Like many industries, marketing has developed its own unique vernacular. For those new to the field, it can feel like people are speaking a completely different language as they toss around an endless string of buzzwords and acronyms.
Perhaps more importantly, overuse of marketing jargon can inhibit clear and effective communication with clients and prospects. Most of us have had the experience where we have been in the room (or Zoom) and seen our prospect’s focus fade as we dazzle them with sentences like “a key differentiator of our company is the AI driven optimization of your omnichannel campaign toward established KPIs.” Uh, yeah.
That’s why in our ongoing effort to strive for simplicity and clarity, we’ve compiled a go-to list of marketing vocabulary. When in doubt, refer back to this list!
Optimization
This is perhaps the industry’s most overused term. Listen in on a conversation between marketers and often you will hear it used more than once in the same sentence! Simply put, optimization means making something the very best that it can be. Businesses often say that they would like to “optimize” their marketing campaigns in order to reduce costs or increase efficiency. Partnering with a marketing agency helps businesses to optimize campaigns to their maximum potential and efficiency.
Omnichannel
Omnichannel is an advertising strategy that involves promoting your business’s presence across multiple marketing platforms (both online and offline) in order to reach a larger customer base at different points in the buying cycle. This gives customers a seamless shopping experience, and increases the opportunity for your brand or product to be noticed.
Hyperlocal
When just “local” would no longer suffice, our industry created “hyperlocal! Hyperlocal means marketing your business based on its location. This means doubling down on local tactics that appeal to customers in your specific area. Read more on hyperlocal strategy in this DSG blog.
Performance Based Advertising
Performance based advertising refers to paid marketing campaigns that are based on specific outcomes such as calls, clicks, or leads. Advertisers generally pay based on the amount of the desired outcome that they receive. Explore the various types of performance marketing in DSG’s blog, here.
Geofencing
Geofencing is a mobile advertising strategy that uses geographic location to serve ads to customers. When a mobile device enters or leaves the boundary of the geofence, the desired response is triggered, such as the device displaying an ad.
Psychographic Targeting
Psychographic targeting means targeting an audience based on their beliefs, interests, and attitudes. On digital advertising platforms, marketers can target based on psychographic traits to reach very specific audiences.
Behavioral Targeting
Behavioral targeting allows marketers to target audiences that display certain desired behaviors. This could mean visiting a particular webpage, or clicking a button. Using behavioral targeting is effective in reaching audiences that have already shown an interest in your brand through their activity.
KPI (Key Performance Indicator)
KPI stands for Key Performance Indicator. This term refers to the specific actions that are going to be used to track the success of a campaign (i.e clicks, calls, form completions, conversions, etc). Before any marketing campaign is to take place, it’s important to establish KPIs in order to set up the campaign properly and evaluate its success. Learn more about KPIs in this DSG blog.
PPC (Pay Per Click)
Pay Per Click, or PPC, is one of many ways to measure the cost of a digital marketing campaign. When you run a PPC campaign, your business will only pay for the amount of ad clicks you receive.
CTA (Call to Action)
CTA stands for Call to Action. Your CTA is an important element of each of your digital ads, as it defines exactly what you would like the viewer of the ad to do. Your CTA might, for example, be a button that says “schedule an appointment now” which directs the user to a contact page.
We hope that this guide helps unravel any confusion. It is a work in progress and we will be adding to it as needed. If you’re interested in partnering with an agency that strives for clarity and transparency drop us a message. We’d love to start a jargon-free conversation with you!
