As industries change with the introduction of new technologies and the inescapable impact of social media and influencers, the marketing industry is focusing more than ever on data driven results and digital marketing. While this does not mean that marketing execs are steering clear of the “Four P’s” or the four pillars of traditional marketing, it does indicate that the landscape is shifting. Today, to have a successful campaign that resonates with your target audience, you need to be aware of where people are scrolling.

To help delve into the modern marketing world, we’ve defined and unpacked seven essential marketing terms to know.

1. Digital Marketing

To start, it’s important to understand what digital marketing is and how it compares to traditional marketing. Digital marketing is simply the promotion of products and services online and through other digital channels including websites, search engines, email, social media, etc. The biggest difference between the two is that digital marketing allows for direct interaction with the customer, which then generates higher engagement levels. So digital marketing is measurable, though this does not discount the influence that traditional marketing may have on a customer. Therefore, even with a big shift towards digital marketing, traditional strategies are not lost.

2. Four P’s: Product, Price, Place and Promotion

As previously mentioned, traditional marketing has evolved, but the pillars of the industry remain and the techniques that we use today still rely on the “four P’s” of marketing: product, price, place and promotion.

Product –A product or brand can offer a tangible good or service that fulfills a need or want of a customer. It’s important that brands have a clear vision of the product in order to successfully market it to its target audience.
Price –Once the product is established and there is a real understanding of what the product offers, we can start pricing the product or service. Price impacts profits, supply and demand and the overall marketing strategy. While the product has a certain target audience, the price then narrows or broadens this audience.
Promotion – Promotion involves all the different ways we can present relevant information about the product or service to the customer. This information can be presented through different channels like advertising, public relations, digital marketing, email marketing, search engine marketing and more. It’s important that each effort is supported by a well-positioned brand to ultimately maximize ROI or return on investment.
Place –Place is essential to promote a product. It’s critical that the product is promoted at the right time and place in order to convert potential customers into actual customers. Today, we encounter dozens of marketing strategies before we even step foot into work whether you walk, drive, or take the train or subway. Potential for getting hooked on a product or service can occur while scrolling on your phone or seeing physical ad space – but the important thing to know for marketers is where their potential customer is looking.

3. MMM: Media Mix Modeling

Media Mix Modeling piggybacks off the place portion of the Four P’s as it concerns having the right balance of marketing strategies over different media i.e. magazines, newspapers, social media and more. Having the right media mix creates a higher probability that a potential customer may be influenced to purchase, which then drives engagements and sales.

Essentially, MMM is an analysis technique that allows marketers to measure the impact of their marketing and advertising campaigns to determine how various efforts contribute to their overall sales goal.

4. Omnichannel Marketing

Omnichannel strategies refers to a multichannel sales approach that provides customers with a seamless and integrated shopping experience. Whether the customer is shopping on a desktop, mobile phone or from a brick-and-mortar store, the experience should be seamless because the messaging throughout is seamless.

While this sounds relatively similar to Media Mix Modeling, Omnichannel Marketing puts the customer at the center whereas MMM focuses on the channels in which the customer is reached. The goal is to ultimately build stronger relationships between the customer and the brand, which in turn increases customer retention and revenue.

5. ROI: Return on Investments

ROI is probably the most important term to understand in marketing. All marketing efforts are reduced to return on investments. It is the practice of attributing profit and revenue growth to the impact of marketing initiatives. Or more simply put – what was invested in marketing strategies and how much money did a brand generate or lose. By calculating marketing ROI, brands can measure the degree to which their marketing efforts contributed to sales and revenue growth. ROI also helps budget allocation for ongoing and future initiatives.

6. SEO: Search Engine Optimization

Search Engine Optimization is the practice of increasing the quantity and quality of traffic to a website through organic search engine results. Or in other terms, SEO is anything done to improve the ranking of a website on search engine result pages or SERPs. The goal is to increase visibility or traffic by ranking high for terms or phrases on search engines. SEO is determined by many, many factors, but one of the biggest deciding factors is keyword research and making sure your website comes up when relevant terms to a brand are searched.

7. Influencer Marketing

Influencer marketing is a type of social media marketing that uses product mentions and endorsements from influencers to engage a dedicated following. This is particularly useful because successful influencers grow their followings from being authentic, which in turn creates trust and an organic platform for brands to target niche markets. Additionally, influencer marketing provides marketers with data driven analytics. Influencers can provide insights on how many followers ‘swiped up’ or took a screen shot of a story with a product mention. Because of this influencer marketing has skyrocketed over the past couple of years – especially with the introduction of shoppable Instagram, social media platforms are becoming the go-to place to shop and to get ideas about where to shop.

So, these are seven marketing terms you should know! Although just a snapshot of the industry, it definitely is a starting place. To continue discovering the blog, take a look at this post to learn a couple buzzwords in the PR industry.

Marketing Terms You Should Know