams, demographics, and professional careers.

Sales Qualified Lead (SQLs):

Sales Qualified Lead is a marketing qualified lead that is accepted by the sales team and guarantees to reach the sales team member. A SQL is ready for sale and the company is most likely to buy the product or service.

SEO ( Search Engine Optimization):

Improving a web page or website from search engines means improving the ranking of a page in search results.

Smarketing:

Smarketing is aligning your sales and marketing teams towards the common goal of increasing business revenue.

Thank-You Page:

The thank-you page is about how you offered content when someone filled out a form on the landing page. Thank you for filling out the form and providing you with the promised content.

TOFU:

Tofu means the top of the funnel and the beginning of the buyer’s journey. The information your website provides with new leads is the answer to service or product questions, brand positioning, and general sales questions.

Workflow:

Workflow is a series of events that slowly or immediately shift the lead through the company’s lead maintenance process. A workflow can automatically be a fixed number of emails that are sent to prospects who take various steps, such as viewing the pricing page or scheduling a free consultation.

15 Most Important Social Media Marketing Terms

Affinities:

Affinities are the measured interests of the audience. With the help of social media monitoring tools, they provide marketers with an insight into their customers’ thoughts, feelings, and preferences.

Clickbait:

Clickbait is the type of content that hooks people up with a highly intelligent headline that provides little original information and prepares them to click on your content or website. In the world of digital marketing, click baits are becoming more and more influential and sites like Facebook are changing their algorithms to prevent such postings.

Conversion Rate:

The total number of people who have completed the required action (by clicking on a site, filling out a form) is divided by the total number of people who have taken this action.

Cost-Per-Click(CPC or Pay-Per-Click or PPC):

Cost-per-click is the amount an ad pays each time you click on your social ad. No matter how many people watch it, the advertiser will receive only the actual click.

Cost-Per-Impression (CPI or Cost-Per-Thousand or CPM):

Cost per impression is the amount an ad pays for 1000 impressions on its social ad.

Crowdsourcing:

Crowdsourcing is the process of getting work, funding, or ideas from a crowd of people online.

Engagement Rate:

This is one of the most important digital marketing terms related to social media in this list. Engagement is a clear sign that people are interested in your content. Your engagement may be more easily understood as the number of likes, comments, and shares (interactions) than the number of people (impressions) it receives.

Impressions:

Impressions are the number of times your content is displayed. For example: On Facebook, impressions are the number of times someone sees your social updates in your news feed. Impressions are gained in a fluid, global, diffused way.

Influencer:

The term “influence” in digital marketing is exactly what it means to be an influencer in your social media audience. These are the people you want to share your content with and interact with your brand.

Real-Time Digital Marketing:

Allows social media to market the brand in real-time in response to breaking news or a global event. Events such as the ability to publish content (real-time) provide marketers with an opportunity they have never seen before in the world of marketing.

Remarketing:

Remarketing is a marketing strategy that targets people who visit your website. You can reconnect with former visitors through ads on Facebook, such as browsing the web, or on mobile platforms.

Social Listening:

Social Listening is a term used to monitor a brand’s digital marketing to help businesses understand what is being said about its products or services to meet the needs of consumers. Salespeople can also use social listening to help identify their potential needs and establish themselves as reliable resources.

Social Selling:

By answering questions related to social batching, providing informational content, and resolving other issues, an ability to engage potential customers on social media has been pointed out, and as a result, they move on. Social sales are usually based on more than one, salesperson-to-prospect.

Targeting:

Targeting is defining who you are marketing with, usually through the built-in social media platform included in the internal targeting tools. Both Facebook and LinkedIn offer highly targeted tools that allow you to filter through your users so that you know the right type of person for marketing purposes.

Viral:

Being viral refers to a piece of content that is frequently shared because of its informative or entertaining value. If your content (image, video, article, etc.) goes viral, it will be viewed by a large number of people and will have a far greater impact on brand awareness, conversions, etc.

19 Can’t-Live-Without Email Marketing Terms

Blacklist:

The blacklist is as scary as it sounds. If a company sends a lot of unsolicited emails (spam), the IP from which the company is sending them will be blacklisted. Being blacklisted means you can no longer send blanket emails. A sin in digital marketing that you want to avoid.

