Growth Marketing Glossary
B
Brand + Branding
Buyer’s Journey
C
Campaign
Channels
Conversions
D
Digital Marketing
F
Funnel
G
Growth Marketing
I
Ideal Customer
K
Key Performance Metric
L
Lifecycle Marketing
Lifecycle Stages
Local Marketing
T
Target Market
Branding Key Terms
The brand is the collection of assets and approaches that define your company. Remember, a brand is much more than just a color scheme and a logo (although those are important, too).
A logomark is the icon you may see in a brand's logo. For example, the multicolored circle you see on a Pepsi can is the company's logomark.
A logo is a symbol that represents a brand. In many cases, a logo is combines a typemark (the words) and a logomark (the symbol). The words "typemark" and "logomark" are also defined below.
A typemark is simply the text of a brand name. For example, the multi-colored word "Google" you see on the search engine homepage is the company's typemark.
Buyer’s Journey Key Terms
This is the behavioral experience that a contact or company goes through on their way to becoming a customer. The buyer journey is typically defined in the following steps: awareness, consideration, decision, loyalty, promotion. Please note that not all companies will track the last two phases, but growth-focused businesses should.
It’s easiest to describe the buyer journey with an example:
Frank is an HR manager at a mid-sized company. As the company has grown, he’s noticed that he’s spending more and more time on payroll. He is aware that he has a problem, and is exploring different solutions he can use to simplify the payroll process. He is in the Awareness phase of the buyer journey at this point.
- As he is doing research, Frank is getting deeper into understanding the different solutions that might be an option for him. He may be scheduling demos and talking to consultants to learn more about the different solutions. He is now in the Consideration stage.
- After the demos, he has narrowed his options down to two solutions and is requesting a proposal from both software companies. He is now at the Decision stage.
- After he chooses which software to use and has signed the contract, he is now a customer. It’s now time for the company he chose to impress him and earn his loyalty. He’s at the loyalty phase.
- Finally, after he’s been satisfied with the solution, he may be willing to tell other HR managers about his experience. He’s now at the promotion phase!
Campaign Key Terms
A campaign is a set of coordinated, scalable efforts you take to move an individual or a company through the funnel. A campaign can be as simple as a single email, but it typically will involve multiple touch points, sometimes across multiple media.
Channel Key Terms
A marketing channel is a a way that a lead can encounter and interact with your brand. A few examples of marketing channels are events, PR, advertising, and social media.
Note: Although social media is itself a channel, some people refer to each individual social media platforms as a "channel" in their marketing strategy. We find that this can become confusing, but if you choose to use the word this way, just make sure to be clear with your team.
Conversion Key Terms
The conversion rate is the percentage of individuals or companies that move from one action to another. In marketing, tracking conversion rates is most valuable when you know what type of action you’re trying to encourage your leads to take. Conversion rates are essential for growth marketing, because it helps you see what is working - and what isn’t.
Here are a few examples of conversion rates:
- The percentage of people who click on your blog email notification.
- The percentage of leads who fill out a form to sign up for a demo on a landing page.
- The percentage of people who click on a CTA at the bottom of a blog.
Digital Marketing Key Terms
Digital marketing is an umbrella term for online marketing strategies and channels. Digital marketing is created and/or executed using an electronic device or the Internet.
Digital marketing includes web-based marketing, as well as mobile apps and other technologies.Even though digital marketing is tech-enabled, to be successful, it still needs to focus on creating human connection.
Digital marketing is essential for businesses in 2020. Learn the digital marketing basics you need to know here.
Funnel Key Terms
Your funnel is the way your business measures an individual or company’s process of becoming a customer.
The marketing funnel is typically composed of the lifecycle stages (Lead, Opportunity, Customer, Evangelist), but it can also be defined by the behavioral stage of a lead or customer (Awareness, Consideration, Decision, etc.).
Funnels are essential to growth marketing. They clarify your understanding of the buyer journey and make it easier for businesses to track how their leads are becoming customers, and identify any issues in their marketing and sales process. Every business has a funnel, even if you don’t know it yet!
Growth Marketing Key Terms
Growth marketing is all about achieving speedy, scalable growth by optimizing your whole marketing and sales funnel - from lead to evangelist.
Growth marketing is defined by a commitment to data-driven strategy, clear metrics, sales and marketing alignment, and agile strategy. This is typically measured in terms of sales, but can also be measured by lead generation volume, customer retention, or a number of other growth-focused metrics.
To learn more, check out these 5 expert tips for a successful marketing strategy.
Ideal Customer Key Terms
The ideal customer is the fictional person for whom your product or service is the perfect fit. Your “ideal customer” could be a composite your existing customers; if you don’t have customers yet, your “ideal customer” is likely to be based on market research.
An “ideal customer persona” is a document that outlines the personal and professional demographics about this fictitious person, as well as details about when, why, and how they might purchase your offerings.
Your understanding of your ideal customer should form the basis of your marketing and sales strategy.
To learn more, check out this guide to building a marketing program from scratch.
Key Performance Indicator (KPI) Key Terms
KPI stands for key performance metric. In marketing, KPIs are valuable because they help you understand what's working - and what isn't.
Lifecycle Marketing Key Terms
Lifecycle marketing is a strategy that focuses on connecting with potential and current customers throughout their entire experience with your brand. This strategy is designed to connect with people based on their lifecycle and their actual experience, rather than their funnel stage as seen through the sales process.
Some marketers say that lifecycle marketing replaces funnel management. Instead, we believe that the prospect's lifecycle and the funnel can be more clearly aligned.
Lifecycle Stages Key Terms
A lifecycle stage, sometimes also referred to as a contact stage, is the phase of the buyer journey that an individual or account goes through on their journey to becoming a customer. There are a few standard stages, in order: lead, marketing qualified lead, sales qualified lead, opportunity, customer, evangelist.
Growth-focused companies will also focus on “Lost” leads, opportunities, and customers, and may even consider those to be lifecycle stages in their own right.
Visitors are the people who visit your website or other digital presence. Companies with physical locations may also want to consider in-person visitors in their marketing strategy, and evaluate their visitor-to-purchase ratio.
Customers are people or companies who have purchased your product or service.
Leads are people (or companies, if you take an account-based approach) who are interested in buying your product or service. Every company or organization will define a lead differently, depending on their products/services and their sales process.
An evangelist is a current customer that shares positive experiences other potential customers, which generates referrals.
An prospect is essentially a person or company who is seriously interested in buying from you. Every company will define an prospect slightly differently, but your definition should be aligned with your sales process.
Please note that some companies also use the word “prospect” to describe the deal itself. Others use the word "opportunity" to describe the stage and the deal.
Subscribers are people who have opted in to learning more about you by subscribing to your blog or other updates.
To learn more about how these stages relate to your marketing strategy, check out this post.
Local Marketing Key Terms
Local marketing is a tactic where companies highlight their local or physical presence to connect with their current and potential customers.
Target Market Key Terms
Your market is the group of people and/or companies that you want to sell, serve, or otherwise influence. This will be the group on whom you're going to focus your marketing and sales energy.