An introduction to common digital marketing jargon for beginners

Digital marketing has more than its share of jargon for the individual to learn.

As marketing is all about getting and keeping new customers, I could see we online marketers have an image problem.

A client who was interested in taking his business online pointed the online marketing jargon out to me vividly and asked for an explanation.

He stopped me mid-sentence with the words “speak English geek boy” that was my wake up call.

I'm writing this short guide to digital marketing jargon, to help anyone on the outside of the digital marketing circle get on the inside much quicker.

1) Digital Marketing, is selling any product or service online. It’s this low cost of entry which is attractive in starting your own online business.

2) Joint Ventures, a joint venture is a partnership. Simply put, 2 or more people work together to increase their sales, or to complete a product or service.

3) Subscriber List is a list of people who have given permission for the marketer to send them emails which may contain adverts.

This is also known as an opt-in list, because subscribers opt in to receive the emails.

4) Viral Marketing, this little phrase is used to describe a way of increasing your business, or websites reach, by using a “viral technique”.

In real life, a virus spreads out by people contacting one another.

Some clever people realised they could use the power of people sending each other information, and watch information about their own business being spread in the same way as a virus.

5) Niche Marketing, this is the act of selling to a particular group of people.

An example of a niche market is poodle owners. They are dog owners, but will specifically search for information about poodles.

These markets can be profitable because many people do not target directly them so if you have a product tailored to a niche market you have little or no competition.