20 Important Marketing Terms Everyone Should Know

4 min readJul 18, 2018

Like the seasons, marketing trends come and go. Everything is constantly changing. After all, we have to keep up with an ever-evolving society and culture (talk about a pain). But, that doesn’t mean that every “buzzword” marketers use is useless. In fact, many of the marketing terms and phrases we use are important and should be taken note of, especially if you’re just starting off.

Obviously, there are bound to be plenty of “AMP pages” of the world (not that you shouldn’t know what this is, but it definitely is a niche in marketing), but here are 20 of the top marketing terms you should know…even if you’ve been around awhile.

MARKETING TERMS TO KNOW

Conversion Rate

The percentage of users who take the action you are wanting.

Example: signing up for a demo, subscribing to a list, purchasing a product.

CRM

This stands for “Customer Relationship Management”. Meaning the practices, strategies and technologies used to manage and analyze interactions and data to respond to customer needs and wants.

Earned Media

Consumers, press or other members of the public who share your content voluntarily.

Example: when someone writes about your company or product just because they like/dislike it.

Owned Media

Platforms you manage and control, such as a company blog or Facebook page.

Paid Media

Paying to leverage a third-party channel through sponsorships or advertising.

KPI

This stands for “Key Performance Indicator” and are all the metrics that identify and measure business goals and objectives. They can be high level, which monitor overall performance of the organization or low level, which monitor small areas of the company. High-level KPIs, for example, might be meantime between failures (MTBF) or capital growth while low-level KPIs focus more on department metrics like turnover/retention for HR or sales growth metrics.

Metric

Numeric data that allow marketers to evaluate the performance of lead generating efforts and the effectiveness of a channel or content.

Example: site visits, cost per click, session duration.

NPS

This stands for “Net Promoter Score” and acts as a way to measure how people feel about your brand.

PPC

This stands for “Pay-Per-Click”. This is an online advertising method used to direct traffic to websites. You only pay when the ad is actually clicked.

Persona

A profile of a representative customer that describes purchase behavior, goals, skills, attitudes and other details that make the target consumer more realistic for the marketing team.

Remarketing

This is an online marketing tactic that allows marketers to reach out via other channels to visitors who have previously visited their website.

ROI

ROI stands for “Return on Investment”. This is how you tell if something was worth the time and resources spent, including monetary and non-monetary gains.

TOFU

TOFU (Top of the Funnel) signifies customers who are at the initial stages of the buying process or marketing funnel. They are looking for answers to a problem they just realized they are having.

MOFU

Middle of the Funnel is the next stage of the sales/marketing funnel. This is the point at which you position your business as the solution to their problem.

BOFU

Bottom of the Funnel. This is where customers are now ready to buy. They have found their problem, seen how your company can help be the solution and are ready to go through the buying process.

CTR

CTR stands for “Click Through Rate”. This represents the actual “clicks” a person takes through your site. It takes these clicks and divides them by the total number of actions people could take.

Segmentation

This is where you segment (or divvy up) groups of people based on certain demographics. This helps you know who your real target audience is so you can come up with how to market to them, while also showcasing markets you aren’t hitting for new market opportunities.

MQL

Marketing Qualified Lead. This is a lead (an individual or a company that has shown interest in one of your products or services) judged more likely to become a customer compared to other leads based on lead intelligence.

SEO

SEO stands for Search Engine Optimization. This is a method to increase a webpage’s performance in web search results. It can consist of keyword research, linking, outreach and more in order to help your site rank higher on SERPs (search engine result pages).

Workflow

A workflow is a series of emails designed to nurture leads. This can be a super powerful marketing asset also used to engage leads, learn more about prospects, segment lists and more.

By understanding these 20 terms, you’ll be on your way to marketing success. Whether you’re a newbie or a seasoned pro, it’s always important to stay up to date on the trends and terms that are making up your industry, especially if the trend sticks around for the long run. Plus, by understanding these 20 terms, you’ll be on your way to marketing success. Trust us, we know a thing or two on the subject.

This article originally published on the Red Branch Media blog and written by Stevie Howard.

About Maren Hogan:

Maren Hogan is a seasoned marketer, writer and business builder in the HR and Recruiting industry. Founder and CEO of Red Branch Media, an agency offering marketing strategy and outsourcing and thought leadership to HR and Recruiting Technology and Services organizations internationally, Hogan is a consistent advocate of next generation marketing techniques. She has built successful online communities, deployed brand strategies and been a thought leader in the global recruitment and talent space. You can read more of her work on Forbes, Business Insider, Entrepreneur, and The Red Branch Media Blog.