In this manual I’ve tried to include only those industry buzzwords I felt would be helpful to you.

As a parting gift, and in recognition of the fact that you are soon to hold an honorary degree in PostcardMania (which makes you an honorary “maniac”), I wanted to share some more technical terms with you that you might come across as you delve further into direct mail marketing’s most successful “secret.” Enjoy:

Advertising

Advertising is paid communication through a non-personal medium in which the sponsor is identified and the message is controlled. (wikipedia.com)

Affiliate Program

An online marketing strategy that involves revenue sharing between online advertisers/merchants and online publishers/salespeople. Compensation is typically awarded based on performance measures such as sales, clicks, registrations or a combination of factors. (www.marketingpower.com)

Article Bank

Article banks are article depository sites that take quality content on many different topics from authors who allow ezine or email list publishers to upload or download the free expert content to be used within email newsletters, blogs, ezines, websites or even print publications, in whole or in part, with the stipulation being that the author’s resource box [name, bio and website addresses] stays attached. Sometimes a link back to the article bank/article directory is also required.

Article Directory

Same as ‘article bank’ – see ‘article bank’ above.

B2B

Business to Business – a company that sells goods or services to businesses.

B2C

Business to Consumer – a company that sells goods or services to consumers.

Banner Ads

A web banner or banner ad is a form of advertising online. This form of online advertising entails embedding an advertisement into a web page. It is intended to attract traffic to a website by linking them to the web site of the advertiser. (wikipedia.com)

Benefits

Something that is advantageous or good; an advantage. (dictionary.com)

Bio

An account of somebody’s life written or produced by another person, e.g. as a book, movie, or television program. [Encarta]

Blog

A blog is a user-generated website where entries are made in journal style and displayed in a reverse chronological order. Blogs often provide commentary or news on a particular subject, such as food, politics, or local news; some function as more personal online diaries. A typical blog combines text, images, and links to other blogs, web pages, and other media related to its topic. The ability for readers to leave comments in an interactive format is an important part of most early blogs. Most blogs are primarily textual although some focus on photographs (photoblog), sketchblog, videos (vlog), or audio (podcasting), and are part of a wider network of social media. The term “blog” is a portmanteau, or, in other words, a blend of the words web and log (Web log). “Blog” can also be used as a verb, meaning to maintain or add content to a blog. (wikipedia.com)

Body

The principal part of a speech or document, minus introduction, conclusion, indexes, etc. (dictionary.com)

Branding

In marketing, the use of logos, symbols, or product design to promote consumer awareness of goods and services. (dictionary.com)

BRC

Business Reply Card – A pre-addressed postcard that the recipient can mail back to the sender requesting more information about whatever was advertised on the mail piece. Usually a BRC includes a pre-paid postcard indicia so the recipient doesn’t have to pay postage to send it back.

BRE

Business Reply Envelope – Same as BRC but in envelope form.

Button

A hidden sensitivity that can be manipulated to produce a desired response “knows how to push my buttons.” (m-w.com)

Buying Motivation

The forces that have been activated into a state of tension causing the buyer to seek satisfaction of a specific need. Organizational buyers are influenced by both rational appeals (e.g., economic factors such as cost, quality, and service) and emotional appeals (e.g., status, security, and fear).

Call To Action

The implicit or explicit suggestion contained in a marketer’s content in an advertisement or Web site copy. Example: The call to action said Click Here to enter a survey to qualify to win a prize. (dictionary.com)

Clickstream

The order of pages that people are visiting on the site. It is used to indicate what elements of a site are effective, and which are not.

Click-through

Term used to measure the number of users who clicked on a specific Internet advertisement or link.

Content

The principal substance (as written matter, illustrations, or music) offered by a World Wide Web site “Internet users have evolved an ethos of free content in the Internet — Ben Gerson”. (m-w.com)

Conversion Rate or Hit Rate

The percentage of the desired number of outcomes received by a salesperson relative to the total activity level. For example, it is the number of sales as a percentage of the number of calls. It also is called batting average and conversion rate.

