A glossary of terms to demystify marketing automation A-F.

It’s Time to Get ‘In the Know’

For businesses involved in digital marketing, marketing automation has quickly become a game-changer. Customizable and scalable platforms are available to businesses of just about any size. We’re here to help you get familiar with some basic automated marketing and sales concepts. As with many industries, this niche may seem buried under its own confusing jargon. The good news is that the basic ideas really aren’t that complicated. Breeze through this guide to learn the terms you need to know.

Marketing Automation Glossary Automation is for everyone — from the sole entrepreneur to the CMO, and everyone in between. Here are some basic marketing automation terms with which you should be familiar before getting started.

A/B Testing

The process of comparing two versions of marketing content, typically a web page or an email, to determine which version produces better results. Most A/B testing is directed toward improving conversion rates. Also called: Split Testing

Advanced Blog Post Scheduling

There are optimal times of the day and days of the week to publish blog posts. Rather than waiting to write content at that time or just publishing whenever it’s completed, marketers can schedule blog publication in advance.

Advanced Lead Scoring

Lead scoring is the process by which a company ranks leads based on data. This gives salespeople an accurate picture of where leads are in the sales funnel as well as an idea of how to reach them in a way that maximizes their chance of conversion.

Advanced Segmentation

Leads rarely fit an identical pattern. This is why marketing campaigns are developed for specific buyer personas. Advanced segmentation enables marketers to automatically divide leads accordingly. They can then analyze specific groups of traffic data and use their insights to make better marketing decisions. While it’s important to know how many people viewed an email and clicked on links within it, it’s their activity once they’ve clicked that is most important. Marketers use after-the-click email tracking to find out more about what inspired their audience to take action.

Analytics

Analytics is the general term for information collected from websites, landing page campaigns, emails, paid Google AdWords, forms and social media. Analytics give insight into a company’s customer personas, their behavior, and the typical customer journey. Also called: Insights

Behavioral-Based Automation

Tracking a lead’s online behavior and then using this information to automate marketing and lead generation efforts. Examples include: (1) clicking on an email that triggers a specific follow-up email, (2) visiting a page that puts a lead on a specific list, (3) completing a form that triggers delivery of a specific piece of content, etc

Blog

Websites are typically broken up into two types of content: web pages that deliver information on the company, and blog posts that deliver engaging content on a variety of topics. Short for “web-log,” blog posts tend to be more timely and conversational in style. They also invite feedback through comments, which can be used to engage visitors and cultivate the company brand. Blogs are the original, and perhaps most important, form of social media and can be an efficient way to attract the attention of search engines.

Branching Workflow

Branching logic is when marketers use certain pre-set conditions to trigger an automated action. Once an action is triggered, it pushes leads through workflows to a desired outcome. In its simplest form, actions are determined on a “yes” or “no” basis. If “yes” then “Action 1” happens; if “no” then “Action 2” happens. Long chains of “yes” and “no” outcomes and their associated actions are branching workflows

Buyer Persona

A buyer persona is a hypothetical customer made up of common attributes typically seen in real buyers. Based on real data, personas reflect who customers are, what drives their behavior, and how, when and why they buy certain things. A business can have multiple buyer personas. The more detailed the personas are, the better.

Call to Action (CTA)

Calls to action are a crucial part of every marketing campaign as they let visitors, leads, and consumers know which action businesses want them to take (e.g. call now, download this white paper, fill out this form, etc.)

Click-Through Rate (CTR)

Typically presented as a percentage, the click-through rate is the metric of people visiting a web page who clicked on a link or button for a particular offer. It’s a measure of the effectiveness of an online marketing campaign, especially a pay-per-click campaign. It’s calculated as ‘clicks’ divided by ‘impressions’ equals ‘CTR.’ Also called: Click Rate, Click-Thru Rate

Contact

A contact is anyone who has been in contact with a company - by phone, email, online form, social media, and so on. Contacts are not always leads, but leads are always contacts. Also called: Prospects

Content Management System (CMS)

Content Management Systems are platforms that enable marketers to create online content for a website or a blog. They typically come with all the tools needed to create, edit, schedule, and even A/B test content. | Buyer Persona Chris / CEO Laura / VP OPS Mark / CFO Yvonne / CMO Nate / UX/UI Jess / Your marketing automation platform should integrate with a variety of CMSs.

