A few years ago I started exploring Inbound Marketing tools. Back then, the information on the respective subject was scanty. That is why back then I was not aware of most of the inbound marketing terms.
It is fortunate that there are reliable sources on the topic today.
To learn about a certain subject. It is vital to get acquainted with its important terms.
I learned important Inbound Marketing terms from a few different sources on the web.
HubSpot and Marketo are the prominent ones among them.
A while back I found a few sources listing Inbound marketing glossary A to Z.
I felt that those lists were not complete. So, I thought of coming up with definitions of as many words as I could think of.
The exhaustive list is as below:
75+ Important Inbound Marketing Terms in the World
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1. Above-the-Fold
This term is a derivative of the term ‘Above-the-line’ from traditional marketing.
Above-the-line (ATL) refers to the widespread marketing medium like television, newspaper, and radio.
While Below-the-line (BTL) is for specific and targeted marketing. The In-flight magazines for promoting premium products are BTL.
In the Inbound marketing context. Above-the-Fold refers to the content that is visible to a random user at a first glance. It is the Content that is visible without scrolling down. Thus, much like traditional marketing. This content is for the masses and thus, is not specific.
For the best results, you should avoid heavy images in the Above-the-Fold area.
2. Affiliate Marketing
If there was no Affiliate Marketing. Then, I would have been crying in some office cubicle instead of writing this post.
It refers to selling someone else’s product for a commission. That is much like selling some Insurance policy in the offline world. Though, affiliate marketing is different since it happens through a digital medium.
Unlike traditional Insurance sales. Affiliate marketing does not require you to blabber to every prospect. A well-written post talks to every prospect 24 x 7. Thus, it creates a steady flow of passive income that runs without much ado.
3. Ahrefs
This is the tool that finds data sets to help you excel in Inbound Marketing efforts. It is best suited for bloggers with limited technical knowledge.
Ahrefs tools assess your current website status and help you reach your goals. Hence, they are good for SEO tasks and competitor analysis.
Google Search Console can work as its free alternative app with basic features.
4. Alt+Text
Alt + Text adds the SEO powers to visual content. Since the images are not that easy to locate through the Google search engine. Adding the Alt+Text feature increases their chances of getting found in search engines.
5. Article
Also known as a ‘Post’. A piece of written Content that is a unit of Blog. The more the Articles/ Post a Blog/Website has. The more is the probability of getting Traffic, Engagement, Leads, and Sales.
This is the 7th article/post on this website.
6. Authority Site
It is the website that is the ultimate resource in its niche. An authority site gets backlinks and respect from its industry stalwarts and influencers.
7. Avatar
Avatar is your Buyer Persona. It is a fictional representation of the ideal customer of your business targets.
An Avatar is a North Star to your Inbound Marketing efforts.
My Avatar is a “non-technical person struggling to make a living with their Blog.” Hence, I write each post on this blog to help that person.
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8. Baidu
Google does not work in China. But Baidu does. After Google, Baidu is the largest search engine in the World.
If your target market is China. Then, your content must rank in Baidu.
9. Blog
A blog is the dedicated section of your website to post content on a consistent basis.
Every piece of Content shows up on the Blog in chronological order.
A Blog leads to other terms related to it. They are:
- Blog Post – Also known as a Post/ Article. For instance, this article/post is a part of the Blog on my website.
- Blogging – It is the process of publishing content as a part of an Inbound Marketing strategy.
- B2B Blogging – Many organizations do not sell to the end consumers. Rather, they sell to other establishments. Thus, they do B2B Blogging to connect with other business units. Wholesalers and customized business units come under this category.
- B2C Blogging – This Blogging is for the usual business entities. In today’s times, every business needs a blog. Hence, Blogging done to reach retail customers is B2C blogging.
10. Bounce Rate
This is one of the most important metrics that decide the health of a business. It shows the percentage of visitors that did not go beyond a single page.
So, the lower it is. The better is your website’s engagement rate. Thus, a bigger bounce rate shows that the audience does not find your website interesting.
11. Buffer
To schedule Content for your Social Media channels. You need a robust tool.
The Buffer is one such an Inbound Marketing tool that helps you with your Social Media strategy. It has a neat simple UI that is a pleasure to work with.
