Every now and then I have clients give me that blank, head cocked to the side look, you know the one, it says ‘I have no idea what you are talking about’. This is often when I accidentally slip in some marketing lingo that I just presume they will understand.
Every industry has its own lingo, and for better or worse, the marketing industry is no exception. So in hope of reducing the amount of times you need to use that blank look, here are 10 broad marketing acronyms or terms (in no particular order) I commonly use, but are possibly not so familiar to you:
- SEO (Search Engine Optimisation) – arranging your business website to give it the best chance of sitting higher in online search results. I also sometimes define this as a business’s Google ranking.
- Hashtag – ties different conversations together across Facebook, Instagram and Twitter. A user can then search or click on a hashtag to find all conversations relating to that topic. You create a hashtag by using a word, without spaces with a # in front of it.
- Share – sharing content or a page from a different organisation on your social media page.
- Shout out – sharing content or a page from a different organisation on your social media page, however your post will likely include positive affirmation or a testimonial of the organisation you shared.
- Tags – keywords added to a blog posts to help users relate to the topic and search other topics like this. Google also uses tags to help with determining the ranking of a business’s website in Google searches (see SEO above).
- Tag (yes different to above) – used to alert someone or a business in a social media post. For example if you wanted to share this post on Facebook, to notify us you would tag Echelon Marketing like this: @Echelon Marketing
- Above the fold – the portion of a website that is visible in a browser when the page first loads. When you need to scroll to see more content, this is referred to as ‘below the fold’.
- Responsive design – developing a website so it can perform and be viewed perfectly across different platforms (e.g. desktop, tablet, mobile)
- WOMM (Word of mouth marketing) – naturally occurring marketing that has had some indirect or direct influence by you. For example, getting a referral from a network.
- Handle – a unique identifier of you or you brand on social media. By using the @ symbol through social media you can tag people in posts (see tag). For example: @tarahowell123
And an extra one, which I don’t use very often, but like the concept (and sounds a little cheeky, don’t you think?)… Smarketing! Although the potentially clumsy word blending of Sales and Marketing may have you cringing in a response similar to my own when I hear the word Chillax, the theory sits well. As marketers pass on leads to the sales team, the sales team would then work to close the lead 100% of the time. In an ideal world Smarketing would happen in a smooth and well-integrated process – sounds pretty good doesn’t it?
Can you add any more words to this list?
