7 Marketing Lingo you need to know for 2018. If you own a small business, chances are you’re wondering how you’re going to market yourself.  Looking online you’re going to find quite a few article and resources for marketing, most of them coming from marketing company themselves.  Give or take an hour of research and you’re pretty much ready to quit because there’s too many options and because you’re not a part of the marketing or digital marketing world, all the lingo being used such as SEM, SEO, Digital Marketing, etc. becomes overbearing. That’s ok, we’ve created a short guide for you to follow that will help you better understand the world of Digital Marketing. These are the essential keywords and lingoes in digital marketing that you’ll need in order to navigate marketing information.

SEO (Common marketing lingo)

The first is the most common marketing lingo. Search Engine Optimization.  This is a service that many digital marketing agencies provide to help get more people to come to your website via an organic search result.  When someone online searches for a keyword that your business represent, your website will come up on the front page.  They will then click on your link and be directed to your website.  This doesn’t guarantee business, but it does increase the likelihood of you getting more leads and sales.

SEM

Search Engine Marketing.  This service is similar to SEO because it rely on you getting good rankings on the 1st page of Search Engines.  The difference is that SEM depends heavily on paid advertisements to get you there instead of appearing there organically.  You know those ads on top and on the side?  Those are probably the works of an SEM Campaign. Learn more about Search Engine Marketing here. 

PPC

Paid Per Click.  How SEM does it’s work is through a Google service known as Paid Per Click.  This is where you pay Google to place your business on the front page in the form of an advertisement.  Whenever someone clicks on the advertisement, you pay google a small fee (anywhere between 50 cents to $20 depending on keyword and competition).

SMM

Social Media Marketing.  The goal for this is to deliver traffic to your website via Social Media.  Depending on your business certain social media platforms may be better suited for you.  A clothing/retail business may benefit more from Instagram and Pinterest than Twitter for example. Learn how to maximize your social media’s effectiveness here. 

Digital Marketing

Digital Marketing is a broad spectrum of online marketing services.  Typically a Digital Marketing campaign will include more than one services to accomplish a goal, whether it be branding or simply more traffic and customers.  Digital Marketing can include SEO, SEM, SMM, PPC, and many other online-related marketing services.  Typically it doesn’t include direct mail, bill boards, or bus wraps.

CPC

This marketing lingo stands for Cost Per Click and is most common with Google’s Pay Per Click model. However many other advertising platforms also utilize CPC to determine the effectiveness of a campaign. Cost per click simply means how much does it cost you every time someone clicks on your promoted ad. Usually you want the CPC to be low, that way you won’t have to pay more for people clicking on you ads.

Conversion

This is a confusing marketing lingo because it could mean a lot of things. Conversion could mean the rate at which someone goes onto your website and then converts to become a customer. Your formula would be Sales conversion / Visitors. However Conversion can be something completely different if you’re advertising on Google, Facebook, of Instagram. Conversion doesn’t mean sales on your website, it could mean simply someone converting and eventually browsing to a desired page on your website, however not necessarily making any transaction. Learn about social media conversion here. 

The consumer market has changed drastically. Due to the extreme changes to the way we shop, entrepreneurs are trying to come up with ways that empower customers to have an enriching and engaging experience. Businesses are conducting lots of surveys to collect valuable data and conducting research activities to gain analytic insight using the data to better understand consumers. In simple terms, they are trying to have an advantage over their competitors and trying to attract more customers by offering the best products and services. Thanking your clients is extremely important for customer service and making them feel special.

Various market surveys have concluded that other than providing a better product at a cheaper price, there is one factor which separates each and every business. This unique feature is the customer experience which every business house is concerned about. Several consumer studies have been able to prove that the clients generally tend to pay much more for a better experience. Excellent customer service improves the brand loyalty of any business as well as increases your goodwill amongst the customers. One way to increase your customer loyalty is to thank your customer for their patronage and make them feel special. Here are some of the ways you can thank your customers:

Providing gifts to the customers

Gifts such as mugs, t-shirts, chocolate boxes, and other tokens of appreciation help to win the customer’s heart to a large extent. Such gift items can be presented to the customers on certain special occasions such as their birthdays, anniversaries or even on certain holidays such as Christmas or New Year. Gifts can also be sent on any normal day just to show some gratitude to a loyal customer.

A note of thanks

There are a lot of options available to thank your customers, but you should choose the ones which help you with personalized connect. One such method would be sending a simple thank you note. Though there might be a notion that handwritten notes are old school techniques and have lost their charm, it is completely incorrect. The fact remains that with the advent of technology, things such as handwritten notes have become extinct, but instead it has an even greater impact on the people today than in the past.

A day to celebrate with the customers

A day or two must be assigned to celebrate with your customers and value their loyal patronage. There can be special promotional sales and a grand lunch or dinner on these dates for the customers. One should send special invitations to the customers and invite them to have a fun and enjoyable day out.

Reward for the referrals

A referral is the highest compliment which you can receive from your client and it is very useful for the growth of any business. Such gestures from the customers always deserve recognition from your side. This recognition could be in the form of simple gift cards, thank you messages or even discount coupons on goods and services. You always need to appreciate when any customer provides you with more business.

Food

Each and every one of us love food. You could easily send some cakes or cookies from the local bakery to your customer’s’ office to show your appreciation for their cooperation.

Work can become as enjoyable as leisure if you have a cordial relationship with your clients. The above mentioned ways are great ways to thank them and appreciate them for all the trust and cooperation.

The internet has done a lot to disrupt culture.  Once upon a time, styles, techniques, communities and information were only as transmutable as cable TV and word of mouth.  When compared to the rate of change we see today, the evolution of content has moved from a slow creep to nearing light speed.  Ten years ago the lifetime of any trend in humor could last months, and before that years.  These days, you see a popular meme “break the internet” but one week later a new one is there to take it’s place.

Imagine if Charlie Chaplin had risen to fame in this day and age through the vehicle of The Meme.  Would he still be as iconic?  As immortal?

I spoke with Steven Lee… also known as “I’m Fat Let’s Party” Guy.  Steven’s meme has been sported on the front page of reddit twice and has garnered over 400k in likes and shares on social media within the first hours of being posted.  As it happens, Steven and I actually went to the same schools growing up.  However I am jealous because I cannot say that I grew up to be a world-class meme.  I got the chance to speak with him about Memeology.  Here’s what he had to say: