When using English at work, it’s important to stay up to date with changing terminology. Language is always evolving, and we see new additions to the dictionary every year. The same can be seen in the corporate world, as we find new language to describe our day-to-day operations within the workplace.
It’s crucial to have the ability to use and understand business terminology effectively, in order to participate in and understand various interactions and situations, such as work meetings, emails, phone calls, or networking events.
Of course, the business world encompasses a wide range of sectors, so today, we’re just going to focus on marketing terminology. If you’re involved in the world of sales, advertising, or general promotion, you will be required to use marketing language in both conversational dialogues and written correspondence. In order to give yourself the best possible chance at succeeding at work and thriving in your marketing position, take note of the following 30 phrases in order to boost your marketing lingo! We’ve put them in context for you to make it easier to know where and when to use them.
The study of data to evaluate the performance/success of a marketing campaign.
“Let’s have a look at our most recent analytics to see if we should change our content in any way this month.”
When someone visits your page and leaves without engaging further.
“Unfortunately, our bounce rate has risen this month, meaning we need to make our content more engaging”.
Email marketing technique where a large amount of emails with the same content goes to a large number of recipients
“Let’s try a bulk mail campaign to maximize outreach regarding the new product”.
A prompt which inspires users to take a certain action e.g. to sign up for a newsletter, to leave a comment, etc. This can be found in advertising campaigns, blog posts, etc.
“Let’s insert a CTA to read more of our articles at the bottom of this month’s post”.
The amount you pay every time someone clicks a direct link to visit your page
“It’s unclear from our CPC data how many people our ad has actually reached”.
The percentage of people who continued to your page/website from a unique link, compared to those who viewed the ad and did not choose to visit the page.
“From observing our CTR, we can see that our current campaign hasn’t been as effective as our previous one”.
The percentage of recipients who complete the desired call-to-action. Completing this action is the “conversion”.
“I’m happy to report that our conversation rate is extremely high this month”.
When a user arrives on a webpage without having found it through another link/site/ad. This can be done through copying & pasting a direct URL or searching the website.
“Surprisingly, we’ve received a lot of direct traffic this month, perhaps due to word-of-mouth referrals”.
Online content which continues to change depending on analytics and data (user preferences, interests, behaviors etc).
“It’s important that we continue to produce dynamic content in order to keep our bounce rate low”.
The medium through which a user accesses and views content
“Let’s diversify our delivery channels this month to include more social media platforms such as TikTok”.
An email or multiple email designed and sent to accomplish a specific marketing goal.
“I’m disappointed to inform you that the email campaign proved quite unsuccessful”.
Similar to Analytics, the engagement rate measures how actively involved your followers are with your content.
“Our engagement rate has been significantly raised due to our expansion of delivery channels”.
Content that is published and hence available forever to your users.
“It’s important that we create evergreen content for our users to refer back to continuously”.
A hard bounce is when an email fails to deliver due to a permanent error e.g. like an invalid email address
“Unfortunately, our hard bounce rate was high this month, due to a lot of spam email addresses”.
A permission-based list of contacts that you built from willing subscribers.
“Let’s make use of our house list for the upcoming ad campaign”.
A link to one website posted on another website (also called a backlink). This is a form of B2B (business-to-business) marketing.
“We’ve received a lot of direct traffic this month due to inbound links from various partners”.
A specific and unique web-page, created for a marketing campaign- where users will “land” (arrive) after they click the link.
“Let’s try and reduce the bounce rate by creating a really diverse and engaging landing page”.
The process of attempting to turn potential leads into definite leads (through building connections, creating buyer/seller relationships etc)
“Let’s prioritize lead nurturing instead of finding new clients this quarter”.
Dividing contacts into categories that have something in common (e.g. industry/location/company size etc)
“We should have a look at our list segmentation in order to streamline our ad campaigns”.
Using the success/popularity of a current news story in order to promote a certain product/campaign.
“Our newsjacking tactic has worked really well to bring traffic to the webpage”.
“Our open rate has significantly dropped this month due to our change in email format”.
When a user willingly decides to subscribe to communication from a certain brand. This is permission-based marketing.
“Let’s have a CTA at the end of this month’s feature to opt-in to weekly emails and updates”.
When the user chooses to stop receiving communication from a certain brand, due to various reasons (too many emails, not relevant content etc).
“We need to prioritize diversifying our delivery channels if we want to reduce opt-out rates”.
Often found alongside a GDPR notice, a privacy policy refers to the process through which the website collects your information/data, and what they do with it.
“Feel free to read our privacy policy to find out more about our data processing”.
The total number of people who have seen your ad/content.
“Our recent ad had a reach of 20,000 people per day”.
The amount of people who reach your site through other sources (links/ads etc), rather than finding your page directly.
“I’m happy to report that we’ve observed a lot of referral traffic from our increase in inbound links”.
A soft bounce is when an email fails to deliver due to temporary error e.g. an overfull email address.
“Let’s aim to reach out again to any soft bounces in order to maximize our engagement”.
Emails which are sent without permission, often containing ads or viruses.
“We’ve had a number of reports telling us that our email campaign has ended up in users’ spam folders”.
UX stands from User Experience (how a user experiences and engages with content on a website)
“The UX is unparalleled and has received optimum feedback from users”.
Using certain techniques/tools to create traffic and visibility for your website
“The company will henceforth be prioritizing investment into SEO”.
The marketing world is vast, and this glossary does not cover every term used within the industry. However, it should give you a great base to begin with, and should certainly improve your chances of having a successful and impressive professional interaction, if marketing strategies are part of your day-to-day work.
We encourage you to write down any new phrases you’ve learned from this article, and begin using them in your next business meeting or conference. Happy marketing, everyone!
