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Comprehensive list of acronyms you need to know

The comprehensive list of acronyms

Hashtags

#FF: Follow Friday (Instagram/Twitter)
Highlight people that you want your followers to follow.

#F4F: Follow for follow (Instagram/Twitter)
A way of communicating that you will follow back whoever follows you.

#FBF: Flashback Friday (All)
A look back at previous posts or memories on any given Friday.

#GOTD: Gram of the Day (Instagram)
Your favorite or most popular Instagram post for the day.

#Igers: Instagrammers (Instagram)
Reference to those who use Instagram.

#MCM: Man crush Monday (Instagram)
Post pictures of your favorite man crush on Mondays.

#MM: Music Monday (Instagram/Twitter)
Post pictures about your favorite music artists on Mondays.

#POTD: Photo of the day (Instagram)
Share your favorite or most popular photo for the day.

#OOTD: Outfit of the day (Instagram)
Share a picture of your favorite outfit.

#QOTD: Quote of the Day (Instagram)
Share your favorite quote.

#TBT: Throwback Thursday (All)
Flashback Friday just on Thursday 😉

#TGIF: Thank goodness it’s Friday (All)
Share your thankfulness for the end of another week with this hashtag!

#WCW: Woman crush Wednesday (Instagram)
Post a picture of your woman crush on Wednesdays!

#WOTD: Word of the Day (Instagram/Twitter)
Share your favorite word with this hashtag!

 

Numbers

3PL = Third-party logistics
Third-party logistics (3PL) refers to your company’s use of third-party businesses to outsource elements of your distribution, warehousing and fulfillment services.

 

A

ABC: Always be Closing
Usually the first sales acronyms young sales reps learn.

A/B testing = Split testing
Split testing is a method of conducting controlled, randomized experiments with the goal of improving a website metric (such as increasing your click-through rate or number of conversions).

Above the Fold
Above the fold is a phrase that originated in newspaper publishing where the most important content was always placed above the newspaper’s fold.

Acquisition Cost
In ecommerce terms, acquisition cost refers to the total amount of money spent on marketing and promotions divided by the number of sales acquired.

Acquisition Source
An acquisition source is where your customers came from when purchasing from you.

Affiliate Marketing
Affiliate marketing is an arrangement between a company and an advertiser wherein the company pays a commission for sales or specific actions generated by the advertiser.

Affiliate Marketing Network
Affiliate marketing networks are organizations that represent a large group of merchants, brands, and products for affiliate marketing.

Alt Tag
An alt tag is an alternative text that is attached to an image on a website.

Alt text / alt tag = An image description in HTML
Alt text is a text description that can be added to an image’s HTML tag on a web page. When you use relevant keywords in this description, you can boost that web page’s position on search engine results pages.

Anchor Text
The anchor text on a web page are the words that are included in the clickable link.

Attribution Model
An attribution model is a set of rules or guidelines that establish the terms for which promotional source gets credit for a sale when multiple touchpoints are involved.

Autoresponder
An autoresponder is a service you can set up to automatically send a response to a person or group of people.

AOV = Average order value
Your average order value (AOV) measures the average total of every order placed on your ecommerce store over a defined period of time.

AIDA: Attention Interest Desire Action
Also known as the “Purchase Funnel”, it describes the events that occur when a consumer engages with an advertisement.

API: Application Program Interface
Set of routines, protocols and tools for building software applications. APIs specify how software components should interact with each other.

ASP: Application Service Provider
Refers to a business that provides computer-based services to customers over a network.

AFAIK: As far as I know
Ex. “AFAIK Vine is owned by Twitter.”

AMA: Ask Me Anything
This can be used to call for questions but it is better known as the Q&A series on Reddit where you can send your questions in for answering to featured experts.

ASL: Age/Sex/Location
Great way to get to know someone.

AR = Augmented reality
In the ecommerce industry, augmented reality (AR) refers to technology that superimposes a computer-generated image on a user’s view of the real world, providing them with a more composite view of products as they shop online.

ATO: Assembled to Order
A business production strategy where products ordered by customers are produced quickly and are customizable to a certain extent.

APEC: Asia Pacific Economic Cooperation
A forum for 21 Pacific Rim member economies that promotes free trade throughout the Asia-Pacific region.

