tech jargon defined
Marketing Terms You Need to Know
Blog
A blog is a type of website, usually maintained by an individual with regular entries of commentary, descriptions of events, or other material such as graphics or video. Entries are commonly displayed in reverse-chronological order. "Blog" can also be used as a verb, meaning to maintain or add content to a blog. Source: Wikipedia.
Buyer Profiles (aka Buyer Personas, Customer Profiles, market Segmentation)
Think of a buyer profile like a modus operandi or MO for your current and prospective customers/buyers. It is a way of identifying your niche audience so you can reach them with effective, targeted marketing. For example, let's say that you sell skateboards. Your buyer profiles may include these different types of people: expert skateboarders, parents of skateboarders, beginning skateboarders, people who want to know how to perform tricks, etc. Each one of those types of people is a buyer profile with different needs. For the parents of skateboarders, you might want to stress safety and stability. You may want to make safety equipment easily available. Experts may be more interested in events, new styles of skateboards and how to connect with other skateboarders like them.
Once you know and understand your buyer profiles you can create online marketing that focuses on their needs and solves their problems. And that's what successful online marketing is all about.
Media Release (aka News Release, Press Release)
It used to be that releases were provided to reporters with the basics they need to develop a news story. Then the reporter/media contact would decide whether or not the story would make for a good release. That still goes on, of course, but the modern way of doing this is the media/news release.
News releases can be written and sent by anyone. As long as the content is appropriate and about you, your company or your customers, you can send a release. They can announce a range of news items such as: scheduled events, personal promotions, awards, news products and services, sales, accomplishments, etc. They are often used in generating a feature story or are sent for the purpose of announcing news conferences, upcoming events or change in corporation. Your media release will be seen by your target audience and by people in the industry.
Online press/media releases are sent to hundreds or thousands of websites that are related to the subject matter of your release and the industry category you choose.
online Media/Press Release Distribution ServiceS
Releases are like a short newspaper article and are written in order to highlight an important event, program, or piece of information by an organization that succinctly describes the who, what, where, when, why and how of the story. Source: Wikipedia.
Niche Marketing
A niche market is a focused, targetable portion of a market. By definition, then, a business that focuses on a niche market is addressing a need for a product or service that is not being addressed by mainstream providers. You can think of a niche market as a narrowly defined group of potential customers.
For instance, instead of offering cleaning services, a business might establish a niche market by specializing in blind cleaning services.
Why should you bother to establish a niche market? Because of the great advantage of being alone there; other small businesses may not be aware of your particular niche market, and large businesses won't want to bother with it.
The trick to capitalizing on a niche market is to find or develop a market niche that has customers who are accessible, that is growing fast enough, and that is not owned by one established vendor already. Source: About.com
By seeking out smaller segments of larger markets, a website or online marketing strategy can be developed and promoted quickly to uniquely serve a targeted and usually loyal customer base. Source: Wikipedia.
Suggested Reading:
- 3 Rules of Niche Marketing (Free Article)
Social & business Networking
Social Networking
A social network service focuses on building online communities of people who share interests and/or activities, or who are interested in exploring the interests and activities of others. Most social network services are web based and provide a variety of ways for users to interact, such as e-mail and instant messaging services.
Social networking has encouraged new ways to communicate and share information. Social networking websites are being used regularly by millions of people.
While it could be said that email and websites have most of the essential elements of social network services, the idea of proprietary encapsulated services has gained popular uptake recently.
The main types of social networking services are those which contain category divisions (such as former school-year or classmates), means to connect with friends (usually with self-description pages) and a recommendation system linked to trust. Popular methods now combine many of these, with Facebook widely used worldwide; MySpace, Twitter and LinkedIn being the most widely used in North America.
One popular use for this new technology is social networking between businesses. Companies have found that social networking sites such as Facebook® and Twitter are great ways to build their brand image. According to Jody Nimetz, author of Marketing Jive, there are five major uses for businesses and social media: to create brand awareness, as an online reputation management tool, for recruiting, to learn about new technologies and competitors, and as a lead gen tool to intercept potential prospects. These companies are able to drive traffic to their own online sites while encouraging their consumers and clients to have discussions on how to improve or change products or services.
Some believe that the deeper information that the sites have on each user will allow much better targeted advertising than any other site can currently provide.
Business Networking
Business Networking is a marketing method by which business opportunities are created through networks of like-minded business people. Plaxo and LinkedIn are two of the top business networking services.
Source: Wikipedia.
Target Market
Communicating with a specific group of consumers with similar characteristics, within a broader group of consumers who purchases a type of product. Market Segmentation (aka buyer profiles) is the process of target marketing. Once target market(s) are identified, the organization develops a product offering (marketing mix) that is positioned to be attractive to that segment. Source: Wikipedia
Web Content
This is the text/writing that site visitors read when they come to your website, blog, e-newsletter, etc.
- Content for the web is different than content for a printed piece, i.e. a brochure.
- The web offers a sense of urgency, so you must tease them with a few well chosen words and a small visual, then give them the ability to get more information when they want it.
- Do not overwhelm or confuse your buyers.
- Do not do a hard sell or use pushy language.
- Always add a call to action.
- Ask for feedback through a feedback form or via e-mail.