30 Marketing Buzzwords to Understand Your Marketing Campaign

New buzzwords come into existence in our vocabulary list every new year, month, or even day. You may see new buzzwords popping up somewhere on your newsfeeds without you being conscious of it. The year 2021 is witnessing some of the most horrific events in history. As an digital marketer, you may need to catch up with the emerging lexicon, whether they’re marketing buzzwords, sales buzzwords, or advertising buzzwords. Try scattering the following content marketing buzzwords into your company campaigns to simultaneously improve your relevance and efficiency.

However, bear in mind that only when being used properly can buzzwords help your marketing strategies. Otherwise, buzzwords may spell trouble if they are misused. The digital marketing industry is full of buzzwords, with some worth remembering than others.

This post is for you if you are unsure whether your use of “trend-jacking” or “thought leader” sounds informative or is likely to cause controversy?

What are buzzwords in advertising?

A Buzzword is a trendy expression or terms more often used to impress than to illustrate. A buzzword maybe a new word or an old word used in a new way. Buzzwords are part of the living language culture.

However, certain buzzwords are actually helpful as time goes by. Some buzzwords are misleading or incorrect, and the object they represent gradually becomes less relevant.

A buzzword spends just a portion of its life being used; the majority of the time, it is, you guessed it, misused. Sometimes, the tide flips toward a buzzword, making it fade into oblivion. This phenomenon is often called “buzzword backlash.”

COVID 19 - related buzzwords

1. Unprecedented

Unprecedented has been used in a never-seen-before amount following the spread of COVID-19 in March. In reality, after March, the search for this term and its meaning has increased exponentially, verging on being overused. So, for the time being, could you at least find a better way to paraphrase it if you need to call attention to the issue? Let’s just avoid using it and leave this out of our ads, emails, and general day-to-day conversation.

2. “Challenging/Difficult/Strange/Testing” Times

B2B company is overusing this phrase; it’s the sibling of “In the fast-paced digital world of today.” These two are alike in terms of appearing to your readers that you have nothing new to bring to them.

Frankly speaking, “Challenging”; “difficult”; “strange”; “testing” are all an understatement. With mass unemployment, budget cuts, social distancing, and uncertainty for health and public welfare, COVID 19 can bring about the demise of a nation, the situation is more serious than the word “challenging” can describe. Your target audience will not find your approach more viable by finding out how “challenging” their situation is.

3. We’re here for you

Just count the number of texts, emails, blogs, articles, social media advertisements you have read over since the beginning of COVID 19, boasting that “we are here for you”. Now, count how many of them have really been useful, such as delivering a free service that makes your life less challenging or providing a practical guide to your problem? After all, writing passionately about your desire to be helpful is not the same as helping.

Some of the “we’re here for you” are helpful. You may want to focus on account-based marketing (ABM) or database marketing to have the answers they are searching for in a sincere manner. No one likes a trite and hollow message.

 

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4. The new normal

To some extent, this phrase is accurate, but everyone is tired of it. Nothing can be the same and will be the same after the pandemic. This phrase appears everywhere, from work to home, from billboards to digital marketing. Many of us have exploited this phrase to the point that it has already ceased being helpful and landed on being a B2B cliché.

For now, you can do the world a favor by stop abusing ** “The new normal” ** in your marketing messaging.

5. Now more than ever

It seems like this phrase better fit for context, such as “I lose the will to live more than ever.” Besides, these words are nothing more self-congratulation, boasting to your customers that they need your service to hold onto life.

The most popular marketing buzzwords for every marketer

6. -jacking

You can see the iterations of the -jacking trend, from news-jacking to meme-jacking everywhere. The -jacking term means taking over your audience-related topics or formats and using them for your marketing purposes. This trend is still alive and growing

For example, in news-jacking, the writers cover major news events, then slowly diverting the audience’s attention to their advertising purposes. Likewise, meme-jacking means an organization taking over a meme.

Sadly, while the ideas behind the -jacking trend are still relevant, these words are verging on being abused.

7. Advertainment

This form of ad tends to cross the line between advertising a product or service and delivering television entertainment. In other words, “advertainment” is a mixture of “advertisement” and “entertainment.” Audiences like to be entertained, and making an amusing advertisement can be a better option than using this word (to keep your reputation intact)

The “73 Questions with…” sequence from Vogue offers a satirical look at how celebrities we admire are living and breathing. Vogue’s staff hosts a series of “Behind the Scenes” and “Interview with…” videos that efficiently promote the publication. Not only do they improve customer interaction with the company but also minimize mentions to their products.

This term’s concept is still new, but beware that customers these days are quickly fed up with gimmicks.

8. GOTV campaigns

GOTV means “Get out the Vote”. This term has been more popular among advertisers looking to score with their intensely loaded political material with the November election. The year 2020, in the sense that every vote matters, has witnessed an exponential growth of the marketing buzzword GOTV on social media, websites, videos, and commercials.

