Online marketing definities
De belangrijkste online marketing termen uitgelegdHet online marketingvak kent al erg veel termen en definities. Dagelijks komen er nog meer bij. Van container begrippen tot online marketing definities die eigenlijk dezelfde betekenis hebben. Gaan al die termen bij jou ook wel eens duizelen? Marketing Rulz heeft een lijst samengesteld met meer dan 200 online marketing termen en definities. De lijst wordt regelmatig geupdate.
Sla de link naar deze pagina op en je kunt altijd terugvallen op deze lijst. Mis je toch nog een online marketing definitie? Laat het mij dan weten en ik zet h’m erbij.
A/B testing
A/B or AB testing refers to testing two different versions of a page or a page element such as a heading, image or button. The alternatives are served alternately with the visitors to the page randomly split between the two pages. Hence, it is sometimes called ‘live split testing’. Changes in visitor behaviour can then be compared using different metrics such as click-through rate on page elements like buttons or images, or macro conversion rates, such as conversion to sale or sign-up. AB testing is aimed at increasing page or site effectiveness against key performance indicators including click- through rate, conversion rates and revenue per visit. Since it does not consider combinations of variables tested, for best uplift multivariate testing is increasingly used.
Above the fold
A term, derived from printed media, which is used to indicate whether a banner advertisement or other content is displayed on a web page without the need to scroll. This is likely to give higher click-through, but note that the location of the ‘fold’ within the web browser is dependent on the screen resolution of a user’s personal computer.
Access platform
A method for customers to access digital media.
Access provider
A company providing services to enable a company or individual to access the Internet. Access providers are divided into Internet service providers (ISPs) and online service providers (OSPs).
Accessibility
An approach to site design intended to accommodate site usage using different browsers and settings particularly required by the visually impaired and visitors with other disabilities including motor control, learning difficulties and deafness. Users whose first language is not English can also be assisted.
Accessibility legislation
Legislation intended to assist users of websites with disabilities including visual disability.
Acquisition
See Customer acquisition.
Active Server Page (ASP)
A type of HTML page (denoted by an .asp file name) that includes scripts (small programs) that are processed on a web server before the web page is served to the user’s web browser. ASP is a Microsoft technology that usually runs on a Microsoft Internet Information Server (usually on Windows NT). The main use of such programs is to process information supplied by the user in an online form. A query may then be run to provide specific information to the customer such as delivery status on an order, or a personalised web page.
ActiveX
A programming language standard developed by Microsoft at permits complex and graphical customer applications to be written and then accessed from a web browser. ActiveX components are standard controls that can be incorporated into websites and are then automatically downloaded for users. Examples are graphics and animation or a calculator form for calculating interest on a loan or a control for graphing stock prices. A competitor to Java.
Ad creative
The design and content of an ad.
Ad impression
Similar in concept to a page impression; describes one viewing of an advertisement by a single member of its audience. The same as ad view, a term that is less commonly used.
Ad inventory
The total number of ad impressions that a website can sell over time (usually specified per month).
Ad network
Ad networks from suppliers such as Blue Lithium or 24-7 Media give advertisers the options of advertising across a network of sites to reach a particular demographic, e.g. female 18-25, but at a lower cost than targeting a single site since the actual site used for the ad placement isn’t known (hence these are sometimes known as ‘blind network buys’).
Ad rotation
When advertisements are changed on a website for different user sessions. This may be in response to ad targeting or simply displaying different advertisements from those on a list.
Ad serving
The term for displaying an advertisement on a website. Often the advertisement will be served from a web server different from the site on which it is placed. For example, the server URL for displaying the advertisement is http://ad.doubleclick.net.
Ad space
The area of a web page that is set aside for banner advertising.
Ad view
Similar in concept to a page impression; describes one viewing of an advertisement by a single member of its audience. The same as ad impression, the term that is more commonly used.
Advertisement
Advertisements on websites are usually banner advertisements positioned as a masthead on the page.
Advertising broker
See Media broker.
Advertising networks
A collection of independent websites of different companies and media networks, each of which has an arrangement with a single advertising broker (see Media broker) to place banner advertisements.
Affiliate
A company promoting a merchant typically through a commission-based arrangement either direct or through an affiliate network.
Affiliate marketing
A commission-based arrangement where referring sites (publishers) receive a commission on sales or leads by merchants (retailers). Commission is usually based on a percentage of product sale price or a fixed amount for each sale (CPA or cost-per-acquisition), but may also sometimes be based on a per-click basis, for example when an aggregator refers visits to merchants.
Affiliate networks
Third-party brokers also known as affiliate managers who manage recruitment of affiliates and infrastructure to manage a merchant’s affiliate programme in the form of links, tracking and payment of a range of affiliates.
Agents
Software programs that can assist people to perform tasks such as fin ding particular information such as the best price for a product.
