5 New Marketing Terms That Every Digital Marketer Should Know

Marketers should respect words, right? After all, we write copy, we test each word, and we ponder endlessly about the very best word choices for each sentence, tagline, hashtag, or opt-in button. Maybe all that time working with words doesn’t make us more respectful but instead makes us feel entitled to invent new words whenever the old ones start to feel stale, or inadequate, or not quite right in some other, undefinable way.

As marketers, we don’t just invent words; we get barraged with new words. Not only does marketing have a special vocabulary full of terms and phrases non-marketers find puzzling (such as clickbait, advertainment, snackable content, and gamification,) but we also love acronyms like DMA, CPC, KPI, USP, SEO, CRM, and hundreds more.*

This week, we thought it might be fun to share some of the best, most interesting, and most amusing market terms we've encountered lately.

1. Blogebrity

A blogebrity is an internet celebrity who has become famous through blogging. One of the most famous blogebrities is Ree Drummond, The Pioneer Woman. She started blogging about her life on a remote Oklahoma ranch almost a decade ago and is today one of the stars of The Food Network and a featured spokesperson for Walmart.

Blogebrities have become major cultural figures who wield significant influence on our society. Even Forbes magazine sees the need to name the top 30 bloggers every year.

Even the word “blog” is relatively new. It’s a mashup of the words “web” and “log,” resulting in the weblog quickly shorted to a blog. To create a blog is known as blogging, or to blog. And the term “blogosphere” refers to the world of online blogs.

2. Listicles

Lists+Articles=Listicles. When a blog or article combines focuses on a list, you have a listicle. You may see dozens of listicles every day online. Why? They’re pretty easy for content providers to put together. Many are based on personal opinion or broad suppositions, such as "10 Must-Read Christian Non-Fiction Books" or "The 31 Most Sarcastic Things That Have Ever Happened." Listicles are opinion-based, and few rely on reliable research or verifiable facts to back them up.

Another reason content providers love listicles is that they often require users to click from page to page to get through the list, decreasing bounce rates. That extra time on a site is critical for sites that depend on advertising to stay afloat, but it’s also nice for websites that want their readers to stay engaged for longer periods of time.

3. RTB

There are lots of acronyms for media measurements online and offline (like CPM/Cost per Thousand, and DMA/Designated Market Area), but one term is unique to online media – real-time bidding or RTB. Many advertising platforms, like Facebook and Google, price the cost of your ads through real-time, anonymous "auctions." The highest bid takes priority inventory. If you bid too low, your ad may not be seen. That’s why so many online advertising tools encourage you to let them set the CPM or automatically adjust the bid amount, meaning your price will go up or down, depending on how many other people are competing for the same audience. RTB, also know as ad auctions, are also the reason that some campaigns end up with a very low CPM or incur a high CPM.

4. UI and UX

Leave it to digital nerds to make something so simple sound so intimidating. UI stands for User Interface, which refers to the buttons, links, and clicks people use online to navigate online to get to where they want to go. UX is short for User eXperience. UX describes how much a user likes the way your site or app looks and works, or the overall quality of the encounter when they come to your website or digital platforms. Normal people would have probably just called UI “navigation” and called UX “satisfaction level.”

5. Catvertising

When you combine cats with advertising, you get catevertising. But is it a real thing? So far real catvertising exists mainly as online spoofs and parodies. However, Grumpy Cat has her own line of merchandise, including t-shirts and mugs, as well as an agent. And videos of playful cats seem to have endless online appeal. After all, we used kittens as clickbait to get you to read this blog.

Bottom line? If you want to try new things in marketing, call Cup O Content. We're up to date on the latest and the greatest, and we want to put our expertise to work for you. We've even dipped our toes into catvertising.

* Here’s a quick dictionary of the terms mentioned:

Clickbait

Using unusual images or claims to get someone to click through, especially if it’s a gratuitous image – Using a video of kittens to get you to read a blog about marketing terms definitely qualifies as clickbait.

Advertainment

A form of advertising that is marketed as entertainment but that is primarily produced to market a product or service. This polar bear film is a good example of advertainment.

Snackable Content

Short bits of content that are easy to consume and share quickly. Infographics, Vine videos, and memes are all good examples of snackable content.

Gamification

The application of game-playing techniques (such as keeping score, competition with others, rules, and penalties) to marketing campaigns or communications as a way to encourage engagement with a product or service. M&Ms got a lot of attention for their Candy Crush-like game on Facebook.

DMA

Designated Market Areas were originally developed by Nielsen decades ago. DMAs are a way to divide up areas by radio and TV consumption but are now used for audience targeting by all kinds of media including Facebook and Pinterest.

CPC

Cost Per Click. The name says it all.

KPI

Key Performance Indicator refers to a baseline measurement of marketing success.

USP

Unique Selling Point refers to a functional or emotional benefit that only your product or service provides. Since few products have truly unique functional benefits, many USPs are based on emotional benefits communicated primarily through marketing.

SEO

Search Engine Optimization. The discipline of finessing your site, programming, and marketing tactics to ensure the best possible ranking on search engines.