Abandonment:
This refers to an abandoned shopping cart or browse abandonment, in which a shopper has abandoned the items they have placed in their cart or how navigated away from a page.

AE: Account Executive

AM: Account Manager
An AM is a salesperson responsible for managing a large customer account or a large group of accounts.

ARPA: Average Monthly Recurring Revenue (MRR) Per Account
This is a figure that incorporates the mean amount of monthly revenue across all accounts

ARR: Annual Recurring Revenue
Use in most businesses that produce annual yearly contracts

 

B

B4: Before
Ex. “B4 I go I have one last question…”

BAE: Before anyone else
A term of endearment for Millennials.

BFF: Best friends forever
Ex. “Rick and Darryl are BFFs!”

BTW: By the way
Ex. “BTW the best tool for social automation is Buffer.”

BRB: Be right back

B2B: Business to Business
Where one business makes a commercial transaction with another.

B2C: Business to Consumer
Where a business makes a commercial transaction with a consumer.

BANT: Budget, Authority, Need, Timeline
B = Budget: Determines whether your prospect has a budget for what you’re selling.
A = Authority: Determines whether your prospect has the authority to make a purchasing decision.
N = Need: Determines whether there’s a business need for what you’re selling.
T = Timeline: Determines the time frame for implementation.

BR: Bounce Rate
The percentage of people who land on a page on your website and then leave without clicking on anything else or navigating to any other pages on your site.

Black Hat
In ecommerce terms, black-hat practices are those that are considered to be underhanded, spammy, exploitative, or flat-out illegal.

Brick and mortar
A store with an actual physical location, like a shop in the mall.

Black Friday
The day after Thanksgiving in the United States. Considered the official start to the holiday shopping season, brick and mortar retailers have been offering special promotions and sales to entice shoppers on Black Friday since 1952.

BDR: Business Development Representative
A senior level specialized sales role that is responsible for developing new business relationships, partners, and opportunities.

BOL: Bill of Lading
The bill of lading is a legally binding document providing the driver and the carrier all the details needed to process the freight shipment and invoice it correctly.

BOM: Bill of Materials
A bill of materials or product structure (sometimes bill of material, BOM or associated list) is a list of the raw materials, sub-assemblies, intermediate assemblies, sub-components, parts and the quantities of each needed to manufacture an end product.

 

C

CSV: Comma-separated Values
In a CSV file, rows of data are separated by (you guessed it) commas.

CPM: Cost Per Thousand Impressions
This is probably the most common method for pricing online advertisements.

COGS: Cost of Goods Sold
The direct costs attributable to the production of the goods sold by a company.

CPG: Consumer Packaged Goods.
This refers to the manufacturers and supplies in the Packaged Goods industry, a very specific reference to companies that manufacture or distribute Consumer Packaged Goods to the retail environment.

CBP: U.S. Customs and Border Protection
The largest federal law enforcement agency of the United States Department of Homeland Security. It is charged with regulating and facilitating international trade, collecting import duties, and enforcing U.S. regulations, including trade, customs, and immigration.

CIF Cost, Insurance and Freight:
Shipping price also includes sea freight charges and insurance to deliver the goods to your nearest port. From that point onwards, you take the shipment into your hands.

CAC: Customer Acquisition Cost
The cost associated with convincing a customer to buy a product or service. Costs could include research, marketing and accessibility.

CPM: Cost per Thousand
The cost to reach one thousand people via a specific advertising outlet or medium.

Chargebacks
A chargeback is a return of funds to a customer who claims he or she received an inappropriate charge on a credit card.

Cookie
A cookie is a tiny amount of data that websites store on users’ computers or mobile devices that are unique to each site visitor.

Campaign
A campaign is a set of marketing activities designed to achieve a specific goal, like increasing sales for a certain product or spreading awareness of a new product feature.

CSS: Cascading stylesheet
A style sheet language used to describe the presentation of a document written in a markup language. Most often associated with the visual style of web pages and user interfaces written in HTML and XHTML.

CX: Customer experience
Refers to the interaction between an organization and a customer over the duration of their relationship.

CEO: Chief Executive Officer
The most senior corporate officer, executive, or administrator in charge of managing a company.

CFO: Chief Financial Officer
The senior-most executive responsible for managing the financial risks at a company, including financial planning, record-keeping, and reporting.

CIO: Chief Information Officer
The senior-most executive responsible for the management, implementation and usability of information and computer technologies at the company.

