By nature, I am a very analytical person and want to make sure those around me are the same, especially when it comes t their business. As the influx of business owners has grown in the US, I have noticed that most people don’t know the correct terminology regarding their business. First and foremost, it’s okay not to understand something or even know what something means. We are all learning at different paces, but it is not okay to stay oblivious to those things that will ensure our understanding and growth. I think it’s vital that you learn these twenty-one business terms for your business. I highly suggest checking out these two articles to familiarize yourself with other crucial terms for the industry. Twenty-six eCommerce terms you should know and nineteen tech terms you should know.
Abandon Cart: In marketing, the abandonment rate is associated with the use of virtual shopping carts and known as “shopping cart abandonment.” Although shoppers in brick and mortar stores rarely abandon their carts, the abandonment of virtual shopping carts is quite common.
Landing Page: sometimes known as a “lead capture page”,”single property page”, “static page”, “squeeze page” or a “destination page”, is a single web page that appears in response to clicking on a search engine optimized search result, marketing promotion, marketing email or an online advertisement. The landing page will usually display directed sales copy that is a logical extension of the advertising, search result or link.
Email Marketing: is the act of sending a commercial message, typically to a group of people, using email. In its broadest sense, every email sent to a potential or current customer could be considered email marketing. It involves using email to send advertisements, request business, or solicit sales or donations. Email marketing strategies commonly seek to achieve one or more of three primary objectives, to build loyalty, trust, or brand awareness.
Malware: is any software intentionally designed to cause damage to a computer, server, client, or computer network[1][2] (by contrast, software that causes unintentional harm due to some deficiency is typically described as a software bug).[3] A wide variety of malware types exist, including computer viruses, worms, Trojan horses, ransomware, spyware, adware, rogue software, wiper and scareware.
Project Manager: is a professional in the field of project management. Project managers have the responsibility of the planning, procurement, and execution of a project, in any undertaking that has a defined scope, defined start and a defined finish; regardless of industry.
Project Stakeholders: refers to, “an individual, group, or organization, who may affect, be affected by, or perceive itself to be affected by a decision, activity, or outcome of a project
Roadmap: is a flexible planning technique to support strategic and long-range planning, by matching short-term and long-term goals with specific technology solutions.[1][2] It is a plan that applies to a new product or process and may include using technology forecasting or technology scouting to identify suitable emerging technologies.[3]
Benchmarking: is the practice of comparing business processes and performance metrics to industry bests and best practices from other companies. Dimensions typically measured are quality, time and cost.
Sales Funnel: The purchase funnel, or purchasing funnel, is a consumer-focused marketing model that illustrates the theoretical customer journey toward the purchase of a good or service.
Top of The Funnel, Bottom of The Funnel, and Middle of the Funnel are also terms that would be used when discussing sales funnel in business.
Drip Campaign: is a communication strategy that sends, or “drips,” a pre-written set of messages to customers or prospects over time. These messages often take the form of email marketing, although other media can also be used.
Workflow: consists of an orchestrated and repeatable pattern of activity, enabled by the systematic organization of resources into processes that transform materials, provide services, or process information.
Return on Investment (ROI): Return on investment or return on costs is a ratio between net income and investment. A high ROI means the investment’s gains compare favourably to its cost. As a performance measure, ROI is used to evaluate the efficiency of an investment or to compare the efficiencies of several different investments.
Capital Gains: is an economic concept defined as the profit earned on the sale of an asset which has increased in value over the holding period. An asset may include tangible property, a car, a business, or intangible property such as shares.
Variable Cost: are costs that change as the quantity of the good or service that a business produces changes. Variable costs are the sum of marginal costs over all units produced. They can also be considered normal costs. Fixed costs and variable costs make up the two components of total cost.
KPI: A performance indicator or key performance indicator is a type of performance measurement. KPIs evaluate the success of an organization or of a particular activity in which it engages.
Research & Development (R&D): constitutes the first stage of development of potential new service or the production process.
Unique Selling Proposition: In marketing, the unique selling proposition, also called the unique selling point, or the unique value proposition in the business model canvas, is the marketing strategy of informing customers about how one’s own brand or product is superior to its competitors.
Marketing Penetration: refers to the successful selling of a product or service in a specific market. It is measured by the amount of sales volume of an existing good or service compared to the total target market for that product or service.
Cost Per Lead: often abbreviated as CPL, is an online advertising pricing model, where the advertiser pays for an explicit sign-up from a consumer interested in the advertiser’s offer. It is also commonly called online lead generation.
Pay Per Click (PPC): Pay-per-click is an internet advertising model used to drive traffic to websites, in which an advertiser pays a publisher when the ad is clicked. Pay-per-click is commonly associated with first-tier search engines
User Experience: is how a user interacts with and experiences a product, system or service. It includes a person’s perceptions of utility, ease of use, and efficiency.
As you grow your business, all twenty-one of these terms will become a part of your vernacular daily. My business vocabulary has expanded tenfold over the last decade. I have focused on learning all aspects of my business and hiring others to handle the things I cannot.
*All business term definitions was gathered via Wikipedia for accuracy.
Photo by Al ghazali on Unsplash
