ad
See advertisement.
add-on
Any product or service that can be added to or combined with another.
advertisement
A notice or announcement promoting a product, a service, an event, etc.
advertising
The production of advertisements for products or services. See also advertisement.
alt text (Digital Marketing)
Alt text is code in each image that describes what the image is. It shows up if a photo doesn’t load properly and is
read to visually impaired users who use screen readers to navigate the internet. Having descriptive alt text is
necessary to be legally compliant with the Americans with Disabilities Act (ADA), and it can give Google® some context
around what the image and page is about. (Seriously though, Beyonce and Dominoes have been sued for not having proper
alt text or accessible websites, so it needs to be there!)
Analytics (Digital Marketing)
See Google Analytics.
analytics
Systematic analysis of data.
anchor text (Digital Marketing)
The text within a link. If you see a link that says “click here,” then the anchor text of that link is “click
here.”
audience
Any group of people associated by being likely to give their attention to something.
B2B or B-to-B
Businesses selling to other businesses.
B2C or B-to-C
Businesses selling directly to consumers.
backlink (Digital Marketing)
A link to your website from another website.
Banner Ads (Remarketing)
Banner ads are displayed on Google and follow you around the internet on any websites in the Google network. They can follow you as a result of remarketing, see remarketing for details.
best practice
Procedures that are generally accepted as being correct or effective.
black hat (Digital Marketing)
Search engine optimization techniques that violate Google’s rules.
bounce rate (Digital Marketing)
A statistic used in web traffic analysis representing the percentage of visitors who arrived on a website and left
instead of continuing to stay a while and view additional pages of the same website.
brand
An identifying feature of a seller’s product or services that differentiates it from those of other sellers.
branding
Promotion of a product or company by highlighting what is distinctive about it or the distinctive element that is
used to identify a brand.
BRC (Business Reply Card) (Direct Mail Marketing)
See business reply card.
BRE (Direct Mail Marketing)
See business reply envelope.
brick and mortar
A business that operates as a physical location rather than via a website only.
bulk rate (Direct Mail Marketing)
When you mail over a certain number of pieces, you qualify to get a bulk postage rate, which is less expensive than a
stamp.
business reply card (Direct Mail Marketing)
A card that is pre-addressed, pre-printed and used to generate an easier response to a campaign. It can be mailed for
free by the recipient. The business who sends a BRC is charged a permit fee by the post office for offering this reply
card. The business pays the standard mailing charges for each piece of mail delivered back to them.
business reply envelope (Direct Mail Marketing)
An envelope that can be returned to the business with postage already prepaid for the customer. The customer just
pops it in the mail.
call to action (CTA)
Any message designed to create an immediate response.
call tracking
A service that tracks all incoming calls to a certain phone number. This can be used on a printed piece that gets
mailed out, on a website, in online advertising, etc. Call tracking typically comes with a dashboard of some type that
allows you to see how many calls rang in to that phone number, and may also allow you to listen to recordings of the
calls.
Captcha
A program or system intended to distinguish human from machine input, typically as a way of stopping spam or the automated extraction of data from websites. Example: If you’ve ever been prompted to type in letters that you saw on a screen before a form would allow you to submit it, that’s Captcha.
care-to-share card (Direct Mail Marketing)
A card that a business would want a client to share with their friend to easily refer friends to the business. Often
times there is a special offer on the care-to-share card, such as free dental whitening or money off your next
service.
carrier route (CRRT) (Direct Mail Marketing)
All the residences along a mailman’s postal route where they carry and deliver mail. It’s a group of mailing
addresses that have the same USPS code which aids in mail delivery efficiency. When you mail to a carrier route,
you’re saturating an area, so it’s also called a saturation mailing.
channel
A medium for communication or the passage of information. Examples of marketing channels would be: websites, search
engines, emails, events, and more.
citation (Digital Marketing)
A link to your website from a directory website. Companies that aren’t local businesses will not be listed on these
types of websites. Think Yelp and Angie’s List, plus niche-specific directories such as ones for doctors or dentists.
click-through rate (CTR) (Digital Marketing)
The ratio of the number of clicks on any link to the number of times people were exposed to that link. This can be
used to measure how well your keywords and ads are performing.
CMS (Digital Marketing)
See content management system.
CMYK (Direct Mail Marketing)
The four ink colors that, together, combine to create other colors in color printing. CMYK stands for cyan (a blue
color), magenta, yellow, and key (black). This is in regards to offset printing as opposed to digital printing.
competition
Rivalry between companies selling similar products and services with the goal of achieving more revenue, more profit,
and greater market share growth.
competitor
Any company providing competition for yours. See competition.
contact form (Digital Marketing)
An interactive web page or portion of a web page that allows a user to input information.
content management system (Digital Marketing)
A website feature allowing a person to change the content on their website themselves without being a web programmer.