Clicks Per Delivered (CPD):

When reporting the success of your email, it is important to reduce the term digital marketing. This is the number of clicks (on your link) divided by the number of emails easily delivered to your desired destination (inbox). The result is your CPD or clickthrough rate.

Clicks Per Open (CPO):

By dividing the number of clicks (on your email link) by the number of emails opened, you get your CPO or open rate per click.

Double Opt-in:

A double opt-in occurs when a subscriber has to verify their email address after entering their information to subscribe to the email list. Typically, once a website visitor fills out a form to subscribe to an email list, they immediately. Only receive an email confirming your information.

Email Filters:

Email filtering is a technique that arranges emails based on a word or phrase in the “from”, “subject” and body copy sections of the email. Most email programs use filters to keep the user’s inbox free of spam.

Email Whitelist:

Just as most IP spam filters do not allow an IP/email address to be blacklisted, a whitelisted address is given a golden ticket. Whitelist email/IP addresses are generally accepted and allowed in most inboxes.

Hard Bounce:

Email marketers are already familiar with this marketing term. A difficult bounce occurs when the email “bounces” immediately because the email does not exist, misspells, or is blocked. Strong bounces are permanent and will never be delivered.

House List (Retention List):

An opt-in list that is self-generated over time. You usually provide a piece of valuable content for a person’s email address (and more). You can then cross-sell and connecting with customers over time. Your list is a very valuable asset!

HTML Email:

Sometimes the terms of digital marketing help them, sometimes they don’t. If you know what HTML means, it’s helpful, but let’s take a closer look. An HTML email includes custom fonts, graphics, images, links, background colors and can sometimes look like a page on a website. They fully compose emails with their code and style.

List Segmenting:

If you have different clients and users at different stages of your purchase, would you send them the same email? List distribution companies separate their leads and existing customers into lists that match their current buying cycle or what type of client they are. These different lists receive different information/content that they care about the most.

Open Rate:

The open rate is the percentage of emails opened since yesterday. Like CTR, the open rate also takes into account all the emails that were sent and divides them by the number of emails opened. For example: If we send an email to 1,000 e-mail users but only 250 people open it, the opening rate will be 25%

Opt-in (or Subscribe):

Opt-in occurs when a person provides their email address to a company or individual because they choose to receive email from that company or individual.

Opt-out (or Unsubscribe):

One of the terms of digital marketing that email marketers need to pay attention to is that opt-out occurs when a person joins an email list and no longer wants to receive email communication from a specific company or individual. So they remove their email address from the list

Personalization:

When you receive an email from a company that says, “Hi Rachel,” it’s personal. Personalization means adding certain information to your email that is specific to the person you are sending it to.

Plain-Text Email:

Some digital marketing terms need a little clarification. A plain text email is exactly what it looks like, an email that doesn’t include any images, full formatting, or links. Individuals or companies can use plain text emails when they want to send an email that focuses on just copying the email.

Single Opt-In:

The only opt-in is when the user does not need to double-check their email address or information. Once they enter their contact information on a form, they are immediately signed up as a user’s email list.

Soft Bounce:

A soft bounce occurs when an email “bounces” back due to a server or other temporary issue. If given a chance to bounce gently, it provides an opportunity to reach the desired recipient if retried and this is not a permanent problem.

Spam:

One of the least popular digital marketing terms. No one likes to receive spam. Spam is an email that we did not sign up for. This is an immovable email because a company sends you, probably. They’ve purchased an email list and you join that list.

Subject Line:

The subject line of an email is a line of text displayed in a user’s email inbox until they open the email. Subject lines are used to tell a subscriber the reason for opening your email. They can usually contain short, descriptive, and personalized tokens, such as a username or something specific to them.

Conclusion:

Through this comprehensive list of the most valuable marketing terms and their definitions, you’ve strengthened your digital marketing agency vocabulary and taught yourself to better understand the perspectives of digital marketing.

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Amy Smith
Amy Smith

Written by Amy Smith

Amy is the content manager at PROS — Internet Marketing & Technology Company in San Diego https://www.internetsearchinc.com/

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