Given below is an exhaustive list of content marketing terms that content marketers use in planning their strategy and in their day-to-day working:
A/B testing or split testing: It is a testing methodology used to decide which version of a variable – between two web pages, two subject lines, two design strategies, two content angles, etc. — will produce a higher impact upon web visitors. That variable is then delivered to the entire target audience to generate the best results.
Buyers: They are potential customers who have an active interest in purchasing a company’s product or service.
Call to action (CTA): Call to action or CTA is a critical component of any content marketing strategy. It is strategically placed in the content with the clear purpose of persuading potential customers to fill up a form, visit the company website, sign up for a newsletter, or make a purchase.
Channels: Channels are Social Media platforms such as Facebook, Instagram, YouTube, LinkedIn etc. where people congregate in large numbers. It also includes blogs, newsletter, forums etc. Companies publish their content on these channels to target their customers.
Content Audit: A performance review of the content created by a company. The audit helps in phasing out the non-performing content, improving the middle performers and promoting the top performers.
Content brief: Content brief lists the points that content creators are required to follow while creating content. This includes branding messages, tone, voice, customer insights etc.
Content Curation: The process of locating authoritative content created by others and sharing it with your company’s target audience. The goal is to add value to the knowledge and understanding of your customers, and make them happy and grateful for your thoughtfulness.
Content inventory: The complete list of different kinds of content that have been created as part of content marketing strategy. The list is maintained date-wise and includes the headline of the published content, its format, the platform where it has been published.
Content marketing: Content marketing is the process of creating and distributing content about a company’s product or service to its target audience – read prospective customers – searching for that information. It can also be defined as a marketing strategy that uses content to attract an audience.
Content marketing goals: Content marketing goals are the business outcomes that a company expects to achieve through its content marketing strategy. These goals can be brand awareness, building customer loyalty, generation of leads or actual sales. The company needs to lay down these goals for the content marketing team to achieve.
Content marketing strategy: Content marketing strategy is a marketing strategy that revolves around three Ws. The first W is why. It explains why a company is creating content – and this need arises from the company’s business goal. The second W is Who, and is based on the target audience for whom the content is being created. The third W is How. It describes how the content will be delivered and how the business goals will be achieved.
Content personalization: It is a marketing strategy where companies display content that is based on customer behaviour and interests. They mine customer data and create webpages and emailers that match customer requirements.
Content segmentation: Content segmentation is the process of creating content for specific target audiences and then displaying it in a way that the target audience clicks on the content specially created for it. Such segmentation improves content marketing effectiveness.
Content strategy: Content strategy can be described as a content blueprint that lays down the purpose and the plan to create, publish and deliver content that is useful and relevant on a particular subject. It defines the business goal or user need, who will create the content, the formats, style, tone and structure of the content, and the platforms where the content will be published.
Content workflow: The set of tasks that a content team performs to create content. This includes content assignment, content creation, content review, content approval and content delivery.
Conversion: Conversion happens when a potential customer takes action after engaging with the company’s content. The action, depending upon the call to action embedded in the content, can be a subscription sign up, registration for an event, filling of lead generation form or a purchase.
Copy editing: The process of correcting grammatical errors, spelling mistakes or factual errors in a written copy. Copy editors, who are entrusted with the task of copy editing, ensure that the copy meets the style and branding guidelines.
Customers: Customers of a company are people who have purchased the company’s product or service.
Editorial Calendar: The Editorial Calendar is the content publication blueprint drawn up by a company. It lists topics on which content is to be created, content creation dates, author names, distribution platforms and publication schedule. The Editorial calendar is also be called the content plan.
Formats: A format is a media used to create content. For instance, articles are created in text format; podcasts are created in audio format; and films are made in video format.
Influencer marketing: It is the use of social media influencers to promote a company’s products or services. Companies pay influencers handsome amounts to publish their promotional messages on the social media channels of influencers. This has emerged as a powerful form of content marketing because the influencer’s followers trust the influencers and accept the promotional message as their genuine opinion without realising that this is advertising in a different garb.
Keywords/key phrases: Key words or key phrases are search words or phrases that people enter in search engines to locate information they are searching for.
Lead: A lead is an individual who has interacted with a brand and who can be pursued to become a customer. Every lead means acquisition of customer details such as phone number, email or address for the marketing teams to pursue.
Native advertising: It is a form of advertising where the content matches the look and feel of the website where it is published. The readers or viewers do not realise that they are consuming content that is paid.
Owned media: Owned media is the property that is owned by a company on the web. These may include blogs, websites, newsletters, social media forums etc. The company controls all content that is published on these channels.
Paid / Sponsored search: These are search listings that appear on top of the search page. They are displayed when a user searches for information that is akin to the company’s content.
Personas: A persona is the composite profile of a section of a company’s target audience who share common characteristics and values. The company compiles the profile after conducting in depth research. The insights are then used to draw up and execute marketing strategy.
Social media: Social media is the term used for the platforms that provide free web space to people to publish content, share content, comment upon content and build following, These social media platforms have become important nodes for companies to post content, listen to customer conversations and interact with customers, and are an important component of the company’s content market strategy.
Marketing funnel / Sales funnel: The marketing funnel represents the buyer’s purchase journey from the awareness to the purchase stage. It is typically divided into four parts; top of the funnel, middle of the funnel, bottom of the funnel and beyond the funnel that is the post-purchase stage.
Return on investment (ROI): The term return on investment, popularly known by its acronym ROI, is used to evaluate the profitability of an investment. It is calculated by dividing the benefit or return of investment by the cost of the investment. The result is expressed as a percentage or a ratio.
Search engine optimization (SEO): Search engine optimisation is the process that web administrators follow to make their site rank high in Google search results. This is a critical requirement of content marketing if the company’s content is to be discovered by customers.
Target Audience: The target audience in content marketing stands for a group of people who are most likely to buy the product or service that is being produced or offered by a company.
Related report
Content Marketing formats that every marketer should know
Please add terms that I may have missed in the comments section below to make this a comprehensive resource.
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