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12. Content
A piece of information created by a Marketer to communicate with an Audience is Content. It includes a textual post, email, video, audio, webinar, GIF, meme or a graphic. The evolving technological advancements bring in more forms of Content.
Content brings in more related terms, such as:
- Content Calendar – It is a planner that lets you stick to a regime for publishing content.Once you get regular in using a Content Calendar. Your business will see positive results. Editorial Calendar is its popular synonym.
- CMS – It stands for Content Management System. It is the software that lets you create and manage a website. WordPress, Squarespace, Wix, and HubSpot are popular CMS.
- Content Marketing – As the name suggests. It is the process of marketing your Content. It is a popular means to execute Inbound Marketing. Instead of a set-theoretical definition. It is easier to explain this term with an example. You must have seen a lot of Travel content. Some of them share about Hotels and Resorts. Some share about travel options for people with physical deformities. Though some share not-so-impressive information about popular destinations. In essence, all these businesses are similar in what Content they share. But they are different in terms of how they market it. This Blog creates Content on “Digital Marketing.” But it markets to “Bloggers who wish to excel as Solopreneurs.”
- Content Upgrades – It refers to the content offered in addition to the one a user interacts with. In the Inbound marketing terms and concepts, Content Upgrades increase Subscribers. They are the Repurposed Content offered in addition to the content on a Landing Page. A Digital Checklist of this article is a form of Content Upgrade.
13. CRM
It stands for Customer-Relationship-Management. In an Inbound Marketing Process. It is important to collect and analyze customer data. CRM software provides that service to help serve the customers better. Salesforce, HubSpot, and Zoho are popular names as CRM providers.
14. CTA
This signifies Call-to-Action.
Every Content must have a clear and defined CTA.
For instance, every Youtuber asks you to take action at the start/finish of their video. That could be to click and buy an offer, or asking you to Share/ Subscribe.
This article asks you to subscribe to my Writing updates.
15. CTR
This signifies Click-through-Rate. The higher the CTR. The better is your business health.
CTR depicts the engagement rates. Thus, it means that your Content grasps your audience’s interests.
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16. Digital Assets
The Digital content that you create is a part of your Digital Assets. That is why most of the images, videos, and infographics include watermarks.
Watermarks help identify theft in case of plagiarism of Digital Assets.
17. Digital Marketing
Marketing done through Digital channels is Digital Marketing. The popular medium for that could include any or all the following:
websites, mobile apps, search engines, social media, email and QR codes.
Inbound marketing and Content Marketing are subsets of digital marketing.
18. DuckDuckGo
DuckDuckGo is a search engine like Google and Bing. It is unique in comparison to its contemporaries as it does not place cookies on a searcher’s computer.
Due to this. Its USP lies in not tracking its users’ data. Thus, unlike Google. It does not help in doing Keyword Research.
Hence, if this search engine takes over Google. Then, the job of Inbound Marketing will get difficult.
19. Disavow
Google gives importance to Dofollow links. It is essential to know what kind of websites pass on do-follow links to your website.
In case a competitor passes on some not-so-good links to your website. Then, you can disavow those links to avoid SEO negativity.
Consider Disavowing links as the activity to unfriend bad guys you do not wish to associate with.
20. Double Opt-In
This term refers to subscribers gained for email marketing activity. Double Opt-in requires a double confirmation by a subscriber.
Unlike a Single Opt-in. This method requires the recipient to verify their email addresses. Thus, double opt-in is a secure and reliable method to gain subscribers in the post GDPR world.
21. Dofollow
This term refers to the links on a website. By default, all the links mentioned are Dofollow (unless specified Nofollow). That means the Dofollow attribute sends a signal to Google to follow that link.
A Dofollow inbound link from an established site improves the recipient site’s SEO rank. Though, a similar link from a spam site will give a negative impact.
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22. Email
Apologies in advance, I am not going to describe this basic marketing terminology. But I can do for the other terms related to it. They are:
- Email Marketing – It is the highest ROI generating tool for Inbound Marketing. It refers to the marketing efforts disseminated through the email. You can subscribe to my email updates to receive exclusive Inbound Marketing tidbits.
