Digital Marketing A-Z: Key Terms & Buzzwords
SEO, Avatar, Influencer, CTR… Like many careers, Digital Marketing has its own alphabet soup of buzzwords which can seem intimidating at first. The Paradigm Switch is here to help! Whether you’re just dipping your toes into the Digital Marketing pool, you need a refresher, or you’re old hat, we’re here to help you brush up on your lingo.
SEO — Search Engine Optimization
Search Engine Optimization, shortened to SEO, sounds pretty straightforward. It’s optimizing your visibility on a search engine, right? True, but what goes into SEO?
When you’re searching for something online, how likely are you to continue clicking past the first page of results? The second? The third? Most people don’t make it past the first two or three suggestions! So, digital marketers rely on Search Engine Optimization: getting their page, product, brand, etc., at the top of the search results. A digital marketer and their team work to utilize strategies and techniques to get their information to be the first people see and the first people click on.
Influencer Marketing
Have you heard of an Influencer? More specifically, a Social Media Influencer? These are those people who post videos, photos, and blogs with reviews of products. Usually an influencer has credibility in a certain field. An influencer doesn’t necessarily have to be on social media either, but in the age of digital media, they usually use some form of social media to reach their audience.
Influencer Marketing utilizes these influencers to help their brand reach their audience. Influencers are identified and marketing strategies are oriented around them. With platforms such as Instagram, social media influencers can reach a large audience quite easily, boosting a brand’s visibility and sales.
CTR — Click Through Rate
The Click Through Rate of an ad or a site is a way of expressing the proportion of visitors who clicked on an advertisement or link that redirected them to another page where they might purchase an item, learn about a product, or find out about a service.
CTR is often used to determine how successful an advertising or email campaign was. It is calculated by dividing the number of click-throughs (number of times an advertisement is “clicked”) by the number of impressions, then expressed as a percentage, as shown below.
The higher the CTR, the more effective the marketing. The clicks can be made on a banner ad, an email link, ads displayed within search results (generally at the top of a search engine and marked with a banner or sticker stating “AD”).
Impressions
When talking about CTR, you also talk about Impressions. An impression is when an advertisement is viewed and is able to be counted. Every time an ad is viewed it is counted as one impression. The impression does not take into consideration whether or not the advertisement is clicked. Most web advertising is accounted and paid for by counting impressions.
Avatar
An avatar or customer avatar/buyer persona is your ideal client, or the people you are marketing towards. Defining your avatar can include:
Demographics — How old is your client? Where do they live? Are they married?
Sources of Information — What do they read? Who are their influencers? What do they listen to/watch?
Goals & Values — What does your client want to accomplish? What is important to your client?
By diving deep into the creation of an avatar, you can develop an idea of who you’re marketing towards and develop strategies to help you better market to them. Bear in mind that a business or organization will often market to multiple avatars so digital marketers repeat this process with each one.
While these are just a few of many terms to know in the Digital Marketing world, they are a great place to start. Follow along as we continue to explain the lingo and break down digital marketing careers. You can also join our community to learn much, much more!
