Marketing Terms - Martin Gawlak Company

"I want to make a site where we talk like a normal person about how marketing works."

Here are what we think are the most important marketing terms to start building a robust marketing program for your brand. Feel free to bookmark this page to use as a reference in your future explorations. You can click on any marketing term to jump to the brief explanation on the page. Our explanations are marketing based. So while we know that certain terms can have other, more technical and expansive applications, we wanted to make a resource that was built specifically for managers and owners to use.

Email Marketing

Email marketing is one of the most effective forms of marketing when done well. Sure, you know spam email all too well, but some brands out there are great at creating compelling offers and providing great content to keep the attention of their customers over time.

You can either "purchase" or rent email lists from data firms, or do what's the cool thing: collect your own emails from current and future customers and clients.

A lot of marketing firms focus on metrics like "open rate" and click rates. This is a great way to see how your marketing efforts are performing. But at the end of the day, you want to send your email lists good content and good offers to get your emails to the attention of the busy critic. Eventually, you can sell, resell, and upsell.

The cost is relatively low, and is one of the highest converting marketing channels still out there.

Website

Websites are presentations of information. Your marketing website has two main purposes: deliver your brand's voice to visitors, and sell your products/services.

Your website should be easily navigable for the average human and the robots(search engines). The way your website content matches your other marketing content form other channels (ads, etc.) is very important to your customer. The function of your website is to capture sales and leads by conveying your brand's value. Your website should be thoughtful, above all else. We like to use good copywriting to help engage the very interested customer. This builds trust, and trust builds customer base.

We recommend focusing on only basic SEO on your website, and putting most of your effort to loving the human visitor. Provide useful stuff. Relate to them like you would someone asking you for advice in your particular field of expertise. Like a neighbor. Make sure there are options like contact info, forms, and email lists so the customer can continue their journey to becoming your customer. We even convert visitors to paying customers directly on our clients' websites whenever we can.

Ad Campaign

An ad campaign is a complete set: target channel, target audience, and actual target-ed "message"(content).

First you decide which channel you want to spend your efforts on. Then you use that channel's targeting options to develop the audience you want to form your ads for. After that, you create the content for that audience on that platform to get the attention of those audience members in a way that makes them interested in your brand.

The benefits of digital ad campaigns is that there is enough data out there and enough options on most all channels to guarantee great ad campaigns when in the hands of an expert marketer. If you're targeting homeowners in Boca Raton at a high income level on Facebook, you can tailor your ad to show you understand their pains and triumphs of living in Boca. There's a lot of possibilities, and there's no reason that all of your ad campaigns can't do well.

The other major benefit? You can pretty much spend as little or as much as you want. Often as little as $1 per day. For one day. But you'll need enough data to ensure you're marketing is statistically performing well. And converting to paying customers well.

Facebook Ads

Facebook ads are cheap and effective. The mistake most brands make is trying to sell directly from Facebook ad to dollar sign. While the buyer's journey can be that short, you need to use your ad spend to reach the right audience with a message that gets their attention with good branding--not good selling.

People on Facebook are paying attention. But they're not there with the idea of shopping. Creating compelling ads that get people to trust and like your brand will get them shopping.

Use good Facebook ads and targeting to get customers intersted in your brand. Then, let your excellent website do the rest of the selling.

Instagram Ads

Instagram ads are similar to Facebook ads. You get almost identical opportunities on one of the most attention owning channels in the world. But the idea is to, again, concentrate of targeting an intelligently selected audience with thoughtful messages for a highly visual platform.

Though Instagram is a very visual platform, the copywriting goes a long way to converting attention on the Instagram platform to becoming a customer for your brand.

Instagram is great for visually driven brands like restaurants and fitness, but if you execute great Instagram ad campaigns in a way that gives regular people an inside look on what makes you great then you can dominate Instagram in your industry and market.

YouTube Ads

YouTube ads can be tricky. No one likes to be interrupted when trying to watch a compelling video they actually looked up to view. But your audience is there, and their minds are open to consuming.

YouTube is the second largest search engine in the world, after Google--the company that owns it.

Make sure your targeting is on point. Google(YouTube) gives you incredible targeting options. But also make sure your ad doesn't feel so much like an "ad," but more like a compliment to the videos your audience will be watching. Like a wine taste. If it fits their YouTube meal, they may buy the bottle. Hell, they might buy a case. They might buy you out.

