neon marketing glossary
The neon marketing glossary is an Online Marketing Lexicon covering classic marketing terms, as well as common online abbreviations and acronyms.
To search for a word use your browser’s search function by hitting CTRL+F or CMD+F.
10X Marketing
A/B Testing
AARRR: The pirate framework
AFAIK: As far as I know
Affiliate Marketing
Agile Marketing
AHA moment
AIDA: Attention, Interest, Desire, Action
AMA: Ask Me Anything
Analytics
Annual Recurring Revenue
API: Application Programming Interface
Artificial Intelligence
ASP: Application Service Provider
Audience
b/c, bc: Because
B2B: Business to Business
B2C: Business to Consumer
B2G: Business to government
B4: Before
BANT: Budget, Authority, Need, Timeline
Blogging
Blue Ocean Strategy
BOFU: Bottom of the Funnel
BR: Bounce Rate
Brand
BRB: Be right back
BTS: Behind the Scenes
BTW: By the way
Buyer Persona
CAC: Customer Acquisition Cost
CAN-SPAM: Controlling the Assault of Non-Solicited Pornography And Marketing
CASL: Canadian Anti-Spam Legislation
CC: Carbon copy
Chat Bot
Churn
Clickbait
Closed-Loop Marketing
CLV: Lifetime Customer Value
CMGR: Community manager
CMO: Chief Marketing Officer
CMS: Content Management System
Cold Calling
Cold email
Comparative Advertising
Content
Conversion Path
Conversion Rate
Copy testing
Corporate Identity
Cost-Based Pricing
CPA: Cost Per Action
CPC: Cost Per Click
CPL: Cost Per lead
CPM: Cost Per Thousand
CR: Conversion Rate
CRM: Customer Relationship Management
CRO: Conversion Rate Optimization
Cross-Channel Marketing
Cross-Device Marketing
CSS: Cascading Style Sheet
CTA: Call to Action
CTR: Click Through Rate
Customer Insight
Customer Journey
Customer Loyalty
Customer Retention Rate
CX: Customer Experience
DA: Domain Authority
Dark
Deal Closing
Decision-Maker
Demographics
Digital Marketing
Direct Competition
Direct Mail
Direct Marketing
Discovery Call
DM: Direct Mail, or Direct Message (Social Media)
DMU: Decision-making unit
DNS: Domain Name Server
DYK: Did You Know
E-Commerce
Ebook
ELI5: Explain It To Me Like I’m Five
Email
Engagement
Engagement Rate
ESP: Email Service Provider
Evergreen Content
F2F: Face to face
FB: Facebook
FFS: For F–––‘s Sake
FML: F––– My Life
FOMO: Fear of Missing Out
Forecasting
Friction
FTP: File Transfer Protocol
FTW: For The Win
FYI: For your information
GA: Google Analytics
Geographic Segmentation
GG: Good game
Gr8: Great
Growth Hacking
Guerrilla marketing
Hashtag
HTML: Hyper Text Markup Language
IBL: Inbound Link
ICP: Ideal Customer Profile
IDC: I don’t care
IDK: I don’t know
IG: Instagram
ILY: I love you
IM: Instant Messaging
IMO: In my opinion
Inbound Marketing
Infographic
Internal Marketing
IP: Internet Protocol Address
IRL: In real life
ISP: Internet service provider
JK: Just kidding
Keyword
KPI: Key Performance Indicator
Landing Page
Lead
Lead generation
Lead Nurturing
Lead Qualification
leaky Bucket
LI: LinkedIn
List Segmentation
LMAO: Laughing My A–– Off
LOL: Laughing out loud
Loss Aversion
Low-end marketing
LTV: Lifetime Value
Margin
Market Development
Market Penetration
Market Research
Market-Based Pricing
Marketing Automation
Marketing Qualified Lead
MOFU: Middle of the Funnel
MoM: Month-over-Month
Monthly Recurring Revenue
MRR: Monthly Recurring Revenue
MT: Modified tweet
MTD: Month-to-Date
Niche Market/Business
NPS: Net Promoter Score
NSFW: Not safe for work
NVM: Nevermind
OBL: Outbound Link
Off Page SEO
Offer
OMG: Oh my God
OMW: On my way
Onboarding
OoO: Out of Office
OOTD: Outfit of the day
Open Rate
Opt In Form
ORLY: Oh really?!
P2P: Person to person, or peer to peer
PA: Page Authority
Personal Development Plan
PM: Private message
PM: Project Manager
POC: Point Of Contact
Portfolio
POTD: Photo of the day
PPC: Pay Per Click
PPL: People
PR: PageRank
PR: Public Relations
Product life-cycle management
PSA: Public Service Announcement
Psychographics
Public Relations
PV: Pageviews
QoQ: Quarter-over-Quarter
QOTD: Quote of the Day
QR Code: Quick Response Barcode
Qualified Lead
Referral
Relationship Marketing
Remarketing
Research and Development
Responsive Design
ROFL: Rolling on the floor laughing
ROI: Return on Investment
RSS: Rich Site Summary
RT: Retweet
S.W.O.T. Analysis
SaaS: Software-as-a-Service
Sales Funnel
SEA: Search Engine Advertising
SEM: Search Engine Marketing
SEO: Search Engine Optimization
SERP: Search Engine Results Page
SFW: Safe for work
SLA: Service Level Agreement
SM: Social media
SMB: Small-to-Medium Business
SoLoMo: Social, Local, Mobile
Solution Selling
SOV: Share of Voice
SRSLY: Seriously
Target Marketing
TBH: To be honest
TBT: Throwback Thursday
TFW: That Feeling When
TGIF: Thank God It’s Friday
TIL: Today I learned
TL;DR: Too Long; Didn’t Read
TOFU: Top of the Funnel
TOMA: Top-of-mind awareness
TOS: Terms of Service
TY: Thank You
UGC: User-Generated Content
UI: User Interface
URL: Uniform Resource Locator
USP: Unique Selling Proposition
UV: Unique Views
UV: Unique Visitor
UX: User experience
Value Statement
Viral Marketing
w/: With
Website
WFH: Working From Home
WOM: Word of Mouth
Workflow
WTF: What The F–––
WYSIWYG: What You See Is What You Get
YT: YouTube
YW: You’re Welcome
10X Marketing
In simplest terms, 10X marketing focuses on actions and tactics that can improve results by 10 times, rather than merely by 10%. It’s intended to keep marketers focused on doing work that makes the most possible impact while ignoring busywork that takes up time, without delivering meaningful results.
