Marketing Terms Every Small Business Owner Should Know
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Similar to a car, there are a number of “parts” that make up a fully functional business. Your small business has a unique history, pain points, and advantages. But what happens when it's flashing a “check engine” light? Sometimes you know exactly what’s wrong. Other times, you’re unsure where to even begin. You might be able to fix it yourself, or you might need a professional to take a look.
Whether your business is brand new or you're a few years in, we want to give you the marketing terms to make quick fixes yourself or tell the shop what's needed.
Table of Contents: Jump to Marketing Term
CRM (Customer Relationship Management)
SEO (Search Engine Optimization)
Marketing Terms A–Z
A/B Testing
What is it: When you want a method of comparing performance, you do A/B testing. By creating two versions of something, such as an email, subject line, or ad, you can measure which one performs better.
Why it's important: Instead of relying on guesswork, A/B testing gives you real data. It helps you make better marketing decisions, improve results over time, and avoid spending money on messaging or designs that don't connect with your audience.
Branding
What it is: The way your business looks, sounds, and feels defines how customers experience your brand. This includes your logo, colors, and messaging language. In other words: the overall impression people get when they initially see or hear about you.
Why it’s important: Before your prospective audience reads your email or notices an ad, they will subconsciously take in the look and feel of your business, leaving a first impression behind that may be difficult to change if you have inconsistencies in your branding. A good company leaves a positive lasting impression before your first email ever reaches the consumer's inbox.
Call to Action (CTA)
What it is: A good call to action includes clear and concise prompt that tells someone what to do next, like “Buy Now,” “Schedule a Call,” or “Download Your Guide.” These can be found in a ton of places: emails, websites, digital ads, and more.
Why it’s important: These prompts direct your client to take the next step of their journey.
Campaigns
What it is: Campaigns involve a planned set of marketing actions like sending a series of emails, posting regularly on social media, or running ads, in order to reach a goal, such as getting more customers or building your business’s awareness.
Why it’s important: Campaigns provide a plan to blueprint to your business plan for success. Whether you set up an email campaign to get customers to your site or run a series of social media ads to get people to view a product, campaigns long- or short-term pave the way for your customers.
Click-Through Rate (CTR)
What it is: Click-through rates identify what specific links or actions your audience takes in any given email, ads, blog article, or landing page.
Why it's important: Click-through rates are essential for understanding performance across your various content types.
Conversion
What it is: A conversion is best described as someone taking a key action, like buying your product, filling out a form, or scheduling a call. It’s the moment a visitor becomes a customer or lead.
Why it’s important: At the very least, a conversion is a prospect, at the very most, it’s business! Conversions pinpoint what’s working and what isn't.
CRM (Customer Relationship Management)
What it is: A CRM helps you keep track of leads and customers so you can follow up, stay organized, and personalize your communication.
Why it is important: All businesses, large and small, rely on some kind of CRM. Depending on what kind of business you are, different systems will be best for your business. If you’ve heard of Salesforce, Hubspot, or Pipedrive, then you’ve heard of CRMs!
Engagement
What it is: Engagement identifies and measures how much people interact with your content through likes, shares, comments, clicks, and more.
Why it’s important: Engagement is the first step in conversions, and communicates to you what your audience is interacting with. As you track your engagement, you can identify what is working and what isn’t.
Funnel
What it is: A funnel guides potential customers from initial awareness to making a purchase. It usually includes the stages awareness, interest, decision, and action.
Why it’s important: Your funnel is the structure behind engagement and conversions. While you won’t dictate the exact path someone takes to purchasing your product, the funnel path you develop through blogs, products, ads, and other marketing materials sets up a journey for your audience marked by ease and simplicity.
Inbound Marketing
What it is: Inbound marketing is a way to attract customers by creating helpful content—like blog posts, videos, or free guides—so they come to you instead of you chasing them. It builds trust over time and brings in people who are already looking for what you offer.
Why it’s important: Inbound marketing is a crucial component to advertising your business. It’s a way to establish yourself as a source of authority and assistance for when your audience comes to you (rather than you coming to them).
Leads
What it is: Leads identify who is interested in what you offer and have given you their contact info, like filling out a form or signing up for emails are your leads!
Why it’s important: Leads are part of the first stage of prospecting. Once you capture a lead, you will want to engage them in a natural course through your business’s funnel.
Outbound Marketing
What it is: This marketing approach means your business actively reaches out to potential customers through channels like cold emails, ads, phone calls, or direct mail. Unlike inbound marketing, outbound puts your message in front of an audience whether they’re looking for it or not.
Why it’s important: Outbound marketing generates brand awareness and helps you reach people outside your existing network. When paired with strong messaging and targeting, it can create new demand and bring in leads who may not have found you otherwise.
Premium Content
What it is: If your business offers free resources like a guide or checklist in exchange for someone’s information (like name and email), then you've got premium content! These helps capture leads while giving people something useful.
Why it’s important: Premium content shows that your business isn’t a one-way street. By offering something valuable to your audience (besides the product you sell), you establish yourself as someone worth trusting.
Retention Marketing
What it is: Retention marketing means your business is making efforts to keep your current customers coming back. Follow up email, loyalty programs, or special offers are great examples of intentional retention tactics.
Why it’s important: Good businesses don’t just care about future buyers. They want to make current customers feel valued.
SEO (Search Engine Optimization)
What it is: SEO involves making continual additions and enhancements to your website so it shows up higher on Google when people search for things related to your business.
Why it’s important: One of the most crucial components when it comes to copy content is leveraging search engine optimization in blogs, social media posts, and your website copy reinforce your brand's authority and build trust with your audience. By using tools like Ahrefs, SEMrush, or similar SEO tools, you find ways to organically increase where your brand lands on a search engine results page (SERP).
Social Proof
What it is: Evidence that others trust your business—like reviews, testimonials, or case studies.
Why it’s important: Social proof in a social age allows your brand to build authority. While you may be an expert in this field and say as much on your website, people want to know what other people think.
Traffic
What it is: The number of people who visit your website. More traffic usually means more chances to get new customers.
Why it’s important: There are several different kinds of traffic, but what is most important to know is that they all have the same purpose: driving people to your site. Whether it’s organic traffic, paid traffic, referral traffic, or anything in between, they are opportunities for you to gauge who is visiting your small business’s website. Tools like Google Analytics allow you to leverage this knowledge and adapt to your audience’s needs.
UX/UI Audit (User Experience/User Interface)
What it is: A check-up for your website to see if it’s easy to use. It helps find anything that’s confusing or hard to navigate so you don’t lose customers.
Why it is important: These audits give you technical insight into your client’s experience. Language and imagery are easier to assess, but a website requires a little more technical, hands-on work to ensure that your site is mobile-friendly, healthy, authoritative, and easy to navigate.
Now That You Know the Marketing Terms, What Does Your Small Business Need?
Armed with these essential marketing terms, you can take a more strategic approach to marketing your business or work alongside an agency with clarity and confidence.