- Email Marketing Platform/ Email Marketing Automation Platform/ Email Marketing Service Platform – It is the ESP that is exclusive for sending marketing emails. In the Inbound Marketing obsessed world. Some of the Email Marketing Platforms double up as marketing automation services. Infusionsoft and Drip are the common email marketing automation platforms. Thus, Email Marketing Automation Platform is an evolved synonym for Email Marketing Platforms. Thus, Email Marketing Automation Platform is an evolved synonym for Email Marketing Platforms.
- Email Service Provider (ESP) – It is the company that lets you send, receive, and store emails. It includes free/ paid webmail services for retail use such as Gmail and Outlook. MailChimp and Convert Kit are Email marketing service providers that are also ESPs.
- Email Subscribers – They are the People who subscribe to receive updates via email. If you subscribe to my email updates on Inbound marketing. Then, you will become my email subscriber. More subscribers mean a better chance to market your business offerings.
23. Evergreen Content
The content that does not lose its charm for a long period is an Evergreen one. If the search queries for content continue to grow over time. Then, that is an Evergreen Content. This article defining the Inbound Marketing terms is an Evergreen Content.
24. Evangelist
An Evangelist is a delighted customer that recommends your business to others. The Evangelist recommending your business is similar to word-of-mouth marketing.
THIS POST MAY CONTAIN AFFILIATE LINKS. PLEASE READ MY DISCLOSURE FOR MORE INFORMATION.
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25. Facebook
Facebook is the leading social media network. But for an Inbound marketer, it is an important tool to get leads.
Almost every business benefits by creating a Facebook Page or Group. The platform has evolved to provide a lot of business benefitting tools.
Its ads service has broken the monopoly of Google Ads.
26. Featured Snippet
The search results on Google show in a box above the SERP is the Featured Snippet.
As per Google. A featured snippet is an enhanced feature to draw the attention of the users on the respective page.
I have several Featured Snippets on my articles. They did bring in more traffic and credibility to my business.
27. Follow Icons
A social media following is an important metric in the Inbound marketing world. Massive followings create Social media influencers and vice-versa.
Follow Icons help build social media following. The social media numbers then further help in becoming an Influencer.
In particular, to become an Instagram influencer. You need a massive amount of followers. For that, you can use MiloTree, which is a robust Follow Icons service.
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28. GDPR
It stands for General Data Protection Regulation. GDPR governs the Personally Identifiable Information of the residents of the European Union.
It means that no business can store/process an EU resident’s data without their consent.
This website is GDPR compliant.
29. Google
I am not going to explain this one. But I will do for the other terms related to Google.
- Page Speed Insights – Page Speed is the Holy Grail of Inbound Marketing efforts. The lesser time a site takes to load. The better are its engagement rates.
- Plus – Google Plus is a social media network that is a bit tricky to use. With experience, I realized that Asterisks (*), and not Hashtags (#) work best here.
- Search – Google Homepage is the most used website in the World. Its Search Bar gives answers to every question possible. From an Inbound marketing perspective. The Search Bar lets a marketer find good keywords for their business.
- Search Console – Google Search Console is free of cost service to optimize websites. It lets you know and take measures to improve a website’s search performance.
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30. Hashtag
It is the metadata that helps categorize posts in social media networks. Prefixing “#” to words helps brands create tribes of niche interests. That way they can identify and connect with their target market with ease. They work much like Keywords in Blogging.
Twitter was the pioneer with hashtags. Then, Instagram, Pinterest and now Facebook have also followed suit.
31. Heatmaps
Heatmaps are useful to know how visitors engage with your content. They look like weather reports that show which places have Sun shining on them.
Through Heat Maps you can reorder the content to display at places where the users click more.
32. Host
A Web Host/Web Hosting Service Provider/Host is crucial for Inbound Marketing.
It provides space for the websites on the server. Thus, Hosts are essential for websites to exist on the Internet 24 x 7.
A Host’s capabilities have a major impact on the website’s performance.
I trust SiteGround for all my sites because of their sturdy hosting capabilities.
33. HTML
It stands for Hypertext Markup Language. HTML is the standard programming language for creating websites and web applications.
Content Management Systems like WordPress run on HTML.
34. HubSpot
HubSpot provides a suite of products to facilitate Inbound Marketing and Sales.
Any article on Inbound Marketing terms is incomplete without a mention of HubSpot. That is because their CEO, Brian Halligan coined the term Inbound Marketing.
