B2B Marketing Glossary: Need-to-Know Terms and Phrases

The world of B2B marketing changes rapidly, and things aren’t slowing down anytime soon. Whether you’re brand new to the field or a seasoned pro exploring new automation technology, you need a “B2B marketing glossary” to understand the new lexicon of terms and phrases.

And as the need for online marketing solutions skyrockets around the globe, marketing automation and integration become more essential by the day. Marketo offers plenty of great solutions to help you manage your assets, including seamless integration, artificial intelligence, and more. But no matter what platform you use, it needs to provide adaptability, reliability, security, and personalization for each campaign.

Of course, such a quickly evolving industry can seem intimidating to new and seasoned marketers alike. And at Digital Pi, we like to keep things simple.

That’s why we’ve put together a simple, comprehensive glossary of terms and phrases to help guide you in your marketing journey. Be sure to check back often, because we’ll continue to add the latest phrases!

Audience Segmentation

Dividing an audience into subgroups based on criteria, like demographics, industry, behavior, and more.  

Why it’s relevant: Segmenting audiences allows marketers to target specific users, and can result in higher engagement. Avoid irrelevant information to minimize unsubscribe rates on newsletter content and promote website clicks, increase time on page, and minimize bounce.

Automated Attribution

Automatically analyze conversion metrics gathered from distribution touchpoints.

Why it’s relevant: With an automated attribution solution, you can see how and where potential customers are interacting with your content so you can gain more insight into their journey and make better decisions as to where to focus your resources. 

Automation Rules

Criteria that prompt specific marketing and sales actions.

Why it’s relevant: Marketing automation only works when the platform knows what it’s looking for. Rules determine what defines a qualified lead, and prompts the most relevant action when the criteria are met.

B2C

Business-to-consumer marketing is a set of strategies designed to market to individuals, rather than companies or professionals.

Why it’s relevant: Traditional B2B marketing can seem complex and arduous at the best of times. But your business customers are just that — customers. B2B marketing experts have seen the benefits of utilizing some business-to-consumer (B2C) tactics to keep customers engaged.  

Behavior vs. Demographic Score

Behavior scoring determines who is ready to move into the next stage of the sales funnel based on their engagement with your campaigns. Demographic scoring measures the relevance of a campaign to a particular lead. 

Why it’s relevant: Assigning a score to the behavior of potential clients means you can see whether or not they’re likely to engage with the next step in the funnel. In other words, you’ll know when it’s time to get sales involved. A demographic score tells you how precisely you’ve targeted your campaign, and whether or not it’s reaching the right people.

Blocklisted/Blacklisted

When a web host ignores or blocks an IP address. 

Why it’s relevant: Email marketing is an essential way to reach clients. But if you send too many emails, or the content is irrelevant, then your customers are more likely to bounce or unsubscribe. This behavior can lead to blocklisting, which means the web host will automatically block content sent from your IP address from reaching inboxes.  

Buyer Intent Data

Buyer intent data is a comprehensive collection of the signals that a customer is interested in a particular product or service. 

Why it’s relevant: How do you know what a customer might want to buy? As more data compiles, you can make more informed and personalized campaigns. 

Chatbot

A program that simulates the experience of chatting with a real person. 

Why it’s relevant: Chatbots simplify the buyer journey by interacting with consumers conversationally. A chatbot can be programmed to answer questions and record data that leads to conversions.

CName

Canonical Name allows you to use one URL name as an alias for another. 

Why it’s relevant: Very few people will type the full URL when searching for a website. For example, instead of using www.DigitalPi.com, they might type “DigitalPi.com.” CName regulates the usage of name variations, so the customer will find your site even if they don’t use the exact phrasing.

Data Centralization

The strategy of creating a single, reliable source of data that all integrated platforms rely on and/or contribute to.

Why it’s relevant: Stop wasting time looking for data across multiple platforms. Integrated marketing automation centralizes all data for easy access and at-a-glance decision-making. Streamline your entire marketing solution by aggregating information into a single, comprehensive database.

Data Security (SOC 2)

A standard of system and organizational controls designed to manage and protect customer data. Created by the American Institute of CPAs, SOC 2 compliance is measured by the principles of security, availability, processing integrity, confidentiality, and privacy.

Why it’s relevant: Clients are less likely to do business with a company that can’t keep their data safe. SOC 2 ensures the entire staff operates by the same rules and principles when it comes to protecting sensitive information.

Deduplication

Also known as “deduping,” deduplication removes identical entries from multiple data sets.

Why it’s relevant: Streamlining interaction with customers helps retain them over time. You don’t want to overwhelm them with too much messaging, too many calls, or a ton of irrelevant info. Deduplicating helps scrub data duplicates so your clients only receive the most relevant content. 

Dynamic Content

The process of making marketing content as relevant and personal as possible to each potential client. 

Why it’s relevant: Every potential client is different, and determining whether or not they’re qualified may take some effort. Integrated automation systems like Marketo help you respond fluidly to potential clients, tracking the ways they engage with the campaign, receive communication, and other behaviors to help you produce the most relevant content.   

Lead Flow

A path designed to convert potential leads into qualified leads.

Why it’s relevant: While it may sound like a simple term for a B2B glossary, lead flow is essential to creating a steady stream of qualified leads. Lead flow encompasses lead criteria, lifecycle stages, task ownership, when to use tools like a CRM, and how leads are nurtured. 

Lead Scoring

Attaching values to leads based on engagement to determine their worth as potential customers.  

Why it’s relevant: Scoring leads helps marketers understand which potential customers are worth more effort by distinguishing those that are most qualified. Gauging scores helps you guide potential customers through the sales funnel. This is effective as you spend the most time on the most relevant users. 