Source: CoSchedule
A/B Testing
Testing two versions of a webpage, email subject line, landing page, CTA, etc. to see which one performs better.
Source: Flightmedia
AARRR: The pirate framework
AARRR stands for acquisition, activation, retention, revenue and referral. Optimizing these five steps will help you understand your customers’ journey and thus grow your business.
Source: neon marketing technology
AFAIK: As far as I know
Ex. “AFAIK, there are no peanuts in a Milky Way bar.”
Source: Buffer
Affiliate Marketing
Affiliate marketing is a form of relationship marketing where a company pays a commission to another company or individual in exchange for referral traffic (and sales attributable to that traffic). Typically, a website will include links to products on another site (usually in blog posts or articles), which will pay a small percentage of its revenue totals in return.
Source: CoSchedule
Agile Marketing
A project management framework (adapted from the software development world) designed to streamline workflows, improve collaboration, and enable work to get done more efficiently. This term is also used to describe adaptable or flexible workflows and processes in general, even with teams that don’t strictly adhere to agile guidelines.
Source: CoSchedule
AHA moment
A moment of sudden insight or discovery. In marketing, this is the moment the user understands the value that your product provides.
Source: neon marketing technology
AIDA: Attention, Interest, Desire, Action
This copywriting formula helps devise a list of events that a reader can take toward converting. It’s particularly effective in website copy, online ads, email, blog posts, and social media updates. Ex. “Check this out! Moz is giving away free SEO for a year! Super great chance to grow your SEO skills and powers. Click here neon.ly/greatstuff!
Source: Buffer
AMA: Ask Me Anything
AMAs are social question and answer sessions. Companies and brand representatives host often host AMAs on Twitter, Reddit, or in a live stream.
Source: Hootsuite
Analytics
Tracking data and creating meaningful patterns from it that inform future marketing endeavors. The data can come from website traffic, conversions, social media, etc.
Source: Flightmedia
Annual Recurring Revenue
Repeating income for one calendar year. It’s often subscription-based revenue. You may see it referred to as ARR.
Source: Flightmedia
API: Application Programming Interface
An API is a set of tools, definitions, and protocols that allows software developers to backend one system with another. For instance, Google Maps has APIs available for web browser and app integration, so that different companies can integrate map technology.
Source: Hootsuite
Artificial Intelligence
A computer, machine, or software system or process that can mimic certain aspects of human intellect.
Source: Flightmedia
ASP: Application Service Provider
These are businesses that provide services over computer networks. For example, a company that works with clients to send text message promotions to their customers.
Source: Neil Patel
Audience
An audience is a group of people that can be reached through a certain channel. The followers of an influencer or the people that sign up for your newsletter. It is important to remember that not every audience is a fit for your product. You should therefore always think about a target audience that fits your campaign best.
Source: neon marketing technology
b/c, bc: Because
Ex. “I’m late b/c traffic.
Source: Buffer
B2B: Business to Business
Describing a business that markets – or sells – to other businesses.
Source: Neil Patel
B2C: Business to Consumer
Describes a company that offers products or services directly to customers.
Source: Hootsuite
B2G: Business to government
Business-to-government or business-to-administration is a derivative of business-to-business marketing and often referred to as a market definition of “public sector marketing”. Which encompasses marketing products and services to various government levels through integrated marketing communications techniques such as strategic public relations, branding, marketing communications, advertising, and web-based communications.
Source: Wikipedia
B4: Before
Ex. “Ask Alice. She got there B4 me.”
Source: Buffer
BANT: Budget, Authority, Need, Timeline
This is a popular tool sales reps and sales leaders frequently use to help them determine whether their prospects have the budget, authority, need, and right timeline to buy what they sell.
B = Budget: Can they afford it?
A = Authority: Are they the decision maker to be able to buy this?
N = Need: Do they actually need what you are selling?
T = Timeline: What’s the time frame to implementation?
Source: Neil Patel
Blogging
Originally, the term was web log or weblog and eventually…blog. Individuals, small business and even large corporations write articles, commentaries, and the like, publishing regularly on their website. A primary component of the inbound marketing method, blogging helps to drive website traffic, builds thought leadership and authority, and drives leads.
Source: Flightmedia
Blue Ocean Strategy
“Blue ocean strategy” refers to moving in a direction where there is little to no competition. In a content marketing context, this could mean creating content on topics that no one else in that industry covers. In a broader business sense, it could mean creating a product or service that solves a problem in a way none other does.
Source: CoSchedule
BOFU: Bottom of the Funnel
A stage in the buying process, this happens last – when leads move through the top of the funnel (identifying a problem), the middle (shopping for solutions), and finally, to the bottom, where they’re ready to buy. At this stage, leads are interested in a demo, a call, or a free consultation.
Source: Flightmedia
BR: Bounce Rate
Out of the total amount of visitors to your website, how many of them navigated away after only viewing a page? The percentage you get here is your bounce rate.
Source: Neil Patel
Brand
Anything that brings about awareness of a specific product, service or business while separating it from other establishments.
Source: Flightmedia
BRB: Be right back
Ex. “brb, making nachos.”
Source: Buffer
BTS: Behind the Scenes
Offer your followers a behind-the-scenes look at your brand with this shorthand.
Source: Hootsuite
BTW: By the way
Ex. “captaindan is not my real name BTW.”
Source: Buffer
Buyer Persona
A summary of your ideal buyer, based on market research, data and hypothesis. The representation helps marketers define their ideal audience and it helps salespeople determine lead quality.
