15 Must-Know Marketing Acronyms

Not exclusive to the marketing world, this acronym describes the action of one business selling to another business. B2B marketing requires a unique way of thinking. Focus is placed on the type of business you’re selling to and how your product or service can help them or help their own customers! If you’d like to find out more about B2B marketing, we’ve written a full blog post over on our website.

The non-identical twin to B2B, B2C simply means business-to-customer. You guessed it, this acronym describes the action of a business selling to a customer. This is the traditional business model, with a focus on advertising a product directly to the person who will be using it. Have a read through our blog post on all things B2C to learn more.

SMART goals are most commonly associated with Peter Drucker but has become a term frequently used in the marketing industry. SMART stands for specific, measurable, achievable, realistic and timely. When used correctly, SMART ensures that your goals are never too difficult or too easy. They’re also great for assessing the success of your marketing project. For a how-to guide on using SMART goals in your marketing, have a read through our recent blog post.

A key performance indicator is a trackable metric which demonstrates the progress your organisation has made toward a desired outcome. In other words, it enables you to evaluate exactly how well your marketing is performing. The most obvious KPI is a measurement of your marketing’s effect on sales, or “sales growth”.

ROI, or return on investment, is a performance measure used to evaluate the effectiveness of an investment. It measures the gain or loss generated in comparison with the amount of money spent. ROI can be expressed as a ratio or a percentage, but is calculated through this formula:

ROI = (Current Value of Investment – Cost of Investment) / Cost of Investment

In the marketing industry, CMS stands for content management system. This is software, a website or an application which is used to create and manage digital content. Here at redPepper Marketing, we most commonly use website content management systems, particularly WordPress. WordPress is an intuitive and popular example of CMS used for website design and development.

UX or User Experience is a key thought-process within our day-to-day marketing activities as a digital marketing agency. Understanding the user’s point of view is imperative. Consideration of user experience will usually involve assessing a person’s capabilities, emotions, and attitudes about using a particular product or service.

Search engine optimisation, or SEO, is an essential digital marketing service. SEO is the process which aims to increase rankings and visibility on search engines. It can be a confusing area for many businesses, but it’s simply the practice of getting more traffic from free search results such as Google or Bing.

Pay-per-click advertising does exactly what it says on the tin! As the advertiser, you will only pay each time that one of your ads is clicked. There are many different types of PPC advertising, such as those on search engines, social media, and eCommerce platforms (eBay, Google Shopping, Amazon, etc).

Search Engine Marketing is the promotion of your website by increasing its visibility on search engine results pages. Both SEO and PPC are forms of search engine marketing, as they have the shared goal of becoming more visible on search engine results.

Measuring your click-through rate is a great way to assess the quality of a campaign. CTR is a ratio or percentage of clicks that your advert receives in comparison to the number of people who see it. For example, a high CTR means that a high percentage of people who see your ad click it. Therefore, a high CTR is a good indicator of a compelling and effective advert.

Your CPC, or cost-per-click, is the amount that you pay for each click that your PPC campaign receives. A click will usually represent a visit to your company’s website, or an interaction of some kind with the product or service that you are selling. Your CPC will vary from campaign to campaign, and across different platforms. Despite this, it’s worthwhile keeping an eye on it. You don’t want to be paying too much if your ROI is low.

PR or public relations is often a practice which comes hand in hand with the marketing industry. It is the management of a business or individual’s reputation in the public eye. PR involves maintaining a positive view of the organisation, its products, or decisions in the eyes of the public.

Sometimes, social media marketing will be referred to as SMM. SMM is the management of social media accounts such as Twitter, Facebook, LinkedIn and Instagram for a business or individual. Often, this will be carried out with the purpose of advertising their products or services. Social media marketing is well suited to many businesses and can be a particularly effective revenue stream when executed in the right way.

Strategic call to actions or CTAs are imperative in guiding your customer through the buying journey. A CTA is a request or encouragement from a website or ad to perform a certain task. “Buy now”, “Sign-up” and “Subscribe for free” are all examples of CTAs that we see daily. What you define as your call to action depends on your business’s goal. Regardless of what it is, make sure it’s clear and consistent.