Your Cheat Sheet For Digital Marketing Jargon

One of the best ways to build trust with an audience is to subtly educate them on your industry jargon. We do that by spelling out words the first time we use them, leaving the definition of a term in a nearby sentence, etc. It’s kind to be clear, so we make every effort to make everything we write for our clients “newbie friendly” 

Recently we were in the middle of the sales process with a new lead and after receiving my estimate, she wrote me back saying she doesn’t understand the marketing language in there. OOPS. I stopped taking my own medicine! 

This blog breaks down common jargon that marketing teams might assume you already know!

General Marketing Terms

These are terms you’re likely to hear in many different areas of marketing – copywriting, website development, advertising, sales and social.

CTA (call to action) 

This is what you want your customers to do, their next step. Ex: “Call today!” If you’re having trouble figuring out what your CTA should be then ask, what do you most want your customers to do? Or what is their NEXT step after looking at your website? 

Conversion

A conversion happens when a potential customer responds to your call to action. In the example above, each phone call would be a conversion. This could also be downloading a resource or signing up for a newsletter. Conversion simply means they took the action that you designed. 

Prospect

Someone who could be a client. It’s a person who is looking for and can afford your offering but has not yet engaged with you in any meaningful way. These are people you know are out there but you don’t know any of their information yet (who they are, their company, their contact details.)

Leads 

When a website visitor enters his or her contact information, they become a lead. Offering free downloads or joining a mailing list are ways to generate leads. Essentially, these people are new prospects for sales.

Keyword

Specific words that may increase your search engine ranking if you include them in your website copy, blog, or advertisements. Think of them as the breadcrumbs you leave for your ideal client to find their way to your website. Except the crumbs are the words you’d expect a potential client to enter into Google and find you. 

PPC (pay per click) and CPC (cost per click)

PPC is a method of digital advertising where you pay an advertiser for each click you get on an advertisement you run. You set a bid cap or a threshold you determine any lead to be worth and the advertiser will cap your bid at that number. A CPC is the measurement that results from PPC advertising. It averages out all the costs of each click you get through the campaign.

High Res Image/Graphic

This is an image with “high resolution” which means it’s a certain file type or optimally sized for a specific use. It’s easiest to provide your team with a vector image (a file saved as .SVG or .EPS) as those formats can be manipulated without losing quality. Images that are .GIF, .JPG and .TIFF cannot always be resized smaller AND larger so they may be more difficult to manipulate while maintaining clairty. Size can often vary depending on the platform or site being used so it’s a good idea to work with your digital content specialist to figure out what sizes are needed.

Brand Guide/Brand Style Guide

A document that outlines a company’s logos, colors and ideal fonts. It often calls for different use case scenarios such as when to use a full-color logo or a light or dark single-color logo. Some guides may also have specifications for styles to use in imagery to maintain a uniform brand.

Copywriting Terms

Value Stack/Proposition 

This is a list of benefits for customers using your company. This could also be the outcomes they can expect. It usually appears in the top hero of your website example?

Homepage 

The very first page that browsers land on if they type in your URL. Generally, this is directed to all of your potential audience members with the broadest messaging to speak to everyone as much as possible. This will “sell” them to go deeper into your website.

Landing Page

Similar to your homepage, but created for one specific audience or offering in mind. It will have its unique messaging and the goal of it is to sell them on the product/service and possibly encourage them deeper into your site, further into the sales process. Often landing pages are used for people to “land” after clicking an ad or using an SEO search term.

Subpage

Typically shorter and simpler than a landing page and is found once someone visits your homepage or a landing page. They’re deeper into the sales process and looking for more information. Common subpages are service pages, about pages and contact us pages.

Valuable Content

Giving information and education away for free to help build authority, credibility and trust with your audience of potential clients and referral partners. 

The more people become interested in learning more about your business, the more “warm” they’ll be to receiving your marketing messages and, in time, buying from you. 

Lead Generator/Lead Magnet

A high-value piece of content a prospect is interested in exchanging for their email address. This content should be something they place at minimum a $10.00 value on as that’s the industry estimate for the value at which someone is willing to give their email address. If lower, they won’t feel it’s worth trading their information for.

Email Campaign

Series of emails that are sent to a targeted list of your contacts. Email campaigns can follow up the delivery of a lead generator, a call booked, an event sign-up, a course registration, or anything really! Campaigns usually send 3+ emails with an end goal or CTA in mind for the lead.

Nurture

This is an email or post or a series of them that go out to your audience to keep you relevant and at the front of their minds. It’s often in the form of a weekly or monthly newsletter or daily story/content post. 

Sales/Conversion Copy

Words and layout specifically designed to invite your reader into a story that changes their mind about something and inspires them to make a change. This could be they go from knowing about your product to deciding they need to buy it this week. Or it could be they thought they needed a diet plan to lose weight in 30 days, but your landing page changed their mind and now they know they need to join your membership where they’ll have accountability, meal ideas and encouragement for the next 6 months. 

Our Terms

Brand Message Guide

Similar to a Brand Style Guide where a designer gives you all of the visual elements of your brand – logos, fonts and colors – this is a document that captures all of the written elements. Imagine a refrigerator that you’re stocking for the week at the beach. You’re going grab all the staples and then every time you need to make a meal, you’ll look at what you have in the fridge and create something from what’s available. 

Ethical Copywriting 

When you don’t manipulate or use scare tactics to get your readers to convert. We rely on transparency and honesty rather than time constraints and fear to convert your customers. 

We’ll be sticking to the basics in our intro calls from now on. But you should never be afraid to stop your team and ask for clarification!