When it comes to developing your strategy, it’s easy to get confused by all of the marketing acronyms floating around online. What’s more, if you’re working with an outside agency, they may often forget that you yourself aren’t an expert in this field. To help you on your way, our team have put together a list of key abbreviations and their meanings.
Before we dive straight in, however, allow us to first introduce ourselves. VerriBerri is a well-known, trusted, and award-winning marketing agency in the UK. As one of the biggest firms in the South East, our team are well-geared to help your business succeed, no matter it’s niche.
Common marketing acronyms
Entering into the world of marketing can be daunting, let alone when you’re met with a boatload of jargon. Here are a couple of the key acronyms explained:
SEO
SEO or ‘search engine optimisation’ is a form of marketing that allows businesses to organically boost their ranking on Google. This method allows for better brand visibility and produces long-lasting results. This is a highly lucrative technique and one that every organisation should be investing in.
PPC
PPC stands for ‘pay per click’. Also known as Google Ads, PPC campaigns allow you to pay for your website’s placement on the search engine results page. This is a non-organic form of marketing and allows businesses to draw in more traffic which could result in conversion.
SEM
SEM is another way of saying ‘search engine marketing’. This is an umbrella term for two different promotional techniques – search engine optimisation and pay per click.
SMM
SMM is an abbreviation of ‘social media marketing’ and refers to organic promotion across any social platform.
PR
PR is another way of saying ‘public relations’. This refers to exposure both online and in print and is one of many very common marketing acronyms used by communication specialists.
SERP
When dealing with search engine optimisation, you’re likely to come across the acronym ‘SERP’. This stands for ‘search engine results page’ and refers to the options Google returns when you ask it a question.
ROI
ROI stands for ‘return on investment’ and refers to the outcome of putting time and money into a project. In relation to marketing, this term means how profitable your strategy has been.
BR
The acronym ‘BR’ is a shortening of ‘bounce rate’. This term refers to how quickly users are clicking off of your website pages after visiting. This figure is usually averaged and generally, you want to keep this as low as possible. A high BR shows that people aren’t finding your site engaging or relevant for their search. This will negatively affect your ranking on the search engine results page.
CR
CR or a ‘conversion rate’ is the percentage of people who purchase from your brand in correlation to the number of clicks your URL receives. As a general rule of thumb, you want this number to be as high as possible. This indicates that your website is successfully persuading consumers to support your business.
CTA
CTA is an abbreviation of ‘call to action’. A CTA is an imperative clause used within content to encourage an audience to complete an action. They are a must have on social media, within website copy and blogs. Examples include ‘follow us for more’ and ‘contact us today’.
DM
DM stands for ‘direct message’ and is usually used on social media. If someone is asking you to ‘DM’ them, they usually want you to contact them privately to discuss the matter at hand. This is commonly used on Twitter and Instagram, among other platforms.
RT
Used on Twitter, RT stands for ‘retweet’ and refers to the act of sharing someone else’s post onto your own page.
CMS
CMS stands for ‘content management system’ and refers to software that allows you to manage and upload digital content. Examples include (but aren’t limited to):
- WordPress
- Squarespace
- Umbraco
- Shopify
- Wix
GA
If ever you hear ‘GA’, the person is usually referring to a platform known as ‘Google Analytics’. When set up, this site will give you a detailed overview of how your website is performing. It can tell you how many visitors you’ve had, your bounce rate, which pages get the most attention, and much more!
KPI
Key performance indicators (KPI’s) are numerical metrics that can be used to measure your progress against the goals set out in your strategy. For example, cost per lead and your conversion rate.
CTR
A CTR or ‘click-through rate’ is a key indicator of how interesting and relevant your content is. Marketing acronyms like CTR are used when measuring success. This one in particular refers to the amount of people who click on a link within your writing, ratioed against how many people viewed the page.
Is marketing essential for my business?
If you’re looking for ways to boost your brand, building or changing up your marketing strategy is the best place to start. A strong campaign will allow you to effectively communicate with your audience, bringing them closer to what you offer.
When done well, marketing boasts a plethora of benefits for small, medium, and large businesses. These include:
- Improved brand awareness
- Better visibility
- Establishment within your market
- Higher sales and revenue
- Increased word of mouth
- Elevated brand identity and reputation
The above being said, this task is a full-time job and not something you want to be adding to your daily to-dos as a busy CEO. What’s more, getting to grips with the marketing acronyms mentioned above is just one step of a very lengthy process. Instead of building an in-house team to handle this area, it’s often far more cost-effective to outsource this task to a trustworthy marketing agency. Here at VerriBerri, we have almost a decade and a half of experience within this field.
How to get more information
Still struggling with marketing acronyms? Curious about how VerriBerri can take your brand to the next level? Let’s chat! To reach a member of our expert team, click here or call us on 01376 386 850.