One of the biggest complaints heard across many different industries is related to the use of jargon, and content marketing is no different. Words that make perfect sense to you and me may come across as a foreign language to some. The best reminder of this is at family get-togethers over a holiday. Do you cringe when you're asked what you do by a family member? I do - that's why now I just tell them I'm in marketing.
Whether you're fairly new to content marketing or you need a link to occasionally share with family and friends, the below list should suffice in cutting through the jargon of the content marketing industry.
- Anchor Text - The actual text of a link to a page. On many websites, this text is dark blue and underlined, or purple if you've visited the link in the past.
- Bounce Rate - The percentage of visitors who visit only one page before leaving your website quickly; i.e., they only visit one page and leave immediately.
- Call-to-Action (CTA) - A text link, button or image, that encourages a website visitor to click.
- Click-Through Rate (CTR) - A metric used for CTAs and emails that measures the number of people who click on a link, image, or anything that leads to a Web page, landing page or offer; it gauges how well a CTA is at attracting clicks.
- Content Distribution - A phrase used to describe the paid distribution of content. Popularized by Forrester.
- Content Management System (CMS) - A system used to manage and publish content to a company's website.
- Content Promotion - A phrase used to describe owned, paid, shared and earned channels used for promoting content.
- Conversion - The act of converting a website visitor into a customer, or taking that visitor a step closer to a customer acquisition; for example, completing a form on a landing page, checking out of a shopping cart or subscribing.
- Demand Generation - Targeted marketing programs focused on driving awareness and interest in a company's content, products and/or services.
- Earned Media - Media coverage from news organizations, trade publications, bloggers or influencers that is gained through relationship building, story pitching and media relations work, as opposed to paid advertising or other paid media placement methods.
- Inbound Marketing - A marketing method that focuses on getting found by new visitors, converting traffic into leads, analyzing performance and nurturing those leads to customers.
- Influencer - A person who has the power to impact purchasing decisions within an industry.
- Influencer Outreach - The act of researching and contacting industry influencers.
- Influencer Marketing - Pitching and drafting industry influencers to actively participate in a marketing campaign.
- Landing Page - A Web page containing a form that is used for conversion and serves to capture visitor information in exchange for an offer or money.
- Lead Nurturing Campaign - A series of automated emails, SMSs, direct mail pieces or other forms of communication that can be triggered after someone fills out a form on a landing page or takes an online action. Also known as a "drip campaign."
- Marketing Automation - Software platforms that simplify lead nurturing processes for marketing departments by creating and monitoring recurring campaigns.
- Media Relations - Marketers or communications professionals developing relationships with journalists and bloggers.
- Owned Media -Media published on a channel that the publisher has complete control of; for example, a website, microsite or landing page. The owner can publish virtually whatever type of content it chooses.
- Paid Media - Media distributed through paid channels.
- Premium Content - Content that is valuable and relevant to the target audience's needs and wants, also referred to as advanced or high-impact content i.e., ebooks, guides and instructional videos.
- Search Engine Optimization (SEO) - The process of improving the volume or quality of traffic to a website from search engines via unpaid or organic search traffic.
- Search Engine Results Page (SERP) - The listing of results by a search engine in response to a keyword query.
- Shared Media - Media promoted and shared by a brand's social network of followers.
- Thought Leadership - Being respected within an industry for having considerable knowledge, displaying innovation, being progressive and educating people.
- Unique Visitor - A website visitor who is only counted once, even if that visitor visited many times during a specified time frame, based on IP address.
- Workflows - In regards to lead nurturing efforts, tasks and procedural steps involved in the input and output of lead information acquired from landing page forms and corresponding email
This list is relatively small compared to the amount of jargon used by marketers and communications professionals. Nonetheless, it's a useful list for both marketing noobs and that family member who can't seem to understand what it is you do. Feel free to share your defined jargon in the comments below.
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