Source: Flightmedia
CAC: Customer Acquisition Cost
How much money did you have to invest in order to get a customer to purchase something from you? The amount you had to invest into research, marketing money, getting your sites and profiles setup and continuing to run well, etc. There are many costs that go into acquiring a customer. Knowing this monetary amount helps with projecting how much to spend to acquire a customer moving forward.
Source: Neil Patel
CAN-SPAM: Controlling the Assault of Non-Solicited Pornography And Marketing
A U.S. law passed in 2003 that set the rules for commercial email and messages. This law means that users can opt out of emails and that if businesses continue to attempt to email them (e.g. spam) then there are penalties in place. This is why all emails require an “unsubscribe” button at the bottom of them.
Source: Neil Patel
CASL: Canadian Anti-Spam Legislation
A Canadian law passed in 2013 that regulates the sending of “commercial electronic messages.” CASL covers email, texts, instant messages, and automated cell phone messages sent to computers and phones in Canada.
Source: Neil Patel
CC: Carbon copy
On social media, CC has the same usage as the CC on your emails: to make sure that a Twitter user sees your Tweet, used with the @ mention and their Twitter handle. Ex. “Amazing new insights into digital marketing @hnshah”
Source: Buffer
Chat Bot
An AI-powered chat window used to automate customer support and other purposes. They most often appear on websites, mobile apps, Facebook Messenger, and other web platforms.
Source: CoSchedule
Churn
The percentage of customers who cancel a product or service or leave within a specified time period.
Source: Flightmedia
Clickbait
Clickbait typically refers to the practice of writing sensationalized or misleading headlines in order to attract clicks on a piece of content. It often relies on exaggerating claims or leaving out key information in order to encourage traffic. The term is generally used in a dismissive sense.
Source: CoSchedule
Closed-Loop Marketing
Closed-Loop Marketing, or “closing the loop” means gathering data on your website, usually with the help of your Customer Relationship Management (CRM) software, and acting on it. Another definition could be that closed-loop marketing is aligning the data from both the marketing and sales departments.
Source: Designrush
CLV: Lifetime Customer Value
A prediction of the net profit attributed to the entire future relationship with a customer.
Source: Flightmedia
CMGR: Community manager
Often, this person is helpful in engaging with the community on social media, forums, and meetups. The social media manager job description has a lot of crossover with a community manager.
Source: Buffer
CMO: Chief Marketing Officer
A CMO wears many hats but their specialty is in-depth knowledge of marketing fundamentals. They may also be involved in data analysis and strategic thinking.
Source: Neil Patel
CMS: Content Management System
Any kind of software application that manages the vast amount of content you have related to your brand. It may support your images, content editing, organizing, and publishing. Think: blog and social media content. Some applications do more than others but they are all considered to be a CMS if they are within the content management realm.
Source: Neil Patel
Cold Calling
Approaching prospective clients by phone or face-to-face without having ever had any interaction with them before.
Source: Flightmedia
Cold email
Using email to interact with a prospect with whom they’ve had no prior contact.
Source: Flightmedia
Comparative Advertising
The type of advertising in which a company makes a direct comparison to another brand, firm or organization.
Source: Flightmedia
Content
Information created to inform, educate, or influence a specific audience. Content may be released in the form of text, image, video, or audio.
Source: Flightmedia
Conversion Path
The path, or course of actions, a prospect will go through to eventually become a lead. These events can include a call to action, lead form, thank you page, downloadable content, etc.
Source: Flightmedia
Conversion Rate
Percentage of people who take a desired action, such as filling out a form, registering, signing up for a newsletter, or any activity other than just browsing a web page.
Source: Flightmedia
Copy testing
Copy testing is a specialized field of marketing research that determines an advertisement’s effectiveness based on consumer responses, feedback, and behavior. Also known as pre-testing, it might address all media channels including television, print, radio, outdoor signage, internet, and social media.
Source: Wikipedia
Corporate Identity
All symbols, colors, logos, etc., that make up the public image of an organization.
Source: Flightmedia
Cost-Based Pricing
A strategic form of pricing intended to cover the expenses of running your business.
Source: Flightmedia
CPA: Cost Per Action
Let’s say you have a website and get some product advertising banners on it. Every time someone clicks the banner, buys something, or views the banner- you get money. Every advertiser and arrangement is different, for example you may just get paid when someone actually purchases something. However you make the arrangement, the amount you get paid is called “cost per action.”
Source: Neil Patel
CPC: Cost Per Click
Another online advertising model, in this instance with the web banner example, you’d just get paid a pre-set amount whenever the Ad is clicked. Another acronym you may see for this is PPC (pay per click).
Source: Neil Patel
CPL: Cost Per lead
The total cost marketing pays to acquire a lead. It is an important metric to keep track of and it influences your Customer Acquisition Cost (CAC).
Source: Flightmedia
CPM: Cost Per Thousand
If you are doing a large marketing campaign, the amount it costs to reach one thousand people via a particular advertising type or medium.
Source: Neil Patel
CR: Conversion Rate
How many users took the action you wanted them to out of the total amount who were there and saw the offer? E.g. how many people joined your email list on your website out of those that visited your website? That percentage is the conversion rate.
Source: Neil Patel
CRM: Customer Relationship Management
A software platform that enables businesses to maintain information about customers and leads in order to build and nurture relationships with them. In a simplified example, a company can see that a consumer opened all the emails about a particular product and clicked links to look at it, but didn’t purchase. So the company can send them a follow up email with a special promotion for that particular item.
Source: Neil Patel
CRO: Conversion Rate Optimization
A strategy to try to increase the amount of users that take action on something and convert into customers. E.g. Increase the conversion rate of users who visit a website and end up purchasing.
Source: Neil Patel
Cross-Channel Marketing
A marketing tactic that involves promoting the same message or campaign across multiple channels or media formats, such as a website, television, an in-person event, online ads, and so forth.
Source: CoSchedule
Cross-Device Marketing
Targeting customers with cohesive messaging and marketing tactics across multiple devices (desktop, mobile phone, tablet, etc).