Usually they can add text, edit text, and add photos.
conversion
Getting a visitor or prospect to give you their contact information so they become a lead that can be followed up
with and turned into a sale, order, or customer.
conversion rate (Digital Marketing)
The number of clicks that resulted in the desired action (conversion) divided by the total number of clicks.
cost per action (CPA) (Digital Marketing)
An online advertising measurement and pricing model. The cost to the advertiser is based on the number of actions
taken. It’s based on whatever action is specified which could be a click, a lead, a form submission, or any other
desired action.
cost per mille (CPM) (Digital Marketing)
A pricing structure where you pay a specified dollar amount per 1000 ad views.
cost-per-click (CPC) (Digital Marketing)
A pricing structure for online advertising where what you pay for your campaign is based upon the number of clicks
your ads receive.
cost-per-view (CPV) (Digital Marketing)
A pricing structure for advertising where what you pay for your campaign is based upon the number of video views and
other view interactions you specify.
course
A series of lectures, articles, instructions, lessons, and applications on a particular subject that, when completed
in sequence, result in certification or qualification in that subject or for that job. When you’re done, you’re
officially that much smarter and more effective in that subject!
CPA (Digital Marketing)
See cost per action.
CPC (Digital Marketing)
See cost-per-click.
CPM (Digital Marketing)
See cost per mille.
CPV (Digital Marketing)
See cost-per-view.
crash course
Any rapid or intense course of study.
crawlability (Digital Marketing)
There are two huge technical components to ranking in Google: crawling and indexing. Search engines crawl the
internet with “spiders” or bots. These little spiders crawl the web using links, which is why people used to spam
links wherever they could. Sometimes you might have a page with zero links to it, meaning Google will NEVER find it!
Or, if it takes 8 clicks to actually get to a certain page, Google’s spiders might get lost somewhere along the way. A
website owner could also unknowingly have code somewhere blocking Google’s spiders from accessing certain pages, so
it’s important to make sure Google can actually crawl all of your site’s pages.
crawling (Digital Marketing)
The technique or process by which a search engine finds your web pages and web content.
CRM (Digital Marketing)
See customer relationship management software.
CRRT (Direct Mail Marketing)
Abbreviation for carrier route. See carrier route.
CTA
See call to action.
CTR (Digital Marketing)
See click-through rate.
customer acquisition cost
The cost of winning a customer.
customer lifetime value
The estimated income or profit for the entire future relationship with a customer.
customer relationship management software
(CRM) (Digital Marketing)
Software for managing your company’s customers and potential customers. This can include all their contact
information and can also include keeping records of all communications with them.
die cut (AKA die) (Direct Mail Marketing)
The machine tool that cuts shapes into printed pieces or takes a piece and cuts it into a shape, like a house-shaped
postcard for realtors. Die cut is used to cut the circle into a door hanger piece so that there’s a hole for the
doorknob.
digital printing (Direct Mail Marketing)
Digital printing doesn’t use plates the way offset printing (using old school printing presses) does, but instead it
uses toner (like in laser printers) or liquid ink. Some advantages of digital printing: Print only the amount you
need, when you need it, Lower minimum quantities, Variable data capability (names, addresses, codes or numbering can
be done easily) See also variable data printing. See also offset printing.
direct mail (Direct Mail Marketing)
A printed advertisement sent directly to an individual through the mail.
DirectMail2.0
This service integrates Google Remarketing ads into postcard campaigns. What this means is that the postcard and Google ads will match in design, special offer, etc. Both the postcard and the Google ads will run at the same time, so whether a prospect receives a postcard in the mail OR sees an ad online, they’ll know they’re seeing the same coordinated marketing strategy from the same awesome company. DirectMail2.0 includes postcard design, printing, and mailing, plus mail tracking, the Google ads of course, and even call tracking. It’s a marketing system that leverages both direct mail AND online advertising simultaneously.
door hanger
Made from card stock and generally rectangular in shape, a door hanger is a card cut to hang from the handle or knob
of a door.
drip campaign
A marketing strategy that delivers a pre-written set of emails or other communications to customers or prospects over
time.
drip marketing
See drip campaign.
