We are Living in a Digital World, and I am [not] a Digital Girl
I am not a millennial, even though I sometimes play one at work. Don’t get me wrong, I love most of what millennials love. Instagram? Check. Craft beers? Check? Working remotely? I’m cool…
I joined the team at &Marketing about six months ago. In this remote role, I am more of a marketing generalist, which is drastically different from my prior jobs in larger, more corporate-y food companies, where our functions were more siloed. For example, when I was a product marketer, my role would be to get the product to market, and then the digital team would take over. At &Marketing we each play the role of the entire marketing department. So, we need to be able to talk about strategy, traditional marketing principles, new products and services, digital marketing, and marketing execution. To be completely transparent, the digital elements of this position have been the biggest challenge for me since I’ve never had to dip my toes into the digital pool.
In my first week at &Marketing, Rajat Kapur (&Marketing’s Founder and Managing Director) and I were talking about doing a series of activities for a client to grow their digital presence, including a “pay per click” campaign. The only problem was that I wrote it down in my notes as a “paper clip” campaign and left wondering what “paper clip campaign” meant. Eventually, I ended up learning that a “pay per click” campaign meant advertising on Google to attract buyers, and we had a good laugh.
As I reflect on this humbling experience after having worked with several clients over the past few months, I have come to recognize the huge generational divide the digital revolution has brought with it. Generations of marketers and business owners grew up without digital tools, and although strategic principles are timeless, so many elements have changed in the last 10-15 years. This younger generation only knows these digital tools and quite often, the two generations don’t speak the same language. Additionally, the digital marketing industry has successfully added a whole slew of terminology that makes things extremely difficult to understand.
I realize now that bridging this divide is a primary reason &Marketing has been successful: To allow businesses who are not marketing experts to access the same level of expertise that larger, more tech-savvy organizations implement every day.
9 Digital Marketing Terms You Should Know
So, I decided to compile a short list of modern marketing terms that were confusing to me at first, but actually are quite simple once I learned their meaning. Without further adieu, let’s learn some basic digital marketing jargon, shall we?
• Search advertising – the main platforms for search advertising are Google ads and Bing. These are advertisements that display when people search on Google or Bing.
• Landing page – the entry page on a company’s website that a user goes to when directed from an external link (like email or social media).
• Keyword – a word or phrase someone uses to search for relevant topics on search engines. For example, if you were looking for a chocolate shop, a relevant keyword could be “Buy chocolate bars” or “Looking to purchase truffles from a chocolate shop”.
• Retargeting – ads displayed on websites other than your own to people who have already visited your website to encourage them to return.
• Click-through rate, or CTR – the percentage of users that actually click on a link vs those who saw it (an impression).
• Pay per click, or PPC – a pricing model where companies are charged every time a user clicks on an ad, which leads people to a company’s website.
• Cost per click, or CPC – a calculation to determine the total cost of an advertising program vs how many users visited a given page.
• SEO or Search Engine Optimization – a way a company optimizes webpages to allow its website to rank higher on a search engine’s results page. The higher a site ranks, typically, the more traffic is generated (if the keyword has high traffic). SEO yields more targeted traffic to a site, but is usually a much longer process.
• Conversion – when a visitor takes the desired action while visiting a company’s website. A conversion can be a purchase, membership signup, download or registration for newsletter.
In the last 6 months, I’ve learned a fair amount about digital marketing to complement my nearly 20 years of traditional marketing experience. Would I call myself an expert? Never! But at least I can hold my own when talking to a teammate or client. The most important lesson I learned from this experience is that it’s OK not to know. Own not knowing. Ask questions. Read up. Don’t pretend you know when you don’t. Good luck and keep swimming!
If you’re a marketing newbie looking for ways to implement a clear marketing strategy for your company, let us help you make it easier. Download our Marketing Planning Like a Pro to coordinate your approach and prioritize the right tactics.
I am not a millennial, even though I sometimes play one at work. Don’t get me wrong, I love most of what millennials love. Instagram? Check. Craft beers? Check? Working remotely? I’m cool…
I joined the team at &Marketing about six months ago. In this remote role, I am more of a marketing generalist, which is drastically different from my prior jobs in larger, more corporate-y food companies, where our functions were more siloed. For example, when I was a product marketer, my role would be to get the product to market, and then the digital team would take over. At &Marketing we each play the role of the entire marketing department. So, we need to be able to talk about strategy, traditional marketing principles, new products and services, digital marketing, and marketing execution. To be completely transparent, the digital elements of this position have been the biggest challenge for me since I’ve never had to dip my toes into the digital pool.
In my first week at &Marketing, Rajat Kapur (&Marketing’s Founder and Managing Director) and I were talking about doing a series of activities for a client to grow their digital presence, including a “pay per click” campaign. The only problem was that I wrote it down in my notes as a “paper clip” campaign and left wondering what “paper clip campaign” meant. Eventually, I ended up learning that a “pay per click” campaign meant advertising on Google to attract buyers, and we had a good laugh.
As I reflect on this humbling experience after having worked with several clients over the past few months, I have come to recognize the huge generational divide the digital revolution has brought with it. Generations of marketers and business owners grew up without digital tools, and although strategic principles are timeless, so many elements have changed in the last 10-15 years. This younger generation only knows these digital tools and quite often, the two generations don’t speak the same language. Additionally, the digital marketing industry has successfully added a whole slew of terminology that makes things extremely difficult to understand.
I realize now that bridging this divide is a primary reason &Marketing has been successful: To allow businesses who are not marketing experts to access the same level of expertise that larger, more tech-savvy organizations implement every day.
9 Digital Marketing Terms You Should Know
So, I decided to compile a short list of modern marketing terms that were confusing to me at first, but actually are quite simple once I learned their meaning. Without further adieu, let’s learn some basic digital marketing jargon, shall we?
• Search advertising – the main platforms for search advertising are Google ads and Bing. These are advertisements that display when people search on Google or Bing.
• Landing page – the entry page on a company’s website that a user goes to when directed from an external link (like email or social media).
• Keyword – a word or phrase someone uses to search for relevant topics on search engines. For example, if you were looking for a chocolate shop, a relevant keyword could be “Buy chocolate bars” or “Looking to purchase truffles from a chocolate shop”.
• Retargeting – ads displayed on websites other than your own to people who have already visited your website to encourage them to return.
• Click-through rate, or CTR – the percentage of users that actually click on a link vs those who saw it (an impression).
• Pay per click, or PPC – a pricing model where companies are charged every time a user clicks on an ad, which leads people to a company’s website.
• Cost per click, or CPC – a calculation to determine the total cost of an advertising program vs how many users visited a given page.
• SEO or Search Engine Optimization – a way a company optimizes webpages to allow its website to rank higher on a search engine’s results page. The higher a site ranks, typically, the more traffic is generated (if the keyword has high traffic). SEO yields more targeted traffic to a site, but is usually a much longer process.
• Conversion – when a visitor takes the desired action while visiting a company’s website. A conversion can be a purchase, membership signup, download or registration for newsletter.
In the last 6 months, I’ve learned a fair amount about digital marketing to complement my nearly 20 years of traditional marketing experience. Would I call myself an expert? Never! But at least I can hold my own when talking to a teammate or client. The most important lesson I learned from this experience is that it’s OK not to know. Own not knowing. Ask questions. Read up. Don’t pretend you know when you don’t. Good luck and keep swimming!
If you’re a marketing newbie looking for ways to implement a clear marketing strategy for your company, let us help you make it easier. Download our Marketing Planning Like a Pro to coordinate your approach and prioritize the right tactics.