COO: Chief Operating Officer
The senior-most executive responsible for managing and overseeing the ongoing business operations within a company.

CSO: Chief Security Officer
The senior-most executive responsible for developing and overseeing all the policies and programs that protect the people, intellectual assets, and tangible property of a company.

CTO: Chief Technology Officer
Sometimes called the “chief technical officer,” the CTO is the senior-most executive responsible for focusing on all the scientific and technological issues within an organization.

CAN-SPAM: Controlling the Assault of Non-Solicited Pornography And Marketing
A U.S. law passed in 2003 that establishes the rules for commercial email and commercial messages and the reason businesses are required to have an “unsubscribe” option at the bottom of every email.

CASL: Canadian Anti-Spam Legislation
A Canadian law passed in 2013 that regulates the sending of “commercial electronic messages.”

CMO: Chief Marketing Officer

CMS: Content Management System
A web application designed to make it easy for non-technical users to create, edit, and manage a website.

COS: Content Optimization System
Take a CMS (Content Management System), and optimize it to deliver customers the most personalized web experience possible.

CPA: Cost-per-Action
An internet advertising model where the advertiser pays for each specified action someone takes, like an impression, click, form submit, or sale.

CPC: Cost-per-Click
The amount of money spent to get a digital advertisement clicked when running a PPC advertising campaign.

CPL: Cost-per-Lead
The amount it costs for your marketing organization to acquire a lead.

CR: Conversion Rate
The percentage of people who completed a desired action on a single web page, such as filling out a form.

CRM: Customer Relationship Management
A set of software programs that lets companies keep track of everything they do with their existing and potential customers.

CRO: Conversion Rate Optimization
The process of improving your site conversion using design techniques, key optimization principles, and testing.

CTA: Call-to-Action
A text link, button, image, or some other type of web link that encourages a website visitor to take an action on that website, such as visiting a landing page to download a piece of content.

CTR: Clickthrough Rate
The percentage of your audience that advances (or clicks through) from one step of your marketing campaign to the next.

Consignee
An individual or firm to whom freight is shipped. A freight receiver.

CSR: (customer service representative)
Sometimes known as customer support, CSRs are responsible for interacting with customers to solve their problems on behalf of a business.

Cross-sell
Selling another product or service to a customer a business already has an existing relationship.

Cyber Monday
The largest online shopping day of the year in the United States.

CMRR: Committed Monthly Recurring Revenue
The formula for calculating the MRR in the coming fiscal year.

CRR: Customer Churn Rate
A metric used to measure customer retention and value.

CCR: Customer Churn Rate
A metric used to measure customer retention and value.

 

D

Deliverability
In ecommerce, deliverability typically refers to a business’s sent emails being delivered as they intended.

Dropshipping
Dropshipping is a retail fulfillment method where a store doesn’t keep the products it sells in stock. Instead, when a store sells a product, it purchases the item from a third party and has it shipped directly to the customer.

DFRL: Design for Reverse Logistics
This term applies to your company’s ability to accept returned items from your customers.

DP: Demand Planning
Demand planning is a multi-step operational process used to create reliable forecasts.

DNS: Domain Name Server
A server that translates a web address into one or more IP addresses.

DDU = Delivered Duty Unpaid
Delivered Duty Unpaid (DDP) is an international trade term indicating that the seller is responsible for making a safe delivery of goods to a named destination, paying all transportation expenses and assuming all risks during transportation.

DDP: Delivery Duty Paid
With delivery duty paid, the online seller is responsible for all expenses associated with transporting the shipment, clearing the shipment through customs, and applicable taxes.

DNS: Domain Name Server
A system that controls your domain name’s website and e-mail settings.

Demographics
Marketing demographics are characteristics used to define an audience by shared traits.

Dofollow Links and Nofollow Links
When linking to other websites on your site, you have a choice to use a dofollow link or a nofollow link. Dofollow links tell search engines that it is fine to acknowledge the link. When dofollow links are used, Google will give the site you’ve linked to credit for the link which could help raise their domain authority (DA).

Drip Marketing
Drip marketing is a tactic where marketers set up a series of messages to send to a specific audience over time.

DAE: Does anyone else…?
Ex. “DAE think that Kanye West is CRAY?”

