Content Marketing Glossary

Content marketing is simple at first glance: just produce high-quality materials, distribute them through channels frequented by your target demographic, and enjoy the resulting attention and sales boost.

In all honesty, we all know there's more going on here. But if you're still battling to grasp the fundamental ideas, approaches, and tactics, diving into the intricacies, complexity, and conditional decision-making might be daunting. To further complicate communication and strategy implementation, even seasoned veterans might have differing interpretations of essential concepts.

This dictionary of content marketing phrases was compiled to assist eliminate any ambiguity. While reaching agreement on every potential definition is impossible, your team should be able to agree on the essentials.

Please take into account that many of these definitions might apply to more than one category; I've organised them in the most natural way I could think of..

Strategy-centric terms

Audience

Audiences, in the context of marketing, are specific groups of people or organisations who voluntarily consume your brand's material online or offline in exchange for some perceived advantage.

Buy-in/business case

The rationale for an organisation making an investment in content as part of its marketing strategy is documented in a business case. It is a useful tool for gaining the knowledge and support of stakeholders that is essential to carry out the plan successfully, and it is often presented to senior management in the form of a paper or presentation.

Though talking points can vary, at a minimum, your business case should address:

• Why your company needs content marketing
• How it can help your organizations meet its marketing goals
• Necessary budget and resources
• Expected outcomes and estimation of when they will be achieved

Content marketing

Information marketing, according to the Content Marketing Institute, is "a strategic marketing technique of developing and delivering useful, relevant, and consistent content to attract and acquire a precisely defined audience - with the purpose of driving lucrative customer action."

1. Lee Judge, however, has claimed that content marketing is more than just a plan; it's a set of skills. Content marketing alone is insufficient in today's climate. Knowing how to sell the information is essential," he argues. He elaborates on the verb form by saying, "Applying marketing skills and strategies to textual, visual, audio, or social material to deliver the maximum potential reach, longevity, and effectiveness of that content."

Content marketing strategy

Content marketing strategy can be defined as "a plan for creating an audience through the publication, maintenance, and distribution of content that educates, entertains, or inspires that audience on a frequent and consistent basis." CMI, on the other hand, provides a more straightforward definition: "Your content marketing strategy is your why" (the company purpose, the audience, and the differentiation) (your mission).

Content strategy

Content strategy functions above a content marketing strategy. It is a plan for developing, managing, and distributing all content created and shared across the company – not simply the content utilised as part of a content marketing campaign or effort. For example, how content is conceived and developed to offer an ideal user experience is a concern that would go under a content strategy, not a content marketing strategy.

Content mission statement

Your content mission statement should serve as the guiding concept for your brand's singular content strategy. This statement should serve as a guide for the creative and strategic decisions made by your content team, and it should represent the values of your organisation. This should include.

• What stories your brand will tell (e.g., topics)
• How those stories take shape (e.g., core content formats and platforms)
• How your content assets work collectively to create a desirable experience for your audience

Goals

Your content marketing strategy's objectives are the business results you want to see as a result of implementing it. While the end aim is to motivate people to take action that is good for business, the goals of individual programmes should be more narrowly focused on things like increasing sales, cutting costs, or boosting brand loyalty and customer happiness. All objectives should be quantifiable and have a clear deadline.

Personas

A persona is a fictional representation of a typical customer who shares key qualities with other members of the target demographic. Used to guide your content marketing strategy and increase the likelihood that your target audience will see, interact with, and act upon your content. Without well-researched personas, you are left to hazard a guess as to what your audience wants, and you are more likely to create content based on what you know best (your goods and services).

Planning/Process-centric terms

Channel/media planning

Planning where, when, and how often a message is sent to a target audience is known as "media planning." To accomplish the desired impact, it is preferable to communicate with as many people of the target audience as possible, but only to do so as seldom as is necessary (e.g., brand awareness, leads, sales).

Your brand's content management across the ever-expanding number of media channels should be guided by a comprehensive channel plan, which should incorporate social media planning. All the reasons and requirements for using each medium are laid out in detail. Having this information compiled can assist you avoid spending time and money on distribution methods that won't advance your content marketing and commercial objectives.

Content brief

A content brief is a collection of instructions given to freelancers, consultants, and other outsourced writers to ensure that their work is well-focused and up to the editorial and marketing standards of the brand. A well-written brief will provide an elevator pitch for the task, important points, insights about the target audience, and information about the brand (such as tone, voice, and aesthetic concerns).

Content inventories and audits

Paula Land defines a content inventory as "a collection of facts about your content," which can be found in her book Content Audits and Inventories: A Handbook. It's a spreadsheet-based inventory of all of a company's content assets, including everything from individual pieces to whole channels' worths of material. For marketers, this means they can finally base their content selections on actual information.

