7 Marketing Buzzwords And What They Mean

Whether you’re brand new to marketing or you’re an industry veteran, you’re bound to come across certain terminology that you’ve never heard before. One of the most difficult parts of marketing and advertising jobs is understanding the lingo professionals use every day. However, using some of the common marketing buzzwords not only reinforces your professional credibility, but it also helps you simplify complex ideas that could otherwise take up your time to explain. Use this guide as a reference the next time you hear strange marketing buzzwords you need to define.

1. Influencer

Chances are, you’ve heard this term thrown around during a strategy meeting or two, and you probably have an idea of what it means. Basically, it’s a fancy name for people who can effectively reach your audience. These people typically have large followings because of their social rank or credibility on a certain topic.

Use it in a sentence: We should craft a message that’s likely to be retweeted by our key influencers.

2. Disruptive

It’s every marketing director’s goal to lead his or her team to the creation of an innovative campaign that completely grabs the attention of consumers. This kind of strategy is what Forbes defined as “disruptive.” Marketers and advertisers also periodically replace the term with “game-changing” and “epic” as an attempt at exaggerating a creative concept or product.

Use it in a sentence: Let’s come up with disruptive concepts for our new website that users haven’t seen before.

3.  Always-on

An “always-on” campaign is one that, like the term implies, never ends. Whereas a promotion based on a certain event will be shut off after a period of time, these constant campaigns are the bread and butter of a business, according to LinkedIn. Companies might use a PPC ad with a solid phrase that consistently generates traffic, regardless of the time of year or changes in the industry.

Use it in a sentence: That keyword would be good for an always-on approach, since customers are constantly searching for it on Google.

4. Native ad

The growing popularity of content marketing opens up new opportunities for advertisers – one of them being “native ads.” Essentially, these are just sponsored content, which you’ve probably seen when scanning your Facebook news feed or reading an article on your favorite blog.

Use it in a sentence: Let’s use a native ad within a popular blog to subtly push our message to readers.

5. Marketing automation

Marketing automation is software that’s used to speed up your daily processes and make sure that your audience gets valuable content at the most convenient times. Depending on the software you choose, implementing the technology could help simplify the process of sending marketing emails, analyzing results, segmenting data accordingly for follow-up campaigns, and more.

Use it in a sentence: We should look into marketing automation software to simplify some of these manual processes that take up all of our time.

6. Omnichannel

Those in marketing and advertising are especially familiar with the term “omnichannel,” which CMO.com defines as the concept of reaching consumers through multiple channels. While the idea itself is nothing new – after all, advertisers have included both online and offline strategies in their marketing plans since the invention of the Internet – opportunities for more interactive advertising have created a need for an equally innovative term.

Use it in a sentence: The campaign should take an omnichannel approach that includes social, Web, and email marketing.

7. Social TV

If you’ve ever been on Facebook or Twitter during a broadcast of your favorite show, you’ve likely witnessed social TV. According to advertising firm Bigeye Agency, the term refers to any form of engagement that mixes television and social media. Simple enough, right?

Use it in a sentence: The social TV covering the Super Bowl was more interesting than the game itself.