DM: Direct Mail
The delivery of advertising material to recipients of postal mail; also called “junk mail” by its recipients.

DM (Twitter): Direct Message
A message on Twitter used to get in touch with Twitter followers directly and in private.

DSP: Demand Side Platform
A DSP is a technology that allows advertisers to purchase display ad inventory across Real Time Bidding (RTB) networks like Google.

DMA: Designated Market Area
A geographic location representing a county, state, or country you choose to target.

 

E

ESP: Email service provider
A company that offers email marketing or bulk mail.

ELI5: Explain like I’m 5
Ex. “I have no clue about Physics, please ELI5!”

Email Sequence
An email sequence is a series of predetermined emails set up through an automated process offered through an email provider.

Evergreen Content
Content that remains relevant over time and regardless of the season is called evergreen content.

Email bounce rate
The rate at which an email was unable to be delivered to a recipient’s inbox.

EOD: End Of Day
Colloquially, EOD means the end of the business day — whatever that means to the person speaking.

EOW: End Of Week
Similarly to EOD, EOW simply means end of the week.

EFTA: European Free Trade Agreement
A regional trade organization and free trade area consisting of four European states.

ETA: Estimated Time of Arrival
The estimated time of arrival or ETA (rarely, ETOA) is the time when a ship, vehicle, aircraft, cargo or emergency service is expected to arrive at a certain place.

EXW (Ex-Works)
This basically means the cost of the product and nothing else! No shipping costs or export fees in China are included in this price, never mind local port and custom fees or delivery to your door.

ESP: (email service provider)
An application that hosts email marketing services on their servers and sends emails on a business’ behalf.

EDI: Electronic Data Interchange
Electronic data interchange is the process of transferring documents electronically in a standard format from one business to another.

ERP = Enterprise resource planning
Enterprise resource planning (ERP) is a process used by companies to integrate the main functional areas of their businesses processes into a unified system.

 

F

FAB: Features, Advantages, Benefits
Another sales acronym that focuses on the benefits a customer will gain from their product or service rather than what they’re selling

FUD: Fear, Uncertainty, Doubt
A sales method that gets customers to not work with competitors by giving them information that triggers doubt.

F2F: Face to face
Ex. “Twitter is awesome but I’d love to meet you F2F.”

FBO: Facebook Official
Used when two people have announced their relationship on Facebook.

FOMO: Fear of Missing Out
Refers to the social anxiety that occurs when you might miss out on something great!

FTFY: Fixed that for you
Ex. “I know the website has been down but I just FTFY!”

FTW: For the win!
Ex. “Rick Grimes FTW! Zombies have no chance!”

FUTAB: Feet up, take a break
Ex. “Just scheduled my social content for the day! FUTAB!”

FYI: For your information
Ex. “FYI, the site will be under maintenance tonight.”

FTP: File Transfer Protocol
The standard protocol used to transfer computer files from one host to another host over the internet.

FB: Facebook
The social network.

FOB: Free on Board
This term indicates that the supplier pays the shipping costs that usually also include the insurance costs from the point of production to a specified destination, at which point the buyer takes responsibility.

FDA: U.S. Food & Drug Administration
The Food and Drug Administration is a federal agency of the United States Department of Health and Human Services, one of the United States federal executive departments.

Freight Forwarder
An agency that receives freight from a shipper and then arranges for transportation with one or more carriers for transport to the consignee.

Flat rate shipping
Refers to a flat fee for shipping regardless of the weight (and often the cost) of an order.

FMCGs : Fast Moving Consumer Goods
FMCGs are inexpensive products that people usually buy on a regular basis, such as supermarket foods or toiletries. FMCG is an abbreviation for ‘fast-moving consumer goods’.

 

G

GA: Google Analytics
A service by Google that generates detailed statistics about a website’s traffic and traffic sources, and measures conversions and sales.

G2G: Got to go
Ex. “G2G late for work.”

GG: Good game
Ex. “Just finished a GG of Call of Duty, so close!”

Gr8: Great
Ex. “Gr8 news! Congrats.”

GTG: Got to go
Ex. “I GTG, the pie eating contest is starting.”

GTR: Got to run
Ex. “It was great chatting but I GTR.”

GTR: Getting ready
Ex. “My wife is GTR for her presentation, wish her luck!”

G+: Google+
Google’s social network.