Paula contrasts this with a content audit, which is a qualitative assessment of the catalogued materials. Determine which assets are successful by comparing their performance to consumer demands and corporate goals.

Content/editorial plan

To put your strategy into action and identify who is accountable for what, you need a content or editorial plan. Topics, content to be written, publishing and distribution schedules, and calls to action should all be outlined.

Content operations

From content strategy and planning through governance, execution, measurement, and optimization, content operations encompasses everything your business needs to manage content successfully and efficiently.

Editorial calendar

You can keep track of the many moving components involved in putting your content strategy into action with the help of an editorial calendar. Topic, title, author details, and photos for each asset, as well as a publishing and promotion plan coordinated by processes defined for development and production, are all standar

Content workflow

Workflows are the sequences of activities that must be performed by a group in order to finish producing material. Information workflows govern "how content is sought, obtained, developed, evaluated, authorised, and distributed," as Kristina Halvorson puts it in her book, Content Strategy for the Web.

At a minimum, they should outline critical tasks at each stage of the editorial process. Here’s a simple example:

• Outline
• Write
• Review
• Edit
• Approve
• Publish

Creation-centric terms

Copy editing, proofreading, and fact-checking

These methods of editing are used to make sure the information is flawless in every way. Each accomplishes a unique goal and takes a unique approach:

Revisions in the field of copy editing: Checking text for typos, grammatical mistakes, and other style issues that might detract from the overall quality and readability is an integral part of this process. In this role, you will be responsible for ensuring that all written content is free of typos, errors, and linguistic and punctuation mistakes. If required, a copy editor will additionally rework the piece to address issues with flow, repetition, jargon, and style.

Proofreading: The proofreading procedure occurs once the editing phase is complete. Here, a proofreader looks over the nearly-final copy to find any remaining typos or other minor errors that were overlooked during editing or introduced during production.

• Fact-checking: The material and its citations are then subjected to a fact check to ensure they are both accurate. Avoiding plagiarism, copyright infringement, and other ways to lose your audience's confidence are all things that may be checked off your list while creating this material (and possibly face legal penalties.)

Curation

In this context, "curation" refers to the process of collecting, sorting, commenting on, and presenting material for consumption. This method often entails repurposing information from other sources while keeping your brand's identity intact. One such way this concept might be used is in the context of curating brand-published content.

Distribution/promotion-centric terms

Accessibility

The term "accessibility" refers to the ease with which your material may be used by everyone. People with hearing or sight impairments, or those who just prefer to watch movies with the sound turned off, are common examples of those who may benefit from having subtitles available.

Calls to action (CTAs)

Statements or design elements indicating the actions you want the audience to do after interacting with the information, such as subscribing to a newsletter, attending an event, or exploring other related assets and products, are known as calls to action. The most effective calls to action (CTAs) are those that stand out from the background noise and compel the reader to take action.

Channels

Blogs, podcasts, social media accounts, and video platforms like YouTube, TikTok, and Vimeo are all examples of channels.

Formats

Content formats include text in a book, digital magazine, or SMS campaign; audio for a podcast; and graphics like a video or infographic, among others, for distribution and interaction.

Keywords/key phrases

Search terms that people use to get information on a certain topic can be used as keywords or key phrases to define the content of a given asset. These are the foundational elements of every successful SEO campaign.

Owned media

Your business has complete creative control over the appearance, accessibility, and integration of its owned media distribution channels within the context of the content experience.

Shared/social media

Marketers are able to upload information, start and join discussions, and engage with consumers all thanks to shared media like social networks. In the end, a third party determines the policies and procedures of these platforms, and that party might decide to stop providing these services at any time.

Native advertising

Native advertising is a paid/third-party promotion method where the content fits the look, feel, and function of the media in which it appears to serve either brand or direct-response objectives.

Branded content

Branded content is defined as content that is either sponsored by a brand or is created by the brand itself, according to Wikipedia. Like native advertising, it relies on building relationships with trustworthy sources who already reach your demographic. This way to storytelling is more interesting, useful, and memorable since it relies on the senses rather than just words.

Paid search

Opportunities like this sometimes emerge in the form of sponsored links or pay-per-click adverts towards the top of search engine results pages (SERP) when users conduct a search for terms related to your content.

Influencer marketing

One of the most rapidly expanding methods of advertising (and a rapidly developing market in and of itself), influencer marketing programmes utilise the help of individuals who already have the trust and attention of your intended demographic in order to promote your brand's products or services.

Content personalization

Personalized content is sent to specific users depending on information about those users, such as their demographics, location, interests, behaviour, and the type of device they use to consume media. Marketers utilise this method to make their material more discoverable, interesting, and relevant to their target consumers and existing customers in light of the fierce battle for people's attention on the Internet.

