Ever start reading a web page or a tutorial and wonder what the heck the writer was talking about? Wish you had a marketing terms glossary?

Words and phrases such as lightweight code (what, is it made out of feathers?), or nixie (related to pixies maybe?) can be awfully confusing.  Here’s a guide to busting some of that jargon.

A/B split: dividing  your list (or your web page views) in two pieces.  You change one variable at a time (like button color) and test to see which performs better.

AIDA: The four steps to successful marketing: Attention, interest, desire, action

B to B: business to business (companies selling to other companies)

B to C: companies selling to individual consumers

B to G: companies that sell to the government

Call to action: A request to do something (such as “click here”).

Click through rate: The percentage of readers who click on an ad or email link

Copywriting 4 Ps: promise, picture, proof, and push (essentially, the same principle as AIDA) – this means making a big promise about your product, painting a picture of who and how it will help, showing proof it works, and then asking for the sale. Don’t confuse this with sales 4 Ps (which are price, product, placement, and promotion).

ESP: email service provider.  A company, such as AWeber, that will manage your email marketing lists and subscriptions for you.

Landing page: a dedicated web page designed to solicit a specific action (such as buying something or subscribing)

Niche market: a specific slice of the entire business pie – focusing one small segment of a market, rather than trying to market to everyone.

Nixie: nothing to do with pixies; a nixie is a postcard or mailing that’s returned because the address is no good.

RFM: recency, frequency, money.  A way to rank  your clients (or subscribers) based on how new they are (recency), how often they buy (frequency), and how much they spend (money).

SEM: search engine marketing; the equally arcane art of using Google to drive traffic – while this includes SEO, it can also be paid ads (those sponsored ads you see on the right side of Google searches)

SEO: search engine optimization, or the arcane and mysterious art of getting more people to come to your website.  The idea is to find keywords with lots of searches (and not a lot of competition)

Got any to add? Or one you found and don’t understand?  Add it in the comments.