B2B Marketing Acronym Buster
The world of B2B marketing is awash with far too many acronyms. Heck, even the name of our discipline is an acronym. Their use should be minimised, especially when speaking to your business stakeholders. No one in the board meeting is impressed by a long list of acronyms- it doesn’t make us look like masters of an arcane and valuable science, it just muddies the story and pushes marketing into the category of non-strategic technical function.
That said, you’ve got to know your CTAs from your CTRs, and your ACV from your ABM (in plain English that’s “your call to actions from your click through rates, and your annual contract values from your account-based marketing”). So we’ve compiled this handy list for when you get an unhelpful nonsense report from one of your vendors and need to decipher it.
And, while we’re being picky, technically most of these are ‘initialisms’ rather than ‘acronyms’ because they are not intended to be pronounced as words. See, every day’s a school day.
ABM
Account-Based Marketing: A strategy that focuses on targeting specific accounts with personalised messaging and content to increase the likelihood of conversion.
Example: A software company targeting a particular enterprise account with tailored content and personalised email campaigns.
ACV
Annual Contract Value: The average annual revenue generated from each contract.
Example: A marketing team measuring the impact of a campaign by comparing the ACV of customers included in the campaign versus the control.
AI
Artificial Intelligence: Technology that simulates human intelligence to perform tasks.
Example: Using AI-powered chatbots to improve customer engagement and collect data.
ARR
Annual Recurring Revenue: Predictable and recurring revenue generated by customers within a year.
Example: A marketing team’s effectiveness might be measured by the growth of ARR.
BANT
Budget, Authority, Need, and Timing: A framework used to qualify leads based on their readiness to buy.
Example: A salesperson using BANT criteria to determine whether a lead is a good fit for a product or service.
BOFU
Bottom of the funnel: The final stage of the buyer's journey, where potential customers decide to buy a company's product or service.
Example: A marketing campaign might target BOFU prospects to drive immediate sales.
CMS
Content Management System: A software platform that allows marketers to manage and publish digital content, such as blog posts, videos, and images.
Example: A marketing team using a CMS to create and publish blog posts and other content for their website.
CPC
Cost Per Click: A pricing model for online advertising where advertisers pay each time a user clicks on their ad.
Example: A B2B company running a pay-per-click campaign on LinkedIn, paying for each click on their sponsored content.
CRM
Customer Relationship Management: Technically any process, but more commonly a software tool, used to manage customer interactions, track leads and sales, and analyze customer data.
Example: A sales team using a CRM system to keep track of customer conversations and manage the sales pipeline.
CRO
Conversion Rate Optimization: The process of improving the conversion rate of a website or landing page by testing different elements, such as headlines, images, and forms.
Example: A B2B company running A/B tests on their landing page to optimize the conversion rate and increase lead generation.
CTAs
Calls to Action: Prompts on a website, landing page or other marketing touchpoint that encourage users to take a specific action, such as filling out a form, calling a salesperson, or downloading a whitepaper.
Example: A B2B company using a CTA button on their emails to encourage a prospect to download an e-book or sign up for a webinar.
CX
Customer Experience: The overall impression a customer has of a company, based on their interactions with the company's products, services, and people.
Example: Focusing on improving the customer experience by providing personalized support and timely follow-up.
DSP
Demand-Side Platform: A software platform that allows advertisers to buy and manage digital ad inventory across multiple ad exchanges.
Example: The media team using a DSP to target specific audiences with programmatic advertising campaigns.
GDPR
General Data Protection Regulation: A European Union regulation that sets standards for data privacy and security.
Example: Updating a company’s privacy policy and data collection practices to comply with GDPR requirements.
KPI
Key Performance Indicator: A metric used to measure the success of a campaign or initiative.
Example: A marketing team might use the number of leads generated as a KPI to measure the effectiveness of its content marketing efforts.
LTV
Lifetime Value: The estimated value of a customer over the lifetime of their relationship with a company.
Example: Calculating the LTV of a company’s customers to determine the ROI of its marketing and sales efforts.
MOFU
Middle of the funnel: The middle stage of the buyer's journey, where potential customers become more interested in a company's product or service and develop a desire for it.
Example: A marketing campaign might target MOFU prospects to build a desire in them for your company’s product or service.
MQL
Marketing Qualified Lead: A lead that has been identified as having the potential to become a customer based on their engagement with marketing materials. Note that many companies have different and specific definitions of what qualifies as an MQL.
Example: A marketing team qualifying leads based on their interaction with specific content or pages on the company website.
NPS
Net Promoter Score: A customer satisfaction metric that measures the likelihood of customers recommending a company to others. Given as a score on a scale from -100 to +100
Example: Measuring the strength of relationships across the customer base over time by looking at trends in the NPS score.
PPC
Pay-per-click: A type of online advertising where advertisers pay each time a user clicks on one of their ads.
Example: A demand generation plan includes PPC advertising to drive traffic to a conversion landing page.
PPL
Pay-per-lead: A type of online advertising where advertisers pay for each lead generated through the ad.
Example: A demand generation plan includes PPL advertising on LinkedIn to generate form-fills.
ROAS
Return on ad spend: A metric used to measure the revenue generated for every dollar spent on advertising.
Example: A company using ROAS to compare the effectiveness of two different campaigns
ROI
Return on investment: A metric used to evaluate the profitability of an investment by comparing the spend and the return.
Example: A campaign with an ROI of 300%, means it generated three times more revenue than the team spent.
ROMI
Return on Marketing Investment: A metric used to evaluate the profitability of a marketing activity by comparing the marketing spend and the return.
Example: A campaign with a ROMI of 300%, means it generated three times more revenue than the marketing team spent.
SaaS
Software as a service: A software delivery model where customers access software applications via the internet, rather than installing them on their own computers, and pay a subscription.
Example: Many cloud businesses such as Salesforce operate on a SaaS model.
SEO
Search engine optimization: The practice of improving the quantity and quality of traffic to a website from search engines.
Example: The digital marketing team focusing on improving the website's SEO to increase organic traffic.
SERP
Search engine results page: The page that displays the results of a search engine query.
Example: Most companies aim to rank on the first page of the SERP for relevant keywords to increase visibility.
SMM
Social media marketing: The practice of using social media platforms to promote a company's products or services.
Example: Most B2B companies focus their SMM around LinkedIn.
SQL
Sales-qualified lead: A lead that has been identified as having a high likelihood of becoming a paying customer based on their engagement with a company's marketing and sales efforts. Note that many companies have a specific and varying definition of SQL.
Example: The goal of the demand generation campaign might be to generate a specific number of SQLs.
TOFU
Top of the funnel: The first stage of the buyer's journey, where potential customers become aware of a company's product or service.
Example: A marketing campaign might target TOFU prospects to increase brand awareness and generate leads.
UGC
User-generated content: Content created by users, such as social media posts or online reviews, that promotes a company's product or service.
Example: A company might base a brand campaign around sharing customer testimonials and positive social media posts about their company.
UX
User experience: The overall experience a user has when interacting with a product or service, including factors such as ease of use, accessibility, and design.
Example: The digital team works closely with UX designers to ensure the website provides a seamless and intuitive user experience.
VR
Virtual reality: A computer-generated simulation that creates an immersive environment for the user.
Example: Using VR headsets to showcase a physical product to a potential B2B customer.
WOM
Word of mouth: The passing of information from person to person through oral communication.
Example: A company may grow through leveraging WOM by encouraging satisfied customers to refer them to other potential customers.
Are any of your pet peeve (or, dare we say it, favourite) B2B marketing acronyms or initialisms missing? Let us know via the form below.