Aggregators
An alternative term to price comparison sites. Aggregators include product, price and service information comparing competitors within a sector such a financial services, retail or travel. Their revenue models commonly include affiliate revenues (CPA), pay-per-click advertising (CPC) and display advertising (CPM).
Aggregated buying
A form of customer union where buyers collectively purchase a number of items at the same price and receive a volume discount.
Agile software development
An iterative approach to developing software and website functionality with the emphasis on face-to-face communications to elicit, define and test requirements. Each iteration or scrum is effectively a mini-software project including stages of planning, requirements analysis, design, coding, testing and documentation.
Allowable cost-per-acquisition
A target maximum cost for generating leads or new customers profitably.
Alt tags
Alt tags appear after an image tag and contain a phrase associated with that image. For example: <img src=”logo.gif” alt=”Company name, company products'”>.
Analysis phase
The identification of the requirements of a web site. Techniques to achieve this may include focus groups, questionnaires sent to existing customers or interviews with key accounts.
Anchor text (also known as link text)
The (usually) clickable text element representing a hyperlink. Or more prosaically, the body copy that is hyperlinked.
Animated banner advertisements (animated GIFs)
Early banner advertisements featured only a single advertisement, but today they will typically involve several different images, which are displayed in sequence to help to attract attention to the banner and build up a theme, often ending with a call to action and the injunction to click on the banner. These advertisements are achieved through supplying the ad creative as an animated GIF file with different layers or frames, usually a rectangle of 468 x 60 pixels. Animated banner advertisements are an example of rich-media advertisements.
Announcements
See Site announcements.
Archie
A database containing information on what documents and programs are located on FTP servers. It would not be used in a marketing context unless one were looking for a specific piece of software or document name.
Asymmetry encryption
Both parties use a related but different key to encode and decode messages.
Atomisation
Atomisation in a Web 2.0 context refers to a concept where the content on a site is broken down into smaller fundamental units which can then be distributed via the web through links to other sites. Examples of atomisation include the stories and pages in individual feeds being syndicated to third-party sites and widgets.
Attrition rate
Percentage of site visitors who are lost at each stage in making a purchase.
Audit (external)
Consideration of the business and economy environment in which the company operates. This includes the economy, political, fiscal, legal, social, cultural and technological factors (usually referred to by the acronym STEP or SLEPT).
Audit (internal)
A review of website effectiveness.
Auditors
See Site auditors.
Authentication
See Security methods.
Auto responders
Software tools or agents running on web servers that automatically send a standard reply to the sender of an e-mail message. This may provide information for a standard request sent to, say, priceJist@company_name.com, or it could simply state that the message or order has been forwarded to the relevant person and will be answered within two days. (Also known as mailbots.)
Availability
See Security methods; Site availability.
Avatar
A term used in computer-mediated environments to mean a ‘virtual person’ Derived from the word’s original meaning: ‘n. the descendant of a Hindu deity in a visible form; incarnation; supreme glorification of any principle’.
Average order value (AOV)
The average amount spent for a single checkout purchase on a retail site for a particular customer group, e.g. first time purchasers.
B
Backbones
High-speed communications links used to enable Internet communications across a country and internationally.
Backlinks
Hyperlinks which link to a particular web page (or website).Also known as inbound links. Google PageRank and Yahoo! Web Rank are methods of enumerating this.
Balanced scorecard
A framework for setting and monitoring business performance. Metrics are structured according to customer issues, internal efficiency measures, financial measures and innovation.
Bandwidth
Indicates the speed at which data are transferred using a particular network medium. It is measured in bits per second (bps).
- Kbps (one kilobit per second or 1000 bps; a modem operates at up to 56.6 kbps).
- Mbps (one megabit per second or 1,000,000 bps; company networks operate at 10 or more Mbps).
- Gbps (one gigabit per second or 1,000,000,000 bps; fibre-optic or satellite links operate at Gbps).
Banner advertisement
A typically rectangular graphic displayed on a web page for purposes of brand building or driving traffic to a site. It is normally possible to perform a click-through to access further information from another website. Banners may be static or animated (see Animated banner advertisements).
Behavioural ad targeting
Enables an advertiser to target ads at a visitor as they move elsewhere on the site or return to the site, thus increasing the frequency or number of impressions served to an individual in the target market.
Behavioural loyalty
Loyalty to a brand is demonstrated by repeat sales and response to marketing campaigns.
Behavioural traits of web users
Web users can be broadly divided into directed and undirected information seekers.
Bid
A commitment by a trader to purchase under certain conditions.
Blog
Personal online diary, journal or news source compiled by one person, an intern al team or external guest authors. Postings are usually in different categories. Typically comments can be added to each blog posting to help create interactivity and feedback.
Blue casting
Blue casting involves messages being automatically pushed to a consumer’s Bluetooth-enabled phone or they can pull or request audio, video or text content to be downloaded from a live advert. In the future ads will be able to respond to those who view them.