Google Ads

Google was the best company in the world to corral all the content on the internet into one place. You can find information on whatever you want--even if it's not correct. Once they dominated the internet, they started selling ads. And with Google ads you can target people actually looking for things that can indicate they might want what you got.

Google ads has a few different types. There's Google search ads, Google display ads, and Google remarketing ads. They also own YouTube and their ad product.

Google search ads are super popular, even though the price has gone up in recent years due to increasing competition on the platform. But you can still limit your budget and create fantastic ad campaigns that align with your brand and website to give you the edge and steal customers from competitors.

Google remarketing ads have a super low cost and convert at high rates when done well.

Google Search Ads

Google search is what the marketing industry refers to as "high intent." Since people on Google are actively searching for certain things, you can put your message front and center to grab their attention. Once they click on your great ad, they can be directed directly to your website where it can match and expand on the ad's message.

Works so nice, you can do it twice. Two hundred times.

Google will show you data on how your ads are performing so you can get better and better. Google also gives you budget control so you can pump more money into ads and campaigns that perform well.

Again, be sure your ads match what your target "searchers" are looking for as best as possible. Then make sure your ad's target destination (website) matches that ad/campaign. We build our websites around what people are actively searching for on Google. Google offers an incredible, free "Keyword Planner" so you know how people are trying to find you.

Google Remarketing Ads

Google will let you "remarket" to civilians that have already had a taste of your content.

Using Google Analytics and Google Tag Manager, you can tag people via their web browser cookies so their web browser remembers they were interested in your product. The likelihood of a website visitor returning to your website again to purchase is way higher than a first time visitor. Make your original ad spend money work even harder by letting their browser display ads elsewhere on the internet for you.

YouTube Remarketing Ads

YouTube remarketing ads is just YouTube ads with the hook-up from remarketing data. You can get in front of your customers and future customers again with a message that brings them closer to buying and re-buying. Your ad should keep in mind what your audience already knows and has seen, and should shape the message around this in a way that makes them super curious about what it's like to be a customer or client.

The targeting is the easy part. The content (creative/video) is the important part.

Facebook Remarketing Ads

Facebook offers the same remarketing opportunities as Google and YouTube. Visitors to your website and other peripherals can be automatically targeted with messages based on that knowledge.

Even though someone may have found your brand on Google or a link from somewhere else on the internet, your website can tag them and show your ads on Facebook even if they've never heard of you there before. With remarketing ads on Google and Facebook you can also import email lists to pick up old customers you might have missed or are due for a renewal/upsell.

Customer Targeting

Customer targeting is important because it tells you how to create your ads. On Facebook, your audience can be built around what they like and how they've behaved. Google lets you target based on "keywords" and other things they've done on the internet.

The more you know about your audience, the better you can create and manage your ads' messages. You can talk to young people in a different way than older people. You can compare your product to a competitor that they know about. You can even target people in Orlando that used to go to Jake and Mickey's with an insane drink special to draw them into your establishment for a similar dive bar experience.

Customer targeting and data is incredible and important. And the content of your messages are even more important.

Influencer Marketing

Influencer marketing is getting "word of mouth" referrals from people that their fans love. And it's not just Beyonce and Derek Jeter. It's the skateboarder in Vero beach and the baseball mom in Ocala.

This marketing channel has an incredible high ROI when done well and thoroughly. Many small influencers will take product samples and/or small fees to amplify your brand to the perfect candidates for your product/service.

Think about this: would you check out a marketing company because they told you to trust them, or would you trust your buddy that you interact with almost every day to recommend a local plumber when you need a vanity installed?

Content

Content is the actual stuff that people see and consume whereever they are, however they prefer. The content can be paid or "organic." Or both. It's the messages you convey based on the channel your audience is on. It's more important than anything else because it is the most authentic way to be a customer.

Your content is everything. It's the picture on your Instagram and the caption below. It's the music in your video and the text on their screen. It's the blog you ranted on and the icon on your "Get Started" button.

Content is easy. You just be yourself and deliver great stuff. Your product/service. Your off-the-cuff Facebook post. Everything you put out to consume, including ads, is content. And it should all align with your brand and its voice.

Are you underground and scrappy? Don't try to look fancy. Are you higher end? Talk to your audience like they already know a lot about what you're talking about. Are you asking for their money or are you trying to genuinely be as close to a friend as a business can be?

