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As technology advances and marketing evolves, so too does the language we use. Here’s our guide to unavoidable jargon and acronyms. Feeling bamboozled? Share your confusion
Analytics
Analytics is the general term for information collected from websites, landing page campaigns, emails, paid Google AdWords, forms and social media. Analytics give insight into a company’s customers, helping you to understand their behaviour, and map out the typical customer journey.
Artificial Intelligence (AI)
Artificial intelligence (AI) is a wide-ranging branch of computer science concerned with building smart machines capable of performing tasks that typically require human intelligence. Common examples include voice-powered personal assistants like Siri and Alexa, suggestive searches and autonomously-powered self-driving vehicles.
Attribution Models
A series of data models that allow you to control how much value is given to each interaction a lead has with you during their buyer journey. Attribution models are used to identify which marketing campaigns are most valuable to you.
Big Data
Big data is a phrase used to mean a massive volume of both structured and unstructured data that is so large it is difficult to process using traditional database and software techniques and can inundate an organisation. Big data can be analysed for insights that lead to better decisions.
B2B (Business-to-Business)
B2B is shorthand for business-to-business. As the name suggests business-to-business refers to the marketing of products or services to other businesses and organisations. Examples include Microsoft, Google and Salesforce.
B2C (Business-to-Consumer)
B2C is shorthand for business-to-consumer. B2C refers to businesses that sell products or services directly to consumers. It can also include e-commerce sites. Examples include Apple, Amazon and Adidas.
Buyer Persona
A buyer persona is a hypothetical customer made up of common attributes typically seen in real buyers. Based on real data, personas reflect who customers are, what drives their behaviour, and how, when and why they buy certain things. A business can have multiple buyer personas. The more detailed the better.
Cache
Caches are used to store temporary files, using hardware and software components. An example of a hardware cache is a CPU cache. This is a small chunk of memory on the computer's processor used to store basic computer instructions that were recently used or are frequently used.
Clearing your Cache
The cache remembers parts of pages, like images, to help them open faster during your next visit. Clearing your cache means deleting the information automatically stored to your device when visiting a new site or opening an app. You might do this if you are strapped for space on your device or if you've noticed it's performing slower than usual.
Call to Action (CTA)
Calls to action are a crucial part of every marketing campaign as they let visitors, leads, and consumers know which action businesses want them to take (e.g. call now, download this white paper, fill out this form, etc.)
Chatbot
A chatbot is a computer programme that simulates human conversation through voice commands or text chats or both. Chatbot, short for chatterbot, is an Artificial Intelligence (AI) feature that can be embedded and used through any major messaging applications. When used correctly, chatbots improve customer service and user experience.
Common Data Model (CDM)
The Microsoft Common Data Model simplifies the process of bringing data from multiple systems and applications together using a shared data language for business and analytical applications. This includes entities, attributes, metadata, and relationships. These represent commonly used concepts and activities, such as Account and Campaign, to simplify the creation, aggregation, and analysis of data.
Content Marketing
Content marketing is a strategic marketing approach focused on creating and distributing valuable, relevant, and consistent content to attract your ideal customers. Examples include educational articles, e-books, videos, infographics, and webinars.
Conversion Goal
The action you want your target audience to perform. Examples include purchasing from a website, completing a form, registering for a webinar, viewing a video following a link from an email to a website. Conversion goals can help you measure your marketing performance and set benchmarks for improvement.
CRM
Customer Relationship Management (CRM) platforms are used to collect contact information, establish sales pipelines and drive leads to conversion. They are designed to improve the relationship between organisations, their customers and supply chain. CRM and marketing automation platforms work perfectly together.
Customer Insight
Customer insight is an interpretation of trends in human behaviours which aims to increase effectiveness of a product or service for the customer, as well as increase sales. Customer insight analysis enables you to build stronger relationships as your conversations will always be relevant to the customer.
Customer Journey
The customer journey is the path of touch points a prospect takes before making a purchase decision. Given the proliferation of online channels and mobile devices, buyers can make first contact with your brand in a variety of ways
Data Activation
Data activation is the concept of unlocking value in data through development of insights and turning those insights into action. Put another way, data activation is one of the ways that marketers use valuable data and customer insights to power the customer experience across all marketing channels.
Digital Transformation
Digital transformation is the integration of digital technology into all areas of an organisation. This fundamentally changes how an organisation operates and increases the value created for its customers.
Digital Wellbeing
Digital wellbeing considers the impact of technology and digital services on the user’s mental, physical and emotional health. Creating a healthy digital culture refers to creating a balance with technology, that feels right for you, your workforce & customers.
Direct to Consumer (DTC)
Direct-to-consumer is when a brand or manufacturer sells its own products to its end customers. The DTC retail model involves selling products without the help of third-party retailers or wholesalers.
DKIM
DKIM stands for “Domain Keys Identified Mail” which is an encryption authentication method used by many Internet Service Providers to detect email spoofing. DKIM establishes whether or not the email originated from an authorised system. Then checks that the domain used was authorised by the owner.
Dynamic Content
Webpages, landing pages and emails are typically created for one specific purpose, but the messaging and visual elements won’t necessarily resonate with every visitor all the time. Dynamic content allows you to swap out areas of content (e.g. subject line, image, body copy) based on the viewer — all without writing code.
