Manoeuvring your way around a new topic can be daunting enough itself. Add to that a slew of buzzwords and industry jargon, and you can find yourself in a right pickle. Aside from the most experienced marketing and advertising officers, it is unlikely that any of us can get through a marketing article with full understanding of every term used.

This is where our breakdown of the most common marketing jargon terms will come in handy. We’ve curated a list of ten of the most abundant marketing terms that we’ve come across in our own research, and explained them in plain English – a kind of crib sheet for your own further reading.  You might want to print out the list to keep on your desk, or bookmark this page for further reference.

The main outcome of your marketing strategy is to land customers for your business.  Because of this, most marketing advice articles will include a lot of sales jargon, and as such, we’ve tried to include as much of this as possible in our list. So, without further ado, here are Manufacturing Network’s top ten marketing terms demystified:

1. Lead Generation

This is sort of a two-part phrase. You’ll hear a lot about lead generation in marketing and sales articles, and quite often a lot of emphasis is put upon its importance without explaining what it actually is. A ‘lead’ is any individual or body that is someone to whom you may want, or be able, to sell your capability. The ‘generation’ part just refers to finding these leads. There are various different ways in which you can generate a lead, such as mailing lists and directories. We will have plenty of upcoming articles on how this lead generation might be achieved within the manufacturing industry.

2.Prospecting

Now we’ve nailed down lead generation, the next term you’re likely to come across in this discussion is ‘prospecting’. This explanation is going to be short and sweet, but hopefully just as important as the others in helping you to wade through all those marketing articles: prospecting a lead, is looking for a lead. There are various methods of prospecting, and these all fall into your lead generation strategy.

3. Qualifying a Sales Lead

Once you’ve generated some leads, you’re going to need to qualify them. This basically means figuring out whether these leads are viable potential customers. The process of qualifying can include various stages, such as discerning whether the lead actually requires your capability, and whether they are in the position to provide funds right away, or whether they may be a future prospect.

4. Value Proposition

Understanding sales is all well and good, but one of the first stages of a successful marketing strategy is to be clear about the attributes of your own business (see our 9 Building Blocks of Marketing). A large part of this is having a value proposition. In simple terms, this means identifying what the value of your capability is. For example, can you produce something other companies can’t? Or does your business have the ability to offer variations on a desired product or service that isn’t offered by other businesses? The key is to find what makes your business stand out – and that’s the core of your value proposition.

5. Inbound Marketing

Inbound marketing strategies are those that draw customers into the business of their own accord, rather than those strategies that require the business to reach out and find its own prospective customers. For instance, adding your business to a specific manufacturing directory requires very little to no outgoing marketing from your business, but will still work to bring customers in through your enhanced visibility in the right places.

The world of inbound marketing is huge. Central to Inbound Marketing is Content Marketing, content being the 'hook' that brings searchers and potential customers in. People use the internet to find information and educate themselves. Inbound Marketing is about providing the information that your customers need, in the instant when they need it. What's the benefit? You build a list of leads, and they come to you!

For a more comprehensive explanation of Inbound Marketing Check out this Awesome Article Explaining the Inbound System

6. Content Marketing

The basis of content marketing is making valuable and relevant information available to your prospective customers in order to make them more informed about the arena within which your business sits. A good example of this is making a demonstration video on how your business manufactures its products, and uploading it to YouTube or your Facebook page. Think ‘How It’s Made’-type content; something that will both educate and interest your prospective clients.

Content marketing produces content which draws people in, but it also encompasses the promotion of your content. Once you've built it, you need to get it out there, in social media, through a blog, through news aggregators, direct email amongst loads of others. If it takes 20% effort to produce content, the other 80% is in promotion.

Check out our Awesome, Comprehensive article on "The Content Marketing System Explained" where we explain how the pieces of the puzzle fit together, Including The Role of Social Media!

7. Web Analytics

With the advent of digital marketing, and its certain engulfing of the marketing and advertising industry, more and more advice articles and strategies are talking about the ins and out of internet marketing. A term that often comes up in these discussions is ‘web analytics’.  This one pretty much does what it says on the tin in a way – it is indeed an analysis of the web, but let’s be honest, that doesn’t really narrow it down. In terms of the manufacturing industry and your marketing strategy, web analytics essentially refers to keeping an eye on how you use the web to further your business, and noting what works.

There are applications out there that can help you with this, collecting data about website usage and number of clicks on specific articles etc. One of the main web analysis tools is Google Analytics, which can provide data on how your website or blog links perform in terms of clicks through Google. Manufacturing Network also provides data feedback on profile views once you are a part of the directory.

8. Link-building

Link-building is another big part of internet marketing.  You have no doubt noticed the blue, underlined phrases or site names highlighted in various articles around the web. These little phrases can be clicked on, and work as links to complementing sites; for example, this one. At first glance it may seem a bit silly to provide links to sites that may be competitors within your industry, but link-building works both ways, and building a network of information and links will help push your website up the ranks of search engines such as Google.

This isn't straight forward either, as links can be negative as well as positive. The impact of a link all depends on the quality of the site (as determined by the search engines), whether the link has relevance based on the information surrounding it etc. The search engines a really clever at spotting those web companies who are building poor quality links, and punishing them with negative impact on their ranking.

9. Sales Conversion Rates

Back to sales. This term will inevitably rear its head in any article discussing how your marketing strategy can lead to a verifiable customer base. This is quite a simple one – a sales conversion rate refers to the amount of leads that turn into customers proper. For instance, if you generate ten leads, and five of them turn out to take you up on your capability, you will have a sales conversion rate of 50%. It’s useful to keep an eye on your conversion rate to help evaluate whether your current marketing strategy is working to bring you customers.

10. Same Side Sales

Finally, with all the talk of lead generation, prospecting, and inbound marketing, building a working strategy can often feel like a war between you and your customers; as if you’re a hunter laying in wait for your prey and setting all kinds of marketing traps. Not only is this an unhelpful way to think of marketing, but it can also add undue stress to the process. The phrase ‘same side sales’ has emerged to describe a marketing philosophy that embraces the more friendly and amiable side of finding customers. Co-authors of "Same Side Selling" Ian Altman & Jack Quarles have coined the phrase and dedicated an entire book to the subject, more detail than we're covering here! (John Jantsch at Duct Tape Marketing had a great interview with Ian Altman on the subject listen to the podcast here) .

Basically same side selling refers to the fact that you and your customer are in fact on the same side; they need something, and you are providing it. Being able to work together to work out what is best for you both will bring a much more enjoyable and lucrative sales experience. Remember, happy customers equal lots of recommendations, which are invaluable in your marketing strategy!

Although we’ve tried to include some of the more common terms in this list, we are aware that terms are being created and are changing all the time. It does help to try and keep up to date with these things, but try not to feel overwhelmed when you come up against yet more terms that don’t seem to make sense – you’re certainly not alone, and hopefully we here at Manufacturing Network can help you win the battle against jargon with our articles. Please do let us know if there’s something you’ve come across that you’d like us to look into and write on, and we’ll do what we can ☺.

Want more? Check out this awesome article from Hubspot giving you 99 Marketing Terms to improve your vocabulary even further!

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