Technical skills like graphic design and web design can be learned or bought. But make sure your content matches the mood and end goals of your brand's purpose. Whether they're paying you or not, your entire audience--paid and organic--are your customer.

Leads

Leads are people that you can convert into paying customers. A lead can be someone tagged by analytics or an old-fashioned, 53rd time caller.

Leads want to be a customer. The only things standing in their way is: 1) Do you have something they can use, and 2) Do they understand and feel that you have what they want/need.

The customer journey takes leads from whatever channel to wherever you stop helping them. A lead should be nurtured, and every lead has different and similar journeys.

Leads can come from social media, your email lists, emails, phone calls, and referrals. And they should be nurtured on all channels, too.

Customer

Customers are paying and not paying. Not paying customers can be more valuable than paying ones because they deliver word of mouth advertising.

Just because someone in your audience is not paying you money doesn't mean they aren't delivering revenue. Anyone that consumes your content--whether marketing or your actual paid product/service--is a customer. Just like someone searching on Google (for free) is a Google customer.

The important thing about customers is that you should treat them the way you want to be treated. Would you want to be watching a video on how to change your oil and be interrupted by a "Buy My Garbage" ad?

Customer Acquisition

Customer acquisition is grabbing a customer. Like the definition we use for "customer" suggests, your customer acquisition is how you get your audience to be your audience. Some of them are already paid/paying customers/clients, some are "other."

Acquiring a customer is a huge "tell" for your marketing efforts. You can acquire a customer by getting them to buy your product or service. You can acquire them by getting them to sign up for an email list. Or you can get them to like or follow your account.

The reason why we treat all non-paying customers as "customers" is because they are consuming your content. They are a customer of your "brand" and even though they're not paying yet they can be huge referral and publicity sources. They are also future paying customers.

You can acquire customers through ads, conversations, publicity, etc. Use the advertising and organic channels well to acquire customers at a low cost. Make sure your content is good everywhere and get great customers and leads that translate into top line revenue. Every piece of content is a potential hook.

Customer Acquisition Cost (CAC)

Customer acquisition cost is how much it can cost to get a new paying or non-paying customer.

Say you run an ad on Facebook that directs to your website where they can sign up for your service. If you spend $100 to get one paying customer then your customer acquisition cost is $100 for a paying customer. Likewise, if you pay $100 for 20 people to follow your email list or social media page then your customer acquisition cost for those customers. If you then get 2 out of every 20 of them to start paying you then your customer acquisition cost is $50 for each paying customer.

If you define different types of customers and spend the energy creating campaigns for each of them on different channels then you can get to a point where you know how much it costs to acquire a paying customer.

When you have a solid customer acquisition cost for a funnel then you can know how much money to pump into that funnel. So, you can end up paying $100 for a customer that gets you $1,000 in revenue. This just takes two things: 1) intelligent data usage, and 2) good creative.

The reason we talk about these things is because we use "Creative Arbitrage" talent to make the money spent get more return than most.

Online Marketing/Digital Marketing

Online Marketing, or Digital Marketing, is spending set amounts of cash to deliver track-able results.

The data offered on digital marketing platforms can easily indicate how well your marketing efforts are getting you good money coming in. How well your "creative" department performs is how you know how much to invest.

Each online/digital channel has customers that want a great piece of content put right in their lap. The problem with a lot of paid ads is that they can show how much your brand doesn't understand that marketing channel. And you can sabotage yourself.

When your creative and analytics people understand how people consume content on each individual channel then you win. If they can't or don't then you can burn money.

Project

Your "projects" are groups of efforts that translate into 1) content and 2) results.

You decide that most of your old customers are car owners that can afford used cars but want to keep up the value of their car. So you can tell from past customers that people buying a "new" used car with the idea of making it last are great customers for your auto warranty product/service. You can use that info to target people with the same behaviors and interests as them to deliver great creative content that turns them into customers. Since you put an entire project around this target customer in the channel that you know "works" then you build a "project."

A project can be a series of ads directed at target customers with the goal of becoming a paying customer. It can also be building a big resource and promoting it to people that can use it. The project should have clearly defined goals with a path to set it up and execute.

But make sure your goals are clever. If your goal is to create one ad to use on six different channels to get a high return on investment then know what you're doing. If your goal for the project is to build one good ad to target a certain target customer on a certain channel then use data and good creative to manage it.

If your projects have smart and experienced thinking behind it then you will succeed with high rates of return that are mathematically manageable for your financial mastermind.

