One of the biggest complaints heard across many different industries is related to the use of jargon, and content marketing is no different. Words that make perfect sense to you and I may come across as a foreign language to some. It is like chop suey; we’ve all heard of it, some have tasted it, but have no idea what’s in it, and why it’s called chop suey (especially us Chinese folks).

Fact is, it’s not really necessary to learn these industry terminologies as long as your service provider keeps you well-informed in the work process and end results. However, it is good to be acquainted with some commonly used terms so the next time your marketer brings them up in your conversation you’ll be smart as a whip!

Anchor Text – The actual text of a link to a page. On many websites, this text is dark blue and underlined, or purple if you’ve visited the link in the past.

AdSense – A service from Google that provides targeted, revenue-generating advertising for websites.

AdWords – An advertising service from Google that shows adverts relevant to a user’s search query on the Google search results page.

Affiliate Marketing – An income generation model in which website owners place adverts on their site directing visitors to an affiliated company’s website. Income is normally earned when a visitor either visits or buys from the affiliated company’s website.

Analytics – Often used as short-hand for “Google Analytics”, analytics in general refers to the analysis of data to obtain information and insight. Google Analytics is a service from Google that provides data and statistics on various measures of website success, such as visits, traffic and sales.

Bad Neighbourhoods – A website that uses dishonest SEO techniques such as link farming or cloaking and has therefore been heavily penalised by search engines. Linking to bad neighbourhood sites can hurt the ranking of a genuine website.

Big Data – Datasets that are too big to be analysed using traditional tools and methods. Big data is a consequence of the expansion of technology and digital products. For example, huge numbers of data points are being collected daily on millions of internet users.

Black Hat SEO – Dishonest or disreputable SEO tactics that are designed to fool the algorithms used by search engines when assessing a website’s ranking. Such tactics are penalised by search engines.

Bounce Rate – The percentage of visitors who visit only one page before leaving your website immediately.

Brand Awareness – A measure of how well a brand is known by the general public. An indication of brand awareness might be gained by measuring how many visitors arrive at a website by searching for the company name rather than general terms. E.g. “Kelloggs” rather than “breakfast cereal”.

Breadcrumbs – The trail of links often positioned near the top or bottom of a web page that orientates the user, letting them understand where the page they are on sits in the website’s overall structure.

Call-to-Action (CTA) – A text link, button or image which encourages a website visitor to click.

Click-Through Rate (CTR) – A metric used for CTAs and emails that measures the number of people who click on a link, image, or anything that leads to a Web page, landing page or offer; it gauges how well a CTA is at attracting clicks.

Click Fraud – A dishonest technique, often using an automated script, which produces “clicks” on a pay-per-click advert in an attempt to generate income.

Content Distribution – A phrase used to describe the paid distribution of content. Popularized by Forrester.

Content Management System (CMS) – A system used to manage and publish content to a company’s website.

Content Marketing – The strategy of creating and publishing high-quality content assets to support and enhance marketing activities, build audiences and develop consumer trust.

Content Promotion – A phrase used to describe owned, paid, shared and earned channels used for promoting content.

Conversion – The act of converting a website visitor into a customer, or taking that visitor a step closer to a customer acquisition; for example, completing a form on a landing page, checking out of a shopping cart or subscribing.

Demand Generation – Targeted marketing programs focused on driving awareness and interest in a company’s content, products and/or services.

Drop Out Rate - A measure of how successful a website or campaign is at converting prospects. For example, in a sign-up the number of users who fail to complete each stage can be measured. This can help identify areas for improvement in an effort to reduce the total number of drop outs.

Earned Media – Media coverage from news organizations, trade publications, bloggers or influencers that is gained through relationship building, story pitching and media relations work, as opposed to paid advertising or other paid media placement methods.

Keyword Stuffing – Attempting to fit as many keywords as possible into a web page. This can result in low-quality, unreadable content. Using keywords naturally is preferable, and more likely to be rewarded by search engines.

Inbound Marketing – A marketing method that focuses on getting found by new visitors, converting traffic into leads, analyzing performance and nurturing those leads to customers.

Influencer – A person who has the power to impact purchasing decisions within an industry.

Influencer Outreach – The act of researching and contacting industry influencers.

Influencer Marketing – Pitching and drafting industry influencers to actively participate in a marketing campaign.

Landing Page – A web page containing a form that is used for conversion and serves to capture visitor information in exchange for an offer or money.

Lead Nurturing Campaign – A series of automated emails, SMSs, direct mail pieces, or other forms of communication that can be triggered after someone fills out a form on a landing page or takes an online action. Also known as a “drip campaign.”

Marketing Automation – Software platforms that simplify lead nurturing processes for marketing departments by creating and monitoring recurring campaigns.

Media Relations – Marketers or communications professionals developing relationships with journalists and bloggers.

Owned Media – Media published on a channel that the publisher has complete control of; for example, a website, micro-site or landing page. The owner can publish virtually whatever type of content he/she chooses.

Paid Media – Media distributed through paid channels.

Premium Content – Content that is valuable and relevant to the target audience’s needs and wants, also referred to as advanced or high-impact content i.e., e-books, guides and instructional videos.

Search Engine Optimization (SEO) – The process of improving the volume or quality of traffic to a website from search engines via unpaid or organic search traffic.

Search Engine Results Page (SERP) – The listing of results by a search engine in response to a keyword query.

Shared Media – Media promoted and shared by a brand’s social network of followers.

Thought Leadership – Being respected within an industry for having considerable knowledge, displaying innovation, being progressive, and educating people.

Unique Visitor – A website visitor who is only counted once, even if that visitor visited many times during a specified time frame, based on IP address.

Workflows – In regards to lead nurturing efforts, tasks and procedural steps involved in the input and output of lead information acquired from landing page forms and corresponding email

This list is relatively small compared to the amount of jargon used by marketers and communications professionals. Nonetheless, it’s a useful list for both marketing noobs and business owners. Feel free to share your defined jargon in the comments below.

Visit the Helios Media Design page to find out more about Lydia's work.