Blue jacking
Sending a message from a mobile phone or transmitter to another mobile phone which is in close range via Bluetooth technology.
Blueprints
Show the relationships between pages and other content components; can be used to portray organisation, navigation and labelling systems.
Bluetooth
A standard for wireless transmission of data between devices over short ranges (less than lOM), e.g. a mobile phone or a PDA.
Botnet
Independent computers, connected to the Internet, are used together, typically for malicious purposes through controlling software. For example, they may be used to send out spam or for a denial of service attack where they repeatedly access a server to degrade its software. Computers are often initially infected through a virus when effective anti-virus measures are not in place.
Bounce rate
Proportion of visitors to a page or site that exit after visiting a single page only, usually expressed as a percentage.
Brand
The sum of the characteristics of a product or service perceived by a user.
Brand advocate
A customer who has favourable perceptions of a brand who will talk favourably about a brand to their acquaintances to help generate awareness of the brand or influence purchase intent.
Brand equity
The brand assets (or liabilities) linked to a brand’s name and symbol that add to (or subtract from) a service.
Brand experience
The frequency and depth of interactions with a brand can be enhanced through the Internet.
Brand identity
The totality of brand associations including name and symbols that must be communicated.
Branding
The process of creating and evolving successful brands.
Bricks-and-mortar
A traditional organisation with limited online presence.
Broad band shallow navigation
More choices, fewer clicks to reach required content.
Broadband technology
A term referring to methods of delivering information across the Internet at a higher rate by increasing bandwidth.
Brochure ware
A website in which a company has simply transferred (‘migrated’) its existing paper-based promotional literature onto the Internet without recognising the differences required by this medium.
Broker
See Media broker.
Browser
See Web browser.
Bundling
Offering complementary services.
Business model
A summary of how a company will generate revenue, identifying its product offering, value- added services, revenue sources and target customers.
Business-to-business (B2B)
Commercial transactions between an organisation and other organisations (inter organisational marketing).
Business-to-business exchanges or marketplaces
Virtual intermediaries with facilities to enable trading between buyers and sellers.
Business-to-consumer (B2C)
Commercial transactions between an organisation and consumers.
Buy-side e-commerce
E-commerce transactions between a purchasing organisation and its suppliers.
C
CaU centre
Allocation for inbound and outbound telemarketing.
CaU-back service
A direct response facility available on a website to enable a company to contact a customer by phone at a later time as specified by the customer.
Campaign-based e-communications
E-marketing communications that are executed to support a specific marketing campaign such as a product launch, price promotion or a web site launch.
Campaign URL (CU RL)
A web address specific to a particular campaign.
Capabilities
Capabilities are intangible and are developed from the combined and coordinated behaviour and activities of an organisation’s employees, and it is therefore ‘embedded in the organisation and processes’ (Makadok, 2001 – see Chapter 11). The definition of a capability is an organisation’s ability to ‘perform a set of co-ordinated tasks, utilising organisational resources, for the purposes of achieving a particular end result’
Card sorting
The process of setting up a way of organising objects on the website in a consistent manner.
Cascading style sheets
A simple mechanism for adding style (e.g. fonts, colours, spacing) to web documents. CSS enables different style elements to be controlled across an entire site or section of site. Style elements that are commonly controlled include typography, background colour and images, and borders and margins.
Catalogue
Catalogues provide a structured listing of registered websites in different categories. They are similar to an electronic version of Yellow Pages. Yahoo! and Excite are the best known examples of catalogues. (Also known as directories.) The distinction between search engines and catalogues has become blurred since many sites now include both facilities as part of a portal service.
Certificate
A valid copy of a public key of an individual or organisation together with identification information. It is issued by a trusted third party (TTP) or certification authority (CA).
Certification authority (CA)
An organisation issuing and managing certificates or public keys and private keys to individuals or organisations together with identification information.
Change management
Controls to minimise the risks of project-based and organisational change.
Channel buyer behaviour
Describes which content is visited and the time and duration.
Channel conflicts
A significant threat arising from the introduction of an Internet channel is that while disintermediation gives the opportunity for a company to sell direct and increase the profitability of products it can also threaten existing distribution arrangements with existing partners.
Channel marketing strategy
Defines how a company should set specific objectives for a channel such as the Internet and vary its proposition and communications for this channel.
Channel outcomes
Record customer actions taken as a consequence of a visit to a site.
Channel profitability
The profitability of a website, taking into account revenue and cost and discounted cash flow.
Channel promotion
Measures that assess why customers visit a site – which adverts they have seen, which sites they have been referred from.
Channel satisfaction
Evaluation of the customer’s opinion of the service quality on the site and supporting services such as e-mail.
Channel structure
The configuration of partners in a distribution channel.
Clicks-and-mortar
A business combining online and offline presence.
