Automated Marketing Lingo
Newcomers to Revenue Marketing may need a little help familiarizing themselves with the new language of marketing automation and lead management. So, we’ve compiled many of the related terms and acronyms, from various leading sources in the industry, to make it easy for marketers looking to keep up on what’s new in marketing automation and the Revenue Marketer’s Lingo.
Acronyms: A B C D E F G H I J K L M N O P Q R S T U V W X Y Z
Definitions: A B C D E F G H I J K L M N O P Q R S T U V W X Y Z
Common Acronyms
A/B split refers to a test situation in which a list is split into two pieces, with every other recipient being sent one of two specific emails, to determine which email is more desirable.
A/B testing a method of testing a control sample against other versions in which a single element varies
BANT Budget, Authority, Need, and Timeline. This is one way to qualify leads and determine if they meet the criteria to be considered a viable lead.
CAN-SPAM federal legislation governing unsolicited commercial email that went into effect Jan. 1, 2004. This law does not prohibit unsolicited commercial email, but it does regulate how it must be sent. learn more >
CRM (Customer Relationship Management) systems and strategies that seek to drive revenue through an improved understanding of customers and an increase in customer satisfaction and relationship building
CSS (Cascading Style Sheet) controls the design and format of a document written in HTML
DKIM (DomainKeys Identified Mail) a method for email authentication that allows an organization to take responsibility for a message in a way that can be validated by a recipient
DSN (Delivery Status Notification) “bounce message”, a system that informs the sender of a delivery problem
ESP (Email Service Provider) a company that provides email services, including batch email and email marketing
IP Address (Internet Protocol Address) a number assigned to each computer or network in order to distinguish each network interface and networked device
ISP (Internet Service Provider) sometimes referred to as Internet access provider (IAP, gives customers access to the internet
LPO (Landing Page Optimization) the process of obtaining the greatest number of conversions from a landing page by continuously testing and revising various landing page elements
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MQL Marketing Qualified Leads. Leads that are considered qualified for sales assessment
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Opt-in The agreement to receive email from a business source. Confirmed or Double opt-in refers to a double check procedure in which a decision to be included on a mailing list is confirmed.
RSS (Really Simple Syndication) a web standard for the delivery of content – blog entries, news stories, headlines, images, video – enabling readers to stay current with publications without having to browse to their content
SaaS (Software-as-a-Service) a way of deploying software so that users access the software “on-demand” as a web-based service, and the software vendor hosts the application on its own web servers
SAL Sales Accepted Leads. Leads that have been accepted by the sales team for review and processing
Sales 2.0 a.k.a. social selling – the merging of Web 2.0 technologies with traditional sales strategies, enabling salespeople to better prioritize their time and serve as experts in the product selection process
SPF (Sender Policy Framework) an email validation system that is used to help validate marketing communications and prevent spam
SRLs (Sales-Ready Leads) a lead that is ready for sales interaction, often decided by a lead score
SQL Sales Qualified Leads. Leads that sales has qualified as viable and on target
Common Definitions
Above the Fold the part of an email message or webpage that is visible without scrolling. Material in this area is considered more valuable because the reader sees it first.
Accelerator Campaigns campaigns that attempt to move prospects along the buying cycle faster by providing relevant “nudges” triggered by specific buyer behaviors or sales updates
Acquisition Cost in email marketing, the cost to generate one lead, newsletter subscriber or customer in an individual email campaign; typically, the total campaign expense divided by the number of leads, subscribers or customers it produced
Alert an automatic notification in sales and marketing technologies triggered by a lead’s specific behavior, change in status or the reaching of a specific lead score threshold
Attachment a file that is sent in addition to the text or html in an email
Authentication technical standards through which ISPs and other mail gateway administrators can establish the true identity of an email sender. Examples of proposed authentication standards include: SPF(PO Box, AOL), Sender-ID (Microsoft), DomainKeys (Yahoo), and DKIM (Cisco and Yahoo).
B2B Blogging also known as corporate or organizational blogging; involves the use of a blog or online journal to promote a company’s products or services with the goal of increasing conversions and driving revenue
B2B Social Media refers to the various channels of the social web (blogs, social networks, wikis, etc.) as they pertain to business-to-business interactions. B2B social media also refers to how prospects, customers and businesses use the social web to research, listen, communicate and engage with each other through the exchange of content
Behavioral Scoring lead activities like visiting web pages, opening emails, and responding to offers Visiting a pricing page shows stronger interest than visiting your careers page While demographic and behavioral scoring can be calculated separately- it is important to score on both.
