Being a beginner online marketer can be quite confusing at first. All those new terms that veteran marketers keep throwing around do not help the situation much less shorten the learning curve either, which is precisely why such terminology should be explained in its entirety so the novice can not only understand its meaning but how to use the philosophy, theory, and strategy it points to.
All digital marketing terms are important and mean something, but dishing out a list of 100 general marketing terms to someone who is just learning the ropes can be quite overwhelming. So, instead, it is better to focus on a core group of key terms so that the concepts can be easily grasped and implemented in a systematic and cohesive manner.
The following list includes 5 basic marketing terms of 3 metrics and 2 commonly used online marketing phrases. Once again, it is best to focus on a small set of phrases and terms when starting out so that they can be both understood and used in the shortest amount of time possible. Less clutter equals less confusion and less confusion equates to a shorter learning curve.
1 – Bounce Rate
This is the number of people which land on a specific page of a website and leave without clicking anything on that specific page or visiting any other page on the site. The number of single-visitors who “bounce” off the specific page is expressed as a percentage and the lower the number, the better. If the page being measured is highly engaging it should automatically have a lower bounce rate as more people will stay and click to other areas of the site. Bounce Rate is one of the main metrics displayed in Google Analytics.
2 – Contacts
The term Contacts refer to anyone who has supplied their personal details and pertinent information through a form located on a website. A contact can include a lead, a current customer, or an evangelist and can enter at various stages of the customer lifecycle through the form. Digital marketing tools like Hubspot often incorporate detailed contact information within their features in order to help website owners keep track of all the people who filled out their Contact Forms and assist them in building a relationship with their contacts.
3 – Conversion Rate
Perhaps one of the most highly regarded metric in the digital marketing world, Conversion Rate indicates the specific number of people who took a specific action the website owner intended them to take. For instance, filling out a form, downloading a PDF, or purchasing an item. This rate is calculated by the number of people who took a predefined action on a site or page divided by the total number of visitors who visited that site or page.
4 – Engagement Rate
This term refers to the amount of time any person visiting a website stayed on that website. As the name infers, it is a measure of how effective a particular site or page is in engaging a visitor and so is reflected through the measurement of time.
Engagement Rate does not only take into account the amount of time a visitor stays on a site or page but also includes the number of pages the visitor visited on the site as well to come up with a more effective measurement of engagement. This rate is also another major metric which can be easily found within Google Analytics but is more specific in measuring the total number of engaged users when compared to other engagement metrics like Bounce Rate.
5 – Funnel
The term Funnel simply means the progressive steps a website visitor goes through before becoming a full-fledged customer. To be more specific, a digital marketing funnel is a method or group of similar methods that engages and educates a website visitor in order to lead them effortlessly to becoming a buyer (A.K.A. Buyer’s Journey). It is specifically geared towards online users and its main purpose is to take a huge number of people and systematically provide them with the content they need at the various stages of the sales process. Anyone selling anything online should use some sort of sales funnel to facilitate engagement, leads, and sales.
Conclusion
The above 5 terms nowhere near cover the entire scope of marketing words and phrases found on analytics reports or used by digital marketers on a daily basis. They are simply being given here because they are some of the most common ones which beginning marketers can expect to see and hear when engaging in various online marketing activities.
Further experience in digital marketing is needed to fully grasp their significance – knowing their meanings are not enough. This, however, will come with time and practice. As with all endeavors, each novice will ultimately become masters in their craft given enough time and practice.