Clicks-only or Internet pure play
An organisation with principally an online presence.
Clickstream
A record of the path a user takes through a website. Clickstreams enable website designers to assess how their site is being used.
Clickstream analysis
Reviewing the online behaviour of site visitors based on the sequence of pages that they visit, the navigation and promotion they respond to, the ultimate outcomes and where they leave the site.
Click-through
A click-through (ad click) occurs each time a user clicks on a banner advertisement to direct them to a web page that contains further information.
Click-through rate
Expressed as a percentage of total ad impressions, and refers to the proportion of users viewing an advertisement who click on it. It is calculated as the number of click-trough’s divided by the number of ad impressions.
Click-tracking Java
Technology can be used to track movements of individual users to a website.
Client-server
The client-server architecture consists of client computers such as PCs sharing resources such as a database stored on a more powerful server computer.
Co-branding
An arrangement between two or more companies where they agree to jointly display content and perform joint promotion using brand logos, e-mail marketing or banner advertisements. The aim is that the brands are strengthened if they are seen as complementary. Co-branding is often a reciprocal arrangement which can occur without payment as part of a wider agreement between partners.
Cold list
Data about individuals that are rented or sold by a third party.
Collaborative filtering
Profiling of customer interest coupled with delivery of specific information and offers, often based on the interests of similar customers.
Commoditisation
The process whereby product selection becomes more dependent on price than on differentiating features, benefits and value-added services.
Common Gateway Interface (CGI)
A method of processing information on a web server in response to a customer’s request. Typically a user will fill in a web-based form and the results will be processed by a CGI script (application). Active Server Pages (ASPs) are an alternative to a CGI script.
Competitive intelligence (Cl)
A process that transforms disaggregated information into relevant, accurate and usable strategy knowledge about competitors, position, performance, capabilities and intentions.
Competitor analysis
Review of Internet marketing services offered by existing and new competitors and adoption by their customers.
Competitor benchmarking
A structured analysis of the online services, capabilities and performance of an organisation within the areas of customer acquisition, conversion, retention and growth.
Computer telephony integration
The integration of telephony and computing to provide a platform for applications that streamline or enhance business processes.
Confidentiality
See Security methods.
Consumer-to-business (C2B)
Consumers approach the business with an offer.
Consumer-to-consumer (C2C)
Informational or financial transactions between consumers, but usually mediated through a business site.
Consumer behaviour
Research into the motivations, media consumption preferences and selection processes used by consumers as they use digital channels together with traditional channels to purchase online products and use other online services.
Contact or touch strategy
Definition of the sequence and type of outbound communications required at different points in the customer life cycle.
Content
Content is the design, text and graphical information that forms a web page. Good content is the key to attracting customers to a website and retaining their interest or achieving repeat visits.
Content developer
A person responsible for updating web pages within part of an organisation.
Content management
Software tools for managing additions and amendments to website content.
Content network
Sponsored links are displayed by the search engine on third-party sites such as online publishers, aggregators or social networks. Ads can be paid for on a CPC, CPM or a CPA basis. There are also options for graphical or video ads in addition to text-based ads.
Contextual ads
Ads relevant to page content on third-party sites brokered by search ad networks.
Continuous e-communications activities
Long-term use of e-marketing communications intended to generate site visitors for customer acquisition (such as search engine, and affiliate marketing and online sponsorship ) and retention (for example, e-newsletter marketing).
Contra-deals
A reciprocal agreement in the form of an exchange where payment doesn’t take place. Instead services or ad space to promote another company as part of co-branding occurs.
Control page
The page against which subsequent optimisation will be assessed. Typically a current landing page. When a new page performs better than the existing control page, it becomes the control page in subsequent testing. Also known as ‘champion-challenger.
Convergence
A trend in which different hardware devices such as televisions, computers and telephones merge and have similar functions.
Conversion marketing
Using marketing communications to maximise conversion of potential customers to actual customers.
Conversion rate
Proportion of visitors to a site, or viewers of an advert, who take an action such as registration or checkout. See Visit conversion rate and Visitor conversion rate.
Cookies
Cookies are small text files stored on an end- user’s computer to enable websites to identify the user. They enable a company to identify a previous visitor to a site, and build up a profile of that visitor’s behaviour. See Persistent cookies, Session cookies, First-party cookies, Third-party cookies.
Core product
The fundamental features of the product that meet the user’s needs.
Core tenants
A shopping centre or mall is usually a centrally owned managed facility. In the physical world, the management will aim to include in the mall stores that sell a different but complementary range of merchandise and include a variety of smaller and larger stores. The core tenants or ‘anchor stores’ as they are often called are the dominant large-scale store operators that are expected to draw customers to the centre.
Cost models for Internet advertising
These include per-exposure, per-response and per-action costs.