9. Snackable content

What renders a piece of content “snackable” is being brief, fast, easy-to-digest, and won’t leave viewers bloated the next day. For videos, being “snackable” means no more than 2-3 minutes of content. Some think it is the best word to describe short messages like tweets.

You may want to be cautious when using the word “snackable content” since many people think it’s needless to use and irritating to hear.

10. Gamification

Gamification is the method of incorporating game-related features into a program or software to encourage users to complete the required acts.

The term gamify refers to an online marketing strategy that applies gameplay elements, such as point scoring, play rules, which make everyday activities turn into something that people want to do, not something they have to do. This entertaining characteristic facilitates interaction with a good or service.

The progress bar you always see when building a profile on an online service is one example of gamification. When you complete more actions, such as inserting a profile pic, filling out your age, connecting your account to Twitter, etc., you will see the progress bar progressing from 40 percent to 60 percent to 90 percent and finally to 100 percent. Users typically do not want to fill in these data fields, but businesses by adding basic elements of gamification, they can motivate the customers to fill in the information they long for.

Another excellent example of gamification is Nissan’s Carwings app. The app is designed for those driving the Leaf and can compare their electric vehicles’ efficiency to others based on different standards such as bronze, silver, and gold.

11. Position Zero

Position zero is the information Google offers at the very top of the search results. Position zero is also called the featured snippet and is exactly that: a featured snippet of content that directly answers a search query. Position zero can be in different forms depending on what you search. The most common ones are:

• Paragraph - 40- to 60-word block of content explaining the search question.
• List - a bulleted list of steps answering how to do something.
• Table - A data chart, such as a conversion table from dollars to euros.

We had better just stick to “featured snippet” since the new term can cause confusion later on.

12. Mobile Optimization

We live almost 24/7 alongside our handheld devices today. As technology advances, what used to be a “novel experience” has turned into “a prerequisite.” Mobile optimization was a smart idea before, but now it’s an absolute must. There need to be smartphone options for your website and items. Otherwise, you can’t keep up with the increasing demand from the market.

13. Omnichannel Marketing

Omnichannel Marketing is the new marketing bombardment, pounding viewers in all directions across social media, brick and mortar stores, the internet, and smartphone. For organizations that have both online and brick-and-mortar stores, omnichannel marketing is a perfect tool. It guarantees that their content and branding reflect continuity across various channels. Omnichannel Marketing also helps to exploit online interaction, pushing customers to go to physical store locations.

With omnichannel marketing, consumers can order their products online, pick them up in the shop, or buy their items in the store and get them delivered anywhere else. When it comes to holiday shopping, it certainly has altered the buying world.

Be careful when using this term since it has already been verging on overuse.

14. Re-targeting

Re-targeting translates to the process of displaying advertisements to people who have seen the company’s website or placed an item in the shopping cart before. Retargeting allows the company to reach out to prospects who hadn’t been prepared to purchase the first time they visited your website. Retargeting focuses on anyone who had bounced off their pages or abandoned their shopping carts.

Re-targeting strategy can be implemented with tracking pixels that follow your customers to different software and social platforms with banner advertisements highlighting the products they have searched for. This process may seem invasive, but it’s an important tool that will keep your customers constantly think of your company. When performed well, re-targeting can be a boon to your conversion rates.

15. Thought leader

Becoming a “thought leader” is the primary objective of many ambitious young marketers inside their business sector.

A thought leader, or anyone who has influence within their industry, depending on their knowledge and perspective in the industry, provides unique guidance, motivates improvement and influences other people. Though there is nothing wrong with the idea (as there is no shame in trying to work towards becoming a key part of authority), the term itself has been worn out by the many, many individuals who used it to describe themselves.

That is why the word’s credibility is shrinking every day. Unless you can prove it, do not call yourself or anyone a thought leader.

16. Viral

“Viral” is what every digital advertiser dreamed of: achieving an intensely rapid, resounding success with the material. Think of a virus taking over a body; viral is sort of a content that has taken over social media. Marketers hope for a viral film, a viral infographic, a viral tweet, etc. People fantasize about seeing their things on the front-page of Reddit, about being ripped off on Twitter, and even about grandpas choking off at their contents.

Sadly, there is no recipe for going viral. It all depends on the internet’s peculiar and unexpected behavior.

“Viral” used to be a cool buzzword, but the secret to going “viral” has been allegedly found by so many blog posts. Now the phrase sounds like “snake oil.” You’d better stay far away from anyone who required to have “viral” content or claimed that they had the recipe for going viral.

17. Second screen

“Second screen” means a mobile device while watching television to access additional content or apps. It refers to the phenomena in which people do not only watch TV, and they have to be on their mobile devices. So, you can express your anger right when your favorite artists get snubbed at the Grammy, for example.

By introducing strategies such as adding a hashtag during the screening of a popular TV show and showcasing the best responses live, advertisers can take advantage of the second screen phenomenon. Some people think it is annoying; others believe it is an innovative way to combine individual experience with social activity.