Gated site
Is the practice of putting a form or login in front of any sort of content. Content that is not restrained by a gate is known as ungated content.

GDD: Growth Driven Design
This is a redesign or development of a website in intentional increments making continuous data driven adjustments.

 

H

HBD: Happy birthday
Ex. “HBD buddy and many happy returns.”

HMU: Hit me up
Ex. “I’m at work but HMU later.”

HT: Hat tip
An acknowledgement of a tip received from someone.
Ex. “A HT to Jeff Bullas for that last RT!”

HTH: Here/Happy to help
Ex. “No problem, glad it worked, HTH.”

HTML: Hyper Text Markup Language
The standard markup language used to create webpages.

HTS: Harmonized Tariff Schedule
The Harmonized Tariff Schedule of the United States is the primary resource for determining tariff (customs duties) classifications for goods imported into the United States.

 

I

IANAD: I am not a Doctor
Ex. “Yoga might be one of the best exercises you can do, but IANAD.”

ICYMI: In case you missed it
Ex. “ICYMI here is last week’s article.”

IDC: I don’t care
Ex. “IDC what they say, social media rocks!”

IDK: I don’t know
Ex. “IDK how to do that but I can find out.”

IKR: I know right
Ex. “IKR last night’s episode was craaaazy!”

ILY: I love you
Ex. “Talk to you later Honey, ILY.”

IM: Instant message
Ex. “Let’s switch to IM.”

IMHO: In my humble opinion
Ex. “IMHO the best show on Netflix is The Blacklist.”

IMO: In my opinion
Ex. “IMO last night’s game was a fluke.”

IRL: In real life
Ex. “I wonder what Taylor Swift is like IRL.”

IBL: Inbound Link
A hyperlink back to your site from another website.

IM: Instant Messaging
A form of real-time communication online using typed text.

IP Address: Internet Protocol Address
The numerical label assigned to each device participating in a computer network that uses the Internet Protocol for communication.

Inbound Marketing
Inbound marketing is a strategy that draws customers to brands and products through digital marketing techniques that include SEO, social media, content marketing, influencer marketing, and more.

Infographic
An infographic is a visual representation or diagram of complex information or data that helps simplify a concept to enhance understanding.

ICP: Ideal Customer Profile
A buyer persona that is created using actual data and inferred knowledge

ILV: Inbound Lead Velocity
The measurement of the rate at which leads are increasing

ISP: Internet Service Provider
An organization (commercial, community-owned, nonprofit, or otherwise privately owned) that provides internet services.

IG: Instagram
A social network to share images, short videos and photos.

ISO: International Standards Organization
The International Organization for Standardization (ISO) is an international standard-setting body composed of representatives from various national standards organizations.

 

J

JK: Just kidding
Ex. “Guess who got killed off in Walking Dead last night… JK!”

JIT: Just in Time
Just-in-time (JIT) is an inventory strategy companies employ to increase efficiency and decrease waste by receiving goods only as they are needed in the production process, thereby reducing inventory costs.

 

K

Keywords
Keywords in online marketing are single words or phrases that represent the main concept within a post or web page for which you want to be ranked.

Keyword Density
The ecommerce term keyword density refers to the number of times a keyword appears on a web page.

Keyword Stuffing
Keyword stuffing is when you add inappropriately high volumes of keywords to a web page to the point that the content does not sound natural to readers.

KPI: Key Performance Indicator
A type of performance measurement companies use to evaluate an activity’s success.

 

L

LTV: Lifetime Value
The prediction of the net profit attributed to the entire future relationship with a particular customer.

Lead Magnet
In ecommerce terms, a lead magnet is a free gift or resource you offer in exchange for someone giving you their contact information.

Long-tail Keyword
Long-tail keywords are keyword phrases that include three or more words in them.

LI: LinkedIn
The largest professional social network.

LMAO: Laughing my ass off
Ex. “Jimmy Fallon has be LMAO right now!”

LMK: Let me know
Ex. “LMK what your biggest challenges are and I will help you.”

LMS: Like my status
Ex. “Here is my latest article, please LMS.”

LOL: Laughing out loud
Ex. “Check out this video! LOL.”

List cleaning
Is the process of removing bad values? (such as hard bounces, and even inactive profiles) from a list.

Landing page
A landing page is a single web page that focuses on a certain topic, product, or service. In the purest sense, a landing page is any web page that a visitor can arrive at or “land” on.

