Client Support

Marketing Glossary

Our handy marketing glossary will help you get to grips with all the key marketing terms you need.

Client Support

Marketing Terms, Made Simple

There are plenty of terms, words and phrases used in marketing. We’ve gathered the most important and widely used industry and technical terms to make things a little less complicated. Search, or jump to a letter.

Search the glossary

A

A/B testing: A/B testing (also known as split testing) is a method of comparing two versions of a website design, HTML email campaign, landing page, or app against each other to determine which one performs better.
AdSense: AdSense (Google AdSense) is an advertising placement service run by Google. The program is designed for people who want to display targeted text, video or image advertisements on website pages and earn money when site visitors view or click the ads.
Advertorial: A newspaper or magazine advertisement giving information on a product or service, such as press advertising.
Affiliate Marketing: A type of marketing in which a business rewards its affiliates for every customer brought in as a result of their marketing efforts. It can also be seen as a promotion method.
Analytics: The collection of website data which is used to understand and optimise web usage.
Audit: A formal inspection of an organisation such as their marketing planning.

B

Banner Ad: A type of advertisement which is embedded onto a web page to attract people to the linked location.
Bounce Rate: A percentage of the total visitors to a web page that leave the site after only viewing one page.
Brand Guidelines: A certain standard that is expected. For example our graphic design team has to stick to style guides to keep content consistent.
Brand Identity: The brand identity is the message that is conveyed from the product, person or experience. It is important to consider brand identity at exhibitions for example because of the visual and engaging experience.
Brand Image: This is the general perception of a product or service.

C

Call To Action: An element of content that is used to induce and persuade the reader, viewer or listener to perform a specific act.
Campaign: An organised set of actions to promote a product or service. Essentially your marketing planning.
Cascading Style Sheets (CSS): CSS controls how HTML is viewed on screen or in other media. It can also control the layout of multiple web pages.
Circulation: Information or knowledge being made publicly available.
Click Through Rate (CTR): The number of clicks that your ad receives divided by the number of times your ad is shown. This is part of web analytics.
CMS (Content Managed System): A computer application that assists in creation and modification of digital content.
CMYK: A colour model which is used for colour printing. CMYK refers to four colours including cyan, magenta, yellow and key.
Copyright: The legal right to control the production and selling of content.
Cost Per Inquiry (CPI): A calculation of promotional costs divided by the number of inquiries received.
Cost Per Lead (CPL): An online advertising pricing model where the advertiser pays for a lead.
Creative Concepts: The main piece or idea, which is the backbone of the marketing campaign. The unifying theme is to be used throughout.
Customer Acquisition Cost (CAC): CAC is calculated by dividing the costs spent on acquiring more customers by the number of customers acquired in the period the money was spent.

D

Demographics: Statistical data that refers to the population of a certain location and particular groups within it.
Digital Marketing: The marketing of products and services using digital technology, mainly the internet and any other digital medium.
Direct Mail: Commercial literature that is sent to prospective customers via mail through the post.
Direct Marketing: Selling products and services directly to the public rather than through retailers.
Display Adverts: A form of advertising that conveys a commercial message visually.
Domain Name: The part of a network address which identifies which domain it belongs to.

E

E-commerce: The buying and selling of goods electronically on the internet.
Ebook: An electronic version of a book that is usually read on a handheld device, for example a mobile phone or tablet.
Email: A message distributed electronically from one computer to one or more recipients.
Email Marketing: The act of sending a commercial message, usually to a group of people (i.e. potential or current customers)
Exhibition: A public display of products and items of interest held at a trade show.

F

Flat Rate: A charge or level of payment that does not vary, staying the same in all situations.
Full-Service Marketing Agency: An organisation that can handle all the aspects of marketing.

G

GDPR: A regulation in EU law on data protection and privacy for all individuals within the European Union. It addresses the export of personal data outside the EU.
Graphic Design: The art of combining text with imagery to create immersive content.

H

Hashtag: A word that is preceded by a hashtag symbol in order to identify messages on a specific topic.
Heatmap: Data collected by the analyst in the form of a diagram which shows colours representing data values.
Hypertext Markup Language (HTML): A standardised system which is used to arrange text files. Colour, font and hyperlinks can be customised.

I

Image Retouching: To generally improve an image by lightening areas or removing defects. These kind of jobs are done in an in-house studio.
Inbound Marketing: A strategy that is focused on attracting customers via content that is created by the company.
Infographic: A visual representation of information, e.g. a chart or diagram.

J

JavaScript: A computer programming language that is commonly used to create animated and interactive effects within web pages.
JPG: A common file extension that compresses an image format. It is commonly used for storing photos and most digital cameras use it to save images.

K

Keyword: Keywords are used in search engine optimisation. They describe the contents of the web page.

L

Landing page: A web page that serves as the arrival point when entering into a website.
Lead: A prospective consumer of a product or service
Lead Tracking: The complete process of tracking and managing leads, right from obtaining the leads through to conversion.
Long-Tail Keyword: A keyword phrase, similar to a keyword but contains at least three words. These are used to target niche demographics.

