Whether you are just starting out, or have been in the marketing game for years, getting acquainted with the vocabulary of content marketing is vital. It plays a role in every aspect of your business. Specifically, when you and your team have mastered the basic principles of marketing, you have a much better shot at creating a compelling brand that endures with customers.
Communication within your team is key, as is creating a common vocabulary, which helps improve productivity and increase overall confidence. Below are some of the lesser-known but important content marketing terms and their definitions. Study them, share them, and help yourself on the road to marketing success!
BUYER PERSONA
A buyer persona is a fictional, generalized representation of your ideal customer, or a set of information that pertains to your customer base. The buyer persona is one that you create in order to better understand the wants and needs of your target audience.
If you serve companies, your buyer persona will include details like company size. If you serve individuals, your buyer persona will likely include age demographics. Knowing what your customer base needs, wants, and seeks out allows you to retain customers, meet their needs, and draw in future customers.
CLICKTHROUGH RATE
Clickthrough rate refers to data that shows how your audience engages with your content. Moreover, clickthrough rate metrics allow you to see what parts of your site customers click on most, whether or not calls to action are clicked, whether or not a sale is made, and so on.
This information gives you incredible insight into how your content is being received. The data speak for themselves, showing whether or not your content is compelling, engaging, and more without the need for potentially faulty surveys.
DATA-BACKED CONTENT
It is time to transport back to those school days when every paper required referencing, or ‘proof,’ which is exactly what data-backed content refers to. It is vital in marketing to be able to back up your claims, especially with Internet-savvy audiences who can quickly check to see if your marketing claims are reliable. Data-backed content is best when the data you are relying on is current and verifiable – this helps build brand authority and trust in your business.
EDITORIAL CALENDAR
For busy creators, having a way to track what kind of content needs to be made is the only way to stay on top of the constant pile of work. An editorial calendar aids with this. It helps to plan and optimize your content creation to keep you more organized and ensure your content is well rounded to best represent your business, best inform your customers, and keep content unique and relevant.
EVERGREEN CONTENT
Evergreen content is the marketing term for content that remains useful to readers regardless of when they happen to read it. For instance, Organic Marketing 101 is an article of ours that will always be relevant for people looking to get into organic marketing. It does not have time-dependent relevancy and maintains a high SEO value over time.
INFOGRAPHIC
Infographic is a term given to a piece of content that is visual, simple, and conveys a complex concept. Infographics are used for fast and easy exchanges of important information, and often contain minimal words to increase the speed at which they can be understood.
LIFECYCLE STAGES
The lifecycle stages are descriptors of your business’ relationship with its audience: awareness, evaluation, and purchase. Every member of your audience will fall into one of these lifecycle stages. Those just learning about your business fall into the awareness lifecycle stage. People who have visited your site or physical location, or have spent any time interacting with your product or service, fall into the evaluation lifecycle stage. Finally, customers old and new fall into the purchase lifecycle stage. Considering the variety of stages your customers are in is also vital for creating content, as not all content will be relevant to every stage.
NEWSJACKING
Newsjacking may seem like an unsophisticated term, but it really does describe itself. Newsjacking refers to jumping on popular news story bandwagons to increase viewership or the impact of a particular piece of content. This practice is most noticeable with actual news sources; most will run either the same or extremely similar stories whenever a significant story breaks. This practice is easy to replicate yourself and can be extremely beneficial. Keep an eye out for stories that relate to your industry, then create content about it with your own personal flair!
SOCIAL OPTIMIZATION
Social optimization refers simply to the addition of social media sharing icons. These icons show up in the form of buttons that allow you to share content easily with your social media platforms. Sure, copying and pasting URLs works as well, but audiences will rarely take the initiative to share content if not given a sharing option, as it has become standard practice for most content. Creating social optimization icons is an excellent way to both increase conversations, and helps your customers engage more strongly with your content.
YOUTUBE
Most of us have heard of YouTube by now, but plenty of marketing teams have yet to tap into its incredible potential. YouTube already has a massive audience that is used to video marketing, so it is the perfect platform to start video marketing.
With these content marketing terms in your back pocket, you and your team can communicate quickly and efficiently to build a content strategy that will help your business grow.
Check out our blog to learn about content marketing terms, case studies, and more, or get help with your content by contacting Content Cucumbers. We have an amazing team of writers that is here to help you create the best content possible for your company!