Marketing Channel

Marketing Channels are the ways your future customers get to know you. Your marketing channels can be Facebook, Google search, radio, or TV.

Here is a list of the most popular Marketing Channels:

Website (SEO)

Blog(SEO)

Google Ads

Social Media Ads

Social Media Organic

Broadcast Radio

Television (Cable, Broadcast, & Digital)

Publicity/News

The term "Marketing Channels" is important because you have to build content and ads around how that person is feeling when they consume it. Once you understand that people on Facebook are consuming your posts in a daily feed of misery and community you can develop content that makes them happy. And when you make them happy at that point in their life you can grab them as a customer. Paying and non-paying.

Understanding the difference between an picture medium like Instagram and an ear-filtering medium like radio or podcasts is the key. Why do what everyone else is doing on what you see in Google Search if it isn't good? Build your projects, campaigns, and ads around that marketing channel to invest in great profits.

Search Engine Optimization (SEO)

SEO (Search Engine Optimization) is creating content on your website to make it easy for people to find it. There are many strategies and tactics about this subject, but the bottom line is to align your brand and value with the content you put out.

Search engines use robots called "crawlers" to scan your stuff so they can show it to people most interested in it. When you build the content of your site or blog to make this most useful for the customer then you win.

You might have seen that other companies are beating you in Google search. This can be fixed if you concentrate on branding and provide a great user experience when they visit your site. No old, ugly site. People can tell just as well as search engines.

Mostly, search engines rely on how well your site matches with the content you promised, and how much engagement/time is spent on it. The idea is that if a person spends a lot of time poking around your site with interest then you have delivered on your promise that got them there. Then the search engine rewards you with "rankings" and send more people your way.

Google is the biggest search engine in the world by far. And YouTube is the second biggest search engine. It's also owned by Google. Creating projects and campaigns around these two search engines is smart.

Podcast

A podcast is an audio content series that can be consumed without any other influences. It can deliver incredible messages to people that are seeking your expertise. Or your story.

Podcasts are relatively cheap to have, and quick to execute. The more knowledgeable and entertaining your podcast is, the more it will work for you. Also, more people are listening to podcasts at a growing rate because it's easy to consume while doing other things.

Don't be afraid to post a podcast that isn't "as good" as the big names. People want to hear your truth, and we've had great success with amateur podcasts simply because they were honest. Podcasts convert at very high rates. It gives audiences great opportunities to become fans and customers.

Anchor lets you do 5 min podcasts for free at the time of writing this. And you can expect new customers and audience members to consume way more content then you paid for if you make it easy for them to follow your podcast. It's also been said that the future of the internet will be "voice." Podcast is voice.

SSL/TLS Website Security Certificate

SSL/TSL Security Certificates are relatively simple but important. All websites should have security certificates installed. It protects the user from having their information stolen and used. And it makes sure your website actually load for them.

Security certificates make sure that when your customer puts in their info that it's safe. But it also lets their computer/phone know beforehand that it's okay to use your site.

Some browsers like the very popular Google Chrome won't even show your site without a warning page first. Since it's easy and cheap to provide a security certificate for your site, it is an industry standard. Some hosting companies charge a fee, but it can be free if you just Google it. Either way you pretty much just have to do it. Don't skip this or people will think you're an amateur or, worse, not professional.

Competitors

Competitors are everyone that competes with the attention of your customer. Event people are competing with Netflix since they make it so easy to consume their content wherever they are. Restaurants are competing with other restaurants and Publix/Safeway. Understand your competitors and you get the edge in your marketing.

The best way to defeat competitors is highlighting the ways you're better then them. They may have a big campaign about one good feature, but if you target ideal people at a low cost with your better benefit then you win. Over and over again.

You don't want to forget that your competitors come in different forms than they used to. For example, Netflix can be considered a competitor to your nightlife event since they are a low cost alternative to a way to spend one's evening. You can convince people to leave the house if you communicate a better value to the right audience, taking away some of Netflix's businesses for a night.

Pay Per Click (PPC)

Pay Per Click (PPC)is a way to measure the cost of running digital ads. Each time the audience makes a "click" on your advertising content--link click, "like" click, etc--then you are charged for that click.

