Marketing 101: Twelve Marketing Terms Every Author Must Understand

In this episode we’re going to talk about 12 marketing terms you must understand.

Intro

Listener question from Jennifer Rempel who suggested we do an episode with “A definition of terms for all the marketing jargon.”

Thomas and I were talking the other day and realized we get caught in a mistake many people do who have been in the same industry a long time. We start talking in a language only we understand. Problem!

When it comes to marketing, we through around a lot of terms that might not make sense to everyone. To rectify that distressing situation, we’re going to do a series of episodes on Marketing Terms You Need to Know.

First go around will be twelve terms … we’ll tell you the term, then briefly describe it, then move on to the next.

Ready Thomas?

The Terms

1. Lead Magnet (also called a Reader Magnet)
   1. Immediate reward for signing up for an email newsletter.
   2. “Thank you for subscribing click here to download your free (short story, tip sheet, mini course, etc.)
   3. Several episodes on this
   4. 145 – How to Create a Reader (Lead) Magnet
   5. 118 – Book Marketing 101: Marketing Funnels

1. PR
   1. It stands for public relations. It’s free exposure about your and/or your products. Internet, radio, TV, newspapers, emails, Word of Mouth … but you often have to pay people to create PR for you. If you don’t want to pay, you can do it yourself, and we have an episode on that …number 175.
2. Advertising
   1. Anytime you pay to get exposure, you’re advertising. Facebook ad, radio, TV, Amazon ads, etc.
      
      
3. KPI
   1. KPI stands for Key Performance Indicator. This is somewhat determined by you. The KPI is not going to be the same for every business, or even every season of your business. For example, you might decide your KPI is growing your newsletter list. That’s your primary goal. You might even end up spending money on building your list with no immediate monetary return. Do you know what your KPI is at the moment? Good to determine.
   2. SMART, Specific Measurable, Ambitious, Realistic, Time Bound Episode 023 – SMART Goals the Key to Marketing Success

1. Earned Media
   1. Earned Media and P.R. are cousins. Essentially, Earned Media is any media you get when someone shares your content voluntarily. For example, when someone shares your post on Facebook, or Twitter … that’s Earned Media.

1. Conversion Rate
   1. It’s simply the percentage of users who take the action you want them to take. For example, if you run an ad on Amazon for your novel, and 100 people click on the ad, and 10 people end up buying your book, your conversion rate is 10 percent.

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1. Bounce Rate
   1. The number of people who come to a page on your website and leave without clicking on anything before leaving, or move on to another page on your site. If you’re getting a high bounce rate, it means something needs to be changed on that page.
2. CTR (Click Through Rate)
   1. This is a number that shows how many people click on your offerings. It’s the number of clicks potential customers make, divided by the number of people who COULD have taken the action.

1. Friction
   1. What did we learn in physics in high school? Friction slows things down. With regards to marketing, friction is anything that slows down your customers, or potential customers. For example, a slow loading website, or a website that’s tough to navigate. An email that’s unclear. Back cover copy that’s cluttered or not written well.

1. PPC
   1. PPC stands for Pay Per Click. You only pay for the ad when someone clicks on it. For example, with AMS ads (Amazon Marketing Services ads) you only pay them when someone clicks on the ad. You don’t pay anything till a potential customer clicks.

1. ROI
   1. ROI is short for Return On Investment. This tells you what you got for what you spent. And the “spent” can be time as well as money. Randy Ingermanson.

1. Evergreen
   1. Content that will still be relevant years from now. A cookbook, or a book on the basics of managing money, or a story like The Chronicles of Narnia are evergreen. Book on Y2K, are not. With regards to content, are all of your blog posts timely, where they’ll be out of date in a few months, or are you also creating posts that can last a looooooong time. Thomas’ viral post on Courtship will last at least years longer.
      1. Confidence Crisis

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