Cost-per-acquisition (CPA)
The cost of acquiring a new customer. Typically limited to the communications cost and refers to cost per sale for new customers. May also refer to other outcomes such as cost-per-quote or enquiry.
Cost-per-click (CPC)
The cost of each click from a referring site to a destination site, typically from a search engine in pay-per-click search marketing.
Cost-per-targeted mille (CPTM)
Cost per targeted thousand for an advertisement. (See Targeting. )
Cost per thousand (CPM)
Cost per 1000 ad impressions.
Counter mediation
Creation of a new intermediary by an established company.
Cracker
A malicious meddler who tries to discover sensitive information by poking around computer networks.
Cross-media optimisation studies (XMOS)
Studies to determine the optimum spend across different media to produce the best results.
Cross-selling
persuading existing customers to purchase products from other categories than their typical purchases.
Customer acquisition
Strategies and techniques used to gain new customers.
Customer-centric marketing
An approach to marketing based on detailed knowledge of customer behaviour within the target audience which seeks to fulfil the individual needs and wants of customers.
Customer communications channels
The range of media used to communicate directly with a customer.
Customer engagement
Repeated interactions that strengthen the emotional, psychological or physical investment a customer has in a brand.
Customer experience
See Online customer experience.
Customer extension
Techniques to encourage customers to increase their involvement with an organisation.
Customer insight
Knowledge about customers’ needs, characteristics, preferences and behaviours based on analysis of qualitative and quantitative data. Specific insights can be used to inform marketing tactics directed at groups of customers with shared characteristics.
Customer journey
A description of modern multichannel buyer behaviour as consumers use different media to select suppliers, make purchases and gain customer support.
Customer lifecycle
The stages each customer will pass through in a long-term relationship through acquisition, retention and extension.
Customer loyalty
The desire on the part of the customer to continue to do business with a given supplier over time. See Behavioural loyalty and Emotional loyalty.
Customer orientation
Providing content and services on a website consistent with the different characteristics of the audience of the site.
Customer profiling
Using the website to find out customers’ specific interests and characteristics.
Customer relationship management (CRM)
A marketing-led approach to building and sustaining long term business with customers.
Customer retention
Techniques to maintain relationships with existing customers.
Customer satisfaction
The extent to which a customer’s expectations of product quality, service quality and price are met.
Customer scenarios (user journeys)
Alternative tasks or outcomes required by a visitor to a website. Typically accomplished in a series of stages of different tasks involving different information needs or experiences.
Customer segments
Groups of customers sharing similar characteristics, preferences and behaviours who are targeted with different propositions as part of target marketing strategy.
Customer selection
Identifying key customer segments and targeting them for relationship building.
Customer touch-points
Communications channels with which companies interact directly with prospects and customers. Traditional touch-points include face-to-face (in-store or with sales representatives), phone and mail. Digital touch-points include web services, e-mail and, potentially, mobile phone.
Cybermediaries
Intermediaries who bring together buyers and sellers or those with particular information or service needs.
Cyberspace and cyber marketing
These terms were preferred by science-fiction writers and tabloid writers to indicate the futuristic nature of using the Internet, the prefix ‘cyber’ indicating a blurring between humans, machines and communications. The terms are not frequently used today since the terms Internet, intranet and World Wide Web are more specific and widely used.
Data controller
Each company must have a defined person responsible for data protection.
Data fusion
The combining of data from different complementary sources (usually geo-demographic and lifestyle or market research and lifestyle) to ‘build a picture of someone’s life’ (M. Evans (1998) From 1086 to 1984: direct marketing into the millennium, Marketing Intelligence and Planning, 16(1),56-67).
Data subject
The legal term to refer to the individual whose data are held.
Data warehousing and data mining
Extracting data from legacy systems and other resources; cleaning, scrubbing and preparing data for decision support; maintaining data in appropriate data stores; accessing and analysing data using a variety of end-user tools; and mining data for significant relationships. The primary purpose of these efforts is to provide easy access to specially prepared data that can be used with decision support applications such as management reports, queries, decision support systems, executive information systems and data mining.
Database marketing
The process of systematically collecting, in electronic or optical form, data about past, current and/or potential customers, maintaining the integrity of the data by continually monitoring customer purchases, by enquiring about changing status, and by using the data to formulate marketing strategy and foster personalised relationships with customers.
Decryption
The process of decoding (unscrambling) a message that has been encrypted using defined mathematical rules.
Deep linking
Jakob Nielsen’s term for a user arriving at a site de ep within its structure or where search engines index a mirrored copy of content normally inaccessible by search engine spiders.
Deliverability
Deliverability refers to ensuring e-mail messages are delivered and aren’t blocked by spam filters because the e-mail content or structure falsely identifies a permission-based e-mail as a spammer, or because the sender’s lP address has a poor reputation for spam.
Demand analysis
Quantitative determination of the potential usage and business value achieved from online customers of an organisation. Qualitative analysis of perceptions of online channels is also assessed.