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35. Inbound Links
They are the links that come to your website from another website(s). The more the Inbound Links from authority sites. The better it is for Inbound Marketing success.
Inbound links are also known as Backlinks.
36. Inbound Marketing
The marketing process that brings in prospects/customers through Content is Inbound Marketing.
Unlike the traditional forms of marketing. Inbound Marketing does not bombard customers through interrupting advertisements. That is why it is also known as Permission Marketing.
Inbound Marketing creates personal and warm relations with their customers through their consent.
Content plays an important role in Inbound Marketing. But, Inbound Marketing and Content Marketing are not synonyms.
Content Marketing is one of the methods of executing Inbound Marketing. The others are Social Media Marketing and Search Engine Optimization.
37. Influencer Marketing
It is the marketing that involves social media users with a massive following.
Such social media users are the Influencers of a niche. Their big numbers help create buzz/engagement/sales for a brand.
38. Infographics
Infographics are the portmanteau of Information and Graphics. They are useful in reducing the bounce rate by presenting data in a visual format.
They are famous for turning the most complex data into beautiful and interesting.
39. Instagram
Instagram is a social media network exclusive for sharing photos and videos.
It is great for directing traffic to your website. Instagram is useful for connecting Influencers with brands.
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40. Jaaxy
Jaaxy is one of my favorite keyword research tools. It helps you discover keywords that get you top rankings in SERP.
You can find 30 keywords through it without spending a dime.
41. Javascript
It is a programming language, much like HTML that runs most of the websites.
Javascript helps create beautiful web functions. But their use requires caution as they can increase the page load times. The longer page loads hamper the UX.
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42. Keywords
Keywords are the soul of Content. Since they influence what a particular content signifies.
They connect search queries with a website. Thus, they are of the utmost significance in Inbound Marketing.
- Keywords Research – It is the process of finding keywords to get organic search results.
Optimum selection of keywords is important for business branding. Thus, a strategic Inbound Marketing campaign gives due importance to Keywords Research.
43. KWFinder
Much like Jaaxy, KWFinder is a keyword research tool. It can help you select keywords for success in Inbound marketing efforts.
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44. Landing Page
It is the page on which a visitor lands first. For most of the businesses, a Landing page serves to collect email addresses. You can use them to promote your Lead Magnets.
Every business function must have its individual Landing Pages.
45. Lead Magnet/ Freebies/Opt-ins
They are the bribe that a marketer offers to get subscribers. Ebooks, Cheat Sheets, Calculators and Workbooks are common Lead Magnet options.
46. Long-Tail Keywords
They are the phrases that are specific to a target market.
You can consider them the words that signify a hot market. Every market has its Long Tail Keywords that identify a sale’s probability.
For instance, “buy best handmade soaps” shows the urgency of buying. Thus, it is a Long Tail Keyword. While “handmade soaps” is a generic keyword.
The more saturated a market. The more and Longer Tail Keywords a marketer has to use.
47. LSI Keywords
It stands for Latent Semantic Indexing keywords. It sounds like a complex component of marketing terminology. But it is a simple concept that means ‘synonyms’ of keywords.
LSI keywords are the cluster of phrases that are similar to your chosen keyword. Thus, including them in content kickstarts Inbound marketing campaigns.
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48. Marketing Automation
It refers to the software that automates the Inbound Marketing tasks. Some of the tasks are –
- Social Media Shares
- Presenting Lead Magnets as per visitors’ interactions
- Tagging Subscribers as per Sub-Business categories
- Lead Scoring
- Follow-Up with customers post-sale
- Managing Messenger Bots
HubSpot, Marketo, and Ontraport are popular Marketing Automation companies.
49. Menu Bar
A Menu Bar is a map that guides a user to the various components of a website. It sits as a horizontal strip atop a website Header.
The menu bar at the top of this page guides to various categories of my website.
50. Minimum Viable Audience
They are the evangelists who believe in your brand. The minimum viable audience is excellent as beta-testers of your product. Thus, they help in early-stage product development with their feedback.
1000 is a viable number for a minimum viable audience.
51. Minimum Viable Product (MVP)
It is the product with basic and core features. Much like the minimum viable audience. A minimum viable product helps with future product development.
MVP is helpful in testing the waters before making heavy investments.
