Marketing Dictionary | TrackMaven

Benchmarking

Benchmarking is the process of measuring a business’s performance against competitors and industry standards. Companies benchmark to analyze their success and get a better understanding of how they are performing relative to their competition. Why is benchmarking important? Benchmarks provide valuable insight to decision makers in a company. Marketers who know how their marketing campaigns stack…

Brand Awareness

Brand awareness is the level of consumer consciousness of a company. It measures a potential customer’s ability to not only recognize a brand image, but to also associate it with a certain company’s product or service. Brand awareness is best spread through both inbound and outbound marketing efforts. When competition in an industry is high,…

Brand Equity

Brand equity is the additional value a product receives from having a well known brand, or high level of brand awareness. It is the difference in price that a consumer pays when they purchase a recognized brand’s product over a lesser known, generic version of the same product. Brand equity is a competitive advantage that…

Brand Loyalty

Brand loyalty is the tendency of consumers to continuously purchase one brand’s products over another. Consumer behavior patterns demonstrate that consumers will continue to buy products from a company that has fostered a trusting relationship. Loyalty is extremely beneficial to businesses as it leads to repeat purchases by consumers, higher revenues, and customer referrals. Why is…

Buyer Persona

A buyer persona is a research-based representation of the ideal buyer for a company. They are created in the form of a fictional person and embody the behavioral characteristics befitting of somebody who would purchase your product or service. Buyer personas contain information on a buyer’s demographics, location, and other characteristics, in addition to the…

Competitive Analysis

Competitive analysis is the process of using competitive intelligence to analyze the strengths and weaknesses of a company’s marketplace competitors. All information gathered in competitive intelligence is obtained legally and ethically and is taken from information available to the public. There are different applications of competitive analysis for both short-term and long-term strategies, and it…

Content Marketing

Content marketing is a form of owned marketing that involves emails, blog posts, white papers, ebooks, webinars, case studies, infographics, social media, and more. Content marketing represents a large part of inbound marketing and its overall goal in any campaign is to try to acquire more leads, prospects, or customers. It is used to provide…

Conversion Rate

Conversion rate is the measurement of success in getting visitors to perform a desired action. This metric does not apply to just one advertising tool. A conversion rate can be calculated for any tool that seeks to have visitors do more than view your content. This could include filling out a form or signing up…

Cost Per Impression

Cost per impression (CPM) is the measured of cost that one will pay when their ad is shown per one thousand impressions. CPM helps to determine other calculations for ads such as CPC (cost per click) and the CTR (click-through rate). A digital advertiser will bid on the cost cost per (one thousand) impressions before…

Customer Acquisition Cost

Customer Acquisition Cost (CAC) is the cost that is required for a business to secure a customer. Businesses keep track of CAC to have an idea of how to allocate resources when they are trying to gain new customers. This cost includes all expenses to close the deal with a potential customer, such as research,…

Demand Generation

Demand generation is creating an interest in your product or service. Without driving a demand for a product, a company will not be able to sell it to customers. To do this you have to spread brand awareness for you company through targeted marketing campaigns. Companies that increase consumer consciousness of their product or service…

Display Ad

A display ad, also known as a banner ad, is a form of online paid advertising that is typically a designed image or a photo and copy. Viewers can then click on the image with the promotion to then be taken to the corresponding landing page. Display ads function differently than text ads because they…

Drip Campaign

A drip campaign is a method used in direct marketing to acquire customers through lead nurture programs. It involves sending marketing information to prospects repeatedly over longer periods of time in order to nurture prospects or leads through the marketing funnel. Drip campaigns are often executed through email marketing, where pre-written content is automatically sent…

Engagement Rate

An engagement rate is a metric that measures the level of engagement that a piece of created content is receiving from an audience. It shows how much people interact with the content. Factors that influence engagement include users’ comments, shares, likes, and more. Why is an engagement rate important? Engagement rate is a metric that…

