A few weeks ago I published a list of tech terms. This week let's take a look at terms that are more marketing focused. This list is not meant to be exhaustive or comprehensive. It is meant to provide you with a quick reference that you can check when you need to know a certain term.
I’ll be the first to admit that marketing terms can seem cold and tend to dehumanize the actual people into terms like leads and conversions. But the first step to making this process feel personal for your potential clients is to understand what the terms mean.
Marketing
Let’s start with marketing itself. Marketing is not the same thing as sales. It is a way to create awareness of your products and services or of you if you are a personal brand.
Digital marketing
Using online methods to create awareness of your product, service or expertise is called digital marketing. Digital marketing includes email marketing, social media, and websites.
Email marketing
Email is an effective method of marketing. Sending out regular newsletters, including welcome emails and sequences for people who purchase or sign up and sending out sales email sequences are all things you can do as part of your email marketing efforts.
Funnel
A funnel is how you lead a customer down a path that might eventually lead to them purchasing your product or working with you.
Customer journey
Sometimes a customer journey is considered to be the same as a funnel but I don't quite consider it to be the same. If a funnel is a single path, then the customer journey may contain more than one paths and multiple entry points and branches.
Email list
An email list is a list of email addresses of people who have subscribed and given you permission to contact them. When someone signs up for your email list they are called a subscriber. When they unsubscribe they are no longer a subscriber.
Since GDPR there are more rules about how you can subscribe people to your list.
GDPR
GDPR stands for General Data Protection Regulations. This is the policy put in place by the European Union that governs how you collect email addresses and how you store personal information. Because most online businesses operate globally this will likely affect you even if you don't live in the EU.
Content marketing
When you use some type of content to attract people to your world you are using content marketing. The content could be in the form of blog posts, podcasts, a YouTube channel or content posted on social media (although that is usually called social media marketing). Content marketing allows you to establish authority, gain traffic to your website and help potential clients to learn more about how you might be able to help them.
Lead magnet/ freebie/ opt-in
Having a form on your website that says “Subscribe to my email list” is probably not going to bring in many subscribers. What will bring in subscribers is something you offer for free that is valuable. It can be a free challenge, a pdf guide or a checklist.
Single vs double opt in
With forms for lead magnets or email subscription you will likely have the option with your email provider of using single or double opt in. With single opt in as soon as they hit the Subscribe (or whatever you choose) button they are subscribed using that email address. With double opt in the subscriber has to confirm with by responding to an email .
Conversion
When someone signs up for your email list or purchases your product or coaching it is considered a conversion.
Conversion rate
The conversion rate is how many people who convert divided by how many see your offer. So for a landing page for a free offer if 100 people visit the landing page and 30 sign up for the free offer, your conversion rate is 0.30 or 30%.
Lead
A lead is simply someone who has shown interest in your products, services or expertise. Think of a lead as someone who wants to hear more about what you have to say.
Call to action
A call to action is where you request that a visitor takes a certain action. Including a call to action in social media posts, blog posts. emails and anywhere you have an online presence is a good idea. This could be sign up for my free offer, reply to this email or let me know what you think about this in the comments.
Landing page
A landing page is a webpage with a single call to action. You can use a landing page to promote your free offer. Check out this article on building a landing page for more ideas.
Sales page
A sales page is a type of landing page that is designed specifically to sell a product or service.
Split testing
This is where you try out 2 or more things to see which works better. This could be sending two different email subjects out to different subsets of your list to see which gets more opens and more interest.
Niche
When you narrow down the type of people you want to work with you are defining a niche. Having a niche is important because it’s easier to be seen in a less crowded space. It also makes it easier to create content that is targeted at people in this niche. An example of a niche would be menopausal women, helping people with celiac disease or female runners
Cold, warm and hot traffic
When someone lands on your website and don’t know anything about you that is considered cold traffic.
Someone who is on your email list, visits your website often or follows you on social media might be considered warm traffic.
And someone who has already purchased from you or is very interested in your programs would be considered hot traffic.
There are various degrees of cold and warm and hot traffic. Some warm traffic might be almost ready to buy so almost hot.
Evergreen
A program is considered evergreen when it is always available and does not contain a live component. Content can also be considered evergreen. A blog post about a menopause symptom would be considered evergreen while one about avoiding holiday stress would be seasonal.
Launch
When a program or product is released for sale it is called a launch. A launch includes several steps including sending emails telling your list about the program, posting about the program on social media, possibly free workshops or social media videos leading up to it.
Summary
I hope these terms help you to have a better understanding of marketing terms. If you have questions about these or would like more clarification about any of these terms, let me know in the comments.
