Don’t you just wish that you had a little dictionary to quickly reference some of the terms used by marketers? Well, you got your wish!
So, let’s say our ABC’s of marketing:

Analytics: Analytics are to marketers on their strategies as what taste tests are to bakers — you need to taste if the recipe is working. So with marketing strategies, you look at data from analytics to see if it has been working. The metrics on your social media pages and other sources will tell you if it’s working or not. More importantly, it gives you a way to measure this impact.

Brand image: Image is everything! In this day and age, it’s imperative to know how your brand is perceived by your customers. You need to know if this perception aligns with your brand identity and if it's a positive or negative view that the public has about you. Consumers are expecting the brands they support to show more authenticity and responsibility within society, so your brand image can quite easily make or break your survival.

Competitor analysis: Let’s be honest: You need to know what your competitors are up to, don't you? Of course you do! How else will you gain a competitive advantage? That’s exactly why your marketing efforts need this type of analysis.

You’ll have a better understanding of a competitor’s strengths and weaknesses. This will enable you to strategise around opportunities your brand has in the market, or neutralise threats that you find in your own brand.

Digital marketing: A little bit self-explanatory, but this one relates to all the marketing efforts that are done via digital channels. This ranges from websites to mobile marketing and social media.

Email marketing: We’ve all seen the many branded emails flood our inboxes and, believe it or not, it’s a vital part of any company’s marketing strategy. Commercial messages are sent to potential and current clients to notify them of sales, events, new products or any communication that a brand wants to send their audience directly.

The best part of it is that the individual receiving the email signed up for it! So whether it was to access information on your site, participating in a competition, or becoming a customer, these people have opted to receive your emails.

Flywheel: If you don’t know this term, don’t stress! It only emerged in 2018 (and we’ve all been living under rocks since 2019). This is a customer-centric model that focuses on relationship building. It shows that return business is based on combining service, marketing efforts and sales conversion to nurture customer relationships.

Graphic design: This important skill underpins a large part of marketing efforts. From making ads to creating brand logos, being able to design graphics that are in line with your brand’s ‘look and feel’ forms part of the many duties a marketer may encounter.

Hashtags: These need no introduction. But these metadata tags have a ‘#’ placed in front of them to indicate that it’s a hashtag. They are used to quickly identify words about specific topics.

Influencer: An influencer is a person who has a certain number of followers and has the power to steer purchasing decisions. Influencer marketing leverages this power to sell their products by having partnerships with them.

Journey of your customer or buyer: The customer journey is more than just a once-off thing — it’s an experience. It looks at the behaviour and the decisions the customer makes when interacting with a brand’s product or service.

Keyword tracking: It’s exactly as it sounds: This action tracks keywords. Specific words around topics that relate to your brand are monitored to obtain important information about them. This could be about how frequently people search for your brand’s name, on which channels they appear and in what context this comes about.

Lead nurturing: This is a process of developing and strengthening the relationship you have with customers. It highlights that ‘nurturing’ the relationship needs to happen at all levels of the sales funnel.

Media coverage: This word relates to all things media and the attention your brand receives on these channels. This can be mentions of your brand in blogs, radio shows or magazines and TV programmes. It can also be in ads, on social media or in videos. Media coverage can either be paid or earned.

Niche markets: A niche is a relatively small, specialised sector that provides a service or product. This means that instead of selling a product to a large group of people, a brand may be focused on selling it to a smaller, more defined group of individuals.

Outline web content: These outlines relate to the content on your website. It maps out, in detail, where the content is on a website and how each page functions. For marketers, this is important to know when they need to set up landing pages or are required to understand how the structure of a company’s blog site works.

Paid search: In short, the term refers to when a brand pays to show up in the search results. Google Ads and Bing allow ads to be placed on their search engines. When a user searches for a specific keyword, ads that relate to that word appear at the top of the screen. This helps marketers to market to a customer who is already looking for their brand’s product or service specifically.

Quantifiable data: As a marketer, you need data. Data enables marketing decisions, both for developing and adjusting strategies. If numbers are not your thing, companies that specialise in brand insight could offer you the solution you need.

Research: Research is the starting point for all marketing activities. As a marketer, you need to understand your target audience, the service or product you're selling and the channel you are using. And how do you find out more about it? You guessed it! Research.

SEO: Search engine optimisation remains at the centre of digital marketing. In the digital age, most users turn to the Internet whenever they have a question. Regardless of the device, a user accesses a search engine to find the answer.

This engine is basically told what to look for and it needs to search through thousands of pages to find the most relevant piece. SEO ensures that these engines can find your content the easiest and present it to your potential customer.

Tools: What is a good marketer without their tools? And frankly, there are a bunch! From schedulers like Buffer, design tools like Canva, or social media auditing tools, the list is endless. Each one of the many tools available is there to make the marketer’s life just a little bit easier. If you are not using at least one, then it’s time to get on board. You will thank us later!

UX design: This type of design is focused on digital users. When it comes to apps or websites, UX designers aim to determine how users interact with their devices, how they experience a website and the perceived ease of use. These designers aim to continuously improve the systems and software to create an easy to use, user-friendly tool or app.

Viral marketing: This form of marketing aims to make content go viral. Consumers are encouraged to share a brand’s posts, page or other content with the idea of giving it more exposure to larger audiences.

Writing and editing: When starting your marketing career, you may have been surprised at exactly how much writing there is to do. These include blogs for content marketing, copywriting for adverts and marketing materials, scripts for commercials or even copy for social media.

XML sitemap: An XML sitemap is a file you save on your web server. The code on this file lists all of the relevant URLs that link to your site — essentially creating the structure for your website.

Youtube and other social media: Social media is one of the main ways that brands distribute their content. What is more, it acts as a networking platform that connects brands and potential or existing clients. On-platform analytics tools also make it easier for marketers to track their efforts.

Zoomers and marketing for other generations: Generational marketing means that you adjust your marketing strategies to the specific generation of your target audience. Why? Because it’s been proven that different generations feel very different about where they choose to spend their money. So, if this isn’t part of your strategy already, the time is now!



What is your favourite marketing word? Did it make our list? Let us know in the comments below.

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Now that you know your ABCs, why not look at the 10 Marketing terms you'll be seeing a lot more?
*Image courtesy of Canva