EDDM (Direct Mail Marketing)
See Every Door Direct Mail.
elevator pitch (AKA elevator statement or elevator
speech)
A short description of an idea, product, company, or position that explains it very clearly for any listener in a
short period of time.
email funnel (Digital Marketing)
A series of educational and promotional email communications. Marketers anticipate the subscriber’s needs and set up
triggers to send them useful emails with excellent timing to lead them toward a purchase or other desirable action.
email marketing (Digital Marketing)
The sending of a marketing message using email, typically to a large group of people at once or to many people
automatically on a schedule.
ESB
See Everywhere Small Business.
Every Door Direct Mail (Direct Mail Marketing)
A direct mail program offered by the USPS that allows a customer to mail a certain sized postcard to an entire area.
The customer cannot select exactly who receives the postcard. They select which zip codes they want their marketing to
hit, and everyone in that area will receive their postcard. This program can be a good fit for restaurants, dentists,
auto mechanics, and other local businesses that everyone tends to need. The postage is discounted for this program
because essentially a mailman takes a sack of postcards and just makes sure every house on their route in an area
receives the postcard.
Everywhere Small Business™
PostcardMania’s marketing program that integrates Google, Facebook, and Instagram ads into targeted direct mail campaigns. Moreover, Everywhere Small Business™ includes mail tracking, call tracking, and the number of clicks their Google/Facebook/ Instagram ads generate. If you purchase Everywhere Small Business™ you’ll receive multi-channel marketing that puts your business figuratively everywhere, which saves you time and increases the likelihood of response and return on investment. Everywhere Small Business™ furthermore allows you to easily see and track your ad clicks and lead calls in an online portal called myPostcardMania.
You can also see when their mail pieces are projected to arrive, and when they do actually arrive in prospects’ mailboxes. Everywhere Small Business™ is like the big kahuna of marketing for small businesses, and it’s crazy affordable! Everywhere Small Business™ is regularly called ESB for short.
exclusivity
Restriction to any particular person, group, area, etc.
featured snippet (Digital Marketing)
An organic answer box that shows up at the top of search engine results for some popular searches.
File Transfer Protocol (FTP)
A fancy tech term that means a way to transfer large files from one host (a place online) to another host over the
internet. Basically, an FTP allows someone to send files from point A to point B securely, and this method of
file-sending is useful when you have files that are too big to be emailed. An FTP site is the site, or tool, that
allows this file-sending to occur.
flats (Direct Mail Marketing)
The USPS uses the word “flats” to refer to large envelopes, newsletters, and magazines. The words “large envelopes”
and “flats” are used interchangeably.
Flats must:
- Have one dimension that is greater than 6 ⅛ inches high OR 11 ½ inches long OR ¼ inch thick.
- Be no more than 12 inches high x 15 inches long and ¾ inch thick.
- Flats are handled by the USPS separately from other mail.
form (Digital Marketing)
See contact form.
FTP
See File Transfer Protocol.
funnel (AKA sales process,
purchase funnel, purchasing funnel, or marketing funnel)
A marketing or sales model that illustrates a customer journey from early awareness all the way through the purchase
of a good or service.
Example: A marketing funnel for your clothing company: 1) People hear of your brand by seeing people wear it, seeing a
billboard, and hearing of it from others. This builds awareness and interest. 2) They see ads online, search results
in Google, and social media posts that, when clicked, will take them to websites that sell your products. They
consider the products and decide they intend to acquire an item. 3) They visit your website and other websites where
your item is for sale. They evaluate where they will buy and how much they will pay. 4) They make their purchase.
gang (AKA ganging or gang run) (Direct Mail Marketing)
Printing many orders of different customers all on one large sheet. The designs are grouped together to assure no
space is wasted which saves costs for the printer and customer.
Gendusa, Joy
Founder and CEO of PostcardMania. The success of PostcardMania, founded by Joy Gendusa in 1998, isn’t thanks to
capital funding or glamorous partnerships, but good old fashioned ingenuity, hard work, and of course, marketing.
geofence (Digital Marketing)
A virtual perimeter around a real world geographic area. An app or other software can use location data to trigger
programmed actions when a mobile device enters or exits this virtual boundary.
geolocation (Digital Marketing)
The technology of acquiring the geographical location of a person or device using digital information that is
processed online.
GMB (Digital Marketing)
See Google My Business.
Google Ads (Digital Marketing)
An online advertising product you can use to promote your business, help sell products or services, and increase
traffic to your website.
Google Analytics (Digital Marketing)
A web analytics service that tracks, analyzes, and reports on website traffic.
Google Display Network (Digital Marketing)
Refers to all of the websites that display Google Ads. It includes regular websites, mobile sites, and apps. See also
Google Ads.