Source: CoSchedule
CSS: Cascading Style Sheet
When you build a website using traditional coding like HTML, you use CSS code on top of it to make it look visually appealing. HTML is like the building blocks and CSS is the decoration. So if you were to add a snippet of HTML code to your website from your email service provider to try to collect email addresses, it likely has a very static look from the email company that doesn’t match your website’s branding at all. You would then use CSS to change the button color, the font, etc to make it look like it’s a matching part of your website.
Source: Neil Patel
CTA: Call to Action
Words like “click here!” “Subscribe now” “buy now” etc are all considered to be CTAs. It’s a specific instruction to users encouraging them to take a desired action. When done right, they provoke an immediate response.
Source: Neil Patel
CTR: Click Through Rate
How many users clicked on something specific vs. the total number of users that saw the link. E.g. out of everyone who opened an email and saw the link, how many actually clicked?
Source: Neil Patel
Customer Insight
An observation on the behavioral patterns of your target customers that can be used to make strategic adjustments to better suit their needs. They are the result of data analysis and proactive effort to better understand an audience or customer base.
Source: CoSchedule
Customer Journey
The path a potential customer takes to buying your product. This path includes every interaction and touchpoint the customer experiences or engages with in relation to your company before making a purchase.
Source: CoSchedule
Customer Loyalty
When a consumer is a repeat buyer of a product, service or brand.
Source: Flightmedia
Customer Retention Rate
Customer retention rate measures how well subscription and service-based companies retain customers over a given period of time. It excludes the number of new customers acquired during this period.
Source: CoSchedule
CX: Customer Experience
This is what we call the entire process a consumer goes through from knowing about your brand through to purchasing, purchasing again, interacting with staff, with the website, etc. Every little piece is part of a customer’s experience.
Source: Neil Patel
DA: Domain Authority
Domain Authority is a search engine rating metric created by Moz. DA rating is a score between 0 and 100 and this score calculated by evaluating a ton of different metrics some of which are; Moz’s very own MozRank, MozTrust, linking root domains, number of total links (similar to Trust Flow and Citation Flow). All these factors and more make up a site’s DA the higher the score the more authority that domain has (higher = better). DA is a predictor on how likely a website will rank. Now website’s have a single score to compare themselves against other websites.
Source: Neil Patel
Dark
A term used to describe a prospect who no longer responds to any type of communication. (Example: Ms. Jones went dark.)
Source: Flightmedia
Deal Closing
A prospect agrees to purchase a product or service and completes a sales transaction
Source: Flightmedia
Decision-Maker
The person in a position to make the final choice about buying a product or service.
Source: Flightmedia
Demographics
A specific profiling aspect that takes into consideration age, gender, income, family life, social class, etc. It’s often used in segmentation or for focal points in marketing and advertising strategies.
Source: Flightmedia
Digital Marketing
Marketing to a target audience solely via the internet. Could be email marketing, content marketing, etc.
Source: Flightmedia
Direct Competition
Competitors that provide the exact same services as your establishment or firm.
Source: Flightmedia
Direct Mail
A means of advertising communication that reaches a consumer where they live or their place of business, through the mail, often based on demographics and/or geographical location.
Source: Flightmedia
Direct Marketing
Dealing Directly with the ‘end user’ rather than a third party or a middle man. Also can be seen as directly communicating with your primary target audience. Can come in the form of advertising, marketing or communications.
Source: Flightmedia
Discovery Call
The very first call with a prospect. The purpose is to find out if they’re a good fit to work with your organization.
Source: Flightmedia
DM: Direct Mail, or Direct Message (Social Media)
Direct Mail: Sending physical mail via post to recipients. Also known as “junk mail” as this no longer converts a cold audience into a customer anymore.
Direct Message: A message on a social media platform used to get in touch with followers of an account directly and in private. DMs can be sent from one person to another, or within a group. Most accounts only allow DMs from their followers, but many businesses allow DMs from anyone.
Source: Neil Patel
DMU: Decision-making unit
A buying center, also called decision-making unit (DMU), brings together “all those members of an organization who become involved in the buying process for a particular product or service”.
Source: Wikipedia
DNS: Domain Name Server
A system that controls your domain name’s website and email settings.
Source: Neil Patel
DYK: Did You Know
Did you know the DYK abbreviation is a great way to offer a fun fact?
Source: Hootsuite
E-Commerce
The means of selling products digitally on the internet.
Source: Flightmedia
Ebook
Also referred to as a lead magnet, ebooks are generally a piece of longer content designed to generate leads.
Source: Flightmedia
ELI5: Explain It To Me Like I’m Five
To put it simply, this popular-on-Reddit abbreviation calls for a straightforward explanation of something complex.
Source: Hootsuite
A digital message you can send through the internet to contacts, leads and prospects. Marketing through email takes businesses directly into a consumer’s inbox and provides the ability to create a connection and build trust.
Source: Flightmedia
Engagement
Keeping prospects and customers interested in your brand and invested in your success with the understanding that it’s to their benefit, as well.
Source: Flightmedia
Engagement Rate
A measurement of likes, shares, comments or other interaction a particular piece of content receives.
Source: Flightmedia
ESP: Email Service Provider
A company that offers email marketing or bulk mail. Keeping track of everyone and various campaigns in a personal email is impossible. These companies make it easy and well organized. They also take precautions to ensure you do not get flagged as spam when sending emails.
Source: Neil Patel
Evergreen Content
Content that is valuable to a reader today, in 5 years and in 10 years. This “evergreen” content is timeless, offers the highest-quality information and offers huge SEO benefits.
Source: Flightmedia
F2F: Face to face
Ex. “Let’s chat F2F instead of skype.”
Source: Buffer
FB: Facebook
Ex. “Are you on FB?
Source: Buffer
FFS: For F–––‘s Sake
Just total exasperation.
Source: Hootsuite
FML: F––– My Life
Often used before or after an unfortunate anecdote.
Source: Hootsuite
FOMO: Fear of Missing Out
FOMO describes a type of social anxiety where you feel that if you miss an opportunity you might miss out on something great. FOMO comes into play quite often with social media where some people are compelled to stay connected so they never miss a big moment.