Copywriter

Copywriting is the process of writing the words that promote a person, business, opinion, or idea. It may be used as plain text, as a radio or television advertisement, or in a variety of other media. The main purpose of writing this marketing copy, or promotional text, is to persuade the listener or reader to act – to buy a product or subscribe to a certain viewpoint, for instance. Alternatively, copy might also be intended to dissuade a reader from a particular belief or action. (wikipedia.com)

CRM

Customer Relationship Management – A discipline in marketing combining database and computer technology with customer service and marketing communications. Customer relationship management (or CRM) seeks to create more meaningful one-on-one communications with the customer by applying customer data (demographic, industry, buying history, etc.) to every communications vehicle. At the simplest level, this would include personalizing e-mail or other communications with customer names. At a more complex level, CRM enables a company to produce a consistent, personalized marketing communication whether the customer sees an ad, visits a Web site, or calls customer service.

Data Mining

The analytical process of finding new and potentially useful knowledge from data. The process includes the use of mathematical tools to find difficult patterns of intelligence. (marketingpower.com)

Database Marketing

An approach by which computer database technologies are harnessed to design, create, and manage customer data lists containing information about each customer’s characteristics and history of interactions with the company. The lists are used as needed for locating, selecting, targeting, servicing, and establishing relationships with customers in order to enhance the long-term value of these customers to the company. The techniques used for managing lists include: 1. Database manipulation methods such as select and join, 2. Statistical methods for predicting each customer’s likelihood of future purchases of specific items based on his/her history of past purchases, and 3. Measures for computing the lifetime value of a customer on an ongoing basis. (marketingpower.com)

Demographic

The study of total size, sex, territorial distribution, age, composition, and other characteristics of human populations; the analysis of changes in the make-up of a population. (marketingpower.com)

Direct Mail

The use of the mail delivered by the U.S. Postal Service or other delivery services as an advertising media vehicle. (marketingpower.com)

Direct Marketing

1. (retailing definition) A form of nonstore retailing in which customers are exposed to merchandise through an impersonal medium and then purchase the merchandise by telephone or mail. 2. (channels of distribution definition) The total of activities by which the seller, in effecting the exchange of goods and services with the buyer, directs efforts to a target audience using one or more media (direct selling, direct mail, telemarketing, direct-action advertising, catalog selling, cable selling, etc.) for the purpose of soliciting a response by phone, mail, or personal visit from a prospect or customer. (marketingpower.com)

Direct Response Advertising

An approach to the advertising message that includes a method of response such as an address or telephone number whereby members of the audience can respond directly to the advertiser in order to purchase a product or service offered in the advertising message. Direct response advertising can be conveyed to members of a target market by a wide variety of advertising media, including television, radio, magazines, mail delivery, etc. (marketingpower.com)

Dissemination

To scatter or spread widely, as though sowing seed; promulgate extensively; broadcast; disperse: to disseminate information about preventive medicine. (dictionary.com)

Domain Name

A unique identifier for an Internet site which consists of at least two (but sometimes more) parts separated by periods (e.g., http://www.info-edge.com). Enterprises must register top-level domains with the Web Internet Registry and pay a yearly fee to maintain the registry.

eBusiness

Using digital technologies (Web, Phone, etc.) to interact with customers, suppliers, employees, partners, competitors, and other stakeholders.

Email Marketing

E-mail marketing is a form of direct marketing which uses electronic mail as a means of communicating commercial or fundraising messages to an audience. In its broadest sense, every e-mail sent to a potential or current customer could be considered e-mail marketing. However, the term is usually used to refer to:

Sending e-mails with the purpose of enhancing the relationship of a merchant with its current or old customers and to encourage customer loyalty and repeat business.

Sending e-mails with the purpose of acquiring new customers or convincing old customers to buy something immediately.

Adding advertisements in e-mails sent by other companies to their customers.

