What does it all mean?
In today’s marketplace, there are a plethora of marketing terms. Some are subsets of others and some are just redundant and fancy words that just say the same thing. One thing is certain, even with the introduction of the internet and the massive windfall of marketing data, the basics remain the same. Marketing’s foundation is still built on the “P’s” Product, Personas, Price, Promotion, and Place or the new definition of “C’s” commerce, content, and community. Although some of the terminologies have changed (i.e. Personas for target audience) you still need to develop a marketing strategy that meets a need, identifies the target market, promotes the product, identifies how to reach the target market, and distributes through the appropriate channels.
To help with some of the terminology, we have provided a glossary of some more recent marketing terms. This is not all-inclusive and by no means a bible…it is just an attempt to clarify and define some of the multitudes of terms.
Multi-channel marketing – the ability to interact with a potential customer on various platforms i.e. print ad, website, e-mail, events, etc. (Wikipedia.com)
Omni-channel marketing – a multi-channel approach to sales & marketing that seeks to provide the customer with a seamless shopping experience (Whatis.com)
Integrated Marketing – an approach to brand communications where the different modes work together to create a seamless experience for the customer (Wikipedia)
Automated Marketing – the use of software to automate marketing processes such as customer segmentation, customer data integration and campaign management (Wikipedia)
Targeted Marketing – aiming a product at a specific group of consumers that you have identified to be specifically interested or predisposed to purchase your product or service (Wikipedia)
Predictive Marketing – systematic or solutions-oriented approach to marketing as a whole with all actions driving towards the goal of revenue predictability (Lattice – Sam Melnick)
Inbound Marketing – pulling in customers via content, instead of pushing ads or cold-calls (HubSpot)
Outbound Marketing – a more traditional approach to marketing: contact prospects via ads, cold calls, list rental; opposite of inbound (BridgeGroup)
Marketing Campaign – an organized and structured effort to achieve a specific marketing goal, comprised of specific detailed steps that can include a variety of marketing channels for a very specific purpose (WH & Associates)
Blackhat Marketing – primarily in SEO, unethically fooling the search engines to gain rank (About.com)
Direct Marketing – marketing directly to audience, often without TV, radio, or print ads (DMA)
Direct Response Marketing – direct marketing expressly designed to solicit a response (Wikipedia)
Engagement Marketing – enabling sensory interactions with brands (Experiential Marketing Forum)
Influencer Marketing – the practice of engaging internal and industry experts with active networks to help achieve measurable business goals.’
Finally, to summarize … a clear and simple definition of marketing that we can all understand and relate to:
Marketing is products that don’t come back and people that do (Steve Dawson, Walker Shortbread Inc.)