Google My Business (GMB) (Digital Marketing)
You know how sometimes a box pops up to give you information about a company that you Googled®? This info comes from
their Google My Business profile. Companies need to gain access to their Google My Business profile and make sure all
aspects of it are optimized for their business and target audience.
hard provable numbers
Any numbers or statistics that are specific and can be verified.
hat
A role or job. A hat designates a particular status and set of duties in a company. For example, cleaning the
bathrooms is part of the janitor’s hat.
headers (Digital Marketing)
Headers and subheads are the headlines you see on a web page. They follow a hierarchy of H1-H6, with H1 being the
main headline you see at the top of a page and the others getting progressively smaller and less important. Headers
are important to use to break up text, and they also give major context clues to Google. Think of them as an outline
for your page — if you could only read the headers, would you get an understanding of what the page is about?
i.e.
In essence or that is. Example: I love desserts, i.e. raspberries and chocolate.
indexation (Digital Marketing)
Once Google has crawled your site, there’s no guarantee it will be included in search results, AKA indexed. To be
indexed, Google has to understand the content on your page. For a website to be “indexed” means that it is included in
Google’s search results, whether that’s on page 1 or page 64. SEO is needed in order to make sure everything is
properly indexed and get those indexed pages to rank higher!
indexing (Digital Marketing)
The storing and organizing a search engine does of the web pages and content that it has found while crawling.
indicia (Direct Mail Marketing)
In direct mail marketing, an indicia (pronounced: in-DEE-shuh) is an imprint on each mail piece that signifies that
the postage has been prepaid.
industry
A group of businesses that produce a particular kind of goods or services. Examples: dental industry, real estate
industry, financial industry.
industry standard
A criteria in a field of business which is generally agreed to be the minimum accepted requirements followed by the
members of that field or industry.
information architecture (AKA site structure)
(Digital Marketing)
This refers to the logical structure that a website needs to have. If the main menu bar at the top doesn’t contain
words that are intuitive to users, they probably won’t click through your website. Google crawlers also need structure
to be able to properly crawl your website’s pages, in the form of logical categories, subcategories, and internal
linking. Site structure involves looking at the structure of a website’s navigation, what kind of categories and
subcategories are being used, and if there are internal links connecting the site’s pages together. For example, if
there’s a blog section, does the navigation contain “blog” and do all of the blog pages have “/blog/” in the URL
structure? Are all website pages easy to navigate to, and does it take less than three clicks?
intent (Digital Marketing)
What the search engine user is really looking for.
internet protocol (IP)
A set of standards for addressing and routing data which essentially establishes the entire internet.
IP
See internet protocol.
key performance indicator (KPI)
Any measurable value that demonstrates how effectively you are achieving your key objectives or indicates how well
something is performing.
keyword (Digital Marketing)
A single word used as a search query in a search engine.
keyword phrase (Digital Marketing)
Two or more words typed as a search query. People find what they are looking for online by searching for specific
keywords or keyword phrases in a search engine and choosing the most useful result.
keyword-informed content (Digital Marketing)
We want to make sure that any content being written has a clear purpose, a strong target keyword, and is highly
valuable to users. We want to use a keyword/topic to inform the content on the page. This makes it easier to research,
provide value for users and, ideally, rank well in Google!
KPI
See key performance indicator.
KR
Key results. See OKR.
lamination (Direct Mail Marketing)
A clear, thin, plastic-like film that protects something and makes it glossy and professional looking.
landing page (Digital Marketing)
A standalone web page distinct from a main website that has been designed for a single focused objective. When
someone types in or clicks on a link, they are directed to this page, they “land” there. It should be a specific
predetermined destination on the web that continues the communication that the marketing piece starts.
Example: A postcard advertises a new solar roof and offers a $1000 savings. The URL on the card specifically takes the
prospect to a page that gives more info and allows them to claim that offer – rather than taking them to the entire
website that may have many products and offers.
lead
A potential customer. “I consider a lead anyone who sees your advertisement and has some slight interest in your
product. You’ve got their attention. They’re slightly interested.” —Joy Gendusa
lead capture
Capturing the identity of the interested individual. Getting their contact information.
lead follow-up
Following up with clients and prospects by phone, email, in-person, etc.
lead generation
Generating a quantity of interest from qualified individuals in order to then acquire their contact information.
local pack (AKA map pack) (Digital Marketing)
A group of a few local listings Google displays for a local-intent search, for example, “restaurants near me.”
local SEO (Digital Marketing)
Local search engine optimization strategies and tactics are those that work for local businesses. These are items and
actions that absolutely must be addressed for any local business.
long-tail keywords (Digital Marketing)
A strategy that targets keywords that are more niche (see also niche) with less search volume (see also search
volume), but usually convert higher. For example, “lose weight” has 26,000 monthly searches and is difficult to rank
(see also ranking) for, but “how to lose weight in a week” is more specific, has 7,700 monthly searches and is a lot
easier to rank for.