Demand analysis for e-commerce
Assessment of the demand for e-commerce services among existing and potential customer segments using the ratio Access : Choose : Buy online.
Demographic characteristics
Variations in attributes of the population such as age, sex and social class.
Denial of service attack
Also known as a distributed denial of service (DDOS) attack, this involves a hacker group taking control of many ‘zombie’ computers attached to the Internet whose security has been compromised. This ‘botnet’ is then used to make many requests to a target server, so overloading it and preventing access to other visitors.
Design for analysis (DFA)
The required measures from a site are considered during design to better understand the audience of a site and their decision points.
Design phase (of site construction)
The design phase defines how the site will work in the key areas of website structure, navigation and security.
Destination site
Frequently used to refer to the site that is visited following a click-through on a banner advertisement. Could also apply to any site visited following a click on a hyperlink.
Destination store
A retail store in which the merchandise, selection, presentation, pricing or other unique features act as a magnet for the customer.
Development phase (of site construction)
‘Development’ is the term used to describe the creation of a website by programmers. It involves writing the HTML content, creating graphics, and writing any necessary software code such as JavaScript or ActiveX (programming).
Differential advantage
A desirable attribute of a product that is not currently matched by competitor offerings.
Differential pricing
Identical products are priced differently for different types of customers, markets or buying situations.
Digital assets
The graphical and interactive material that support a campaign displayed on third-party sites and on microsites, they include display ads, e-mail templates, video, audio and other interactive media such as Flash animations.
Digital audio broadcasting (DAS) radio
Digital radio with clear sound quality with the facility to transmit text, images and video.
Digital brand
A digital brand is a brand identity used for a product or company online that differs from the traditional brand. (Also known as an online brand.)
Digital cash
An electronic version of cash in which the buyer of an item is typically anonymous to the seller. (Also referred to as virtual or electronic cash or e-cash.)
Digital certificates (keys)
A method of ensuring privacy on the Internet. Certificates consist of keys made up of large numbers that are used to uniquely identify individuals. See Public key.
Digital marketing
This has a similar meaning to ‘electronic marketing’ – both describe the management and execution of marketing using electronic media such as the web, e-mail, interactive TV, IPTV and wireless media in conjunction with digital data about customers’ characteristics and behaviour.
Digital media
Communications are facilitated through content and interactive services delivered by different digital technology platforms including the Internet, web, mobile phone, interactive TV, IPTV and digital signage. See DigitaI media channels.
Digital media ‘assists’
A referrer of a visit to a site before the ultimate sale is credited with the sale, often through a weighting system.
Digital media channels
Online communications techniques such as search engine marketing, affiliate marketing and display advertising used to engage web users on third-party sites; encouraging them to visit an organisation’s site or purchase through traditional channels such as by phone or in-store.
Digital media de-duplication
A single referrer of a visit leading to sale is credited with the sale based on the last-click method of digital media channel attribution.
Digital radio
All types of radio broadcast as a digital signal.
Digital signage
The use of interactive digital technologies within billboard and point of sale ads. For example, videos and Bluetooth interaction.
Digital signatures
The electronic equivalent of written signatures which are used as an online method of identifying individuals or companies using public-key encryption.
Digital television
Information is received and displayed on a digital television using binary information (Os and Is), giving options for better picture and sound quality and providing additional information services based on interactivity. See Interactive digital TV.
Direct marketing
Marketing to customers using one or more advertising media aimed at achieving measurable response and/or transaction.
Direct response
Usually achieved in an Internet marketing context by call-back services.
Directed information seeker
Someone who knows what information he or she is looking for.
Directories
Directory websites provide a structured listing of registered websites in different categories. They are similar to an electronic version of Yellow Pages. Yahoo! and Excite are the best known examples of directories. (Also known as catalogues.)
Disintermediation
The removal of intermediaries such as distributors or brokers that formerly linked a company to its customers.
Display advertising
Paid ad placements using graphical or rich media ad units within a web page to achieve goals of delivering brand awareness, familiarity, favourability and purchase intent. Many ads encourage interaction through prompting the viewer to interact or roll/over to play videos, complete an online form or to view more details by clicking through to a site.
Disruptive technologies
New technologies that prompt businesses to reappraise their strategy approaches.
Distribution channels
The mechanism by which products are directed to customers either through intermediaries or directly.
Domain name
The web address that identifies a web server. See Domain name system.
Domain name registration
The process of reserving a unique web address that can be used to refer to the company website.
Domain name system
The domain name system (DNS) provides a method of representing Internet Protocol (IP) addresses as text-based names. These are used as web addresses. For example, www.microsoft.comis the representation of site 207.68.156.58. Domain names are divided into the following categories:
- Top-level domain name such as .com or .co.uk. (Also known as Global (or generic) top-level domain names (gLTD).)