A couple alternatives to PPC are CPM (Cost Per Thousand Impressions) and CPA (Cost Per Action/Acquisition). Traditionally, PPC was mainly a way to pay for traffic to your website. Now there are other measurements you can pay for per click, but you still always want to measure the total cost of your marketing spending compared to how much return it is generating. Don't focus on one metric just because it looks good. And don't let your agency do it either.

You can pay anywhere from $0.05 per click to over $100 per click, depending on the maturity and competitiveness of the click ad market, and the strength of your analytics and creative teams. If you're just trying to get by or experiment then invest in clicks. If you're trying to build your business or scale then invest in talent/team.

Cost Per (Thousand) Impression(s) (CPM)

CPM (Cost Per Thousand Impressions) is how much you pay to have your ad seen 1,000 times in that market on that platform. The reason it's typically measured by every thousand impressions is because it is a logical intersection of the decimal point (from $1 to 1,000 impressions). $10 per 1,000 impressions is $1 for every 100 impressions, or one penny for every impression.

An impression is typically whenever your ad is loaded on a screen in front of someone on their computer or device. Whether they notice it or not, your ad platform has done their job of delivering your message when you pay per impression.

Even if you pay per impression, the ad platform will still show you other metrics like CPC. The only difference is how you are charged. In CPM you pay for it to be shown and in CPC you pay for it to be clicked. So, you can still see how much you are paying per click or per action/acquisition. Some of our best CPM campaigns are actually our best CPC campaigns because our creative and analytics deliver great messages to the right people and thus get a high rate of return without have to pay for it to be seen as much as other advertisers in the market

Cost Per Acquisition (CPA)

We refer to CPA as Cost Per Acquisition, but some places will also call it "Cost Per Action." Cost Per Acquisition is more definitive to us, while cost per action doesn't necessarily mean they've come onboard to becoming a paying or non-paying customer.

Cost Per Acquisition is how much it costs for your marketing and sales budget to to acquire one customer. For example, if you spend $1000 on talent and ad spend to acquire 100 customers then your CPA would be $100. That project would get you a new customer each time you spent $100. So if each customer is worth $300 then you net $200 profit before other costs. So if your other overhead here was another $100 to serve the customer then you'd net $100 profit. In the end, you'll be paying $100 to add another $100 to your bank account. Once you get to margins like this you can "scale" your business.

Customer Lifetime Value (LTV)

Say you pay $100 in marketing to acquire a customer that pays $300 to you that day after seeing your ad and going through your delightful website. But let's also say that every month that customer will automatically renew their business with you for $100 per month for some sort of warranty or support program. And let's say they usually stay your customer for at least a whole year. So, you are paying $100 for a customer that has already spent $300 with you, and they're going to end up paying you $1,100 more dollars by the end of the year. So essentially, you bought $1,400 by only spending $100 to get them.

The total amount of money that comes in from your average customer is the Lifetime Value of your customer (LTV). If the above scenario doesn't sound good enough, think about how often new customers come in for free just because they're referred to you by a long time customer you only payed $100 for.

Other ways of increasing LTV are upselling and cross-selling. Sending good, pleasant email marketing campaigns to current customers is a fantastic way to increase the LTV of your customers at relatively little cost.

Creative

Creative is the talent side of your marketing projects. Your creative will use your brand's voice to deliver great messages across any kind of platform or channel. Your creative team understands that people want different kinds of ads in different kinds of places, and that different kinds of people will favor certain ads over others. Your creative team can use analytics to develop advertising and publicity campaigns for the right audiences. They know just what to say, and when and where to say it. They know how to make the audio, video, graphics, and words to execute your marketing efforts.

The key to obtaining "creative arbitrage" is having people in charge of your marketing that know how to get into any type of customer's head and heart. They aren't dependent on tricks and expiring techniques. They are great at communicating and usually have more than one creative talent rather than excelling at one particular thing.

The only thing your creative should excel at is constantly creating campaigns that deliver you a good ROI.

Data

Data is math you can use to make decisions. When you know how much it costs for something to happen then you can know what to put money into. Data slaps descriptions around actions.

You can understand how well your different marketing efforts are performing using data. You can see how many people are viewing your ad (impressions). You can see how many people are seeing your ad then clicking on it (clicks). And you can see how many people are clicking on your ad and signing up (acquisitions/actions). And many more useful (and useless) metrics.

Data is important because it can tell you definitely what or how and ad is doing. Or how a web page is doing. It can also help tell you how to develop an ad. But creative should be the last call on actually creating the content. The data should just be one of the starting points.