Blacklist list of IP addresses believed to send spam
Blog a contraction for “weblog,”; an online diary or journal
Bounce a message that is returned to the sender because it was not deliverable
Campaign Management the process of creating, executing, and measuring marketing programs directed at specific audience segments
Closed Loop Marketing campaigns that send communications based on a prospect’s previous actions and their place in the buying cycle
Cloud Computing a term referring to a development platform in which applications are delivered as services in the “cloud,” requiring no hardware or software to maintain
Conversion a specific event that represents the goal of the landing page
Conversion Path a specific online path offered to web visitors after clicking on a landing page
Conversion Rate the primary success metric for landing pages
Converted Lead a lead that has been deemed qualified for sales and that converts into a Contact
Custom Field a field outside of the preconfigured fields provided within Salesforce.com created to fit the specific needs of a business
Custom Object a custom Salesforce.com database table that enables organizations to store information unique to them
Custom Report a report outside of the standard set of Salesforce.com reports created to measure ad analyze data in a specific way
Dashboard a visual display of a company’s performance metrics based on one or more custom reports
De-Duplication the process of finding and consolidating and/or updating duplicate sets of contact information
Deliverability the ability of an email message or campaign to reach the intended recipient’s inbox, which is affected by spam filters, client-side filters and junk folders
Demand Generation the act of using marketing to create interest or demand in a company’s products or services
Demographic Scoring lead information like job title, industry, time to purchase, or annual revenue Give higher scores to your target audience or people who match key sale indicators
Depreciation (lead degradation, score decay) the ability to automatically lower a lead score doe to inactivity, status change, or any other attribute that signifies a decrease in the level of interest
Drip Campaign a series of scheduled emails that deliver thought leadership to prospects that have opted in to receive marketing communications
Dynamic Content email content that changes from one recipient to the next according to a set of predetermined rules or variables, either by preferences the user sets when opting in to messages or based on behavior or demographics of the recipient
Dynamic Site Change dynamically changing content, images or other elements according to a user’s real-time preference (ex. Search term used)
Email Campaign Management the process of creating, executing and measuring email marketing programs directed at specific audience segments
Email Marketing the use of email communication to increase awareness, generate leads and build relationships with prospective and existing customers
Explicit Data information that a prospect provides that is unambiguous such as title, industry, company, etc.
Groundswell a social trend in which people use technologies to get the things they need form each other, rather than from traditional institutions like corporations
Hashtag a community-driven convention for adding additional context and metadata to tweets
Heuristics quick methods often involved in problem solving, such as gut instinct, educated guesses or “common sense”
Implicit Data information that is revealed by a prospect’s online behavior such as pages visited, and recency or frequency of visits
Inbound Marketing a type of marketing characterized by prospects and customers seeking out and finding companies rather than vice versa
Interruption Marketing a type of outbound marketing that seeks to capture a prospect’s attention by forcing marketing communications in front of them; opposite of permission marketing
ISP Feedback when the ISP forwards complaints of recipients to the organization that sent the email
Landing Page a web page that a user encounters after clicking on a link from a search engine, advertisement, email or other marketing vehicle
Landing Page Optimization (LPO) the process of maximizing conversion rates form online landing pages
Lead an individual or company that has the potential of doing business with your organization
Lead Database a system used to collect information on a company’s leads such as demographic, BANT and behavioral data
Lead Handoff the process of passing a lead from marketing to sales
Lead Lifecycle Campaigns campaigns that ensure movement and interaction with prospects, even if they are not ready to buy or sales does not engage
Lead Management the process of generating revenue from leads by collecting, qualifying, and interacting with individuals and/or organizations in relevant ways throughout the buying process
Lead Nurturing the process of building relationships with the qualified prospects regardless of their timing to buy, with the goal of earning their business when they are ready
Lead Recycling the process of passing a lead from sales back to marketing because a lead was not yet ready to buy
Lead Scoring the process of determining the sales readiness of leads using a pre-determined scoring methodology and ranking then accordingly
List Hygiene process of cleaning and de-duplicating email files to ensure all addresses are accurate, unique, current, opted-in and deliverable
List Fatigue a condition producing diminishing returns from a mailing list whose members are sent too many offers, or too many of the same offers, in too short a period of time
Marketing Asset a piece of marketing content (ex. Whitepapers, videos, newsletters, webinars, etc.) used to educate ad generate interest for a company’s products
Marketing Automation the use of technology to manage and automate the process of converting prospective customers into actual buyers
Marketing Lead a lead generated by marketing, which has not yet been qualified as a sales prospect
Meme a catchphrase or concept that spreads quickly from person to person via the Internet
Microblogging a type of blogging that allows users to send brief text updates or micromedia such as photos or audio clips and publish them
Microsite a small website consisting of a few related pages that is part of a larger website
Multiple Scoring the ability to assign multiple scores to a lead, which can be useful for companies with multiple products or campaigns that need to be managed separately