- Second-level domain name. This refers to the company name and is sometimes referred to as the ‘enterprise name’, e.g. novel/.com.
- Third-level or sub-enterprise domain name. This may be used to refer to an individual server within an organisation, such as support.novel/.com.
Doorway pages
Specially constructed pages which feature keywords for particular product searches. These often redirect visitors to a home page.
Download
The process of retrieving electronic information such as a web page or e-mail from another remote location such as a web server.
Drip irrigation
Collecting information about customer needs through their lifetime.
Dynamic pricing
Prices can be updated in real time according to the type of customer or current market conditions.
Dynamic web page
A page that is created in real time, often with reference to a database query, in response to a user request.
E
Early adopters
Companies or departments that invest in new marketing techniques and technologies when they first become available in an attempt to gain a competitive advantage despite the higher risk entailed than that involved in a more cautious approach.
Early (first) mover advantage
Au early entrant into the marketplace.
Earnings-per-click (EPC)
A relative measure of the effectiveness of a site or section of a site in generating revenue for the site owner through affiliate marketing for every 100 outbound clicks generated.
E-business
See Electronic business.
E-cash
See Digital cash.
E-commerce
See Electronic commerce.
Econometric modelling
A quantitative technique to evaluate the past influence or predict the future influence on a dependent variable (typically sales in a marketing context) of independent variables which may include product price, promotions and the level and mix: of media investments.
Effective cost-per-thousand (eCPM)
A measure of the total revenue a site owner can achieve through advertising or other revenue options. eCPM is calculated as advertising revenue achieved for every 1000 pages that are served for the whole site or a section. See EPC.
Effective frequency
The number of exposures or ad impressions (frequency) required for an advertisement to become effective.
Effectiveness
Meeting process objectives, delivering the required outputs and outcomes. ‘Doing the right thing.’
Efficiency
Minimising resources or time needed to complete a process. ‘Doing the thing right.’
E-government
The use of Internet technologies to provide government services to citizens.
Electronic business (e-business)
All electronically mediated information exchanges, both within an organisation and with external stakeholders, supporting the range of business processes.
Electronic cash
See Digital cash.
Electronic commerce (e-commerce)
All financial and informational electronically mediated exchanges between an organisation and its external stakeholders. (See Buy-side e-commerce and Sell-side e-commerce.)
Electronic commerce transactions
Transactions in the trading of goods and services conducted using the Internet and other digital media.
Electronic customer relationship management
Using digital communications technologies to maximise sales to existing customers and encourage continued usage of online services.
Electronic data interchange (EOI)
The exchange, using digital media, of standardised business documents such as purchase orders and invoices between buyers and sellers.
Electronic mail (e-mail)
Sending messages or documents, such as news about a new product or sales promotion between individuals. A primitive form of push channel. E-mail may be inbound or outbound.
Electronic mail advertising
Advertisements contained within e-mail such as newsletters.
Electronic mail
See Virtual maiI.
Electronic marketing
Achieving marketing objectives through use of electronic communications technology.
Electronic marketspace
A virtual marketplace such as the Internet in which no direct contact occurs between buyers and sellers.
Electronic shopping or ES test
This test was developed by de Kare-Silver to assess the extent to which consumers are likely to purchase a particular retail product using the Internet.
Electronic tokens
Units of digital currency that are in a standard electronic format.
E-mail marketing
Typically applied to outbound communications from a company to prospects or customers to encourage purchase or branding goals. E-mail marketing is most commonly used for mailing to existing customers on a house-list, but can also be used for mailing prospects on a rented or co-branded list. E-mails may be sent as part of a one-off campaign or can be automated event-based triggered e-mails such as a Welcome strategy which can be broadcast based on rules about intervals and customer characteristics. See Inbound e-mail and Outbound e-mail.
E-mail service providers (ESPs)
Provide a web-based service used by marketers to manage their e-mail activities including hosting e-mail subscription forms, broadcast and tracking.
E-marketing
See Electronic marketing.
Emergent strategy
Strategy analysis, strategy development and strategy implementation are interrelated and are developed together.
Emotional loyalty
Loyalty to a brand is demonstrated by favourable perceptions, opinions and recommendations.
Encryption
The scrambling of information into a form that cannot be interpreted. Decryption is used to make the information readable.
Enterprise application integration
The middleware technology that is used to connect together different software applications and their underlying databases is now known as ‘enterprise application integration (EAI).
Entry page
The page at which a visitor enters a website. It is identified by a log file analyser. See Exit page and Referring site.
Environmental scanning and analysis
The process of continuously monitoring the environment and events and responding accordingly.
E-retail
According to Dennis et al. (2004), see Chapter 11, the business of e-retailing is defined as the sale of goods and services via the Internet or other electronic channels for individual consumers. This definition includes all e-commerce and related activities that ultimately result in transactions.
Ethical standards
Practices or behaviours which are morally acceptable to society.
