This glossary filled with definitions, audio pronunciations, and images will help you learn new words often used in marketing.
Affiliate Marketing
noun
Marketing based on a relationship between an online advertiser and website publishers where the advertiser pays for leads or revenue that comes from the publishers’ sites. It’s a form of value sharing or commission sharing. Partnering with affiliates extends your advertising reach and increases your relevance with target audiences for a limited investment. You only “pay for performance.” Bloggers can make great affiliates. https://mailchimp.com/marketing-glossary/#iframe
Breadcrumbs
Noun
If you’re thinking "Hansel and Gretel," you’re right. This fairy tale duo left a trail of breadcrumbs as they ventured into the forest so they could find their way back home. Digital breadcrumbs serve the same purpose. They’re a form of website navigation that shows users the sections they’ve visited in the order they visited them so they can retrace their steps easily. https://mailchimp.com/marketing-glossary/#iframe
Call to Action (CTA)
Noun
What you want your target audience to do after receiving your marketing message. The call to action (CTA) clearly articulates the next step: learn more, contact us, shop now, follow us, sign up. A/B testing offers a great opportunity to experiment with different calls to action and optimize your messages with the CTAs that get the best audience response. https://mailchimp.com/marketing-glossary/#iframe
Distribution Channel
Noun
The path a product or service takes as it travels from where it is created to the person who will use it. In marketing, distribution channels are typically broken into business-to-business (B2B) and business-to-consumer (B2C). B2B deals with the interactions between companies to create products, while B2C focuses on how products get to the people who actually use them. For example, a business may sell directly to a customer, or it may sell to a retailer who in turn sells to the end user. https://mailchimp.com/marketing-glossary/#iframe
Eye Tracking
Noun
Measuring and recording the movement of eyes as they look at a web page. In digital marketing, eye tracking is often used to figure out what parts of a web page or email people look at first or spend the most time looking at, which is often displayed as a heat map. Marketers use this data to strategically place elements, such as call-to-action buttons, where they are most likely to be seen and clicked on. https://mailchimp.com/marketing-glossary/#iframe
FTC
Noun
The Federal Trade Commission (FTC) is tasked with promoting competition in the United States marketplace and protecting consumers. In the world of e-commerce and digital marketing, the FTC is responsible for providing rules and guidance around online advertising, which it refers to as the “rules of the road.” It enforces the CAN-SPAM Act to ensure email marketing isn’t misleading or harassing. https://mailchimp.com/marketing-glossary/#iframe
Gross Rating Points
Noun
A math equation that multiplies the number of times an ad is run by the percentage of the target audience that sees it, multiplied by 100. Gross rating points (GRPs) are commonly used in television ad buying to help media planners decide when and where to place their ads. Though the math is a bit too complicated for this short description, GRPs can be calculated for online ads as well. Some planners find this helpful when determining their media mix of TV and online advertising. https://mailchimp.com/marketing-glossary/#iframe
Hard Bounce
Noun
An email that is rejected by an email server for a permanent reason. An email may hard bounce if a recipient email address or domain name doesn't exist—or the recipient email server has completely blocked the delivery. There are, however, occasionally times when a valid email address will hard bounce. https://mailchimp.com/marketing-glossary/#iframe
Marketing Objectives
Noun
What you want a marketing initiative such as an advertising campaign to accomplish for the bottom line of your business. Common marketing objectives are customer acquisition, order value, engagement, and contribution to revenue. Objectives usually follow the SMART format: specific, measurable, actionable, relevant, and time-bound. An example for email marketing is a goal to acquire 5,000 new customers this quarter through the “friends and family” loyalty discount email campaign. https://mailchimp.com/marketing-glossary/#iframe
Meta Tags
Noun
HTML code that helps search engines understand, evaluate, and rank web pages. Meta tags include meta description (a summary of the page), meta keywords (words and phrases used in the content of the page), and a canonical URL (the master version of a page). https://mailchimp.com/marketing-glossary/#iframe
Organic Search
Noun
The natural and unpaid results users receive after making search queries. Search engines, which crawl your web pages and rank your content for relevance to the most common queries, determine these results. You can improve your ranking through search engine optimization (SEO) activities, such as including keywords in headlines. For contrast, see: paid search. https://mailchimp.com/marketing-glossary/#iframe
Psychographics
Noun
Your target audience’s values, beliefs, and behaviors that are relevant to your product or service. Like demographics, psychographics can help you segment your audience into highly relevant subgroups. That way you can tailor your messaging and get better advertising campaign results. Psychographics give you a peek into the minds of your customers so you can communicate more effectively. https://mailchimp.com/marketing-glossary/#iframe
Robots.txt
Noun
A file placed on a web server that gives instructions to search engine crawlers, which are the robots that index web pages for search engines. Robots.txt files tell web crawlers what they should include in their index—and what they should ignore. Pages such as form results pages (“thank you” pages that are triggered when users submit a form, for example) can be hidden from search engines.https://mailchimp.com/marketing-glossary/#iframe
Schema Markup
Noun
Bits of code added to a web page that help search engines understand the content of the page. With better understanding comes the ability to format content when it appears on the search engine results page (SERP). Photos of a recipe appear next to its description, for example, or a list of upcoming events is added to the results blurb of a concert venue’s website. Schema markup generate featured snippets on Google’s SERP. https://mailchimp.com/marketing-glossary/#iframe
Soft Bounce
Noun
An email that is rejected by an email server for a temporary reason. An email may soft bounce if a mailbox is full, the recipient email server is down or offline, or the email message is too large. https://mailchimp.com/marketing-glossary/#iframe
User Interface (UI)
Noun
The visual and audio elements on a website or app presented to a visitor. User interface (UI) elements can include text, images, sound, animation, video, or a combination of them. Keep in mind UI elements may be rendered in different ways depending on user preferences. For example, a person with low vision may use a screen reader to consume content. UI layout and testing is a major focus of user experience (UX) designers. https://mailchimp.com/marketing-glossary/#iframe
Vision Statement
Noun
A short description of a company’s goals for the future. Vision statements tend to be highly aspirational, serving to motivate employees while guiding day-to-day decision making. Vision statements (future goals) are often paired with mission statements (today’s goal) and value statements (how a company goes about reaching all of its goals). https://mailchimp.com/marketing-glossary/#iframe
Webhooks
Noun
Webhooks are a way for one application to provide other applications with real-time information. They allow one application to send a notification to another application when a certain event occurs rather than constantly polling for new data. This can help save on server resources and costs. https://mailchimp.com/marketing-glossary/#iframe
Wireframe
Noun
A blueprint for a website’s user interface (UI). Wireframes are simplified sketches—often drawn by hand—of how content and functionality come together in a layout. They focus on how elements are ordered and placed on a page but rarely include specifics about the final visual design. For example, photographs are represented by a box with an X through them. Wireframes are an essential step in responsive web design, since the same elements need to be reordered for different screen sizes. https://mailchimp.com/marketing-glossary/#iframe
Word-of-Mouth Marketing (WOM Marketing)
Noun
Person-to-person conversation that promotes a product or service. For example: “Hey, I loved that movie. You should check it out.” Word-of-mouth marketing (WOM marketing) can be organic. A brand can also script and direct it. In social media marketing, influencers are a common type of WOM marketing. A trusted expert or celebrity is paid to talk about their experience with a product or service. Authenticity is essential for WOM marketing to be successful, so it’s not always as positive as other types of marketing messages. https://mailchimp.com/marketing-glossary/#iframe