Source: Buffer
Forecasting
A prediction of marketing and sales trends that are likely to occur in the future. This forecast is based on historical, quantitative, and qualitative data.
Source: Flightmedia
Friction
Any aspect of your website that is hard to understand, distracting or causes visitors to move on from your page.
Source: Flightmedia
FTP: File Transfer Protocol
If you have a large amount of files to send (think an entire website of files, a ton of videos, etc) you can use FTP to transfer the files from one host to another over the internet.
Source: Neil Patel
FTW: For The Win
A jubilant exclamation, and sometimes used in jest or sarcastically. Ex. “Churros, FTW!
Source: Buffer
FYI: For your information
Ex. “FYI, my Macbook Air smells like fresh popcorn!”
Source: Buffer
GA: Google Analytics
Google provides a service for users’ websites that generates detailed statistics about a website’s traffic and where the site visits are coming from. It can also measure conversions and sales. This is added to your website and then presented to you on a private dashboard.
Source: Neil Patel
Geographic Segmentation
Segmenting a group of audiences based on where they live or where they are located.
Source: Flightmedia
GG: Good game
Ex. “That was fun! GG! Let’s do it again some time soon.”
Source: Buffer
Gr8: Great
Ex. “Gr8 stuff! RT @buffer Check out our new transparency dashboard full of resources!”
Source: Buffer
Growth Hacking
Growth hacking is a relatively new[when?] field in marketing focused on growth. It started in relation to early-stage startups who need massive growth in a short time on small budgets, but has since then also reached bigger corporate companies. The goal of growth hacking strategies is generally to acquire as many users or customers as possible while spending as little as possible. A growth hacking team is made up of marketers, developers, engineers and product managers that specifically focus on building and engaging the user base of a business.
The typical growth hacker often focuses on finding smarter, low-cost alternatives to traditional marketing, e.g. using social media, viral marketing or targeted advertising instead of buying advertising through more traditional media such as radio, newspaper, and television.
Source: Wikipedia
Guerrilla marketing
Guerrilla marketing is an advertisement strategy in which a company uses surprise and/or unconventional interactions in order to promote a product or service. It is a type of publicity.
Guerrilla marketing uses multiple techniques and practices in order to establish direct contact with the customers. One of the goals of this interaction is to cause an emotional reaction in the clients, and the ultimate goal of marketing is to get people to remember products or brands in a different way than they are accustomed to.
Source: Wikipedia
Hashtag
A keyword phrase, written without spaces, with a # in front of it. It allows you and your audience to interact and converse about specific topics on social media.
Source: Flightmedia
HTML: Hyper Text Markup Language
This is the basic code used to make websites. If your website was a house then HTML would just be the foundation, walls, holes for doors and windows. But that’s all. See CSS definition for how to decorate your house / website.
Source: Neil Patel
IBL: Inbound Link
A link back to your site from another website.
Source: Neil Patel
ICP: Ideal Customer Profile
The type of customer who meets all the criteria you’re looking for in a prospect. In other words, your perfect client.
Source: Flightmedia
IDC: I don’t care
Ex. “Raining today. IDC.”
Source: Buffer
IDK: I don’t know
Ex. “Super tough test today! Our 14th president? IDK. ¯_(ツ)_/¯”
Source: Buffer
IG: Instagram
Ex. “Check out their IG!
Source: Buffer
ILY: I love you
Ex. “PS: ILY
Source: Buffer
IM: Instant Messaging
When you send a typed message to another person in real time. E.g. text message, Facebook message, Skype chat, iMessage.
Source: Neil Patel
IMO: In my opinion
Ex. “I’m not sure it’s a good idea to eat and drive at the same time, IMO.”
Source: Buffer
Inbound Marketing
Advertising your company via content marketing, podcasts, video, eBooks, email broadcast, SEO, Social Marketing, etc., rather than paid advertising.
Source: Flightmedia
Infographic
A type of content that is visual in nature, making complex information easy to understand and digest.
Source: Flightmedia
Internal Marketing
Efforts to offer a marketing plan to individuals and executives within your own firm to gain their approval and/or support.
Source: Flightmedia
IP: Internet Protocol Address
There’s a number assigned to every device that uses the internet. E.g. phone, laptop. This number is called an IP Address. An example IP address looks like this: 78.125.0.209
Source: Neil Patel
IRL: In real life
This phrase is often used to distinguish between interactions and events that happen online versus the real world. Ex. “Huge fan of @guy! We met IRL a few years back. 🙂
Source: Buffer
ISP: Internet service provider
Who do you pay for Internet? This is your ISP. Comcast is the largest ISP in the United States.
Source: Buffer
JK: Just kidding
Ex. “I’m king of the world! JK.”
Source: Buffer
Keyword
A specific word or phrase that describes the content of a webpage. It should always align with your target audience.
Source: Flightmedia
KPI: Key Performance Indicator
As a company you get to determine what your own KPI’s are based on the goals you are trying to achieve and what you want to track. Maybe a KPI for you is how many views you get on your blog and how many of them convert into subscribers.
Source: Neil Patel
Landing Page
A page on your website that houses a form that prospects will fill out and exchange their personal information for a lead magnet or free offer (such as an ebook, demo or consultation).
Source: Flightmedia
Lead
An individual or a company that has shown interest in one of your products or services. Could be either a MQL (Marketing Qualified Lead) or an SQL (Sales Qualified Lead).
Source: Flightmedia
Lead generation
Activities with the purpose of generating interest about your product or service. These activities may include content marketing, advertising, referrals and partnerships.
Source: Flightmedia
Lead Nurturing
Engaging and building relationships with potential customers through a variety of marketing techniques.
Source: Flightmedia
Lead Qualification
Determining whether a client fits your organization’s vision of the ideal customer.
Source: Flightmedia
Leaky Bucket
An analogy referring to sending traffic to an unoptimized/unfinished product. If you do not fix the leaks in your bucket, hardly any costumers will stay and turn into active users in the long run. First fix the problems, then send more traffic.
Source: neon marketing technology
LI: LinkedIn
Have you tried searching on LI”?