Emails that are being sent on the Internet. (Email did and does exist outside the Internet, Network Email, FIDO etc.) (wikipedia.com)

eMall

A Web site that maintains catalogs from multiple suppliers. Buyers enter the site, view many suppliers at once and purchase products or services. E-malls often charge a fee for tenancy or membership, may take title to the goods themselves, and are selling environments based on traditional notions of print and broadcast advertising that entice visitors to buy.

ezine

An online magazine is a magazine that is delivered in an electronic form. An online magazine may be online-only, or may be the online version of an otherwise print-published magazine. Today, most online magazines are Internet websites. (wikipedia)

Features

Something offered to the public or advertised as particularly attractive. (m-w.com)

Focus Groups

A focus group is a form of qualitative research in which a group of people are asked about their attitude towards a product, service, concept, advertisement, idea, or packaging. Questions are asked in an interactive group setting where participants are free to talk with other group members.

In the world of marketing, focus groups are an important tool for acquiring feedback regarding new products, as well as various topics. In particular, focus groups allow companies wishing to develop, package, name, or test market a new product, to discuss, view, and/or test the new product before it is made available to the public. This can provide invaluable information about the potential market acceptance of the product. (wikipedia.com)

Google Ad Word

Google AdWords™ is a cost-per-click (CPC) advertising. You pay only when users click on your ad. It has features that allow you to control your costs by setting a daily budget for what you are willing to spend per day. AdWords sponsored listings are also being shown on Google’s partner sites. (http://www.strategicwebventures.com/definitions/Glossary/AdWords/)

Guerilla Marketing

In The Guerrilla Marketing Handbook, the writer states: “In order to sell a product or a service, a company must establish a relationship with the customer. It must build trust and rapport. It must understand the customer’s needs, and it must provide a product that delivers the promised benefits.”

Headline

The part of the written component of print advertising that is meant to help attract the reader’s attention to the ad. (marketingpower.com)

Image

The consumer perception of a product, institution, brand, business, or person that may or may not correspond with “reality” or “actuality.” For marketing purposes the “image of what is” may be more important than “what actually is.” (marketingpower.com)

Infomercial

Infomercials are television commercials that run as long as a typical television program (roughly 28 minutes, 30 seconds). Infomercials, also known as paid programming (or teleshopping in Europe), are normally shown outside of peak hours, such as late at night or early in the morning. Kevin Harrington, owner of Reliant International Media, LLC, created the first ever modern-day infomercial in 1984, selling the Ginsu knife. The word infomercial is a portmanteau of the words “information” and “commercial”. As in any other form of advertisement, the content is a commercial message designed to represent the viewpoints and to serve the interest of the sponsor. Infomercials are often made to closely resemble actual television programming, usually talk shows, with minimal acknowledgement that the program is actually an advertisement. (wikipedia.com)

Internet Marketing

Internet marketing is the use of the Internet to advertise and sell goods and services. Internet Marketing includes pay per click advertising, banner ads, e-mail marketing, affiliate marketing, interactive advertising, search engine marketing (including search engine optimization), blog marketing, article marketing, and blogging. (wikipedia.com)

Interactive Advertising

The use of interactive media to promote and/or influence the buying decisions of the consumer in an online and offline environment. Interactive advertising can utilise media such as the Internet, interactive television, mobile devices (WAP and SMS), as well as kiosk-based terminals.
nteractive advertising affords the marketer the ability to engage the consumer in a direct and personal way, enabling a sophisticated and dimensional dialogue, which can affect a potential customer’s buying decisions particularly in an e-commerce environment.

Perhaps one of the most effective implementations of interactive advertising is so-called Viral marketing. This technique uses images, texts, web links, Flash animations, audio/video clips etc., passed from user to user chain letter-style, via email. A notable example of this is the Subservient Chicken, a campaign by Burger King to promote their new line of chicken sandwiches and the “Have It Your Way” campaign. (wikipedia)

Keywords

A word used in performing a search (usually online). (marketingpower.com)

Landing Page

In online marketing, a landing page is a specific web page that a visitor ultimately reaches after clicking a link or advertisement. Often, this page showcases content that is an extension of the link or ad, or the page is optimized for a specific keyword term or phrase to attract search engines.

