Everyone knows those words. The ones you hear in meeting after meeting; the ones that are spewed forth from every person who’s somewhat associated with the web, digital marketing or business; the ones that your bosses ask you about that make it sound like your dad asking about that new band “what-their-names” and it makes you want to cringe every time he butchers the phrase and calls Green Day “The Green Eggs and Ham Band”.
Yea, those words: BUZZWORDS.
Like any good rumor or myth, buzzwords are based in more than a semblance of truth. Digital marketing is rife with buzzwords these days, but that doesn’t mean we should discount them. After all, sometimes even an overplayed radio song still has musical merit.
Below are the top 10 buzzwords in digital marketing, and why you should actually care about them:
10. Conversion Rate – Any digital marketer who’s worth anything will frequently mention this phrase, and with good reason. The conversion rate is an essential part of any marketing program because it indicates (in most cases) how successful you are at driving towards your goals from your marketing efforts. A lower conversion rate could be deadly to your campaign, while high conversion rates mean you are doing something right. Most of your efforts in a digital marketing program should be made towards increasing some form of conversion rate.
9. Analytics – Where does the above information come from? Analytics. You’ll see this buzzword everywhere, not just in digital marketing, and it’s mainly due to the sheer volume of data we have at our finger tips in every industry today (just ask the NSA). Analytics is the practice of measuring and analyzing that data to make smart business decisions – decisions that could mean major benefits to you.
8. Digital Experience – We’re moving away from simple conversion statistics to a more comprehensive view of how our online users engage and interact with our brands. This is where digital experience comes into play. A positive digital experience results in not only tangible improvements like sales and leads, but also improved brand perception, SEO, and other hard-to-measure stats.
7. Cross-Channel Attribution – This buzzword has been a digital marketing bugaboo for years, and continues to be a pain point for many marketers trying to assign value to various marketing methods and touch points. How effective is a banner ad at driving conversion down the road? How many times does a customer come to the site before deciding to buy? Questions like those keep this buzzword alive and well.
6. A/B (or Multivariate) Testing – Web testing is a major component of any successful online marketing program because it allows marketers to measure the results from various versions of the same ads, landing pages or experiences. Alongside numbers 9 and 10, this buzzword directly leads to better results from your digital marketing programs.
5. Inbound Marketing – A buzzword in the truest sense, inbound marketing was more-or-less coined by Hubspot (an “inbound marketing platform”) as a way to identify a broader marketing discipline which engages users throughout a decision process by bringing them into your various web channels. It is important to note this term’s efficacy – this new phrase signifies a more universal approach to digital marketing.
4. Lead Nurturing/Scoring – This buzzword is a result of the inbound marketing, cross-channel, and digital experience terms in that it represents the various touchpoints a user might take to become a verified “lead”. By using lead nurturing and lead scoring tactics, you are able to better target your online users to give them more useful content, thereby taking them from “prospect” to “lead”.
3. Content Marketing – Content is the new “SEO” as far as I’m concerned. This buzzword speaks to the movement away from cheap tricks to substantial content strategies for brands. Content marketing will result in a more ubiquitous online brand, more comprehensive marketing program, and more dynamic brand content online, giving your brand a “halo” of useful content for your audiences to read, share and use.
2. Augmented Reality – The rise of mobile has led to a boost in this buzzword, which represents the ability for digital tools to “augment” or improve our physical realities. For example, the Yelp app might help you choose a restaurant more effectively, thus supplementing your physical world with digital information. Marketers are heavily invested in this idea because brands should be creating not only useful content but also useful tools.
1. Digital Storytelling – With content marketing comes digital storytelling, which is the intent for a brand to use online content formats to espouse interesting narratives, points of view or anecdotes to build brand equity. Digital storytelling is not only the “buzziest” buzzword at the moment but also perhaps the most promising and important. Brands are moving away from cheap, shallow marketing messages towards meaningful narratives that audiences can actually relate to.
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ReplyDeleteThanks for interesting article, it should be very useful for novices. Especially for start-up owners, because often it's people not from it sphere. I want to share an article about this problem smarty ads with you.
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