Analytics

Analytics is often used the same way as the word "data." Our definition of data is pretty simple and meant for marketing uses. The analytics are the way you use your data. For example, you can take the click-through-rates of all your currently running ads and look at them. Then you can analyze the results and make decisions about which ads to keep running, which ads to stop running, which ads to create similar ads to, or even which ads to study closer and look at more data about.

Most web platforms and services take their data and let you use it to build great things. Facebook Ads will analyze the data of how people experience your ads and send you metrics. Google will do the same, and even do the same on your website and tell you how your web pages are being experienced.

Analytics will tell you a lot, but they won't tell you everything. And won't tell you much if you don't know what you should be looking for. Hint: Look for things that actually drive sales.

Benchmarks

The benchmarks for your marketing efforts are performance levels that different markets and industries have been experiencing. You can find benchmarks for things like cost per click or click-through rates by Googling them. Wordstream provides great annual benchmarks data for various industries on various platforms.

Benchmarks usually only reflect averages and top performing averages. You can use benchmarks as goals for your marketing efforts to be competitive in your markets.

For example, if the average click-through rate for Facebook ads in your industry is 0.90% then you can develop your Facebook Ads campaigns with the goal of having them exceed 0.90% in every ad set or ad.

Ad Spend

Your ad spend is how much you are spending on ads. It is a cost that's separate from the amount of money you'll spend on things like creative development, analytics, and design for your ad campaigns. This is the money that goes directly to the ad channel (Facebook, Google, etc.)

How much should you spend on ads? Spend as much as you can. And make sure your marketing team is focusing on finding and milking top performing ad campaigns. If an ad campaign is delivering customers at a satisfactory ROI then there's no good reason not to pump more money into them when trying to grow your business. Sure you could take out more money as profit or to invest in other areas of the business, but you should still be spending as much money as possible developing and milking top performing ad campaigns.

For small to medium sized businesses your ad spend will have a more direct correlation with the results in revenue. As you grow, your advertising will gain you bonus organic/word-of-mouth referrals that are more difficult to track with analytics. We think it's reasonable for small businesses to spend up to 50% of their marketing budget on ad spend and the other 50% on the talent that's researching, developing, and implementing the marketing and ads. Larger accounts can spend up to 60-80% of their advertising budget on ad spend, leaving around 20-40% to pay the professionals managing and developing the projects.

If you have less than $500-1000/month on marketing, you should have someone in-house learn how to develop great ad campaigns (or do them yourself). You will be able to spend enough money to find some good performing ROI, and will learn enough to oversee a future agency or employee handling it. But don't underestimate how far your first $100 and a few hours of research on Google can go for your business. We've helped start healthy companies with very small marketing budgets. Digital marketing platforms are incredibly powerful in this way.

Optimization

Optimization is the act of developing your current marketing efforts to perform better and drive more customers to your business. A poor ad delivered to a poor audience may result some return but discourage you. But if you look at the data and learn more about how to develop ad campaigns for your audience, you can optimize your ads to get better results and increase money coming in.

You can optimize anything from the layout of a web page to the wording of the text on your video ad. There is plenty of great resources out there on how to optimize virtually anything. Marketing experts have experience and knowledge to develop and implement highly optimized marketing campaigns to grow your business at a reasonable speed. When you have speed in the market and decent management of cash flow, then you can afford to pay a healthy amount into your marketing while earning more money at the same time.

Attention

Getting attention and knowing what to do with it is the basics of marketing. You need to know where your people are hanging out (Facebook, YouTube, etc.) to try and get their attention. Once you're there you'll need to find where in that channel your target audience is hanging out by using audience targeting. Then you'll need to craft a good message to deliver to that audience in that channel.

If you can understand how to get attention then you'll want to make sure the money you're spending to deliver your message is worth it. You do this by taking the audience's attention and talking to them the way they want to be talked to in a way that gets them to perform an action. The action should be one of a chain of actions that ends up getting them to become your customer.

Message

Your messages are most important. When your message is built for the right person in the right channel then you can take attention and convert it into customers. Messages can be text like in Google search ads, videos like in YouTube channels, or a web page on your site. Your messages can also be a bonus in a welcome email or a tweet to a recent customer. Any time you communicate with the public you are delivering a message. And small messages can deliver a lot of content when branded and executed well.