Funnel Velocity

Marketing funnel velocity is the rate of change from a prospect to a lead or contact. It can also be referred to as the rate of change from an opportunity to a customer, or the rate at which a person moves through the marketing funnel. Why is funnel velocity important in marketing? Funnel velocity can…

Lead Nurturing

Lead nurturing is the process of establishing and maintaining relationships with possible customers. Building a relationship with a possible client is especially important if the client is not ready to buy a company’s product. An important component of lead nurturing for a businesses is educating clients on that company’s product so that they may be…

Market Segmentation

Market segmentation is the process of dividing a market of potential customers into groups, or segments, based on different characteristics. The segments created are composed of consumers who will respond similarly to marketing strategies and who share traits such as similar interests, needs, or locations. Why is market segmentation important for marketers? Market segmentation makes…

Marketing Attribution

Can you attribute your company’s success to the efforts of your marketing team? If you’ve ever struggled to prove ROI, marketing attribution can help you demonstrate the value of your marketing activities. What is marketing attribution? Marketing attribution is the process of connecting marketing activities to business outcomes. A marketing attribution model determines how your…

Marketing Attribution Models

Marketing attribution models determine how your organization credits leads across multiple campaigns and buyer touch points. An attribution model typically takes multiple touches along the buyer journey for a consumer to request information and actively “shop” for your product or service. Marketing attribution models store credit for these touch points so that your team can…

Marketing Dashboard

Ever been in a meeting and been asked to report on your team’s progress? Imagine if you had one place where all your important marketing metrics are highlighted. This marketing dashboard would make tracking and reporting your progress so easy! What is a marketing dashboard? A dashboard typically summarizes marketing KPIs (key performance indicators) and…

Marketing Goals

Marketing goals are specific objectives described in a marketing plan. These goals can be tasks, quotas, improvements in KPIs, or other performance-based benchmarks used to measure marketing success. When explicitly set, measurable goals are key for marketers to be successful. Some examples of marketing goals include: Building brand awareness Generating a high volume of qualified…

Marketing KPIs

Marketing KPIs, or key performance indicators, are specific metrics used to track and measure progress toward marketing goals. Selecting the right KPIs for your marketing department’s specific needs and business goals is key to their effectiveness. Marketing KPIs can include both leading and lagging metrics to measure results. Here are some examples of marketing KPIs:…

Marketing Opportunity

A marketing opportunity is a sales-accepted lead that has been qualified as being in need of your product or service. A sales representative determines that there is an opportunity to sell to this individual or company. Typically, the sales rep must determine that the prospect has the budget, need, and authority to buy our product. What role does…

Marketing Qualified Lead (MQL)

A marketing qualified lead (MQL) is a prospect already in your lead-tracking system, who has expressed interest in buying your product and passes a set of lead qualifications in order to progress further down the funnel. This lead definition is determined by the specific qualification, characteristics, or standards determined by marketing. Marketing qualified lead definitions…

Marketing Spend

Marketing spend represents the amount of money a marketing department spends on activities such as content marketing, paid advertising, SEO, social media, trade shows, and more. Spend is typically outlined in a company’s marketing budget. Optimizing spend entails bringing more leads into the marketing funnel for the lowest cost. Why is it important to know…

Marketing Vehicle

A marketing vehicle is a specific tool for delivering your advertisement to a target audience. They are particular channels within a medium that you use to get your message across. Marketing vehicles are contained within marketing mediums. Whereas a medium is the general method of communication, such as radio, magazines, or social media websites, a…

Multi-Touch Attribution

Have you claimed ownership of every customer touch point with your marketing campaigns, throughout the marketing funnel? Marketing attribution helps you track these touch points, and multi-touch attribution is the best way to capture the full picture of the business impact of your marketing campaigns. What is multi-touch attribution? A marketing attribution model determines how…

Niche Marketing

Niche Marketing is a very concentrated form of marketing. Unlike some other forms of marketing that target a broad range or large group of consumers, niche marketing involves targeting a very specific, well defined segment of the market. Why is niche marketing important? Niche marketing often focuses on market segments that are poorly targeted, or not…