M (Direct Mail Marketing)
Thousand. i.e., 1M = 1,000. M is commonly used in the printing industry.
mail tracking (Direct Mail Marketing)
This is exactly what it sounds like… here’s how it works: First, a bar code gets printed on your mail pieces. As
the mail pieces make their way through the USPS’s system, that bar code gets scanned along the way. When the mail
piece arrives at its final destination, that is also scanned. The USPS relays back to the mailing company which mail
pieces have been scanned as delivered — and which ones have not. This allows us to show what percentage of a
campaign’s total mail pieces were delivered to prospects in a client dashboard.
map pack (Digital Marketing)
See local pack.
market
To advertise or promote a thing.
marketer
Someone who markets. Any person who owns the job of generating leads (see also marketing).
marketing
The action of promoting and selling something, including the market research and the advertising. “Marketing is the
entire thing, marketing encompasses everything that occurs for your prospect up until the sale; up until you actually
have a transaction. That would include even your receptionist or your voicemail, what happens when they call your
company, how they are treated, how you make them feel.” —Joy Gendusa
marketing channel
See channel.
marketing consultant
An advisor who works with companies to create a detailed marketing plan, establish a marketing message, identify the
best marketing strategies and implement them.
marketing program
A step-by-step plan to execute your marketing over the course of a predetermined period of time. It includes your
budget, your audience (who you will market to), what you want to achieve, the specific channels you’ll use, and the
HOW — as in how will you get all of this executed. The program should be broad and will need to be itemized into to-do
lists.
meta description (Digital Marketing)
The description that shows up for a web page in Google. See also metadata.
meta title (Digital Marketing)
The title that shows up for a web page in Google. See also metadata.
metadata (Digital Marketing)
Consists of meta titles and meta descriptions. This is code in the backend that shows up in Google Search results.
It’s important these are optimized by including a keyword and encouraging action because it’s one of the most
important places Google looks to understand what a web page is about. It’s also your one chance to capture a
searcher’s attention and get them to click through to your website!
MFDU (Direct Mail Marketing)
See Multi Family Dwelling Unit.
mobile website (Digital Marketing)
A website that has been designed and programmed to display nicely on a mobile device. A mobile website should load
well on any sized tablet or mobile device.
Multi Family Dwelling Unit (Direct Mail Marketing)
A place where multiple families could live, i.e., an apartment building.
myPostcardMania
A personalized online dashboard that collects all of a your tracking data for your marketing campaign.
NAP (Digital Marketing)
This refers to the Name, Address, and Phone Number of your business. Checking to make sure business information is
accurate across the web involves using an SEO tool that analyzes all mentions of a business across the internet and
giving us the name, address, and phone number listed. This allows us to make sure all business information is up to
date everywhere your business is mentioned.
National Change of Address (Direct Mail Marketing)
Is a service provided by the USPS that enables individuals to notify others of their new address when they move. The
NCOA database is compiled by the USPS and is made available to certain licensees that use it to update mailing lists
with changed addresses.
NCOA (Direct Mail Marketing)
See National Change of Address.
NDC (Direct Mail Marketing)
See Network Distribution Center.
Network Distribution Center (Direct Mail Marketing)
A processing and distribution center of the USPS that serves a large area. There is normally one NDC that services
many SCFs (Sectional Center Facilities).
niche
A specialized section of a market, product or service.
non-profit indicia (Direct Mail Marketing)
Non-profit organizations qualify for cheaper postage rates. These rates are cheaper than all other rates, but the
mail takes as long as third class (AKA Standard) to deliver. Also, no returns are sent in the event of bad addresses
for these mailings. Non-profits have to apply with their local post office for non-profit status in order to get these
reduced postage rates.
objective
Something aimed for or sought after. A goal.
offset printing (Direct Mail Marketing)
Offset printing technology uses plates, usually made from aluminum, which are used to transfer an image onto a rubber
blanket (a thick rubber mat on a printing press that transfers ink from the plate to paper), and then roll that image
onto a sheet of paper. It’s called offset because the ink is not transferred directly onto the paper. Offset printing
is usually the best choice when larger quantities are needed. It provides accurate color reproduction and crisp, clean
professional-looking printing.
