October 08, 2020

Lesser Known, yet vital, Digital Marketing Terms of 2020

When digital marketing had just begun to get attention, many old-school marketing gurus had called it a bubble that wouldn’t be able to match up to traditional marketing. Later on, it sneaked its way into marketing budgets, and today it’s one of the major channels or the sole channel of marketing for brands all over the globe. It’s an ever-growing industry that has only been helped by the rapid advancements in technology. With tech becoming more and more personal, digital marketing tools can extract data points for every single user a brand has reached, making selling, remarketing, problem identification, and optimization more efficient.

With outdoor experiences and specific retail segments having plummeted in the wake of COVID-19, digital is dominating the marketing world. Digital marketing professionals must find ways to keep up with emerging trends and the development of newer and smarter SEM tactics. After all, nobody can afford to get left behind in this race.

To help keep you informed in this day and age, we’ve compiled a list of 10 digital marketing terms you must absolutely know in 2020:

API

Application Program Interface (API) is an interface from software to software that allows software components to interact with each other and applications to exchange data. When Uber allows you to play music through Spotify, or when Tinder allows for Instagram pictures to be synced with your profile, it is API in action.

• If you’re a modern-day marketing professional, the importance of APIs cannot be undermined. They facilitate faster innovation by reducing barriers to change. Traditional strategies function on big sales forces and outdated means like excessive paperwork. To summarize an article from Forbes, companies with a futuristic outlook are reducing time and cost by “building their solutions with best-of-breed components, which they access via APIs.”

Tracking Pixel

A tracking pixel (also called 1×1 pixel or pixel tag) is a tiny tag-sized graphic with the dimensions 1×1, usually embedded transparently, which gets loaded whenever a user visits a landing page or opens an email, The size and intended transparent placement ensure that the audience is hardly aware of its presence, while it allows businesses to track finer data on audience actions.

• With analytics being gold in digital marketing, data acquired through pixels for online marketing, email marketing/nurturing campaigns, etc. can easily be called a gold mine for marketers.

Closed-loop marketing

One could call closed-loop marketing a profitable harmony of sales and marketing data. CLM is a marketing funnel of this connected data through which you can ascertain the precise ROI of your marketing efforts. It entails understanding the consumer through sales and marketing to them.

• CLM allows you to boost conversion numbers, build more meaningful customer relationships, and have your sales and marketing teams in synergy.

RDMS

Relational Database Management System is a simple database where data is stored in tables. Relational databases have replaced the flat file/hierarchical databases as they can handle diverse data and intricate queries. Traditional databases face challenges of scalability, while RDMS database is broken into minute pieces and slight changes to one leave the rest of the data unaffected.

• Your daily dealing with data can become more efficient with a RDMS as it provides faster sharing of data and application development, easy expansion, and better recovery procedures for your data.

Conversion Rate Optimization

You’d already be aware of conversion rate, which is the ratio of people who performed a desired action through a marketing communication to the people who were sent that communication. The process of increasing this conversion rate to its optimum is called CRO.

• There are some basic hacks to CRO, such as improving landing page quality, engaging design/interface, etc. There are tools specifically built for CRO too. For more highly-qualified leads (HQLs), lower CPAs, and greater value, CRO is a must-know domain for marketers.

Content Management System (CMS)

With content having gone through an explosive phase over the last decade, there’s a need to optimize content to give your audience the best possible digital experience. CMS is a software application that allows creation, management, and user engagement in creation/production of digital content. One of the most-known CMS platforms is WordPress.

• Content is increasing and platforms to access content are diversifying. CMS is evolving into a robust system of managing complete digital experience across, email, mobile, and social media.

Conversation-qualified Lead (CQL)

CQL is the next level of Sales-qualified lead and Product-qualified lead. A CQL is someone with an intent to buy your product that you were made aware of through a conversation. These conversations can happen directly with company employees or a bot-assisted human.

Multi-touch Attribution

Consumer journey today is looked at from the level of every touchpoint. Multi-touch attribution is a method that measures the value of every touchpoint in a conversion journey. Having too many touchpoints can result in a journey fall, while too little would result in a bland consumer experience. It is important to understand which checkpoints are impacting the journey positively.

• Multi-touch attribution can play a vital part in your marketing efforts, as once you can identify which touchpoints are playing a significant role in a conversion, you can strategize and allocate your market budget optimally.

Relationship Marketing

According to Neil Patel, a leading digital marketing influencer, it takes 6-7 times more money to acquire a new customer than to sell to an already existing one. Relationship marketing is a process of nurturing and maintaining consumer loyalty, or as Patel calls it, “big picture marketing”. Unlike traditional marketing, relationship marketing doesn’t try to sell a product, it tries to sell a bond of trust and credibility, which entices a customer to return to the brand.

• While it has been an age-old practice in marketing, with the digital revolution, relationship marketing has been taken to another level, and it’s important for marketers to keep up with the developments. With more personalized communication through data analytics, it’s easier to connect with consumers personally on a large scale through customized loyalty programs, retargeting content, and personalized engagement.

Split-testing

Also known as A/B testing, it’s a method where two different versions of a web page, email, or any marketing asset are pitted against each other and their performance is tested. Usually it happens by disseminating the said assets to groups and comparing their results in terms of reception/feedback.

• Even the smallest of details can bring back remarkable results. For example, one such test with 2000 page visits had shown that a red CTA button had a 21% higher success rate than a green one. Many marketing seniors say that if you’re not split-testing your assets, you’re losing out on fully using your resources.

This list, in no way, is exhaustive for marketing professionals, because the digital landscape is changing every day at a speed tough for anyone to keep up with. So, while the scope for more knowledge never ends, these terms are definitely going to help you get the best out of your marketing endeavors. Brands undoubtedly use these terms, strategies, and tactics everyday with their partners.

Cooperate prides itself on helping OEM’s and service providers optimize their channel marketing efforts with unparalleled focus and dedicated care. We proactively identify ways to address your needs, optimize your ROI, and deliver leading-edge technology with old-fashioned, high-touch service. If you want to talk more about how these digital marketing terms can help transform your business further, schedule a free co-op check to see how we can improve your results and maximize ROI. Click HERE to learn how.

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ABOUT THE AUTHOR

Alex Adelson is a Senior Account Executive at Cooperate Marketing.  Alex has over 10 years of experience in advertising and marketing and holds an undergraduate degrees in Communications & Rhetorical Studies from Syracuse University.