Some keys to a good message are making them as personal as possible and showing you understand that person. Keep in mind that the message in your ad will hopefully be combined with other messages from your brand--like your website or your emails. So make sure all your messages align with your goals and your brand's voice. And always try to deliver more value than you're asking for in the beginning.

Branding

Your branding is the way your business communicates with the world. It is done through marketing, but it's also done with the way you conduct your business everywhere else.

When you execute good branding in your marketing then you are doing two key things: 1) you're getting your customers useful information and resources, and 2) you're showing your customers that you understand them on many different levels.

Good branding is very valuable because you own it and no one can take it from you. Good branding also makes the effectiveness of everything you pay to execute get more more ROI. Though it can be tough to measure, it's sort of like the difference between having a great employee and a bad one. One of our favorite examples of great branding is Mailchimp because their branding can be experienced in everything they do--from their marketing to actually using their products. It is very memorable, and even exciting.

Customer Journey

The customer journey is how the customer gets from not knowing about you to becoming a customer, and after. Some customers are closer in their journey to deciding to buy your product or service, and some are far from that point. The way you get a customer from far away to purchase is by nurturing them through messages and value. If you authentically help them get to where they need to go without expecting anything from them in return then you will earn their trust. When you have their trust then you win consideration to getting their business. And if you've done a good job nurturing their customer journey then it is very likely that they will pick you.

You can nurture customers through their customer journey through ads, remarketing ads, email marketing, and sales funnels. You can also use direct contact.

Search Engine

Search engines are programs that analyze the contents of the internet and attempt to display them to the right people looking for it. Without search engines we would have to find everything on the internet by only getting recommendations/links from other places.

Google is the most used search engine in the world. The second biggest is YouTube, which is owned by Google. Search engines do the world a great service for free and charge a very low amount to advertise on them. While radio traditionally charges thousands of dollars just to run one ad, you can run an ad on a search engine for as little as $1.

Web Development

Web development refers to building websites and applications that people can use from computers and devices. It can be a simple marketing site built on WordPress or a complex payroll software used by the government to make sure educators get paid.

While web development is an expensive process and should be invested in with confidence, there are thousands of other small modules or developed web applications you can use to effectively achieve your goals. Many are built to be used with one another and some are niche or stand-alone.

Platform

A platform is a web application or environment that is built to be used by many people. We talk a lot about advertising platforms like Facebook and Google. But you also know of many other platforms like Gmail and Netflix.

Since platforms are built with getting users to engage in certain ways, you will need to understand how people use the platform in order to effectively communicate with your marketing efforts.

Creative Arbitrage

Creative Arbitrage is the ability to continuously generate effective marketing campaigns by understanding all the mechanics of every platform--present and future. You can attain Creative Arbitrage by first studying and understanding humans and how they operate in various channels. After that you can develop the creative skills in storytelling via graphic, text, video, audio, etc. by studying and practicing. Once you can consistently deliver above average results to all ad budgets then your team (and your business) has Creative Arbitrage.

Once you have Creative Arbitrage you can apply it to anything you want.

Website Rescue

A website rescue it an edit, overhaul, or recreation of a website that is no longer effective. While some parts of your website may still be usable with some tweaking, a website overhaul may be necessary to restore your brand's integrity to your website.

Website overhauls can cost whatever a marketing agency will try and charge.

If your website is out of date then it's pretty mandatory that you fix it if you want to market online. And since most businesses need to market online you will want to make sure you take care of that.

Conversion Rate

Conversion rates are how many times a piece of marketing gets a user to do the desired action. When a person sees your ad or content then eventually becomes a customer after consuming it then they are converted to a customer. If you show your ad to 10,000 people and one of them converts to a customer then the conversion rate of that ad is 1 out of 10,000.

You can also measure the conversion rates of each step of the customer journey. If you show an ad 1,000 times and get 10 of those people to click your ad to visit your site then your ad is converting 10 out of every 1,000 people from audience members to website visitors. If 1 out of those 10 visitors joins your email list then you are converting 1/10 visitors in email list customers.

Focus on conversion rates to understand how your marketing department is performing and what to expect when certain actions are taking. If you know you can pay $2,000 to build an ad campaign that converts 200 customers paying $300 each then you can expect to get $60,000 for every $2,000 you spent. Conversion rates are more important than other metrics like Facebook "engagement" since it is a clearer look at the effects your marketing is having on your business's bottom line.

Bonus Terms

Open Rate - How many times your email or entire email marketing campaign gets opened out of how many are actually sent