M

Macro Environment: This is the condition of the economy as a whole rather than a select section or region.
Market Share: A portion of the market that is controlled by a company or product.
Marketing: The actions taken by a business in order to promote a product or service.
Marketing Mix: A combination of methods that can be controlled by the company to influence consumers into purchasing their products.
Marketing Package: Multiple elements bundled together as part of a direct marketing effort.
Marketing Plan: A blueprint that outlines a company’s marketing and promotion efforts for the future.
Marketing Research: The process of getting to know your customers which allows marketing opportunities and problems to be identified.
Marketing Segmentation: Dividing your customers into groups and segments depending on their characteristics.
Micro Environment: The small scale environment that affect a company’s ability to meet customers needs.
Microsite: A small, usually one page website designed to function outside of the primary website. It can have its own domain name or subdomain.
Mobile Marketing: Marketing that takes place via mobile devices such as smart phones and tablets. Modern mobile technology such as location services can be used to reach customers.
Mobile Optimisation: Ensuring that your web pages are designed and coded so that visitors who access your website via mobile devices have the best experience possible. Fast loading times and easy navigation are great examples of this.

N

News Feed: News feeds can be used on a range of platforms such as social media and on the website’s new page. It is where news is distributed on a regular or continuous basis.
Non-Profit: An organisation that does not aim to make a profit, but works to help people make improvements in designated areas.

O

Offline Marketing: Any marketing content that is published outside of the internet. This usually includes leaflets, flyers and content provided at exhibitions.
Outsourced: A situation where a company obtains goods or a service by contract from an outside supplier.

P

Pay-Per-Click (PPC): A model of internet marketing that is used to direct traffic to websites. Advertisers pay a fee every time an advert is clicked on. Essentially it is a way of buying traffic by using targeted adverts.
Pixels: In digital image, a pixel is a minute area that is illuminated on a display screen. They work together to create the image displayed.
Podcast: A digital audio file which is usually part of a episodic series.
Press Advertising: The placement of adverts in newspapers and magazines.
Privacy Portal: A web page that provides the user with useful information and links regarding privacy and personal data protection.
Product Life Cycle (PLC): The cycle a product goes through, starting with the introduction of the product or service all the way through to withdrawal from the market if applicable.
Promotional Mix: A chosen combination of promotional methods use for either one or a group of products.
Psychographics: An analysis to identify the types of lifestyles a company’s consumers have. By using this information a detailed customer profile can be created.
Publicity: Attention given to something to attract lots of business.

Q

QR Code: A 2D image that when scanned is used to provide easy access to information via mobile devices.
Quality Control: A strategy used to ensure standards are maintained in manufactured products and delivering services.

R

Rate Card: A document that contains advertising rates along with descriptions of various advert placement options.
Responsive Website Design: An essential approach to web page design that makes use of flexible and fluid layouts and images. The goal of using responsive design is to automatically change the orientation and layout of the web page according to the users screen size.
Return On Investment (ROI): A measurement of the gain or loss on an investment. Often used to evaluate the efficiency of an investment.

S

Search Engine Optimisation (SEO): A methodology of strategies, techniques and tactics used to increase the quality of the traffic being directed to a specific website through organic search results.

U

Unique Selling Point (USP): A unique characteristic of a product or service which usually gives its buyer a reason to prefer it over other brands.
Unique Visitor: A term used in web analytics to refer to distinct individuals visiting web pages from a website within a given time period.
Universal Resource Locator (URL): The address of a web page. You type it into your browser when you want to locate a website.
User Interface (UI): A series of on-screen visual elements that the user interacts and communicates with.

V

Vector: This type of graphic uses 2D point located polygons to represent images within computer graphics.
Virtual Reality (VR): A computer generated scenario which can be referred to as immersive multimedia or computer simulated reality.
Voice Search: Speech recognition that allows users to search by speaking to their mobile devices or computer or order to conduct a search on the internet.

W

Web Hosting: An activity where by a business holds storage space and access for websites
Word Of Mouth (WOM): Oral or written recommendation from person to person.
WordPress: An open source content management system (CMS). A place where websites can to designed and created.

X

XML sitemap: A structure model of a websites content used to tell search engines about the organisation of a websites content. For a FREE 1 Hour Consultation Call +44 (0)1244 323 250 Contact Us

Make Your Move

Still Not Sure What You Need?

Book a free one-hour consultation and we’ll explain it in plain English.

For a FREE 1 Hour Consultation Call+44 (0)1244 323 250 Contact Us

Marketing Glossary

Marketing Terms, Made Simple

A

B

C

D

E

F

G

H

I

J

K

L

M

N

O

P

Q

R

S

U

V

W

X

Still Not Sure What You Need?

Working With A Marketing Agency

Client Questionnaire

Marketing Size Guide

Marketing Packages