Okay, I confess – us marketing folk use a lot of jargon. We know it. It’s not in an effort to confuse you; we just get excited about having our own lingo. I can’t speak for the rest of the marketing world, but I know that I want our marketing gobbledygook to be clearly defined for you. I’ve received too many blank stares from family members when I explain what I do. So, I’m taking matters into my own hands.
10 Popular Marketing Terms Debunked
1. Native advertising: Native advertising is a highly-focused, specifically-targeted set of advertisements; businesses will pay for these types of ads to be placed on third-party platforms. The main trick behind this form of advertising is creating ads that look as natural as possible on this particular platform. Successful native advertising doesn’t disrupt a person’s regular behaviour on that platform, but still displays valuable content. You can read more on the concept here.
2. Lead magnets: Lead magnets are the offers you make in exchange for a consumer’s information. (Most often, marketers are hoping to get hold of people’s email address.) For example, you may offer a downloadable infographic, e-book, or slide show to your consumers; if they believe that content is valuable, they are likely to provide their email address in order to receive it.
3. Social proof: Social proof is based on a psychological concept. This concept suggests that most people will alter their behaviours (to some extent) in order to match another’s, all for the sake of reflecting social behaviour that they believe is correct. Marketers will often use this phenomenon in order to influence decision making, similar to the idea of jumping on the bandwagon.
4. Social commerce: Social commerce is basically e-commerce with extra layers of complexity. E-commerce refers to the sale and purchase of goods online; social commerce refers to e-commerce that occurs through online social networks. Since there are a lot of opportunities to influence social interactions, marketers will often use social commerce to generate leads and make sales.
5. A/B testing: A/B testing is a process that marketers will use to track the success of an ad, promotion, etc. To conduct an A/B test, marketers will release the same offer with minor changes to the content. Sometimes, they will run two different titles; sometimes, they will try different imagery. The version that performs best will be kept for further adjustments. Marketers will often run multiple A/B tests on one campaign to make the content as optimal as possible.
6. Clickbait: This term is exactly as it sounds. Marketers obviously want you to click on their stuff, so they’ll use mysterious titles, gripping descriptions, etc. as bait. If they spark a person’s curiosity, that person is likely to click through to the page.
7. Content marketing: Content marketing regularly offers consumers relevant, knowledgeable, valuable content in an attempt to engage them. The ideology suggests that if your content is strong enough, people are more likely to invest in your product/service and remain loyal customers.
8. Inbound marketing: Inbound marketing takes a whole bunch of marketing strategies (content marketing, lead magnets, social media marketing, email marketing, etc.) and combines them into one highly-integrated super-strategy. The guiding ideology of inbound marketing people is drawing customers in, rather than reaching out to them. It’s often viewed as a more personal, customer-oriented means of marketing.
9. Buyer persona: Buyer personas are used regularly by marketing teams. A buyer persona is a detailed outline of a particular type of customer. It often includes their age, occupation, goals in life, and day-to-day problems. By using buyer personas, marketers are better able to understand and predict customers’ problems, and offer solutions that customers will find effective.
10. Market segmentation: Customers are individual people with unique experiences, so it’s unrealistic to expect every one of them to fit neatly into one category. Instead, marketers will use market segmentation in order to determine who they should market to and what type of message they should use. It’s a great way to get more personalized content out there.
Just like web development, there are a plethora of marketing terms to go through. So, I’ll write some more out soon!