Acronyms and abbreviations have become a staple in every industry, and the Marketing Industry is no different. Today's marketing language is so full of marketing acronyms it can be hard to understand what's going on if you're not in the know. Terms like UGC, RTB, KPI can confuse even the most seasoned marketing professionals. But you need to stay updated about quite a few marketing acronyms and abbreviations to help you function and communicate better.
That's why we have compiled a comprehensive list of marketing acronyms and terms — decoded for you to skim, study, or bookmark and save for future reference.
Here are the top 25 marketing terms and definitions every marketer should be familiar with.
Offline and Online Marketing Acronyms
1. B2B and B2C
B2B: Business to Business
B2B describes the trading of products or services between businesses such as manufacturers, wholesalers, and retailers. Most B2B transactions occur in the supply chain before a product reaches consumers.
B2C: Business to Consumer
In contrast, B2C describes the trading of products or services directly between a business and a consumer who is the end-user of the products or services.
2. BANT: Budget, Authority, Need, Timeline
A famous tool that sales reps use to determine whether prospective customers have the budget, authority, need, and timeline to buy what they sell.
3. CX: Customer Experience
Every interaction a customer has with a brand or business throughout a commercial transaction process. CX influences the customers' perception of a brand. A positive CX can help convert potential buyers into customers.
4. KPI: Key Performance Indicators
A numeric unit or quantitative measurement used to assess the success of various marketing strategies and campaign goals of a business. KPIs are frequently used to track and measure progress in areas like brand awareness, lead generation, bounce rate, sales conversions, etc.
5. MAP: Marketing Automation Platform
A software platform or technology that helps businesses to convert prospects into customers by replacing repetitive marketing tasks with automated solutions. Tools like Hubspot, Marketo automate elements of marketing communication and are MAP tools.
6. NPS: Net Promoter Score
A survey-based measure of customer satisfaction that measures how likely people are to recommend a brand or business to others.
7. ROI: Return on Investment
A percentage calculation used to determine the efficiency of a business investment. It is calculated as a ratio of net profit earned from campaigns and the cost of investments.
8. SMART: Specific, Measurable, Attainable, Realistic, Time-Bound
SMART is one of the frequently used marketing acronyms to define the process of setting marketing goals for a business and outlining the actions needed to achieve the goals.
Digital Marketing Acronyms
9. BR: Bounce Rate
BR describes the action a user takes while visiting a website. A user is said to have "bounced off the page" when they landed on a page and quickly left to visit another site. High BR indicates ineffective content marketing.
10. CTA: Call to Action
A content marketing strategy that drives the reader to respond immediately to the content they've read by taking some sort of action such as subscribing, calling for info, downloading, or attending an event. CTA can be represented in many ways such as hyperlink, button, message, or image.
11. CAN-SPAM: Controlling the Assault of Non-Solicited Pornography and Marketing
A US law passed in 2003 makes it illegal for businesses to send targeted emails without permission. Companies must include the 'unsubscribe' option in all promotional emails and must not include names in an email without the "express permission" of the recipient.
12. CMS: Content Management System
CMS refers to an application used to create, edit, manage and distribute content on a website. A CMS like Hubspot or WordPress allows multiple users access to manage web content as well as technical elements like page titles, meta descriptions, and alt tags.
13. CPC: Cost Per Click
This is an online advertising revenue method that publishers (website owners) use to charge for ad space on a website. The advertiser has to pay for each time a user clicks on their advert.
14. CRM: Customer Relationship Management
CRM refers to the technologies, strategies, and tools used by businesses for developing, retaining, and acquiring customers. CRM software ensures every step of customer interaction goes smoothly and efficiently so that overall profits increase.
15. CTR: Click-Through Rate
CTR is the method of analyzing and measuring the success of an online or email marketing campaign. It enables marketers to measure the percentage of web page or email readers who take the next action.
16. CR: Conversion Rate:
CR is the percentage of visitors to a website that take action on the desired goal (conversion) out of the total number of visitors. A high CR indicates successful marketing and web design.
17. GA: Google Analytics
GA is the web analytics service offered by Google that helps marketers better understand their website traffic by measuring how users interact with their website content.
18. GDD: Growth-Driven Design
GDD refers to an approach to website design and maintenance that successfully minimizes the risks of traditional web design. This method employs continuous data-driven adjustments.
19. HTML: Hypertext Markup Language
HTML is the most basic building block of the World Wide Web. It is the markup language programmers use to create web pages. HTML defines the meaning and structure of website content, including text, images, and objects. Most web construction software run HTML in the background.
20. PPC: Pay Per Click
PPC refers to a form of paid advertising where advertisers pay a fee for each click that is generated.
21. PR: Page Rank
PR is Google's system for ranking web pages using an algorithm that gives each website a numerical weight based on the quantity and quality of links that point to it. The higher the PR, the more relevant or authoritative the website is considered by Google.
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22. PV: Page View
PV is a request marketers make to load a single web page on the internet. They use page views to analyze the website and understand how large their audience is.
23. QS: Quality Score
QS is a metric used by Google, Facebook, Yahoo, and Bing, and it determines the rank of the website plus the cost per click of digital ads.
24. SaaS: Software as a Service
SaaS is software that a third-party company hosts, which stores an enterprise's information in the cloud. Examples: Hubspot, Dropbox
25. SEO: Search Engine Optimization
The purpose of SEO is to help a website or content to be more visible on the Internet. Search engines like Google, Bing, and Yahoo scan online content for elements like title tags, keywords, image tags, links, and other factors. They then determine how a website should rank in search engine result pages.
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These are just 25 of the most used marketing terms at present. New trends are emerging every day. So continue learning emerging marketing terms that'll help you get a better understanding of every aspect of your marketing career. The best marketers make it a point to continue learning new skills to keep on top of trends.
In an ever-changing working world where traditional jobs are morphing into something new or disappearing altogether, professionals will need to look beyond the skills of today or get left behind.
Upskilling cuts across industries and is crucial for both companies and employees. It is important to rapidly and consistently advance your technical knowledge and skillsets in order to keep up with the rapid digital transformation caused by the advances of technology.
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