A landing page will often be customized in PPC campaigns, as a way to both monitor the effectiveness of paid ads as well as a way to supply copy, images, or other content that is specifically targeted to the advertisement. By adding parameters to the linking URL, marketers can compare ad effectiveness based on relative click-through rates. (wikipedia)

Lead Generation

Lead generation is a marketing term that refers to the manufacture of connections between well-matched consumers and target corporate vendors. There are several methods used in marketing lead generation:

• Advertising
• Trade Shows
• Publicity and Public Relations
• Product Literature
• Spam (dubiously)
  (wikipedia)

Link Popularity

A measure of the quantity and quality of sites that link to your site. Often used as one of the criteria to determine rank on search engines. (marketingpower.com)

Market

A specific group of people who have needs to satisfy and the ability to pay (purchasing power).

Market Life Cycle

The period of time that a substantial segment of the buying public is interested in purchasing a given product or service form.

Market Potential

The maximum achievable combined sales volume for all sellers of a specific product during a specific time period, in a specific market. (marketingpower.com)

Market Research

Market research is the process of systematic gathering, recording and analyzing of data about customers, competitors and the market. Market research can help create a business plan, launch a new product or service, fine tune existing products and services, expand into new markets, etc. It can be used to determine which portion of the population will purchase the product/service, based on variables like age, gender, location and income level. It can be found out what market characteristics your target market has. With market research, companies can learn more about current and potential customers. (wikipedia)

Market Segmentation

Market segmentation is the process in marketing of dividing a market into distinct subsets (segments) that behave in the same way or have similar needs. Because each segment is fairly homogeneous in their needs and attitudes, they are likely to respond similarly to a given marketing strategy. That is, they are likely to have similar feelings and ideas about a marketing mix comprised of a given product or service, sold at a given price, distributed in a certain way, and promoted in a certain way. (wikipedia)

Market Share

The percentage of the total sales (from all sources) of a service or product represented by the sales made by your enterprise. i.e., your sales, divided by total sales. (marketingpower.com)

Marketing

The process or technique of promoting, selling, and distributing a product or service. (m-w.com)

Marketing Strategy

A statement (implicit or explicit) of how a brand or product line will achieve its objectives. The strategy provides decisions and direction regarding variables such as the segmentation of the market, identification of the target market, positioning, marketing mix elements, and expenditures. A marketing strategy is usually an integral part of a business strategy that provides broad direction to all functions. (marketingpower.com)

Mass Media

Mass media is a term used to denote, as a class, that section of the media specifically conceived and designed to reach a very large audience such as the population of a nation state. It was coined in the 1920s with the advent of nationwide radio networks, mass-circulation newspapers and magazines, although mass media was present centuries before the term became common. (wikipedia)

Media Advisory

A media advisory is an abbreviated form of alerting the media when an event is about to happen, but there is not a lot of time before it occurs. Only pertinent data – but not too much, is relevant in this advisory: what, when, where and who to meet, when there.

Meta Tags

HTML coding used to describe various features of a Web page. (marketingpower.com)

News Release

Same as a press release – these words are interchangeable. See press release.

Opinion Leader

The opinion leader is the agent who is an active media user and who interprets the meaning of media messages or content for lower-end media users. Typically the opinion leader is held in high esteem by those that accept their opinions. Opinion leadership tends to be subject specific, that is, a person that is an opinion leader in one field may be a follower in another field. An example of an opinion leader in the field of computer technology, might be a neighbourhood computer service technician. The technician has access to far more information on this topic than the average consumer and has the requisite background to understand the information. (wikipedia)

Opt In

A program where membership is restricted to users who specifically requested to take part, such as a newsletter. (marketingpower.com)

Opt Out

A type of program that assumes inclusion unless stated otherwise. The term also refers to the process of removing one’s name from a program. (marketingpower.com)

Podcast

A podcast is a media file that is distributed over the Internet using syndication feeds, for playback on portable media players and personal computers.[1] Like ‘radio’, it can mean both the content and the method of syndication. The latter may also be termed podcasting. The host or author of a podcast is often called a podcaster. The term “podcast” is derived from Apple’s portable music player, the iPod. (wikipedia)

Positioning

What the advertiser does for the product in the prospect’s mind. In other words – the perception of the product or service to the prospect that is developed through ads. 7-Up, the Un-Cola etc.