Search engine optimization (SEO)

Search engine optimization, or SEO, refers to a collection of methods used to improve a website's visibility in Google's and other search engines' organic search results (SERP). A greater click-through rate means more eyes on your material, therefore a better ranking is always a good thing.

Content segmentation

Content segmentation is the process of dividing an audience into subgroups that share common interests (similar to a buyer persona). Content is tailored to the readership in question and given in a straightforward and easily digestible format. Segmenting your material, which may alter design, language, and presentation, can increase interaction, set your brand apart from the competition, and boost the efficiency of your content marketing efforts.

Sales-centric terms

Account

Within the context of the total addressable market, a "account" is a sales goal, opportunity, or client group.

Account-based marketing (ABM)

In account-based marketing (ABM), high-value (usually enterprise-level) organisations are identified, and content is developed to target them as a group as opposed to selling to individuals inside the business.

Buyers

Prospects are persons who are interested in acquiring a service or product because they need it or want to buy it.

Consumers

Consumers are the people who are most likely to buy a product or service from a business. This phrase is sometimes used interchangeably with "buyers."

Customers

Customers are the people or businesses that have made a purchase from your company or brand, whereas buyers and consumers are phrases used to suggest interest or intent.

Conversion

After interacting with your brand's content, a conversion occurs when a user takes an action that your company considers valuable, such as making a purchase, signing up for a gated asset, joining a social network community, or subscribing to a blog or newsletter.

Demand generation

Marketing initiatives geared on increasing product and service visibility and interest in the marketplace are called "demand generation" campaigns. When there is a high level of curiosity, it is much simpler for sales to cultivate that interest into a sale.

 

Ideal customer profile (ICP)

An Ideal Customer Profile (ICP) is a profile of a hypothetical customer who would be interested in your product or service.

Journey map

In order to find the best content to guide a customer through the various stages of the conversion funnel, this phrase refers to a methodology for anticipating the types of information and help that customers will require at each stage of the funnel.

Lead

A marketing lead is a potential customer or client who has interacted with one of your company's branded assets or communication channels.

Lead scoring

Scoring is used in marketing to objectively compare and contrast how qualified a prospect is in relation to a set of specified sales criteria.

Marketing-qualified lead (MQL)

Marketing qualified leads (MQLs) are leads evaluated by marketing and passing along to sales as prospects who may eventually become customers.

Sales funnel/funnel stage

A customer's journey from first exposure to a product or service to final purchase is conceptualised using a "sales funnel" (or conclusion not to buy). It is frequently employed to ascertain the optimal method of outreach for fostering conversions. Content marketers are more likely to characterise the various stages of the consumer decision-making process as a journey than traditional marketers.

Sales-qualified lead (SQL)

SQLs are more likely to convert into customers than MQLs since they have already been qualified by the sales team as being actively engaged in the market.

Total addressable market (TAM)

The entire number of possible customers and/or the overall revenue possibility for a product or service is the basis for this estimation.

Measurement-centric terms

A/B testing

This technique sets two works against one another to see which performs better. It's a form of A/B testing where two versions (of a web page, an email subject line, a design strategy, a content perspective, etc.) are shown to two sets of people at random.

Analytics

Marketo defines analytics as the practice of managing and studying metrics data to determine the ROI of marketing efforts like calls to action, blog posts, channel performance, and thought leadership pieces, and to identify opportunities for improvement.

 

 

Key performance indicators (KPIs)

Key performance indicators (KPIs) are universally accepted benchmarks for evaluating how well your content marketing strategy is working. Key performance indicators may include average conversion rates, lead volumes, lead quality, revenue per new client, etc.

Metrics

Metrics, in contrast to KPIs, are the routine measures that quantify items that are beneficial to your organisation but aren't central to its success, such as the number of visitors to your website or the number of "likes" on a social media post. You might think of them as the "what-needs-to-be-true" figures that will get you closer to your KPIs or help you optimise those you already have.

Return on investment (ROI)

Return on investment, or ROI, is a catch-all word for describing the extent to which a company's marketing efforts generate monetary gain and additional enterprise. Knowing the return on investment for content marketing initiatives helps marketers prioritise resources, get the most out of every dollar spent, and show the value of their work to upper-level management. Even though it is the single most important indicator of a content program's success, it is not always easy to assess and quantify, much alone verify.

Subscribers

Subscribers are the fundamental indicator for gauging the success of a content marketing campaign. They are defined as audience members who have performed an action related to your content (and submitted some personal data to do so) in exchange for the expectation of obtaining continuous value.

Understanding the language is the first step to success

This dictionary is not meant to be all-inclusive, but it should help clarify some of the more generally misunderstood terminology and concepts used in the field. Let us know in the comments if there are any content marketing frameworks we could include here.