Multivariate Testing a method of testing a control sample against other versions in which multiple elements may vary
Parent-child Campaign a campaign that involves an umbrella “parent” campaign record that is comprised of numerous “child” campaigns
Personalization a targeting method in which an email message appears to have been created only for a single recipient Personalization may include any known demographic or behavioral information including recipient name, company name, website page visited and more
Phishing sending email that claims to be from a legitimate organization to trick recipients into providing personal information
Plain Text text in an email message that includes no formatting code
Point Cap a limit placed on a lead score to prevent scores from being inflated by repeated actions or triggers (ex. Multiple downloads of the same whitepaper)
Post-click Marketing everything that happens once someone clicks on an organizations website, but before they are a known lead. This includes the site itself, but also all landing pages that work to drive conversions for a company
Post-conversion Marketing includes all activities and communications from marketing after a prospect shares their information with a company until they become a customer. This includes email marketing, lead nurturing and lead scoring, all of which are critical for B2B companies to get the most of their pre- and post-click marketing
Pre-click Marketing everything that happens prior to someone getting to a company website. It’s the area of marketing that focuses on driving a prospect to an organization’s website itself, since without pre-click optimization, the website may never be seen
Product Score the score for a lead that indicates their interest in a specific product. An organization may capture multiple product scores
Qualified the lead characteristic of being ready to engage with sales-a definition that is agreed upon by marketing and sakes according to the profile of an “ideal” customer and a scoring methodology
Revenue Cycle a new way of looking at the traditional sales cycle, the revenue cycle starts from the day the organization first meets a prospect and continues through the sale and beyond to the customer relationship
Rigger an event based on change or update in status, demographic information or user behavior that causes a lead to proceed along a specific workflow branch or new path
Role Accounts an email account that is associated with a department, office, position, or task
Sales Ready Lead a lead that has been qualified by marketing based upon criteria agreed upon by both sales and marketing
Scoring Methodology the framework by which leads are scored (ex. Points, letter grades, etc.
Search Engine Marketing (SEM) also known as Pay-Per-Click (PPC) advertising; the process of paying a search engine to advertise a product or service
Search Engine Optimization (SEO) the process of employing different tactics to improve a business’s ranking in organic or unpaid search results to ultimately increase conversions
Seed Nurturing the process of building relationships with qualified prospects before you have their contact information
Segment a portion of an audience that is targeted to receive a specific marketing campaign
Segmentation the ability to slice a lost into specific pieces determined by various attributes, such as open history or name source Sender score an indication of the trustworthiness of an email source
Sentiment a level of assessment that determines the tone of an article, blog post, a company, etc.: usually positive, negative or neutral
Short URL also known as a tiny url an alias short URL used for redirection of long URLs
Social Media any strategy, software system or media outlet that relies on social interaction and the participation of individuals or communities to create and publish content
Social Media Monitoring the use of search engine technology to ‘listen’ for specific keywords as defined by your organization
Social News websites where users submit and vote on news stories or other links, thus determining which links are presented
Social Proof the determination of what is right by finding out what other people think is right
Social Selling Also referred to as Sales 2.0, the merging of Web 2.0 technologies with traditional sales strategies, enabling salespeople to better prioritize their time and serve as experts-not just negotiators- in the product selection process
Spam Traps old inboxes that ISPs reactivate specifically to trap spammers. These email address are used to determine if emails are being sent to old/inactive email addresses
Spoofing a fraudulent email activity in which the sender address and email header are changed to look as though the email originated from a different source
Statistical Significance in the case of online testing, the probability that an event did not occur by chance
Stay in Touch Campaigns campaigns that “drip” out relevant content to prospects over time, helping to educate them and build trust and credibility for your company
Suppression File a list of email addresses you have removed from your regular mailing lists, either because hey have opted our of your lists or because you do not wish to email them
Threshold a score used to determine whether or not a specific action should be taken on a lead
Trigger an event based on a change or update in status, demographic information, or user behavior that causes a lead to proceed along a specific workflow branch or new path
Twitter a social networking and microblogging service in which users send and read other users’ updates known as tweets the are 140 characters or less
Unsubscribe to remove oneself from an email list, either via an emailed command to the list server or by filling out a web form
Web 2.0 a term used to describe the second generation of web tools and software that encourage users to become more active participants, creating content and interacting with each other within web-based, social communities
Website Monitoring the ability to monitor page visits, click-throughs, form submissions, and other online activities from either known or anonymous visitors
Widget a mini application that performs a specific function and connects to the Internet
Workflow a pre-determined path of interactions for individuals to experience based on their profile, demographic, and/or behavioral data with the goal of nurturing and building relationships.
YouTube a video sharing website on which users can upload and share videos