LAARC: Listen, Acknowledge, Assess, Respond, Confirm
A sales technique used when encountering negative feedback or objection during a sales pitch

L2RM: Lead to Revenue Management
A model for engaging with customers.

 

M

MoM: Month-over-Month
Changes in levels expressed with respect to the previous month.

MTD: Month-to-Date
A time period starting at the beginning of the current month and ending at the current date.

MRR: Monthly Recurring Revenue
The amount of revenue a subscription-based business receives per month.

MT: Modified tweet
When you have changed or paraphrased a RT slightly, share it with MT.

MAPE: Mean Absolute Percent Error
A cross-sectional measure to calculate the demand forecast error across products, customers, divisions etc.

Microsite
A microsite is a small website, typically having one to 20 pages, that focuses on a narrow subject or niche target.

MTO: Made to Order
Made to order (MTO) is a business production strategy that typically allows consumers to purchase products that are customized to their specifications.

Martech (marketing technology)
is lingo for technology products targeted to improve marketing.

mCommerce (mobile commerce)
mCommerce is the buying and selling of goods and services through wireless handheld devices such as cellular telephone and personal digital assistants (PDAs).

MAP: Marketing Automation Platform
A technology that assists marketers to convert prospects into customers by removing high-touch, manually repetitive processes with automated solutions. MailChimp, and Marketo are examples of MAPs.

MQL: Marketing Qualified Lead
Any individual that has engaged with your firms marketing efforts and indicated they are interested in your offerings.

 

N

Niche
In ecommerce terminology, a niche is a relatively small group of people that have certain traits or interests in common.

NPS: Net Promoter Score
A customer satisfaction metric that measures, on a scale of 0-10, the degree to which people would recommend your company to others.

NSFW: Not Safe For Work
An Internet slang term used to warn people that the content they’re about to read or watch — whether it’s an email, video, forum, or something else — is not suitable for a work environment.

NM: Not much
Ex. “NM going on this weekend, time to chill!”

NP: No problem
Ex. “NP man, hope you are feeling better.”

NVM: Never mind
Ex. “NVM, sometimes it’s better to ignore me.”

NFTA: North American Free Trade Agreement
An agreement signed by Canada, Mexico, and the United States, creating a trilateral trade bloc in North America.

 

O

Outbound Marketing
Outbound marketing refers to tactics where a company initiates conversations about its products or services. Advertising, direct selling, and mail are the most popular types of outbound marketing.

OBL: Outbound Link
Links that take you away from your current website.

OOO: Out of the Office or Out-of-Office

OAN: On another note
Ex. “OAN did you see the game last night?”

OMG: Oh my God
Ex. “OMG how good were the Grammys!”

OMW: On my way
Ex. “OMW, should be there in 15 minutes.”

ORLY: Oh really?
Ex. “ORLY? Did not know that!”

OTP: One True Pairing
Ex. “Beyonce and Jay-Z are sooo cool! OTP!”

OEM: Original Equipment Manufacturer
An Original Equipment Manufacturer is a company that produces parts and equipment that may be marketed by another manufacturer.

ODM: Original Design Manufacturer
An original design manufacturer is a company which designs and manufactures a product which is specified and eventually branded by another firm for sale.

 

P

PO: Purchase Order
A purchase order is a commercial document and first official offer issued by a buyer to a seller, indicating types, quantities, and agreed prices for products or services.

POD: Proof of Delivery
Proof of delivery is a method to establish the fact that the recipient received the contents sent by the sender.

POE: Port of Entry
The place where a product may lawfully enter a country.

PR: Page Rank
Page rank is determined by an algorithm used by Google that gives each website a numerical weight based on a number of different, confidential criteria.

PPC: Pay-per-Click
An internet advertising model where advertisers pay a publisher (usually a search engine, social media site, or website owner) a certain amount of money every time their ad is clicked.

PR: Public Relations
PR is all about getting a company in front of the right audiences at the right time with messages that make its spokespeople sound like human beings, not robots.

PV: Page View
A request to load a single web page on the internet.

PM: Project Manager
PMs are, quite literally, the managers of a project.

PTO: Paid Time Off
PTO is a time-off policy some companies have that give employees flexibility in how they use their allotted vacation and sick days.