Paid Advertising

Paid advertising is any kind of advertising that you have to pay for, versus owned or earned advertising. With paid advertising, marketers pay the owner of ad space in exchange for use of that space. The price paid for the ad space is often settled through a bidding process between marketers and the ad space…

Proactive Marketing

Proactive marketing is a form of marketing that allows for marketers to be agile, real-time, data-driven, and adaptable to the ever-changing space of what their customers could be seeking. It encompasses all forms of marketing, but shows marketers the direction to head in to secure the most benefit before performing the actual campaign. Proactive marketing…

Real-Time Marketing

Real-time marketing involved using data reported instantaneously so marketers can make decisions based on information on what’s happening in that moment. Instead of creating a marketing plan in advance and executing it according to a fixed schedule, real time marketing is creating a strategy focused on current, relevant trends and immediate feedback from customers. The…

Response Rate

Response rate is a measurement of the amount of people who respond to a certain call-to-action. When marketers want to solicit a response from consumers, they will distribute an offer to the consumers. The consumers who respond to the offer are calculated into this metric. The response rate is found by dividing the number of recipients who…

ROI (Return on Investment)

ROI (return on investment) is a measurement of the value that an investment provides. It is the return you gain relative to the price of the initial investment. ROI is calculated with the following formula: (Gain from investment - cost of investment) divided by the total cost of the investment. Why is ROI (return on investment) important? Return on…

Sales Accepted Lead (SAL)

A sales accepted lead (SAL) is a marketing qualified lead (MQL) that has been reviewed and passed to the sales team for approval. Why is a sales accepted lead important? It’s important for one to have certain processes in place that allow for everyone to visualize leads moving through the business process. Identifying someone in…

Sales Cycle

The sales cycle is the process that companies undergo when selling a product to a customer. It encompasses all activities associated with closing sale. Many companies have different steps and activities in their sales cycle, depending on how they define it. Finding a clear cut definition of sales cycle that spans across the sales industry is…

Sales Forecasting

Sales forecasting is the process of estimating future sales. Accurate sales forecasts enable companies to make informed business decisions and predict short-term and long-term performance. Companies can base their forecasts on past sales data, industry-wide comparisons, and economic trends. It is easier for established companies to predict future sales based on years of past business data. Newly founded companies…

Search Engine Marketing (SEM)

Search engine marketing (SEM) is the overarching term for all activities associated with using a search engine for marketing purposes. It also encompasses any other method that helps to capitalize on the advertising power of search engines. This includes any activity related to positioning a company’s web page or advertisement in a search engine. SEM…

Search Engine Optimization (SEO)

Search engine optimization (SEO) is the process in which a marketer tries to gain visibility about their brand on a search engine’s results page. Typically, higher ranked and more frequented pages will rank higher on a page. Marketers will optimize a website for SEO purposes with inbound links, relevant keywords, and making it easier for…

Share of Voice (SOV)

While one of your goals is to improve performance across marketing channels, you can assume your competitors have the same intent. That’s why it’s important to track your brand’s share of voice (SOV) on specific channels, and do head-to-head comparisons with competitors using a share of interactions graph. What is share of voice in marketing?…

Top-of-Funnel Marketing

Top-of-funnel marketing is used to refer to activities and campaigns that focus on lead generation and targeting consumers in the upper most portion of the marketing funnel. These activities include many content marketing efforts, such as, email, social media, blog posts, SEO, traffic, paid advertising, white papers, free trials, and more. Top of the funnel…

Value Drivers

Value drivers are anything that can be added to a product or service that will increase its value to consumers. These differentiate a product or service from those of a competitor and make them more appealing to consumers. The greatest benefit of a value driver is that it provides a competitive advantage to a business,…

Web Analytics

Marketers use web analytics to analyze online metrics and optimize the web presence of their business. What metrics are important in web analytics? There are many important metrics used in web analytics. Some examples include: Conversion rate Engagement Unique visitors Page views Time on page

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