Source: Buffer
List Segmentation
The process of dividing up an email list into smaller groups of contacts that share something in common (for example, different demographics, use cases, industries, location, and so forth).
Source: CoSchedule
LMAO: Laughing My A–– Off
For when laughing normally doesn’t cut it.
Source: Hootsuite
LOL: Laughing out loud
Ex. “looool
Source: Buffer
Loss Aversion
Refers to the psychological idea that people feel more negatively about losing money than they do about the prospect of getting money.
Source: Flightmedia
Low-end marketing
Low-end market consists of lower-priced products suitable for customers who are not willing or able to spend large amounts of money.
Source: Wikipedia
LTV: Lifetime Value
This is a monetary amount associated with a customer that estimates how much money they are going to ever spend with the company based on their actions, demographics, purchases, etc.
Source: Neil Patel
Margin
The profit gained from a product or service after all expenses for selling that product or service are covered.
Source: Flightmedia
Market Development
The act of taking an existing product or service to a new market.
Source: Flightmedia
Market Penetration
A strategy used to sell more of an existing product within the current markets it is being sold.
Source: Flightmedia
Market Research
High-intelligence research and development of a specific industry for the betterment of sound business decisions.
Source: Flightmedia
Market-Based Pricing
Similar to competitive based pricing in the sense that this type of pricing is based off of the streamlined/current pricing for a specific product or service within the same industry.
Source: Flightmedia
Marketing Automation
This is the tool that lets you “automate” your marketing campaigns. Through lead nurturing, behavior-based strategies and more, you can use marketing automation to send the right marketing messages to the right people at the right time.
Source: Flightmedia
Marketing Qualified Lead
A lead that is ready to be handed over to the sales team. An MQL has had some sort of positive interaction with the company, such as a discussion, downloading marketing products, etc., that deems them worthy to move to the next level of the sales funnel.
Source: Flightmedia
MOFU: Middle of the Funnel
The stage of the sales funnel which a buyer enters after they have identified a problem. This is the point at which you position your business as the solution to their problem.
Source: Flightmedia
MoM: Month-over-Month
This is used when you are comparing a month of a certain year with the same month of the previous year.
When you compare the average of what you are trying to track changes in for each month, you end up with the MoM.
To calculate percentage growth: Subtract Month Y number from Month X number, divide the result by Month X number, then multiply the final result by 100.
Source: Neil Patel
Monthly Recurring Revenue
The amount of income produced each month from subscriptions to your products or services.
Source: Flightmedia
MRR: Monthly Recurring Revenue
This is used to track the amount of revenue a subscription-based business receives every month. Includes averaging lost customers averaging with the rate new customers subscribe.
Source: Neil Patel
MT: Modified tweet
Modified tweets occur when a user is attempting to manually retweet but the tweet is too long and you have to modify the original tweet. The issues with length can occur if you’re trying to add your own commentary to an already-long tweet. Ex. “Incredible resources here! MT: @unbounce The Ultimate Guide to Landing Pages That Work”
Source: Buffer
MTD: Month-to-Date
A time period starting at the beginning of the current month and ending at the current date.
Source: Neil Patel
Niche Market/Business
A very specific segment of a market in which you are trying to meet the needs of that market.
Source: Flightmedia
NPS: Net Promoter Score
This is a number from 0-10 that the measures the degree to which people would recommend your company to others.This number can be used to determine how to improve a company’s product or service. To calculate NPS, subtract the percentage of customers who would not recommend you (detractors, or 0-6) from the percent of customers who would (promoters, or 9-10).
Source: Neil Patel
NSFW: Not safe for work
NSFW means that a link, photo, video, or text contains graphic or inappropriate content for the workplace. Ex. “New movie trailer for The Hangover (some NSFW language)”
Source: Buffer
NVM: Nevermind
Just, forget about it.
Source: Hootsuite
OBL: Outbound Link
Links that take you away from your current website.
Source: Neil Patel
Off Page SEO
Off-page SEO refers to tactics intended to improve a website’s search engine rankings by affecting factors on third-party sites.
Source: CoSchedule
Offer
This is an asset that you’ll offer prospects on a landing page. The offer is designed to help you generate leads, and they can include everything from a webinar, ebook, checklist, template, demo and more.
Source: Flightmedia
OMG: Oh my God
Ex. “OMG! I can’t believe how great this new app is. 🙂
Source: Buffer
OMW: On my way
Ex. “OMW. See you in a few!”
Source: Buffer
Onboarding
This term can refer to introducing a new customer or client to your services or products, or it’s used to describe assimilating a new employee into your organization.
Source: Flightmedia
OoO: Out of Office
Used to explain if you are going to be out of the office physically for a specific time.
Source: Neil Patel
OOTD: Outfit of the day
This social media meme has people sharing which outfit they’re wearing that day. Popular on Instagram, OOTD often will appear as a hashtag. Ex. “New shirt. New pants. #OOTD”
Source: Buffer
Open Rate
Open rate is an email marketing metric that gauges the percentage of email recipients that open a newsletter or other marketing email.
Source: CoSchedule
Opt In Form
An online form used to capture information from potential leads.
Source: CoSchedule
ORLY: Oh really?!
Like LOLz, this abbreviation can be used sarcastically as well as seriously. Ex. “ORLY? RT @kevanlee Firecrackers aren’t made from crackers.”
Source: Buffer
P2P: Person to person, or peer to peer
Similar to F2F, this abbreviation can refer to an in-person meeting, as opposed to an online get together. Also, P2P can come up in a business arena as a way of distinguishing a type of network, tool, meeting, or event.
Source: Buffer
PA: Page Authority
Page Authority is calculated the same as Domain Authority and has the same rating system (0-100). The difference is that Page Authority is a score for a single page on a website. Thus predicting the likelihood that that specific page will rank. This score can also be used to compare specific pages of a website to other specific pages on other websites.
Source: Neil Patel
Personal Development Plan
Developed for individuals who are looking to evaluate their S.W.O.T. analysis to plan their future achievement and success.
