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.