 Loving our business means loving all things that our business is: The good, bad and ugly! One of those things is the terms and slang that come and go but are important terms to know to stay on trend. Business jargon can be one of the most confusing things about starting a new venture – that’s why we put together this little glossary for you. Starting in any new job there are always a whole host of terms, words and phrases that you have to learn. Some make sense straight away – while others seem to have been created by throwing some scrabble letters on a table. The world of startups is no different and, if anything, a more difficult proposition. If you are in an office you can always ask Dave in accounts what exactly Steve the CEO is going on about in the weekly team meeting. But fear not! We have a put together 11 of some of the most common terms that could well do with some explanation. So read on and if you have any words you are struggling with leave them head over to our Facebook, Twitter or Instagram pages and ask away! Capital A term that can mean a number of things but in its most basic forms it means the assets of the company. It can also be used to refer to money that is invested in a company to purchase assets. Non-disclosure agreement Very important for those with new and innovative products – a non-disclosure agreement is a legal agreement between two parties to keep anything that is spoken about is kept secret. For more information about NDAs you view Government advice contact us. ROI It is a guarantee that if you are asking an investor for some cash they will want to know what the ROI is. What they mean is Return on Investment – simply what can they expect to get back for the cash they put in. The term can also be used in other ways, for instance if you are going to start an online marketing campaign with an external company then you will want to know what you are getting for your cash! B2B A simple term for any business that does business with other businesses. Think of a builders merchant as a typical example. B2C The other term that you will hear is business to consumer. These are retail stores, cafes or anything that sells a product to non-business customer. B2B2C A newly emerging term that allows a company to enter into a new business relationship with a B2C company whose expertise is generally in online selling or with help building recognition of the company. Freemium This business model has become a massive success. The idea is that the basic features of the business are given away for free and then more advanced features are available at a price. SEO Search Engine Optimization is absolutely essential for any new business. In basic terms this is a process that helps make your website rank better in search engines like Google. Marketing Terms You Absolutely Need to Know As you face interviews or settle into a new job, you’re going to hear words and phrases you’ve never heard before. Or maybe you’ve heard them, but still don’t know what they mean. The marketing industry is one of the worst offenders when it comes to buzzwords. So how do you separate terms you’ll carry with you from what’s just trendy at the moment? Here are a few words you’ll hear over and over and absolutely need to know, and samples of how you’d use it in a sentence. Conversion Rate: The percentage of users who take the action you want them to take, like signing up for your craft beer newsletter or buying a pair of stylin’ new kicks. Sample Sentence: “Our website, MakeBeerAtHome.com, had 10,000 visitors last week, and 1,000 purchases of our home brew kits, making the conversion rate 10%. Cheers!” CRM: Customer relationship management, or the practices, strategies and technologies used to manage and analyze interactions and data to respond to customer needs and wants. If a customer tells a sales rep they think a product is too expensive, that may trigger an email with a discount code for their next purchase. Sample Sentence: “Through customer feedback, we’re seeing our customers find our jars of honey too difficult to open, so—as a CRM tactic—we’re going to start including a jar opener with each order along with a note that reads, “don’t feel bad, we can’t open ’em either!” Metric: Numeric data that allow marketers to evaluate performance of lead generating efforts and effectiveness of a channel or content. Some examples include cost per lead, click-through-rate, and site visits. Keeping track of these not only helps you make better decisions, but can also help prove your worth and validate what you’re doing. Sample Sentence: “Using metrics like bounce rate and session length, we realized having a video of our CEO on our homepage giving his ‘why I do what I do’ speech was actually turning customers away.” Owned Media: Platforms you manage and control, such as a company blog or Facebook page. Sample Sentence: “With our social team tackling Facebook and Twitter, and our content team rocking the blog, we are OWNING our owned media!” Paid Media: Paying to leverage a third-party channel through sponsorships or advertising. This includes traditional advertising like a TV spot, direct mail, or magazine ad, as well as PPC ads, Facebook ads or sponsored blog posts. Sample Sentence: “We’ve gotta free up some of the marketing budget; the brand knows paid media will be very important when they launch a new product since no one has ever heard of it before.” Remarketing: Also called retargeting, this is an online marketing tactic that allows marketers to reach out via other channels to visitors who have previously visited their website. Sample Sentence: “Hey, online sales increased by 30 percent last month; looks like remarketing to customers who’d left without buying a pair of shoes was a good call.” ROI: Return on investment. Basically, this is how you tell if something was worth the time, resources and money spent. In cases where efforts may not be directly tied to sales, especially with content marketing and social media, you may have to evaluate non-monetary gains such as awareness or consumer insights. Sample Sentence: “Sure, social media is expensive, but when you consider the value of the brand exposure, and the insights gleaned from customer feedback, the ROI is a no-brainer.” About Business Solutions by Design and our new wedding photographer based content: We’re bean-counters and proud of it! Everything you’ve ever thought about people who look at numbers all day? It’s all true, and we love it. We are a team of bookkeepers dedicated to helping creatives. We love spreadsheets, profit and loss statements, and balance sheets. Even more important, we love helping creatives, because they are well, creative! That’s why we created our new venture, because we believe that creatives should be creatives, and bean-counters should count beans. Contact us today to learn more!
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