52. Mozbar
It is a software to know the Page and Domain authority of websites. The authority metrics determine the probability to outrank competitors for competitive keywords.
The higher the authority, the stronger the website.
The current domain authority of this website is ‘3.’
53. MRR
It stands for Monthly Recurring Revenue. As the name suggests, it is the amount of money you earn for a certain month.
MRR lets you make a decision on future expenditures. If your MRR covers your expenses, then your business has a good bottom line.
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54. Nofollow
It refers to the links on a website that are not dofollow. That means the links with nofollow attributes do not get followed by search engines.
A nofollow Inbound link from an authority website will not add to the SEO of the receiving site.
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55. Open Graph Protocol
This is a technical component that helps in syncing your site with social networks.
Its enablement lets you decide how your site’s content displays when shared on social media.
For instance, you can make your logo as a default sharing element on Facebook and Twitter.
56. Opt-in-Rate
As the name suggests, it is the rate at which your Lead magnets convert. As an Inbound Marketer, it is important to know what Opt-ins perform better. The Opt-in rate further guides in Product Development.
57. Organic Reach
It is the visibility that your brand reaches without investing in PPC campaigns. The motive of Inbound marketing is to increase Organic Reach.
This website relies on Organic Reach from Google and Instagram for promotion.
58. Outbound Links
The links on your site that point to other websites. They serve as References and points of ‘Further Study.’
You can attribute them as either Dofollow or Nofollow.
59. Outreach Marketing
It refers to reaching individuals who share the same topics of interest as yours. Those individuals if end up sharing your Content. Then, your business can get a visibility boost.
For instance, I can reach out to people at HubSpot with this article.
Both Outreach and Influencer marketing creates visibility for a brand. But the Influencer marketing goes a step ahead in creating brand/sales ambassadors.
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60. Page Views
They are the number of pages viewed by a random visitor. More Page Views by a single visitor indicates less bounce rate.
61. Pinterest
In current times, Pinterest is crucial for Inbound traffic. Consider it as Google for images.
I rely on Pinterest for a substantial amount of traffic for my sites.
62. Prospect
It is the individual/ business that has the potential to become a customer in the future. Those who become Subscribers through your Freebies are Prospects.
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63. QR Codes
They are the black square dots visual you use for payment apps. They reach you to a link when scanned by an appropriate scanner.
Thus, they help in Inbound marketing by converting an offline image to a website/app.
I am a huge proponent of QR Codes. I market my upcoming book through them.
64. Qualified Lead
It is the Prospect that shows the criteria similar to your business Avatar. Criteria can include information like budget and geographical location.
A Lead can qualify for both Marketing and Sales functions.
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65. Repurpose
In the Inbound marketing terminology glossary, the Repurpose term is for editing a Content. Repurposing Content changes its format, which can lead to a change in its target audience as well.
Consider Repurpose as the process of adding another life to Content.
You can repurpose a blog post to many different forms, such as:
Book/Video/ Podcast/Infographic/ Slideshow/ Course/Workbook
66. ROI
It is my favorite term that I can never stop using. It refers to Return on Investments.
Keeping a watch on your expenses, ROI, and MRR is crucial for business.
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67. SEMrush
Much like Ahrefs, SEMrush helps in website audit and tracking competition. If you are not comfortable using the free tools by Google. Then, SEMrush is an easy and simple alternative.
I am addicted to SEMrush for its website analysis and keyword research.
68. SERP
It refers to Search Engine Ranking Pages. SERP is the pages that display in response to a query fed into Google/ Bing.
Ranking at the top of SERP is a priority for Inbound Marketing Strategy.
69. Share Icons
The Share Icons let your audience propagate your content to their network.
A display of Share Icons increases the probability of prompting users to share.
70. Sidebar
The vertical strip on either side of your main content constitutes the Sidebar.
You can use it to display static information. Lead Magnets, Ad banners, and Search bar are popular with Sidebars.
71. Social Media
This term does not need any introduction. Social media refers to the digital medium that facilitates communication through virtual communities. Because of their mass dissemination feature, they are important for Inbound Marketing.
Also, their analytics feature for Business accounts helps in gaining key insights.
Facebook, Twitter, Instagram, LinkedIn, Pinterest are the popular ones.
- Social Media Marketing – It is the process of using Social Media for promoting your business. Although creating and using social media is free of cost. But using them for creating campaigns costs money.
