By Shayla Strange, senior account manager – communications 21

Embarking on the journey of hiring a marketing or public relations firm can often feel scary. Whether you need social media posts or help mapping out an email marketing plan, hiring a professional – even for small businesses – gives expert insight that the DIY approach could lack.

So, you’re in the room (or Zoom) ‘where it happens’ with a potential marketing firm and the acronyms begin flying.

If marketing and PR aren’t in your typical day-to-day, the sheer volume of terms can be overwhelming, blending in a confusing jumble. (Of course, at c21 we always strive to communicate clearly with our clients, which means not using too much industry jargon that will leave you saying ‘huh?’)

To make things simple, here’s a breakdown of the top 21 marketing and PR jargon terms you may want to acquaint yourself with, whether you’re working with your internal communications team or an outside agency:

1. ROI (Return on Investment): A measure of the profitability of an investment, often used to evaluate the effectiveness of marketing campaigns.
2. CTA (Call to Action): A prompt that encourages the audience to take specific action, such as signing up for a newsletter or making a purchase.
3. SEO (Search Engine Optimization): The process of optimizing a website to increase its visibility and ranking on search engine results pages.
4. PPC (Pay-Per-Click): An advertising model where advertisers pay a fee each time their ad is clicked.
5. CTR (Click-Through Rate): The percentage of people who click on a link or advertisement compared to the number of people who view it. This can also apply to email marketing.
6. B2B (Business to Business): Marketing and sales transactions that occur between businesses rather than between a business and consumers.
7. B2C (Business to Consumer): Marketing and sales transactions that occur between a business and consumers directly.
8. KPI (Key Performance Indicator): Metrics used to evaluate the success of a marketing campaign or business strategy.
9. CRM (Customer Relationship Management): Practices, strategies and technologies used to manage and analyze customer interactions and data throughout the customer lifecycle.
10. UGC (User-Generated Content): Content created and shared by users of a product or service, often used in marketing campaigns to build trust and authenticity. This is often seen in influencer marketing campaigns.
11. CPM (Cost Per Mille or Thousand): The cost of reaching one thousand people with an advertisement.
12. EdCal (Editorial Calendar): An editorial calendar is a visual workflow that helps a team of content creators schedule their work on a daily, weekly or monthly basis. In addition, editorial calendars can be created by print publications as guides to the themes or topics they plan to cover at a specific time.
13. Business Manager (Meta): Facebook’s tool for businesses and agencies to manage their clients’ Facebook Pages, ad accounts and other assets securely in one place. It streamlines workflows, enhances collaboration, and provides granular control over access to different assets.
14. Impressions: The total count of times a piece of content is displayed to users, indicating its visibility.
15. Reach: The total number of unique users or audience members who have been exposed to a piece of content, such as an advertisement or a social media post, at least once during a specific period.
16. SMM (Social Media Marketing): The use of social media platforms to connect with audiences to build a brand, increase sales and drive website traffic.
17. SEM (Search Engine Marketing): A form of internet marketing that involves promoting websites by increasing their visibility in search engine results pages.
18. CPA (Cost Per Acquisition): The cost of acquiring a new customer.
19. Conversions: The desired actions that users take in response to a marketing campaign or a call to action. These actions can vary depending on the campaign’s objectives, such as making a purchase, signing up for a newsletter, filling out a form, or downloading an app.
20. Boosted Post: A regular social media post that a user or a business decides to promote by paying the platform to increase its reach. Boosting a post typically involves targeting specific demographics, locations or interests to ensure it reaches a larger audience beyond the user’s followers.
21. GDPR (General Data Protection Regulation): A regulation in EU law on data protection and privacy that aims to give individuals control over their personal data and simplify the regulatory environment for international business.

While this list is not comprehensive for every single marketing or PR term, it offers a solid introduction for anyone entering the marketing and PR arena, whether apprehensively or enthusiastically. You’ll notice that many of these terms are common across various communication strategies, spanning from digital advertising to email marketing to media relations.

Did you already know any of these terms or were they completely new to you? Don’t worry; part of our role is to ensure our clients embrace the communication jargon too!