Content Marketing

A segment of the marketing function that involves the development and sharing of valuable informational material online (e.g. blog posts, articles, presentations) to a clearly defined audience. The material does not explicitly promote a product or brand, but is intended to drive profitable actions by the audience.

Conversion

A conversion is when a contact goes from being a prospective lead to an actual sale, the ultimate goal of all sales and marketing efforts.

Cost Per Lead (CPL)

In an online advertising pricing model, the cost per lead is what the advertiser pays per each business or consumer that shows interest in the vendor’s offer. A lower cost per lead is desireable.

Custom Domain

A custom domain is a unique, branded name that identifies a website. They appear in the address bar at the top of every browser, and they are what we use to navigate around the web every day. It’s important for custom domains to be brief, memorable and easy to share. Also called: Vanity URL

Customer Relationship Management (CRM)

Customer Relationship Management platforms are used to collect contact information, establish sales pipelines and drive leads to conversion. Your CRM and your marketing automation platform work together. Some marketing automation platforms include a CRM, others integrate with CRMs. Ideally, a CRM system would be included within your marketing automation platform.

DKIM

DKIM stands for “Domain Keys Identified Mail” which is an encryption authentication method used by many ISPs designed to detect email spoofing. DKIM establishes whether or not the email originated from an authorized system. Then it prevents spammers from stealing the identity of legitimate entities by permitting the receiver to check that an email claiming to come from a specific domain was authorized by the owner of that domain.

Drag-and-Drop

There are typically two types of content editor interfaces, code editors (for programmers) and WYSIWYG, which stands for ‘What You See Is What You Get.” A drag-and-drop builder is a type of WYSIWYG editor that allows you to select an object with your cursor and “drop” it in a new location. It’s an easy way for users to plug different elements into an email or landing page and see how the finished product will look. No coding experience is necessary. Your marketing automation platform should offer this type of interface.

Drip Campaign

Sending marketing information to prospects strategically over designated periods of time. This can be to nurture prospects or leads through the marketing funnel, to educate prospects, to onboard clients, to perpetuate engagement, etc. The term comes from the idea that focussed, intentional messages are being dripped methodically over time.

Dynamic Content

Landing pages and emails are typically created for one specific purpose, but the messaging and visual elements won’t necessarily resonate with every visitor all the time. Dynamic content allows a marketer to swap out areas of content (e.g. subject line, headline, image, body copy) based on the recipient/viewer — all without writing code. Swaps are made automatically by the platform based on lead attributes that you identify.

Dynamic Lists

Dynamic lists are contact lists that are created and organized based on pre-set rules. A change in a lead’s behavior can change his/ her membership on different lists. Dynamic lists allow you to generate prospect lists that can be tailored to any specific criteria. Also called: Smart List, Segment

Email Marketing

Email marketing is the targeting of consumers through electronic mail, including sending ads, requesting business, or soliciting sales or donations. It is meant to build loyalty, trust, and brand awareness. It is considered one of the most economic methods of direct marketing.

Engagement

Engagement is any interaction between a business and a lead. Also called: Lead Interaction

Filter

Filters are used to refine a set of results or actions in a marketing automation platform. These refinements are produced by a trigger, which ensures the resulting list or action is well defined.

Form

A form is a data collection tool used within websites to gather information from leads. A form may be “native” and reside within the marketing automation platform, or it may be a third-party form that comes from an outside provider. Either way, data is collected from completed forms and imported directly into the marketing automation system.

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