Source: Flightmedia
PM: Private message
Ex. “Send me a PM! 🙂
Source: Buffer
PM: Project Manager
Project managers manage the various aspects of a project, but do not actual contribute to the project elements itself. They are responsible for increasing productivity, reducing risk, maximizing benefits, and minimizing costs. They are the point person for any issues that arise inside or outside the project team.
Source: Neil Patel
POC: Point Of Contact
The representative who is the decision-maker/facilitator for their organization in terms of marketing and sales.
Source: Flightmedia
Portfolio
A series of case studies that provide proof of value to potential customers.
Source: Flightmedia
POTD: Photo of the day
Popular on Instagram, this abbreviation often appears as a hashtag for those who want to show off their best photo of the day. Ex. “Check out this sunset! #POTD”
Source: Buffer
PPC: Pay Per Click
A method of advertising on the internet where you only pay when someone “clicks” on your ad.
Source: Flightmedia
PPL: People
Ex. “Tons of PPL here. This place is packed!”
Source: Buffer
PR: PageRank
How Google ranks software and calculates how well your page connects with the search words entered.
Source: Neil Patel
PR: Public Relations
The act of getting a company, brand, product or person in front of the right audiences at the right time. Ideally, consumers watch it and it sounds like genuine recommendations or information vs. an advertisement that would turn them off. Examples of good PR:, being featured in a magazine, TV show, special event, celebrity, news article, podcast, etc.
Source: Neil Patel
Product life-cycle management
Product life-cycle management (PLM) is the succession of strategies by business management as a product goes through its life-cycle. The conditions in which a product is sold (advertising, saturation) changes over time and must be managed as it moves through its succession of stage.
Source: Wikipedia
PSA: Public Service Announcement
A way to broadcast a message considered valuable to the general public.
Source: Hootsuite
Psychographics
Psychometrics are the art and science of systematic psychological measuring. Systematic psychological measuring is all about quantifying and classifying the psyche. The construction and application of measurement instruments is the key to psychometrics. The classic psychometric instrument being the structured questionnaire with standardized answers.
Source: neon marketing technology
Public Relations
A series of media releases, conferences, social images, etc. that make up and maintain the reputation of an organization and its brands.
Source: Flightmedia
PV: Pageviews
One of the most widely-used metrics in Google Analytics and web traffic tracking, pageviews refers to the number of times a user visits a webpage. Unique pageviews goes a step further and counts only the pageviews of unique individuals (for example, if Tom visited a page three times and Amy visited once, pageviews would be four, and the unique pageviews would be two).
Source: Buffer
QoQ: Quarter-over-Quarter
This is used when you are comparing a quarter of a certain year with the same quarter of the precious year.
Source: Neil Patel
QOTD: Quote of the Day
Used for sharing a funny or interesting quote, QOTD will often appear in a hashtag following the quote. Ex. “You will get everything you want in life if you help other people get what they want. – Zig Ziglar #QOTD”
Source: Buffer
QR Code: Quick Response Barcode
Have you ever seen those squares with a bunch of dots on them on products or signs? These are called QR codes and they store website URLs or other information. You can scan them with your Smartphone’s camera and be taken to the information directly.
Source: Neil Patel
Qualified Lead
A lead that is qualified meets your company’s criteria, or buyer persona attributes, and is more likely to buy. A marketing qualified lead meets marketing objectives, while a sales qualified lead meets sales objectives.
Source: Flightmedia
Referral
A prospect or lead generated from someone who may be interested in what the salesperson is selling.
Source: Flightmedia
Relationship Marketing
Establishing relationships with the intent of developing a long term association with a prospect or potential customer. This strategy is much less expensive than gaining new customers.
Source: Flightmedia
Remarketing
The act of trying to get your product in front of someone who has already interacted with your business in some way (website visit, social media engagement, etc.)
Source: neon marketing technology
Research and Development
The process of discovering and developing new products and services.
Source: Flightmedia
Responsive Design
A website that changes based on the device the consumer uses. Mobile, laptop, and desktop devices offer different views of a website, and responsive design accommodate for each view, without having to build separate websites for each one.
Source: Flightmedia
ROFL: Rolling on the floor laughing
Most often used with the simple ROFL, this abbreviation comes as a response to something really funny, to a greater degree than a LOL. Ex. “Listening to the new Brian Regan CD! ROFL! This is so great. 🙂
Source: Buffer
ROI: Return on Investment
If you invested $100 into a marketing campaign and made $1000, you had a $900 return on investment. This amount is just how much you got back on an investment you made of any kind.
Source: Neil Patel
RSS: Rich Site Summary
An RSS is a list AKA “ feed” or “channel” with a summary of a bunch of different websites.
Source: Neil Patel
RT: Retweet
Re-posting (or sharing) a tweet posted by another user on Twitter. This can be done by simply using the “retweet” button.
Source: Neil Patel
S.W.O.T. Analysis
An internal study often used by organizations to identify their strengths,weaknesses, opportunities and threats.
Source: Flightmedia
SaaS: Software-as-a-Service
If you’ve ever used an online software or downloaded it onto your computer, you’ve used SaaS. For example, if you use an accounting software that’s SaaS. These are typically on subscription.
Source: Neil Patel
Sales Funnel
The entire sales process as a whole – from prospect to paying customer – and all marketing, advertising and sales processes in between.
Source: Flightmedia
SEA: Search Engine Advertising
Advertisements in the form of a text or images are posted on search engines such as Google or Bing.
Source: Ryte
SEM: Search Engine Marketing
When you search on a search engine and the top results are sponsored results, i.e. companies pay to have their related site come up above the rest to increase the likeliness you’ll click them vs scrolling down to the non- sponsored posts.
Source: Neil Patel
SEO: Search Engine Optimization
This is when you optimize your website and content in order to appear in search engine results for keywords you want to be associated with. This is organic (free) to implement whereas SEM (see above) is the paid version.
Source: Neil Patel
SERP: Search Engine Results Page
When you search for keywords in a search engine and the list of results appears, this page is called the SERP.
