Advertorial
Advertorial is a form of advertising that is designed to look like it is editorial. Editorial is usually free of charge and written by an independent journalist, who because he is not being paid for the article, is free to maintain his independence and not be swayed by money and rather be lead by interesting news that his readers will enjoy. Advertising is however very different and although is subject to regulation and rules, is not governed in the same way at all. Advertising is usually very ‘designed’ and only gets across one or two simple messages (you have up to 2-3 seconds of readers attention for an advert). Advertorial strikes a balance between the two, it is paid for, and is something that most publications offer in one guise or another. Advertorial is generally written to look like an article but the publication will stamp the top of the page ‘ADVERTORIAL’ so they feel they are covered and not ‘duping’ their readers.
Attrition
This is a term used to explain when customers are leaving the business. i.e. “the rate of attrition is 5% per year”, meaning that 5% of your total customer base leaves in a given year. This of course can be balanced with the rate that new customers may be won per year. This word is also interchangeable with ‘churn’ or ‘customer churn’.
B2B
B2B is an acronym for Business to Business, meaning companies who target other companies as their clients, rather than B2C companies who target Consumers: Business to Consumer.
Campaign
Describes a burst of activity which is grouped together and with a common goal, it usually includes more than one ‘channel’. A campaign is typically made up of several channels and research has shown that campaigns made up of several channels are significantly more successful than those with only one or two (10-25% more effective). Please see my blog for further information.
Channel
A marketing Channel is a type of marketing activity or ‘route to market’. Activities or channels might be: email marketing, PR, Website, advertising, brochures etc.
Event Triggered Actions
This is a phrase which describes what kind of automated activities should take place after a given event. Some people describe this as creating a ‘workflow’. An example of an event triggered action is: A visitor to your website decides to complete the contact/enquiry form – this ‘event’ then triggers an automated email that gets sent immediately to the visitor which says ‘thanks for your enquiry we’ll be in touch soon’.
Frequency
As the name suggests this talks about how often you wish to make contact with your customers or prospects. Frequency is most often applied to large scale direct marketing campaigns or email marketing. It is important to set your ideal frequency in the planning stage so as to not over or under communicate with your target audience.
High-Net-Worth
This is a term that has sprung up to describe the exceptionally affluent (wealthy) who live a very well heeled lifestyle. This is a type of demographic group which is frequently targeted with very high value goods or services (yachts, power boats, aston martin’s etc.).
USP / Unique Selling Point
A USP is something that you consider to be unique to your business, a selling proposition that you feel other competing companies cannot offer. These are sometimes also called ‘differentiators’ – things that make you stand apart from the crowd.
Media Pack
Is the term given to the details that a media publication (print, on-line or both) will provide to advertisers that provides information on its reader base (sometimes this is audited by the ABC audit bureau), who they are, where they are based etc. This can help the advertiser decide if the publication is targeted the right kind of audience (i.e. those likely to buy/respond).
PPC – Pay Per Click
On-line, internet based advertising which is conducted on search engines like Google and Yahoo! You only pay for adverts which are displayed (served) AND which are subsequently clicked on by the recipient/searcher
Pop-up Stand
This is usually a 3m x 3m stand which has professionally printed graphics which hook onto a collapsible aluminium frame. The stand is highly portable (fits in the boot of the car usually) and can be available in other shapes & sizes to fit your requirements.
Rate Card
The cost of advertising at standard published rates, before negotiating.
SEO – Search Engine Optimisation
Describes the process undertaken to optimise your website to make it search engine friendly, which in turn will mean that your website will appear higher up the results for given/specific search terms, often called 'key words'.
Segmentation
This is the methodology you would apply to ‘segmenting’ your target audience into discernable chunks. Doing this allows you to target people who fall into these chunks in a more productive fashion.
A segment might be: High-Net-Worth (see below) females aged 18-30 who live in Surrey.
Here you have demographic and geographic segmentation.
