Appendix B. The Content Marketer’s Essential Dictionary

Affinity diagramming

A qualitative data analysis technique that allows researchers to make sense out of large amounts of seemingly disjointed data points. In affinity diagramming, you lay out individual insights and group them into buckets according to their level of similarity—or affinity. This technique is useful in developing content personas (see Personas).

Bounce rate

A measure of how effective your content is at retaining visitors when they land on it. A bounce rate specifies which percentage of your visitors entered the page and left quickly instead of staying to browse more content.

Content audit

A thorough revision of your catalog that involves deep diving into various types of data to unveil what has worked and what has not.

Content curation

The practice of finding, filtering, and shaping content ideas for production. Some also use this term to denote the act of spotting and serving relevant content to readers to prolong their original experience.

Conversion funnel

A series of steps that mark a user’s journey toward converting. Conversion could refer to any specific action that assists the completion of a company’s growth goals: purchases, signups, and downloads, among others. Each brand defines conversion depending on the business model it is operating under.

CRO

Conversion Rate Optimization. A set of practices to improve the odds of converting a user given a hypothesized course of action (funnel). The content experience can become an important step in that funnel, and CRO practices allow brands to enhance each piece’s effectiveness at leading users to the next step.

Domain reputation

An indicator of how established and reliable is a certain domain. Some of the most popular metrics to track this are Moz’s Domain Authority and Ahrefs’ Domain Rating.

Earned media

Borrowed communication channels over which your brand has no control. It can, however, secure a presence via outreach or organic referrals.

Ethnography

A qualitative research technique based on observation. It can help you collect data to design content personas (see Personas).

Gated content

A tactic by which certain content pieces are withheld from users until they complete a specific, desirable action. This might include, for example, submitting contact information or signing up for a service.

Google Analytics

A free web analytics platform offered by Google. It connects to your website to track events and provide reports related to traffic, conversions, user behavior, audience, and much more.

Guest articles or guest posts

Content pieces created by other individuals or brands that wish to partner with you, or the other way around. The arrangement is usually an exchange that involves both brands “guest posting” in each other’s content hubs.

Infographic

A form of data visualization that summarizes dense, complex qualitative or quantitative data into an easily consumable graphic.

Content inventory

A document that collects various content data points scraped from different sources. This inventory is raw material for a content audit (see Content audit).

High-involvement content consumer

A user that faces content in an invested research mode. He requires a specific kind of information, and bases his conscious decision to consume on clear criteria like length, quality, and reputation of the content pieces at hand.

Inbound links (also backlinks)

Links coming from external sites that point to you.

Influencer marketing

Using the platform of authoritative figures in your space to send a message. Usually a paid engagement.

Internal links

Links pointing to other pages in your same domain. An internal linking strategy is instrumental in content SEO because it can help pass on authority signals from one page (article, post, piece) to another within your catalog.

Landing page

Single-page websites that focus on one or a few specific conversion goals. They become the final destination for traffic acquired via earned, paid, and owned channels.

Low-involvement content consumer

A user that isn’t particularly interested in a decision-making process. When presented with the type of content you are offering, he will react (click, like, or comment) based on impulse. There is no complex, time-consuming, invested evaluation of alternatives in which he checks out other sites for the information you are supplying. You just happened to be in the right place at the right time.

Outbound links

The ones you insert within your site in pointing to third-party sites or resources.

Owned media

Communication channels that are within your brand’s control. Examples include social profiles, email lists, and website spaces.

Page reputation

An indicator of how established and reliable is a certain page within a domain. Some of the most popular metrics to track this are Moz’s Page Authority and Ahrefs’ URL Rating.

Paid media

Communication channels where you are buying placement.

Personas

Fictional people with very real needs that serve as placeholders when you are trying to create something that is relevant for someone. That “something” is content in our case. In finding effective profiles to target, consider the importance of convertible content personas: users you are able to convert. These are readers or viewers that you can effectively guide through your desired conversion funnel.

ROI

Return on investment. The results that can be attributed directly or indirectly to the resources that you have allocated to a specific initiative.

RSS

Rich site summary (also known as real simple syndication). An XML-based format that your content hub (blog or any other page) can use to allow users to subscribe to regular updates.

Search Console

A free search analytics dashboard offered by Google as part of its Webmaster Tools suite. With it, you can monitor your content pages’ search appearance and traffic.

Semantic search

A new paradigm in search engines whereby algorithms try to serve relevant content through a deep understanding of the searcher’s intent and the rich meaning of terms as they appear on your content pages. This paradigm’s focus is on emulating a more human thought process that relies on natural language and context to discover pertinent information.

SERP

Search Engine Results Page. The page that is displayed when a user types in a certain query on a search engine. Content managers try to secure strong positions for their pages in these results.

SEO

Search Engine Optimization. A set of practices to ensure that your content is properly discovered and experienced in SERPs.

Sponsored articles/pieces

These emerge from placement campaigns where another brand has paid you to include a certain piece in your calendar. When they allow you to handle production and agree to make the final product theme-driven (versus brand-driven), these pieces are often denominated “native advertising.” These native ads comply with your editorial standards, the brand’s awareness goals, and your audience’s expectations about the content experience. You could also play the role of the sponsor.

Style manual

A guide that provides instructions on how to create and design written documents. The most popular ones used in online media include the Associated Press Stylebook, the New York Times Manual of Style and Usage, and the Chicago Manual of Style.

UGC

User-Generated Content. Images, text, video, and other content formats that have been developed by your audience independently. This type of content can be used for your own brand storytelling activities with the creators’ permission.

Voice and tone

Although a brand communicates using a single voice, it can make use of various tones to adapt to each communication situation. These scenarios and the overarching direction for brand voice are often captured in a set of guidelines.