PM: Private message
Ex. “Maybe it is easier if we go to Facebook and PM?”

PPL: People
Ex. “Listen up PPL! You are gonna want to see this!”

PCI compliance = the Payment Card Industry Data Security Standard
The Payment Card Industry Data Security Standard was created to increase controls around cardholder data and reduce credit card fraud.

POS = Point of sale
A point of sale (POS) transaction is the moment when a transaction is finalized between you and your customer.

PPV: Pay Per View
Pay-per-view is defined by your video or ad/image being visible on the page and 100 percent in view for a specific duration of time defined at the discretion of the publisher.

Payment gateway
A payment gateway is an ecommerce service that processes credit card payments for online and traditional brick and mortar stores.

 

Q

QR Code: Quick Response Barcode
Scannable barcodes used by marketers to bridge offline and online marketing.

QoQ: Quarter-over-Quarter
Changes in levels expressed with respect to the previous quarter.

QTD: Quarter-to-Date
A time period starting at the beginning of the current quarter and ending at the current date.

QA: Quality Assurance
The maintenance of a desired level of quality in a service or product, especially by means of attention to every stage of the process of delivery or production.

QC: Quality Control
A system of maintaining standards in manufactured products by testing a sample of the output against the specification.

 

R

Reseller
Is a person or business who sells items that have been purchased from another business.

Retargeting
If you’ve ever browsed an item and found yourself with an ad for it on another channel, say Facebook, that’s retargeting.

RPU = Revenue per user
Revenue per user (RPU) is a ratio used to express the amount of revenue your store generates on a per-user basis.

ROAS = Return on Ad Spend
Return on Ad Spend (ROAS) is a marketing metric that measures the efficacy of a digital advertising campaign, helping your team evaluate which methods are working and how you can improve your future advertising efforts.

ROS = Return on sales
Return on sales (ROS) is a ratio used to evaluate your company’s operational efficiency.

ROI: Return on Investment
The benefit to the investor resulting from an investment of some resource.

RSS: Rich Site Summary
An RSS Feed is a web feed that publishes frequently updated information like blog posts, news stories, and podcasts.

RT: Retweet
A re-posting of a tweet posted by another user on Twitter.

ROS: Run of Site
Running your digital ads through a run of site channel means that you are delivering your online ads on a specific website.

RTB: Real Time Bidding
This is a method of purchasing unsold inventory by CPM through programmatic auction.

RFP: Request for Proposal
When a company is seeking marketing representation they will issue an RFP.

 

SMB

SMB: Small-to-Medium Business
Usually defined as companies that have between 10 and 500 employees.

SWOT: Strengths, Weaknesses, Opportunities, Threats
A SWOT analysis is when a company conducts a study to pinpoint its internal strengths and weaknesses and its external opportunities and threats.

SEM: Search engine marketing
Form of internet marketing that involves the promotion of websites by increasing their visibility in search engine results.

SEO: Search Engine Optimization
The process of maximizing the number of visitors to a particular website by ensuring that the site appears high on search engine results.

SMO: Social media optimization
The use of social media communities to generate publicity in order to increase the awareness of a product, brand or event.

SOV: Share of voice
An online advertising ad revenue model that focuses on weight or percentage among other advertisers.

SaaS: Software-as-a-Service
Any software that is hosted by another company, which stores your information in the cloud.

SEO: Search Engine Optimization
Techniques that help your website rank higher in organic search results, making your website more visible to people who are looking for your brand, product, or service via search engines like Google, Bing, and Yahoo.

SLA: Service Level Agreement
For marketers, an SLA is an agreement between a company’s sales and marketing teams that defines the expectations Sales has for Marketing and vice versa.

SM: Social Media
Social media platforms are places you can post links, photos, videos, and other content.

SMM: Social Media Marketing
When people use social media to market their business to customers, potential customers, journalists, bloggers, employees, potential employees, and anyone else in the social universe.

SMH: Shaking my head
Ex. “SMH, cannot believe my brother is in Hawaii!”

Sales Funnel
A sales funnel is a series of stages that a prospective customer goes through before making a purchase and becoming a loyal customer.

Social proof
Social proof is a psychological phenomenon in which people are more likely to trust or purchase from a brand if they’ve heard positive reviews from their friends or peers.

SERP = Search engine results page
Search engine results pages (SERPs) are the pages displayed by search engines such as Google in response to a query by a searcher.