18. SoLoMo

In digital marketing, this word is shorthand for “Social, Local, and Mobile” - the three critical powers. They are the epic tri-force of ads that looks like a postal codes acronym and ends up making you want to cry at the helplessness of modern life.

Unless the purpose of the marketing campaign is to sound arrogant or preachy, no self-respecting digital marketing firm will use this word.

19. Algorithm

An algorithm operates like a formula or set of rules. Algorithms are used by search engines, social media sites, and just about every subscription service to decide what content persists and which is most important to its customers. Algorithm is too essential to go out of style, at least in the foreseeable future.

20. Content is King

This content gimmick has been used more than necessary in recent years, so don’t expect it to go away soon. Content is important; having a content plan is important; having good content to compete in the digital marketing world of today is a must. Everybody already knew that.

“Content is King” has been played more than All I want for Christmas is you by Mariah Carey. In other words, this phrase has reached a saturation point.

21. Clickbait

Clickbait is an outrageous headline aiming at driving more traffic to a website. Most marketers are striving to grab attention from viewers by making headlines more clickable.

By pushing ambiguity, Clickbait titles pique viewer curiosity. Using clickbait satisfies the marketing aims of a brand but do not nourish them. Clickbait only prioritizes the number of clicks over the quality of content. If the material itself is substandard, these headlines are nothing more than cheap chum.

The annoyance of the end-user when content does not fit the headline can ruin your brand’s credibility, something that even massive traffic cannot make up for.

At its heart, the strategy behind clickbait is to create convincing headlines that lead a digital audience to a destination, and it is not necessarily a bad thing. The difference lies in the quality of the material which are given to the audience: higher quality contributes to a bigger reputation.

22. KPI

KPI, or Key Performance Indicator, is an evaluable measurement that keeps the project on track by reflecting companies’ progress and how their audience responds to different activities. KPIs allow organizations to monitor, regulate, and accomplish optimal targets. KPIs calculate everything from the number of total consumers and market share to the company’s net score and the time it takes to solve a challenge for the support staff.

This is not quite a buzzword, more like a standard and long-standing marketing metric, though it doesn’t mean that it’s not getting stale in the future.

23. Low Hanging Fruit

The phrase “low-hanging fruit” translates to an easy-to-accomplish task or easy-to-solve problem. It’s a cliché that is commonly used and occasionally abused in business environments. Tasks described as “low-hanging fruit” are meaningless to the bigger pictures. Sometimes you may need to get that perfect apple at the top of the tree if you want to aim for the moon.

24. CTA

CTA, aka Call To Action is a very important device for your marketing campaign. CTA gives the target group detailed guidance about how to take specific actions, such as “Download Here,” “Try it for free,” “Get started now,” “Add to Shopping Cart,” “Subscribe to Our YouTube Channel”. The CTA is typically shown on a web page, an email campaign, a banner ad, etc. by an independent button and is accompanied by placement, scale, and color scheme to lead users’ attention to the desired place.

“Free” and “now” are the two most common CTAs, so you may want to be a little more creative than that to stand out from the crowd.

25. UGC

UGC, aka User Generated Content. Brands are increasingly more focused on integrating UGC into their campaigns to create a meaningful connection and tell customers that they care for you (Or they’re at least making an attempt to make you believe they care for you). For example, companies may highlight fan art and testimonials.

26. YMMV

Your mileage may vary. It says: We were lucky with that endeavor, you may try to duplicate, but don’t gamble on, the way we achieved our success.

This buzzword is pretty harmless, and you may not see it very often.

27. SERP

SERP, aka Search Engine Results Page, is the results page that displays what you searched for. It can be a word definition (perhaps you wanted to know what buzzword is, something that we have helped you answer so now you don’t need to Google it), a specific commodity, flight time, cinema schedule, flight information, etc.

It should be the target of any business to be among the first 10 SERP posts, as it increases the odds of getting clicks dramatically and attracts more organic traffic to your site.

28. MOOC

MOOC, which stands for Massive Open Online Courses, has been correlated mainly with colleges offering online classes in the past. However, in the light of COVID 19 and the increasing emphasis of the digital marketing environment on sharing educational materials tools for customer interest and confidence, more companies are offering their customers MOOC-like courses.

29. X-post

X-post, aka cross-post, is pretty fresh. It means posting something on more than one platform. For instance, you can X-post Instagram story to your Twitter story and Facebook Story.

30. CRM Marketing

CRM, or Customer Relationship Management, is very popular among companies using database marketing or data-driven marketing.

CRM advertising is a variant of data-driven marketing that uses consumer information on social media such as Facebook, Google, Twitter inside the CRM to attract customers. CRM advertising also incorporates data analytics to aid with the construction of marketing strategies.

Conclusions

Guides, ebooks, and blog posts may have these buzzwords. Your content may have these buzzwords. Although there are buzzwords that accurately explain certain marketing ideas that exist, many of them can sound awful and detract your audience’ attention from what you are trying to convey. If you need to boast about your marketing skills, make your actions speak for your skills.