The widespread penetration of Social media makes them indispensable for business growth.
72. Structured Data Markup
It is a technical term that applies to the process of enhancing sites for Search engines. It relates to adding specific codes to the website’s HTML.
Adding Structured Data Markup shows an added feature to a site when it displays in SERP. For instance, it can show your ‘business hours’ under your SERP information.
After enabling Structured Data Markup on my site. I ended up having a lot of Featured Snippets.
73. Subscribers
They are the people who agree to receive updates from you. Increasing the Subscribers count is an important element of the Inbound marketing terminology list.
Followers are different from Subscribers. Followers as a term exists for social media channels. While Subscribers refers to email marketing.
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74. Thank You Page
It is the page that follows the Landing Page. A well designed Thank You page helps create stronger relations with the prospects.
75. Top Bar
It is the bar that sits on the top of a website to display important information. It is less irritating than the pop-ups that cover the entire page.
My Top Bar works to gain Subscribers by offering Content Marketing apps as a Freebie.
76. Tripwire Marketing
It is the strategy to offer upsells to customers once they buy your low-cost product. Tripwire integrates well with email marketing to deliver Welcome email sequences.
Using Tripwire marketing is a good way to cover up your PPC campaign expenses. Minimum viable audiences and products play a crucial role in Tripwire marketing.
Marketing Automation software facilitates Tripwire marketing on an autopilot mode.
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77. UGC
It stands for User Generated Content. It is the business or its feature that requires information from its users.
Comments, Feedback and Reviews form UGC of most of the businesses. Though brands like Facebook, Quora, Wikipedia in all their entirety run on UGC.
78. UI
It stands for User Interface. It refers to the holistic design of a digital application that brings about a great UX.
Hence, the website/app design follows the principle laid out in UI.
79. Unique Visitors
It refers to the IP address through which an individual accesses your website in a set time frame. The subsequent visits from the same IP address are not counted in that time frame.
If 2 individuals visit a website through the same IP address 10 times in a day. Then, the visitors will count as 1.
80. Upsell
As the name suggests. It is the strategy to persuade customers to buy an advanced product.
Some marketers Upsell after the purchase of an MVP. Thus, promotions of full-feature products like Software/ Courses follow the Ebook purchases.
Though some marketers promote big-ticket products bypassing the basic one. The tiered Pricing/ Benefits comparison charts are an example of that Upsell.
81. UX
It stands for User Experience. UX forms the emotions a User goes through while interacting with your digital medium. A well thought of UI creates a happy UX.
For instance, Facebook Messenger and Whatsapp seem different to their users. Although both belong to the same parent company and are similar in their functions.
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82. Viral Marketing
It refers to marketing that happens due to massive sharing on social media. Memes and Videos are popular formats of content that go viral.
There is no set number for the number of shares that identify a viral post. But the numbers are beyond thousands.
83. Vlog
It is the video counterpart of the term Blog. Thus, videos form the content in Vlogs.
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84. Welcome Mat
It is the full-screen pop up that appears within moments you land on a site. Welcome mat increases Opt-in-Rates by delivering Lead magnets.
85. WordPress
WordPress is one of the most-loved content management systems worldwide. It is easy to use and is free to install when you buy hosting.
This site runs on WordPress.
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86. XML Sitemap
It is the file that contains all the URLs of a website. It works to signal the search engines to find the pages of your site.
Therefore, adding a Sitemap adds to the SEO value.
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87. Yandex
Yandex is the leading search engine from Russia. If your target customers are from that region. Then, your rankings in Yandex matter.
88. Yoast
Yoast is the software that renders SEO capabilities to your site. It is easy to use and helps in improving search engine rankings. If your blog runs on WordPress, then you must use the Yoast plugin.
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89. Zapier
It is the software that creates bots to integrate various web applications. It can create connections between 1000s of apps.
I use Zapier to integrate my Lead Magnets with Email marketing.
Conclusion
This article explores the key Inbound marketing terms and concepts.
Though I tried to include as many popular Inbound marketing terms as I can. But I know that there are many that I am yet to know about.
Therefore, I would love to add more to this list.
If there is any term that you would like to add. Then, please let me know in the comments.
I would love to see myself and this article evolve.
Header Image Courtesy: Pixabay