Some advantages of offset printing:
- Large quantities can be printed cost-effectively
- The more you print, the cheaper the price per piece because a good part of the expense is in the set-up.
OKR
Objectives and Key Results. It is a collaborative goal-setting tool used by teams and individuals to set challenging,
ambitious goals with measurable results. OKRs are how you track progress, create alignment, and encourage engagement
around measurable goals. —whatmatters.org
on-page SEO (Digital Marketing)
Refers to search engine optimization work that is done on a single web page of your website. This could be the text
that the user sees, or a specific portion of HTML code.
online form (Digital Marketing)
An interactive web page or portion of a web page that allows a user to input information.
organic (Digital Marketing)
An organic marketing strategy is one that generates traffic to your website without the use of paid online
advertising or sponsored posts.
organic search results (Digital Marketing)
In search engines (see also search engine), organic search results are the results that are not affected by
advertiser payments.
pay-per-click (PPC) (Digital Marketing)
A model of internet marketing in which advertisers pay a fee each time one of the ads is clicked, hence, the name.
Basically, it’s a way of buying visits to your website, rather than attempting to earn those visits organically (or
naturally, without payment).
perfing or perforation (Direct Mail Marketing)
Creating a series of tiny holes in a printed piece to enable easy tearing of that printed piece.
personalized postcards (Direct Mail Marketing)
Same as variable data printing. See variable data printing.
placement
Where people can go to get a product or service.
PLAs (Digital Marketing)
See Product Listing Ads.
pop-up (Digital Marketing)
An image or contact form that pops up on top of another web page.
PPC (Digital Marketing)
See pay-per-click.
PR
See public relations.
pre-press (Direct Mail Marketing)
The term used in the printing and publishing industries which represents the processes and procedures that occur
between the creation of a print layout and the actual printing (this only applies to offset printing).
presort (Direct Mail Marketing)
To sort outgoing mail by zip code in order to take advantage of a lower rate of postage.
Product Listing Ads (PLAs) (Digital Marketing)
Allow you to include an image, title, price, and more in ads for individual products and then display these ads in
Google Search results. These ads are set up in a Google Merchant Center account.
promote
To send a one-time, specific burst of outflow.
promotion
A one-time, specific burst of outflow to bring in immediate sales.
proof
The design sent to you to review, for official approval, before the design is printed or published.
prospect
A lead who has now become someone that you can easily follow up with because you have their contact information.
They are someone who is interested in a product or service to some degree, no matter how small, but they haven’t
ordered YET. They remain a prospect until they place their first order.
public relations (PR)
A technique of communication of ideas. It consists of those functions of a corporation, organization, etc. concerned
with attempting to create favorable public opinion for itself. Good PR is when you’ve only heard great things about a
company — great reviews are good PR.
QR code (Digital Marketing)
A two-dimensional barcode, usually black and white. It’s most often used to allow mobile phone users to do a quick
scan and visit a landing page almost instantly. The “QR” stands for “Quick Response.”
query (Digital Marketing)
The words that are typed into any search bar.
rack cards (Direct Mail Marketing)
4×9 sized postcards.
ranking (or rank) (Digital Marketing)
How high a result is placed or displayed based on its relevance to the search query.
remarketing (AKA retargeting)
Continuing to hit the same interested prospect repeatedly with additional (usually online) advertisements to keep
them interested and draw them back to complete their purchase.
Remarketing List for Search Ads (RLSA) (Digital
Marketing)
Is simply remarketing tactics applied to Google Search results.
responsive web design (RWD) (Digital Marketing)
A method of website design that allows each page of the site to adapt well to whatever device, window, or screen size
it is being viewed on. This is how most mobile websites are now programed (instead of creating an additional separate
website that only shows on mobile devices).
retargeting
See remarketing.
return on ad spend (ROAS)
Revenue generated from your advertising, minus whatever the cost of that advertising was.
return on investment (ROI)
The profit someone makes after deducting what they’ve spent on a campaign or any investment. It’s usually written
out as a percentage.
RLSA (Digital Marketing)
See Remarketing List for Search Ads.
ROAS
See return on ad spend.
robots.txt (Digital Marketing)
A page that tells search engine crawlers which parts of your site they can and cannot access. Usually, not much has
to be done with this file besides making sure you aren’t blocking search engines from seeing your website.
ROI
See return on investment.