PPC

Pay per click (PPC) is an advertising technique used on websites, advertising networks, and search engines.
Advertisers bid on “keywords” that they believe their target market (people they think would be interested in their offer) would type in the search bar when they are looking for their type of product or service. For example, if an advertiser sells red widgets, he/she would bid on the keyword “red widgets,” hoping a user would type those words in the search bar, see their ad, click on it and buy. These ads are called “sponsored links” or “sponsored ads” and appear next to and sometimes above the natural or organic results on the page. The advertiser pays only when the user clicks on the ad.
(wikipedia)

Press Release

A news release, press release or press statement is a written or recorded communication directed at members of the news media for the purpose of announcing something claimed as having news value. Typically, it is mailed, faxed, or e-mailed to assignment editors at newspapers, magazines, radio stations, television stations, and/or television networks. Commercial newswire services are also used such as Eworldwire to distribute news releases. (wikipedia)

Promotion

The act of furthering the growth or development of something; especially : the furtherance of the acceptance and sale of merchandise through advertising, publicity, or discounting.
(m-w.com)

Public Relations (PR)

Public relations (PR) is the business, organizational, philanthropic, or social function of managing communication between an organization and its audiences. There are many goals to be achieved by the practice of public relations, including education, correcting a mistruth, or building or improving an image. (wikipedia)

Publicity

Publicity is the deliberate attempt to manage the public’s perception of a subject. The subjects of publicity include people (for example, politicians and performing artists), goods and services, organizations of all kinds, and works of art or entertainment.
From a marketing perspective, publicity is one component of promotion. The other elements of the promotional mix are advertising, sales promotion, and personal selling. Promotion is one component of marketing.

Between the client and selected target audiences, publicity is the management of product- or brand-related communications between the firm and the general public. It is primarily an informative activity (as opposed to a persuasive one), but its ultimate goal is to promote the client’s products, services, or brands. (wikipedia)

RFM – Recency Frequency Monetary

RFM is a method used for analyzing customer behavior and defining market segments. It is commonly used in database marketing and direct marketing and has received particular attention in retail.

RFM stands for
Recency – When was the last order?
Frequency – How many orders have they placed with us?
Monetary Value – What is the value of their orders? (wikipedia)

ROI

Return on Investment (ROI), is the ratio of money gained or lost on an investment relative to the amount of money invested. (wikipedia) With marketing, it is the ratio of the amount of income you brought in from sales directly from your marketing relative to the amount of money spent on that marketing.

RSS

RSS is a family of web feed formats used to publish frequently updated digital content, such as blogs, news feeds or podcasts.
Users of RSS content use programs called feed “readers” or “aggregators”: the user “subscribes” to a feed by supplying to their reader a link to the feed; the reader can then check the user’s subscribed feeds to see if any of those feeds have new content since the last time it checked, and if so, retrieve that content and present it to the user.

The initials “RSS” are variously used to refer to the following standards:

Really Simple Syndication (RSS 2.0)
Rich Site Summary (RSS 0.91, RSS 1.0)
RDF Site Summary (RSS 0.9 and 1.0)
(wikipedia)

Sales Copy or Ad Copy

The verbal or written component of advertising messages.

SEO

The process of developing a marketing/technical plan to ensure effective use of search engines as a marketing tool. Typically, consists of two elements. On a technical side, SEO refers to ensuring that a website can be indexed properly by the major search engines including keywords, content, and links. On the marketing side, SEO refers to the process of targeting specific keywords where the site should “win” in searches. This can be done by modifying a website to score well in the algorithms search engines use to determine rank, or by purchasing placement with individual keywords. Often , SEO programs are a blend off several elements and strategies. (wikipedia.com)

Shotgun Approach

A marketing strategy that directs a new product to an entire market, or to the largest segment in it, solely because of its size. Today, this “shotgun” approach is felt to be almost always inferior to the alternative strategy of targeting to smaller segments. (wikipedia.com)

Strategic Relationships

An agreement between two or more enterprises to conduct specified business processes in a joint manner. Usually related to technology development and/or marketing and distribution efforts.