SEM: Search Engine Marketing
An example of this are the advertisements that appear on Google Search, Bing Search, or Yahoo Search.

SOV: Share of Voice
The SOV is a calculation based on a percentage your ad is seen versus other advertisers.

SKU: Stock Keeping Unit
A stock keeping unit is a product and service identification code for a store or product, often portrayed as a bar code that helps track the item for inventory.

Social commerce
Is defined as the ability to make a product purchase from a third-party company within the native social media experience.

SSL (Secure Sockets Layer)
An SSL is a security protocol. The main reason SSLs are used is to protect personal and sensitive information by ensuring it is properly encrypted.

SPIN: Situation Problem Implication, Need
A sales technique where you discover the prospects pain points and expand on potential consequences, then come to the rescue with your product or service.

SAL: Sales Accepted Lead
This is a MQL that has officially been passed on to sales after being reviewed for quality and deemed worthy of pursuit.

SQL: Sales Qualified Lead
A lead that is ready to become a customer and fits the pre-determined criteria for a high quality lead.

SMART: Specific, Measurable, Attainable, Realistic, Time-Bound
Acronym used to define the goal setting process.

 

T

TOS: Terms of Service
Rules which one must agree to abide by in order to use a service.

Testimonial
Testimonials are a type of social proof in which past customers make a positive statement about their experience with a brand.

TBH: To be honest
Ex. “TBH I don’t like country music.”

Thx: Thanks
Ex. “Thx for the RT.”

TIL: Today I learned
Ex. “TIL that you can publish articles on LinkedIn.”

TL;DR: Too long; Didn’t read
Ex. “Sorry but that article was TL;DR.”

TMI: Too much information
Ex. “Whoa TMI. Really don’t need to know about your love life.”

TTYL: Talk to you later
Ex. “Going offline for a bit, TTYL.”

TTYS: Talk to you soon
Ex. “Have a great trip, TTYS.”

Txt: Text
Ex. “Messenger isn’t working so well, switch to Txt!”

 

U

UV: Unique Visitor
A person who visits a website more than once within a defined period of time.

UGC: User generated content
Content created by users of an online system or service.

UI: User interface
Everything designed into an information device with which a human may interact.

URL: Uniform Resource Locator
An address to a resource on the Internet.

USP = Unique selling proposition
Your unique selling proposition (USP) is a feature or characteristic of your products or company that distinguish it from others of a similar nature and make it more appealing to consumers.

UI: User Interface
A type of interface that allows users to control a software application or hardware device.

URL: Uniform Resource Locator
Also known as a web address, a URL is a specific character string that refers to a resource.

Upselling
Not to be confused with cross-selling, upselling is a marketing tactic used to persuade purchasers to buy a similar higher-end version of a similar item.

 

V

VAT: Value-added Tax
Value Added Tax (VAT) — also known as goods and services tax
(GST) — is a fee retailers are charged on every cross-border sale.

VTC: View Through Click
A view through click would mean that a customer saw your ad, did not click, but in a later session visited your website and converted.

Vertical
A vertical market is a market in which vendors offer goods and services specific to an industry, trade, profession, or other groups of customers with specialized needs.

Void
A credit card purchase that a seller cancels after it has been authorized but before it has been settled.

 

W

WOM: Word-of-Mouth
The passing of information from person to person.

WWW: World Wide Web
An information system on the Internet which allows documents to be connected to other documents by hypertext links.’

Wholesale
A person or firm that buys large quantity of goods from various producers or vendors, warehouses them, and resells to retailers.

Win-back
In ecommerce, a win-back refers to an email campaign that is aimed to re-engage inactive members of an email list.

WRAP
Worldwide Responsible Accredited Production (WRAP) is a non-profit dedicated to promoting safe, lawful, humane and ethical manufacturing around the world through certification and education.

White Hat
White-hat marketing are practices that are deemed acceptable.

 

Y

YoY: Year-over-Year
Changes in levels expressed with respect to the previous year.

YTD: Year-to-Date
A time period starting at the beginning of the current year and ending at the current date.

YT: YouTube
A social network dedicated to videos.

YOLO
You only live once
Ex. “Buy your World Cup tickets now! YOLO!”

YSK
You should know
Ex. “Here are 10 Twitter tips YSK!”

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