definitions

As promised, I have gathered a second set of online marketing terms that you should learn and know as they pertain to online PR and Internet marketing.

Outreach.  In marketing this is the process of contacting individuals, organizations, and publications for the mutually beneficial purpose of becoming a resource for education, copy, etc.  A press release, for example, would achieve far greater readership and potential success if outreach efforts put it on the front page of the Chicago Tribune or New York Times. PR firms that are good at this are both well-connected with the media and know how to write appealing copy.

PPC or Pay per click. This is a type of web advertising that causes a business ad or listing to show up in search engine results with the intent of driving business to a website. Where the ad is positioned depends on how much has been bid on or paid for the search term used. The higher the bid, the closer to the top the ad will be. The advertiser’s bill rises by the amount of the bid every time someone clicks on the ad. Although it can vary, these ads typically show up at the top and right side of search results. Variations of this advertising model exist for website ads and banner ads.

Reach. Reach is an estimated number of persons or potential customers that can be reached via an advertising or marketing medium or campaign. It can also refer to unique or qualified visitors each month to a website or to the audience of a broadcast during a specific period of time.

ROI. There is currently a lack of consensus in the marketing world on the definition of marketing ROI. Short for return on investment, one definition of ROI in marketing is the gross revenue (some will say profit) received from a campaign or marketing investment divided by the dollars spent.

SEO. An acronym for search engine optimization, SEO is the science of building websites and content in a way that causes them to show up as high as possible in search results for targeted terms. SEO brings up a host of additional terminology that will not be covered here, including Meta tags, keyword density, links, web crawlers, and cloaking.

Traffic. This usually refers to website traffic, or the number of visits a website receives. Getting traffic to a website is vital, as is creating a good conversion rate out of that traffic.

If you are new to marketing, understanding these terms can expand your vision and help you target a few new tools and goals for your online marketing. What do you think your next step will be?

If you are not new to online public relations or marketing, can you think of any other terms that should be added to this list? If you can, please list them in the comments.

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.