RWD (Digital Marketing)
See responsive web design.
saddle stitch (Direct Mail Marketing)
The process of stapling a booklet at the spine so that the pages hold together and so it’s actually a booklet.
saturation mailing (Direct Mail Marketing)
This is where 90% of all active stops on a carrier route (see carrier route) are delivered to, OR wherein 70% of all
residents on the carrier route receive the mail piece.
score (Direct Mail Marketing)
A crease put on a paper by a machine that enables the paper to fold more easily.
search engine (Digital Marketing)
A program used for searching for and finding specific sites on the World Wide Web. Examples: Google, Bing, Yahoo.
search engine marketing (SEM) (Digital Marketing)
Is all about using techniques to get your company’s ads and listings to show up prominently in a search engine’s
(usually Google’s) results. It’s the same thing as PPC (see pay-per-click) with Google Ads but also involves some SEO
(see search engine optimization). Example: If you Google “best mattresses,” the top results you’ll see with “Ad”
beside them are ads that mattress retailers paid to to have displayed when someone searched the keyword phrase “best
mattresses.” The knowledge of how to use Google Ads effectively is one aspect of SEM. The listings right below the ads
are there organically (see organic), meaning they appeared there because the company has really good SEO (see search
engine optimization), and this is another expertise one must have in SEM. Most professionals do one or the other.
search engine optimization (SEO) (Digital Marketing)
The process of increasing the number of visitors to a website by getting the site to be placed as high as possible
on the list of results provided by a search engine.
search volume (Digital Marketing)
The number of searches for a specific keyword or keyword phrase over a specified period of time. This is used to
gauge potential search engine traffic.
secure socket layer (SSL) (Digital Marketing)
A security technology that is considered standard in the technology industry. It is used to create an encrypted link
(or connection) between a server and a browser. When something is encrypted, it is coded in such as way as to be much
more secure. So, an encrypted email service, for example, would be one that is really hard, or impossible, to hack
into. A web server is both software and hardware (like physical computers, for example) which allow internet
connection and browsing to happen. Browsing the internet happens on a browser — think: Google Chrome, Mozilla Firefox,
etc.
selects (Direct Mail Marketing)
A word used in choosing who to mail to when purchasing a mailing list. When someone buys a mailing list, they can
decide the demographics they want to target. For example, a realtor® may want to target people in zip code 33765… but
they don’t just want to target people… they want to target homeowners (not renters or businesses). Therefore,
“homeowners” is a select. Let’s say the realtor® also wants to target by home value — “home value” is also a select.
Essentially, a select is just an item to target a mailing list by. More examples of selects to choose from or include:
gender, income, occupation, dog/cat owner, length of residence, marital status, credit score… and the list goes on!
self mailers (Direct Mail Marketing)
Single or multiple sheets of paper folded together and sealed (with a sticky tab or a clear sticker) to form a
letter-sized mail piece. No inserting into envelopes needed. Looks like a brochure when mailed.
SEM (Digital Marketing)
See search engine marketing.
SEO (Digital Marketing)
See search engine optimization.
server response code (Digital Marketing)
You know when you try to go to a certain web page and it tells you it doesn’t exist? It might say “404 error” or “404
not found”? That’s what we call a 404 status code, meaning that the web page was removed or never existed. When a page
redirects, it’s a 300 status code. It’s important to minimize the amount of 404 errors and redirects on your website,
unless they are absolutely necessary. There might also be pages that 404 that you don’t even know about!
SFDU (Direct Mail Marketing)
See Single Family Dwelling Unit.
Shopify (Digital Marketing)
An online shopping cart software with a subscription-based pricing structure (and transaction fees). It’s currently
the number one e-commerce platform for all businesses and is trusted by over 1,000,000 businesses.
SIC code (Direct Mail Marketing)
See Standard Industrial Classification.
Single Family Dwelling Unit (SFDU) (Direct Mail
Marketing)
Basically, where a single family of people would live—like a standard house. This is mailing list terminology.
site speed (Digital Marketing)
How fast your website loads for users. There are different aspects of site speed. For example, the time it takes your
first image to load is different than the time it takes for a user to be able to actually click on something on your
website. Site speed is affected by optimizing website code, having properly sized images, and a few other super
technical items that we’re not going to get into here.
site structure (Digital Marketing)
See information architecture.
sitemap (Digital Marketing)
An XML sitemap is a road map for Google that tells its crawlers exactly what pages exist on your website. The
creation of a sitemap is vital to making sure Google finds all of the pages on your website. It’s a page meant just
for search engines with a list of your site’s URLs on it, but it’s important to make sure it’s set up properly,
contains all of your site’s content, and is free of errors.
