Glossary Of Internet Marketing Terms
Below is a listing of some popular terms that we may use while discussing your marketing strategy with you. Some of the more relevant phrases have their titles made larger for each identification.
Advanced Lead Scoring
Lead scoring is the process by which a company ranks leads based on data. This gives salespeople an accurate picture of where leads are in the sales funnel as well as an idea of how to reach them in a way that maximizes their chance of conversion.
Behavioral-Based Automation
Tracking a lead’s online behavior and then using this information to automate marketing and lead generation efforts. Examples include:
(1) Clicking on an email that triggers a specific follow-up email
(2) Visiting a page that puts a lead on a specific list
(3) Completing a form that triggers delivery of a specific piece of content, etc.
Click-Through Rate (CTR)
Typically presented as a percentage, the click-through rate is the metric of people visiting a web page who clicked on a link or button for a particular offer. It’s a measure of the effectiveness of an online marketing campaign, especially a pay-per-click campaign. It’s calculated as ‘clicks’ divided by ‘impressions’ equals ‘CTR.’ Also called: Click Rate, Click-Thru Rate
Click-Ads
See PPC (Pay-Per-Click)
Content Marketing
A segment of the marketing function that involves the development and sharing of valuable informational material online (e.g. blog posts, articles, presentations) to a clearly defined audience. The material does not explicitly promote a product or brand but is intended to drive profitable actions by the audience.
Customer Relationship Management (CRM)
Customer Relationship Management platforms are used to collect contact information, establish sales pipelines and drive leads to conversion. Your CRM and your marketing automation platform work together. Some marketing automation platforms include a CRM, others integrate with CRMs. Ideally, a CRM system would be included within your marketing automation platform.
Drip Campaign
Sending marketing information to prospects strategically over designated periods of time. This can be to nurture prospects or leads through the marketing funnel, to educate prospects, to onboard clients, to perpetuate engagement, etc. The term comes from the idea that focused, intentional messages are being dripped methodically over time.
Landing Page
A landing page is a specific web page that a visitor can visit or “land” on from a link or an ad. It is built to engage a visitor with information that is specific to the ad, to the clicked link or to a certain keyword. Its purpose is to convert. Typically, the visitor to the landing page provides information via a form in exchange for a marketing offer, such as an eBook or webinar. This page should only display content that is specific to the advertisement, search keyword, or link clicked.
Marketing Automation Platform
Software-as-a-service that enables marketers to automate many repetitive tasks such as emailing, maintaining social media and various website interactions. It is designed to drive more leads, convert those leads to sales and prove the ROI of marketing campaigns. A marketing automation platform should also have the ability to integrate with other marketing tools (CMS, CRM, meeting software, social media, etc.) to provide a single platform for centralized management and analysis.
Pay-Per-Click (PPC)
A type of internet advertising where a company places an advertisement on a website and pays a sum of money to the host website when a user clicks on to the advertisement. The most common example of PPC advertising is Google AdWords. A marketing automation platform will measure your PPC advertising as part of campaign analytics.
Sales Funnel
Sales funnel (or conversion funnel) is a term used in e-commerce to describe the journey a consumer takes through marketing and nurturing until a conversion results. The metaphor of a funnel is used to describe the decrease in numbers of potential customers that occurs at each step of the process.
Search Engine Optimization (SEO)
Refers to various strategies employed to ensure that a site appears high on the list of search engine results for specific terms. The purpose of SEO is to maximize web traffic. There is a distinction between paid results, i.e. Google AdWords or other programs using paid placement, and “organic” results, i.e. listings that appear on the site as a result of relevancy determined by the search engine’s algorithm. SEO applies only to organic results. In order for content to be found by users online, it needs to be optimized for search. Most marketing automation platforms incorporate blog SEO analysis and recommendations to assist marketers in optimizing content.