Lifecycle (Lead/Customer, Model)

The stages each customer goes through before, during, and after they engage with your content. While stages may vary from agency to agency, most companies define a lifecycle as approach, acquisition, development, retention, and loyalty.  

Why it’s relevant: Tracking and managing customers’ lifecycles helps you create relevant and attention-grabbing campaigns that influence each part of the buyer journey. The more accurately marketers manage a lifecycle, the more likely a customer will remain loyal and continue to spend money with the business. 

Marketing Automation Platform (MAP)

Technology that uses triggered events and workflows to manage the process and function of marketing campaigns across multiple channels.  

Why it’s relevant: Marketing automation platforms do exactly what they say they do: it automates many of the processes throughout the entire campaign lifecycle. Plus, systems like Marketo offer robust integration, so it easily captures data and organizes it in a single place. 

Mobile Optimization

Ensuring your content remains user-friendly and accessible on mobile devices like smartphones and tablets.  

Why it’s relevant: Did you know that almost 40 percent of online transactions are conducted on smartphones? Optimizing your web and email marketing content for mobile phones and tablets is essential to reaching your customers and a key part of a B2B glossary. Don’t worry if it sounds overwhelming, Digitial Pi offers simple mobilization templates through FLEX. Quickly customize layouts, swap out sections, or adjust the details of a landing page or email template.

Nurture Streams

Also known as a nurture track, streams guide leads to the best and most relevant information. You can send clients their specific information based on where they are in the sales funnel.

Why it’s relevant: Send targeted messages according to a potential customer’s place in the buying process. Whether your goal is customer retention, engaging qualified leads, staying visible, or welcoming newcomers, using multiple nurture streams helps convert sales.

Omnichannel Marketing

An integrated solution that engages customers across all channels in a personalized way. An omnichannel marketing solution must be convenient, mobile-friendly, and simple to effectively drive conversions in the professional space.

Why it’s relevant: The single customer view of an omnichannel marketing solution aggregates the customer data into a comprehensive representation. That helps you define a personalized campaign and drive engagement holistically.

Personas

Semi-fictional buyer types that help target and refine marketing efforts. Personas are an important part of every business model but essential in a B2B glossary as defining your target can reveal so much about your sales strategy and help prioritize focus/ key accounts.

Why it’s relevant: Who are you talking to? You can’t know the name of every, single potential customer. But you can develop representative personas that determine behaviors, goals, and motivations. Reach the customers you want to reach and avoid tire-kickers by personalizing your message. 

Predictive Content

Blogs, ebooks, videos, and other content that is presented to a lead based on patterns of previous engagement. 

Why it’s relevant: Leverage the content that’s led to past success by keeping track of it with artificial intelligence. Predictive content streams use past patterns to help nurture leads through a funnel toward conversion created by actual consumer behavior.

Privacy Protections

The tools and strategies used to keep users safe. Privacy protections can refer to physical, virtual, third-party, and legal efforts to ensure the security of people and information.   

Why it’s relevant: Ensure customers know their data is safe in your hands. Virtual protections including privacy policy and consent requests should be up-to-date and easily accessible to each new customer.

Qualified Lead (AQL/SQL/MQL)

A qualified lead is a potential customer who meets your criteria for purchasing a product or service. Leads may be qualified through automated processes (AQL), vetting by the sales department (SQL), or through engagement with marketing efforts (MQL).

Why it’s relevant: Understanding which potential customers are most likely to result in conversions allows you to target them more precisely. Filter out the window shoppers and only follow up with the most qualified leads no matter where they are in the buyer’s journey.

TOFU/MOFU/BOFU

Marketing funnels define where potential clients are in their journey and may be one of the most important concepts in a B2B glossary. Brand awareness is at the top of the funnel (TOFU), value propositions are in the middle (MOFU), and loyal customers are at the bottom (BOFU).

Why it’s relevant: Understanding the stages of the marketing funnel ensures you’ll be found by potential customers, nurture them effectively, and retain them over time. Visibility, engagement, and loyalty are all standard measures of any successful marketing campaign.

Unsubscribe & Durable Unsubscribe

Unsubscribing means removing an email address from a list because the client no longer wants to receive communication. Durable unsubscribe removes the address from all lists and integrated platforms. 

Why it’s relevant: According to the CAN-SPAM Act, it’s illegal to send  “any electronic mail message the primary purpose of which is the commercial advertisement or promotion of a commercial product or service,” in the United States without the option to unsubscribe from the mailing list. Additionally, many email services are even more strict, refusing to send to anyone who hasn’t explicitly opted in. Different laws apply to different countries, so be sure to check before you send out any communication overseas!

Velocity Script

A free, open-source, cross-platform Javascript language that allows high-level control of if/else commands.  

Why it’s relevant: Velocity script simplifies client-side interactions by automatically populating the most relevant content based on client engagement. For instance, if they indicate they are male, Velocity can auto-populate greetings with the prefix “Mr.” It’s not limited to text, though, as Velocity can also populate content and images for websites and emails.  

Webhook

Automated messages sent from one app to another when an action is taken or a change is made.

Why it’s relevant: Webhooks are essential for marketing automation. In contrast to polling, which only sends information to other programs when prompted, webhooks automatically send relevant information to the appropriate place. In other words, if a potential client fills out a web capture form, it will automatically populate in the CRM and other relevant programs. 

What would you add to the B2B marketing glossary?

We will continue to update our B2B marketing glossary as new important terms come to light. In the meantime, we can help optimize your marketing automation platform for incredible customer experience and conversion results in 2021. Give us a shout.

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