Subhead

A part of the written component of print advertising that is designed to guide the reader’s attention to specific details about the advertised item or to help organize issues presented in the body copy.

Survey Monkey

An online survey service which compiles responses. See www.surveymonkey.com.

Target Market

A specific group of customers at which a company aims its products and services.
The 4 P’s

Product

The Product management and Product marketing aspects of marketing deal with the specifications of the actual good or service, and how it relates to the end-user’s needs and wants.

Pricing

This refers to the process of setting a price for a product, including discounts. The price need not be monetary – it can simply be what is exchanged for the product or service, e.g. time, or attention.

Promotion

This includes advertising, sales promotion, publicity, and personal selling, and refers to the various methods of promoting the product, brand, or company.

Placement:

Refers to how the product gets to the customer; for example, point of sale placement or retailing. This fourth P has also sometimes been called Place, referring to the channel by which a product or service is sold (e.g. online vs. retail), which geographic region or industry, to which segment (young adults, families, business people), etc

Unique Visitors

A unique visitor is a statistic describing a unit of traffic to a Web site, counting each visitor only once in the time frame of the report. This statistic is relevant to site publishers and advertisers as a measure of a site’s true audience size, equivalent to the term “Reach” used in other media.

The number of Total Visitors to a site divided by Unique Visitors results in the derived statistic “Average Sessions Per Unique Visitor,” which tells a publisher how many times each Unique Visitor came to their site on average in the time frame of the report. Average Sessions Per Unique Visitor is equivalent to “Frequency” used in other media.

The Unique Visitors statistic can only be measured accurately in two ways with current technology:

By requiring all Visitors to log-in to the site, thereby capturing the identity of each Visitor on each visit, or
By placing a cookie on each Visitor’s computer, writing the cookie ID to a database, and checking for the cookie on each Visitor’s computer each time they visit. (wikipedia)

USP – Unique Selling Proposition

An approach to developing the advertising message that concentrates on the uniquely differentiating characteristic of the product that is both important to the customer and a unique strength of the advertised products when compared to competing products. (marketingpower.com)

Value Added

Value added refers to the additional value created at a particular stage of production or through image and marketing. (wikipedia)

Vertical Market

A situation in which an industrial product is used by only one or a very few industry or trade groups. The market is narrow but deep in the sense that most prospective customers in the industry may need the product or service. (marketingpower.com)

Viral Marketing

Viral marketing and viral advertising refer to marketing techniques that use pre-existing social networks to produce increases in brand awareness, through self-replicating viral processes, analogous to the spread of pathological and computer viruses. It can often be word-of-mouth delivered and enhanced online; it can harness the network effect of the Internet and can be very useful in reaching a large number of people rapidly.

Some of the first recorded offline/online viral campaigns were developed by Tim Nolan of Spent2000.com fame circa 1996. By placing abstract pairings of catch-phrases, quotes, song lyrics and image mashups, Mr. Nolan developed a method of creating “buzz” around a URL based installation. Phrases like “This city isn’t safe” placed alongside a URL created enough curiosity in people’s minds to remember a URL and visit again once they were online. (wikipedia)

Web Browser

A web browser is a software application that enables a user to display and interact with text, images, and other information typically located on a web page at a website on the World Wide Web or a local area network. Some of the web browsers available for personal computers include Internet Explorer, Mozilla Firefox, Safari, Netscape, and Opera in order of descending popularity. (marketingpower.com)

Webmaster

A webmaster is a person responsible for designing, developing, marketing, or maintaining Web site(s). The webmaster of a Web site may also be called a system administrator, the author of a site, the Web site administrator or the master of the Internet universe. (wikipedia)