Source: Neil Patel
SFW: Safe for work
The SFW abbreviation is sometimes used on content that seems like it may be NSFW but is actually quite non-offensive. Ex. “Loved the new music video from Nicki Minaj! (SFW, btw)!”
Source: Buffer
SLA: Service Level Agreement
An agreement between a company’s sales and marketing teams that defines the expectations sales has for marketing and vice versa. The idea is to align the sales and marketing teams so they are integrated and can work toward goals cohesively.
Source: Neil Patel
SM: Social media
Ex. “Follow us on our SM channels!
Source: Buffer
SMB: Small-to-Medium Business
Companies that have between 10 and 500 employees.
Source: Neil Patel
SoLoMo: Social, Local, Mobile
This refers to a localized and mobile-centric version of search engine results. SoLoMo takes advantage of a phone or tablet’s GPS technologies to deliver a user experience (search results, notifications, etc.) based on location.
Source: Buffer
Solution Selling
Solution selling has a salesperson or sales team use a sales process that is a problem-led (rather than product-led) approach to determine if and how a change in a product could bring specific improvements that are desired by the customer. The term “solution” infers that the proposed new product produces improved outcomes and successfully resolves the customer problem. Business-to-business sales (B2B) organizations are more likely to use solution selling and similar sales methodologies.
Source: Wikipedia
SOV: Share of Voice
An online advertising ad revenue model that focuses on weight or percentage among other advertisers.
Source: Neil Patel
SRSLY: Seriously
For serious incredulity.
Source: Hootsuite
Target Marketing
A group of customers toward which a business has decided to aim its marketing efforts and merchandise.
Source: Flightmedia
TBH: To be honest
Ex. “I’ve yet to see the appeal of snuggies, TBH.”
Source: Buffer
TBT: Throwback Thursday
Often used as a hashtag, TBT is when users share a photo from their past, often baby photos or, in the case of companies, photos from their early years. Ex. “Here’s the first version of our logo! Wow, it’s come a long way! #TBT”
Source: Buffer
TFW: That Feeling When
Precedes an often relatable experience, usually accompanied by a meme.
Source: Hootsuite
TGIF: Thank God It’s Friday
Because everybody’s working for the weekend.
Source: Hootsuite
TIL: Today I learned
Ex. “TIL how tax credits work.”
Source: Buffer
TL;DR: Too Long; Didn’t Read
This abbreviation may appear in a comment, post, or tweet, where the user is mentioning they weren’t able to completely read an article because of its length. Also, some articles or notes may include this abbreviation in lieu of a summary heading. Ex. “tl;dr RT @cnn The Full Transcript from the State of the Union Address.”
Source: Buffer
TOFU: Top of the Funnel
Whereas Bottom of the Funnel (BOFU) prospects are in the ready-to-buy stage, TOFU customers are at the initial stages of the buying process. They are looking for answers to a problem they just realized they are having. Marketers create TOFU content that help prospects identify the problem and leads them to solutions.
Source: Flightmedia
TOMA: Top-of-mind awareness
Top-of-mind awareness (TOMA) refers to a brand or specific product being first in customers’ minds when thinking of a particular industry or category. Is often defined as the “most remembered” or “most recalled” brand names.
Source: Wikipedia
TOS: Terms of Service
Terms a user has to agree with in order to use a particular software, service, product, etc.
Source: Neil Patel
TY: Thank You
Or thx.
Source: Hootsuite
UGC: User-Generated Content
User-generated content refers to any content, such as posts, images, or videos, that is shared by the end users of a social media platform or other site.
Source: Hootsuite
UI: User Interface
The part a user sees on a web application. E.g. when you interact with a website, that’s the UI. There is various code, databases, servers, etc that goes into a website. But the part users SEE is the UI.
Source: Neil Patel
URL: Uniform Resource Locator
An address to a website or resource on the internet. It’s what you type into the top bar of a web browser so you can locate the site you want.
Source: Neil Patel
USP: Unique Selling Proposition
A factor that differentiates a product from its competitors, such as the low cost, the quality, etc.
Source: Flightmedia
UV: Unique Views
Unique views are the number of individual viewers of a page, video, or image. For example, if a single user views something 10 times, it will register as 10 views and one unique view.
Source: Hootsuite
UV: Unique Visitor
This is used to count the number of individuals visiting web pages during a given time. It counts each person individually, so if someone leaves the site and comes back they are still only counted as 1.
Source: Neil Patel
UX: User experience
User experience describes the way a user feels when using a website or a product. It’s the sum of the user’s experiences. To use an analogy, it would be like the feeling you get riding a horse (as opposed to the horse, the stirrups, the saddle themselves).
Source: Buffer
Value Statement
A description of your company’s top priorities and how those translate into marketing and sales initiatives.
Source: Flightmedia
Viral Marketing
A method of product promotion that relies on getting customers to market an idea, product or service on their own.
Source: Flightmedia
w/: With
Ex. “Are you going w/ Rachel?
Source: Buffer
Website
A series of webpages that are connected, beginning with a homepage and generally includes other pages like “contact,” “about,” and “services.” Serving an individual or organization, your website should be strategically designed to attract visitors, convert users into leads and then turn leads into customers.
Source: Flightmedia
WFH: Working From Home
Often used in online chats with colleagues, but useful for social media as well.
Source: Hootsuite
WOM: Word of Mouth
A person shares their experience with a product or brand in writing or verbally with someone else.
Source: Neil Patel
Workflow
A series of emails designed to nurture leads. A powerful marketing asset, you can use workflows to engage leads, learn more about prospects, segment lists, and much more.
Source: Flightmedia
WTF: What The F–––
Seriously, WTF.
Source: Hootsuite
WYSIWYG: What You See Is What You Get
In computing, What You See Is What You Get (WYSIWYG, /ˈwɪziwɪɡ/ WIZ-ee-wig) is a system where editing software allows content to be edited in a form that resembles its appearance when printed or displayed as a finished product such as a printed document, web page, or slide presentation.
Source: Wikipedia
YT: YouTube
Ex. “Check out our YT channel.
Source: Buffer
YW: You’re Welcome
Don’t mention it with more letters than necessary.
Source: Hootsuite