Gated Content
Gated content is any content that your audience can access only after providing their contact details. Usually, this means an email address that will be used to engage with that person further. Gated content usually forms part of an inbound marketing strategy.
First Party Data
First party data is information that companies collect from their own sources. Information about customers from online and offline sources, such as the company's website, CRM, social media or surveys is first party data. Proving consent is easiest with first party data.
Inbound Marketing
Inbound marketing is a strategy used to pull potential customers into a company’s marketing funnel. It uses social media, SEO, content marketing, events, blogs and more to create brand awareness and attract new business. Typically, inbound marketing includes the use of a marketing automation platform.
Identity Data
Identity data is information on people or groups of users in a company or geographical area. It includes information on a user profile like full names, contact details, address, and employment status.
Integrated Technology
Integrated technology is when all of your tools talk to each other. Being integrated means that when you want information, you can easily access everything you need in the same place. Even if you have more than one system.
Marketing Automation Platform
Software-as-a-service that enables companies to automate many repetitive tasks such as email, social media and various website interactions. It is designed to drive more leads and create more business. It should also integrate with other marketing tools to provide a single platform for centralised management and analysis.
Marketing Funnel
The marketing funnel illustrates the hypothetical journey a customer takes when going from someone who knows nothing about a company to becoming a customer of that company. It is a tool used by the marketing and sales function of an organisation to understand their customers, then create workflows that turn leads into customers.
MarTech
The collective software tools and platforms used by marketers to improve the effectiveness and efficiency of marketing and to show return on a marketing investment. This includes, but is not limited to, marketing automation, customer relationship management (CRM) and social media measurement platforms.
Metadata
Metadata simply means data about data. Metadata enriches data with information that makes it easier to find, use and manage. Metadata has been used in various ways as a means of cataloging items in libraries in both digital and analog format. For example, the index of a book serves as a metadata for the contents in the book.
Omni-Channel
Omni-channel is a marketing approach that prioritises creating a seamless brand experience for customers wherever they are browsing and consuming content.
Always being consistent and visible makes it easy to stay top-of-mind.
Outbound Marketing
Outbound marketing refers to any kind of marketing where an organisation initiates the conversation and sends its message out to an audience. This is usually done through a variety of 'traditional' marketing methods such as print ads, trade shows, cold calls, billboards, TV ads, radio ads, flyers, etc.
Pain Points
Pain points are specific problems that prospective customers of your business are experiencing and solving these usually leads to opportunities. Pain points can be varied but often fall into one of 4 categories; Financial, Productivity, Process and Support.
Payment Gateway
A payment gateway is a technology used by merchants to accept debit or credit card purchases from customers. Payment gateways authorise credit card payments for online and offline businesses by letting customers submit their credit card details and then securely passing this information from the customer to the merchant and then between the merchant and the bank.
Responsive Website
A responsive website changes the layout to offer the best viewing experience for the device being used, especially ideal for mobile viewing. A mobile responsive website delivers features such as readable text without requiring zoom.
Segmentation
The process of separating your target audience into groups that act similarly. Messaging will ideally be tailored to specific segments in a way that reflects their specific experiences or interests. In a marketing automation platform, these segments can be turned into lists and then used to send targeted messages.
User Interface (UI)
User interface includes all the parts of a website, app, computer, smartphone, etc. that the user can manipulate and interact with. Display and touch screens, website menus, keyboards, your cursor—these are all part of a user interface.
User Experience (UX)
User experience describes the emotions, attitudes, and ease-of-use a person has when using a product or service. UX design is the practice of using design to improve communication between a product and its user in order to enhance the user’s overall experience.
Search Engine Optimisation
Search Engine Optimisation (SEO) is the practice of increasing the quantity and quality of traffic to your website through organic search engine results. Good SEO ensures that you attract visitors who are genuinely interested in the products/services that you offer. Organic search engine results refer to traffic that you don't have to pay for.
Second Party Data
Second party data is data that is shared or sold by one company with another company, where these two companies know and trust each other. For example, a hotel booking site could purchase an airline's first party data to target users with ads for hotel packages.
Single Source of Truth (SSOT)
Single source of truth is a concept used to ensure that everyone in an organisation bases business decisions on the same data. To put an SSOT in place simply integrate your core touch-points. These should include database/CRM, website, social, email, events, and contact-management.
Software as a Service (SaaS)
Software as a service (SaaS) is a method of software delivery and licensing in which software is accessed online via a subscription, rather than bought and installed on individual computers. Common examples are email, calendaring and office tools.
Third Party Data
Third-party data is collected and aggregated from various sources such as websites and platforms by a third-party aggregator, which doesn't have a direct relationship with the customer. Studies have shown that third party data can be 50% inaccurate or less.
Zero Party Data
Zero party data is information that comes directly from customers when they volunteer it. It can be gathered in many ways such as polls, email subscriptions, quizzes, online tests, downloads, and online chat.
Zoom Fatigue
Zoom fatigue describes the tiredness, worry, or burnout associated with overusing virtual platforms of communication. Like other experiences associated with the coronavirus (COVID-19) pandemic, Zoom fatigue was widely prevalent, intense, and completely new.
We've created the guides below to help you personalise your content and navigate the digital world. Our glossary explains terminology such as the processes involved in marketing automation and other related terms — fill out the form below to get your hands on a free copy.
