Have you ever been changed from being a participant in a conversation to being just a bystander when acronyms and terminology you don’t understand start flying around everywhere? Every business niche has its own twist on even familiar terms.
Whether you are a company executive trying to understand if the marketing you are currently paying for is working, or you are looking at investing in marketing, here are the first few key, plain-English definitions of marketing terms you are most likely to run into.
Analytics. The collection and analysis of data used to manage the effectiveness and performance of marketing programs, with the intent of maximizing the ROI of marketing dollars spent. This is frequently done through the use of various software programs designed for this purpose.
Bounce Rate. When a website visitor views only one page of a website without viewing any other pages of that site, they are considered a “bounce.” According to this recent post about “50 percent of visitors to a landing page bail in eight seconds.” Analytics software determines bounce rate by the number of visitors viewing only one page divided by the total number of visitors to a page. Brief definition of a bounce: I came, I threw up, I left.
Call to Action. These are contained or implied in virtually every good ad or piece of marketing copy written. “Buy now,” “Click here for more information,” or “Get a Free Consultation” are examples of obvious calls to action. A marketing piece is incomplete without one.
Click-Through. This term usually refers to online advertising, although it can also apply to email campaigns and other forms of link-embedded copy designed to drive traffic to a website. A click-through rate (CTR) of an ad is the number of clicks the ad draws divided by the number of times it is shown or viewed (impressions).
Conversion Rate. This is the heart of online marketing. Successful conversion is basically when a click-through on an ad or call to action leads to the desired result. Examples would include a banner ad resulting in a sale on a website, or a link on a web page resulting in a subscription to a blog or download of an eBook.
Impressions. An impression is a single view of a marketing piece such as an ad, headline or press release.
Infographic. Infographics are simply the communication of information through concise visual representation. Infographic representation has evolved from simple pie charts into sophisticated and successful marketing and communication tools. For some good examples, check out The Truth about Refugees and others on this page.
At this point, I want you to be able to digest these definitions. I may have covered common definitions from A-I, but be sure to check back for more Online Marketing Definitions for Dummies Part 2 as I finish terminology J-Z that you need to learn and know.
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