Key Content Marketing Terms Defined

Written by: Gary Horsman

Content Marketing Terms Defined

Here are some common Content Marketing Terms with their definitions. These are terms that I am often asked about and some simple and straight-forward definitions seemed in order.

Anchor Text – The actual text of a link to a page. On many websites, this text is dark blue and underlined, or purple if you’ve visited the link in the past. The anchor text used to make a link is also studied by the search engines and is a factor in defining search position.

Bounce Rate – The percentage of visitors who visit only one page and then leave your website. It is an indication of their interest level – a high bounce rate often can mean a low interest level.

Call-to-Action (CTA) – A text link, button or image that encourages your website or blog visitor to click.

Click-Through Rate (CTR) – A metric used for CTAs and emails that measures the number of people who click on a link, image, or anything that leads to your website or blog, landing page or offer. This metric gauges how well your CTA is doing its job.

Content Distribution – A phrase used to describe how your content will be distributed. This is often defined by many as paid distribution.

Content Management System (CMS) – A system used to manage and publish content to a your website. WordPress is an example of a popular CMS.

Content Promotion – A phrase used to describe owned, paid, shared and earned channels used for promoting content.

Conversion – The act of converting a website visitor into a customer, or taking your visitor a step closer to customer acquisition; for example, completing a form on a landing page, subscribing to your newsletter or blog or the ultimate – making a payment via your eCommerce checkout.

Demand Generation – Targeted marketing programs focused on driving awareness and interest in your content, products and/or services.

Earned Media – Media coverage from news organizations, trade publications, bloggers or influencers that is gained through relationship building, story pitching and media relations work. This is in contrast to paid advertising or other paid media placement methods.

Inbound Marketing – A marketing method that focuses on getting found by new visitors, converting traffic into leads, analyzing performance and nurturing those leads to customers.

Influencer – A person who has the power to impact the sentiment and/or action of people within a target niche or industry.

Influencer Outreach – The act of researching and contacting industry influencers.

Influencer Marketing – Engaging and developing relationships with industry influencers so that they actively participate in your marketing campaign.

Landing Page – A Web page containing specific content that focuses on a key activity and designed for a specific visitor and/or activity and intended to achieve a specific outcome.

Lead Nurturing Campaign – A series of automated emails, SMSs, direct mail pieces or other forms of communication that can be triggered after someone fills out a form on a landing page or takes an online action. This can also be defined as a “drip campaign.”

Marketing Automation – Software platforms that simplify lead nurturing processes by creating and monitoring marketing campaigns.

Media Relations – Marketers or communications professionals developing relationships with journalists and bloggers.

Owned Media –Media published on a channel that you have complete control of; for example, a website, microsite or landing page. If you are the owner you can publish virtually whatever type of content you decide to publish. This can be contrasted to facebook where materials published on facebook are owned and controlled by facebook.

Paid Media – Media distributed through paid channels.

Premium Content – Content that is valuable and relevant to the target audience’s needs and wants, also referred to as advanced or high-impact content. These could be in the form of an ebook, white paper, case study, podcast or informative and delightful instructional videos. All your content need to be delightful.

Search Engine Optimization (SEO) – The process of improving the volume or quality or targeted traffic to a website or blog from search engines via unpaid or organic search traffic.

Search Engine Results Page (SERP) – The listing of results displayed by a search engine in response to a keyword phrase query.

Shared Media – Media promoted and shared by a brand’s or company’s social network of followers.

Thought Leadership – Being respected within an industry for having considerable knowledge (and sharing it), displaying innovation, being progressive and educating people.

Unique Visitor – A website visitor who is only counted once, even if that visitor visited many times during a specified time frame. This is based on the visitor’s IP address.

If you want to learn more about Content Marketing I invite you to take our content marketing tutorial series.