small business
A privately owned corporation, partnership, or sole proprietorship with fewer employees and less revenue than a
corporation or large-sized business.
snap-aparts (Direct Mail Marketing)
A piece that is folded, glued, and perforated (very small holes punched into the paper which make it so you can tear
it easily) on the edges so it’s completely sealed. These can be an 8.5×11 that gets trifolded or folded in half. They
typically get printed on the black and white laser printer (digital), which addresses at the same time. Financial
companies often utilize snap-aparts as they look official, plus, they conceal their sensitive content that only the
recipient should see.
social proof
The idea that people will follow the actions of others. The concept being that, since so many other people like
something or behave in a certain way, it must be a good thing or a correct behavior.
split-test
A method of running controlled, randomized tests with the goal of improving the effectiveness of your marketing. It’s
usually done by running two similar campaigns at once and comparing results side-by-side.
SSL (Digital Marketing)
See secure socket layer.
Standard Industrial Classification (Direct Mail
Marketing)
A code that is used to classify businesses into different types. We use it for mailing list purposes whereby a client
can specify that he wants his mailing to go to specific industries. Every industry has its own code.
structured data (Digital Marketing)
See website schema.
target audience
The intended audience for a communication. Whoever you’re trying to speak to. This should be the people who are most
likely to purchase what you are offering.
technical SEO (Digital Marketing)
Technical search engine optimization is the boring backend stuff that usually requires a developer to help fix. It
involves optimizing a website’s code, certain web files, and making sure a website is technically sound. You could
have the most incredible and helpful content in the world on your website, but if there’s some technical issue that’s
stopping Google from being able to see your website, it will never be found!
traffic (Digital Marketing)
Visitors to a website.
trigger
Any event programmed to cause an automatic marketing message to be sent. This could be a website visit, a contact
form submission, an order, etc. and could, for example, cause an email to be sent or a direct mail postcard to be
mailed to that person.
trigger marketing
A marketing technique which uses triggers (see trigger) to automatically send the right message to a potential or
existing customer at exactly the right time.
Uniform Resource Locator (URL) (Digital Marketing)
The location or address for an individual page or piece of content on a website.
unique content (Digital Marketing)
Having just any old content on a web page won’t do well for SEO. The content has to be valuable to users and be
relevant to your business. Also, there shouldn’t be duplicate content across your website (or any other website).
There’s no hard and fast rule regarding exactly how much unique content you need; instead, it all comes down to how
much content it takes to provide value. If you only need 250 words to understand a subject, that’s great! If you need
2,000 words for something else, that works too!
unique selling proposition
The factor presented by a seller as the main reason a product or service is different from and better than another or
others. It’s a real or a perceived benefit of a product or service that differentiates it from others and gives its
buyers good reason to choose it.
URL (Digital Marketing)
See Uniform Resource Locator.
USPS (Direct Mail Marketing)
United States Postal Service.
UV coating (Direct Mail Marketing)
Liquid applied to a printed sheet then dried quickly using UV (ultraviolet) light. This coating yields a tough,
scratch-resistant surface for an extra durable card.
variable data printing (VDP) (Direct Mail Marketing)
Is when each printed piece is personalized to the recipient. Variable data can only be achieved on digital printers —
not offset printing presses. The digital printers are run by computers, so we can configure each printed piece to have
something different printed on it. Example: If you have a mailing list which includes the first name and address of
every recipient, you can make it so that each postcard has the first name and address on each postcard. Virtually any
design or data element on a postcard can be variable, which would personalize each and every postcard to the
recipient.
VDP (Direct Mail Marketing)
See variable data printing.
vendor
Someone who sells something.
website (Digital Marketing)
A group or set of related web pages under the same domain name. A website is usually produced and owned by a single
person, company, or organization.
website schema (AKA structured data) (Digital
Marketing)
You know how if you search for a recipe on Google you’ll see the star rating and cook time right in the search
results? Or with blog posts, you see a publish date immediately? That’s because of website schema. It’s code that
isn’t visible to the user, but helps Google understand your web page better. It’s necessary for “rich results” like
review stars right in Google’s search engine results page. It’s also important for local businesses to add “local
business” schema to tell Google their business hours, address, name, phone number and any other pertinent data. There
is also schema specific to industries such as doctors and dentists.
white hat (Digital Marketing)
Search engine optimization techniques that align with Google’s rules.
Woocommerce
An add-on for WordPress (see WordPress). It easily transforms a WordPress website into a fully functional online store where website visitors can buy things.
WordPress
WordPress is a website that enables others to create simple or robust websites on it.
