Top 10 Marketing Terms for 2013

How well do you know marketing? While you may have a business plan with a section for marketing and a few employees focused on social media, are you up-to-date on the latest concepts in the marketing realm?

When you compete in the small business space, using the latest business terminology is not the most important priority. However, move up the ladder to where mid-size businesses compete, and suddenly, everyone uses language that small businesses don’t understand. To compete with the big brands, leaders in the midmarket space must understand and use the latest marketing and business lingo. Here are 10 marketing terms and definitions for 2013.

IMC: Integrated Marketing Communication

Sometimes, companies implement marketing campaigns in silos. The marketing concept known as Integrated Marketing Communication reinforces the importance of a cohesive marketing plan so that all messaging, branding, advertising, public relations, etc., displays the same theme to make sure that current and prospective customers are not confused by any marketing campaigns.

USP: Unique Selling Proposition

Years ago, people joked that if they had two minutes in an elevator with Bill Gates, they needed to be able to articulate their company’s competitive advantage or their personal brand in two minutes or less or what became known as an “elevator pitch.” The elevator pitch has gone the way of the Ford Edsel, and in its place, we now have the unique selling proposition. What makes a company unique? Why should a company stand apart from the competition? Why should a company be an industry leader?

P2P: Peer to Peer Marketing

Formerly known as word-of-mouth marketing, social media has changed the playing field. Now, many brands get new fans or interested leads when existing customers promote the brand to a friend or peer.

CLV: Customer Lifetime Value

How much does it cost a company to obtain a customer and keep a customer? This term represents how much each customer is worth in monetary terms, how much a marketing department should spend to woo a customer, and how much revenue received from an average customer during his/her relationship with a company.

BDI: Brand Development Index

This analysis is calculated for specific metropolitan areas and used to determine the potential of yet-to-be-developed areas for new product entries or promotions.

KPM: Key Performance Metrics

Every marketing campaign must be evaluated to determine the return on investment. How many click-thru’s to your main website or campaign-specific landing pages resulted from emails? How many leads came as a result of tradeshow attendance or telemarketing? How many likes appeared on your Facebook page? How many mentions and retweets appeared on Twitter? How many of your videos were uploaded on YouTube? How many sales resulted from your social media activity?

SMO: Social Media Optimization

Due to the popularity of social media, companies rely on social networks to generate publicity and increase brand awareness. SMO uses RSS feeds, news and bookmarking sites, video and blogging sites, etc. Similar to search engine optimization, the goal is to generate traffic for a website.

CCO: Chief Customer Officer

Welcome to the newest member of the C-level team: The Chief Customer Officer. According to the Chief Customer Officer Council, the CCO is “an executive who provides the comprehensive and authoritative view of the customer and creates corporate and customer strategy at the highest levels of the company to maximize customer acquisition, retention, and profitability.”

VLOG: Video Blog

The statistics show that video is the most widely consumed data on the Internet, so while your company may have a successful blog with content written and posted on a regular basis, have you considered adding video? Perhaps, the president should talk about company news every week for one or two minutes. Or, someone from research and development could talk, or someone from marketing. If you regularly write articles, then video isn’t much more difficult.

CALL TO ACTION:

While not really a new term, everyone in a marketing capacity should always sing this tune and provide this reminder. For every campaign, initiative, strategy, you must always have a call to action to attract prospective customers. Subscribe now. Download this case study today. Complete this survey now. Sign up to receive a free gift today.

As a midmarket executive, do you have any favorite terms to share?

 

This post was written as part of the IBM for Midsize Business program, which provides midsize businesses with the tools, expertise and solutions they need to become engines of a smarter planet. I’ve been compensated to contribute to this program, but the opinions expressed in this post are my own and don't necessarily represent IBM's positions, strategies or opinions.