10 Small Business Marketing Terms You Should Know

If you happen to be a small business or ecommerce website owner, you most likely have a lot of work to do besides market your business. Keeping up with the day-to-day operation is a full-time job in itself, and doesn’t leave much time to think about future campaigns and sales.

However, this doesn’t mean that marketing your business is any less important. To continue to grow and expand your digital empire, it’s important that you stay on top of marketing developments. This means that you must also understand the language. For many small business owners who are unfamiliar with the wide world of marketing, the jargon used can be difficult, to say the least. We’ve created this guide of important marketing terms to help you dive into the marketing landscape.

Below we have listed 10 marketing terms that every small business owner should know and understand:

#1. Organic traffic

Organic traffic outlines any traffic that isn’t paid (through online ads, for example). Traffic can originate from other web pages that feature your links, social media accounts, or through search engines. Businesses focus on organic traffic by boosting search engine optimisation because it is a free way to obtain leads and customers.

#2. Online presence

Online presence includes any website that features, highlights, or displays your brand. This can include your own website or any other website that links to yours. Most small businesses search out ways to increase their online presence. This is generally accomplished through partnerships or expanding websites.  

#3. Search Engine Optimisation (SEO)

Search Engine Optimisation represents the efforts required to obtain organic traffic through search results. How a website ranks on a search engine depends on a collection of factors determined by search engine algorithms. Factors can vary based on content featured, the time it takes to load the site, and the overall legitimacy of the website.

#4. Inbound marketing

Inbound marketing is the method of drawing potential customers to you. These efforts typically include SEO efforts, social media campaigns, paid advertising, blogs, and newsletters. Rather than search out customers, inbound marketing allows customers to come to you.

#5. Evergreen content

Evergreen is a way to classify content that is always interesting to readers. For example, how-to guides, factual articles, and knowledge bases are considered evergreen. Content that loses value over time (i.e. new stories and popular trends) are not considered evergreen. Evergreen content – also referred to as cornerstone content – helps draw attention to a website over time, rather than in one short spurt.

#6. Customer Acquisition Cost (CAC)

CAC is the amount of money a business has to spend to acquire a new customer. For example, if you run a campaign that cost £100 and you gain five new customers, the CAC would be £20 per customer. How much CAC you should spend depends on the industry and how long customers will likely stay with your business.

#7. Click through rate (CTR)

CTR is the rate at which individuals are clicking on a link connected to a specific piece of advertising. Links can appear in email campaigns, social media ads, and affiliate links. The higher rate of people clicking through, the greater success of your ad campaign.

#8. Cost per click (CPC)

Cost per click typically applies to social media and affiliate marketing campaigns. These types of internet marketing usually charge for each person who clicks the link rather than how many sales you actually make. To keep marketing costs low, you want any CPC you encounter to also be low.

#9. Impressions

Impressions are different from clicks because it accounts for how many people see your ad without clicking the link. For example, if you have an ad that receives 100 clicks, your success depends on how many individuals saw the ad and did not click. If you have 105 impressions then your ad is fantastic. However, if you have 500,005 impressions then you may want to rethink your strategy.

#10. Open rate

Open rate refers specifically to email marketing campaigns, and to how many individuals open the email you sent before deleting it. It also takes being marked as spam into account. Open rate is typically a percentage of people who engaged with the email versus how many people the email was sent to. The higher the open rate, the more successful the email marketing campaign.