Evaluating a website
See Website measurement.
Exchange
See Business-to-business exchanges or marketplaces.
Exit page
The page from which a visitor exits a website. It is identified by web analytics services.
Expert reviews
An analysis of an existing site or prototype, by an experienced usability expert who will identify deficiencies and improvements to a site based on their knowledge of web design principles and best practice.
Exposure-based payment
Advertisers pay according to the number of times the ad is viewed.
Extended product
Additional features and benefits beyond the core product.
Extension
See Customer extension.
External link building
A proactive approach to gain quality links from third-party sites.
Extranet
Formed by extending an intranet beyond a company to customers, suppliers, collaborators or even competitors. This is password-protected to prevent access by general Internet users.
F
Faceted navigation
Used to enable users to rapidly filter results from a product search based on different ways of classifying the product by their attributes or features. For example by brand, by sub-product category, by price bands.
Feed or RSS feed
Blog, news or other content is published by an XML standard and syndicated for other sites or read by users in RSS reader services such as Google Reader, personalised home pages or e-mail systems. RSS stands for really simple syndication.
File Transfer Protocol (FTP)
A standard method for moving files across the Internet. FTP is available as a feature of web browsers that is sometimes used for marketing applications such as downloading files like product price lists or specifications. Standalone FTP packages such as WSFTP are commonly used to update HTML files on web servers when uploading revisions to the web server.
Find ability
An assessment of how easy it is for a web user to locate a single content object or to use browse navigation and search system to find content. Like usability it is assessed through efficiency – how long it takes to find the content – and effectiveness – how satisfied the user is with the experience and relevance of the content they find.
Firewall
A specialised software application mounted on a server at the point where a company is connected to the Internet. Its purpose is to prevent unauthorised access into the company by outsiders. Firewalls are essential for all companies hosting their own web server.
First-party cookies
Served by the site currently in use – typical for e-commerce sites.
Flow
Describes a state in which users have a positive experience from readily controlling their navigation and interaction on a website.
Focus groups
Online focus groups have been conducted by w3focus.com. These follow a bulletin board or discussion group form where different members of the focus group respond to prompts from the focus group leaders.
Folksonomy
A contraction of ‘folk taxonomy’, a method of classifying content based on tagging that has no hierarchy (i.e. without parent-child relationships).
Form
A method on a web page of entering information such as order details.
Forward auctions
Item purchased by highest bid made in bidding period.
Forward path analysis
Forward path analysis reviews the combinations of clicks that occur from a page. This form of analysis is most beneficial when it is forward from important pages such as the home page, product and directory pages. This technique is used to identify messaging/navigation combinations which work best to yield the most clicks from a page. Similar, effective messaging approaches can then be deployed elsewhere on the site.
Frame
A technique used to divide a web page into different parts such as a menu and separate content.
Global (or generic) top-level domain names (gLTD)
The part of the domain name that refers to the category of site. The gLTD is usually the rightmost part of the domain name such as .co.uk or .com.
Globalisation
The increase of international trading and shared social and cultural values.
Gopher
Gopher is a directory-based structure containing information in certain categories.
GPRS
This is approximately five times faster than GSM and is an ‘always-on’ service which is charged according to usage. Display is still largely text-based and based on the WAP protocol.
Graphic design
All factors that govern the physical appearance of a web page.
Graphics Interchange Format (GIF)
A graphics format used to display images within web pages. An interlaced GIF is displayed gradually on the screen, building up an image in several passes.
GSM
The digital transmission technique standard used widely for mobile voice data.
H
Halo effect
The role of one media channel on influencing sale or uplift in brand metrics. Commonly applied to online display advertising, where exposure to display ads may increase click through rates when the consumer is later exposed to a brand through other media, for example sponsored links or affiliate ads. It may also improve conversion rates on a destination sites through higher confidence in the brand or familiarity with the offer.
Hacker
Someone who enjoys exploring the details of programmable systems and how to stretch their capabilities.
Hard launch
A site is launched once fully complete with full promotional effort.
Hit
A hit is recorded for each graphic or page of text requested from a web server. It is not a reliable measure for the number of people viewing a page. A page impression is a more reliable measure denoting one person viewing one page.
Home page
The index page of a website with menu options or links to other resources on the site. Usually denoted by <web address/index.htrnl.
House list
A list of prospect and customer names, e-mail addresses and profile information owned by an organisation.
HTML (Hypertext Mark-up Language)
A standard format used to define the text and layout of web pages. HTML files usually have the extension.HTML or .HTM.
HTTP (Hypertext Transfer Protocol)
A standard that defines the way information is transmitted across the Internet.
Hurdle rate
The proportion of customers that fall within a particular level of activity. For example, the percentage of members of an e-mail list that click on the e-mail within a 90-day period, or the number of customers that have made a second purchase.
Hype cycle
A graphic representation of the maturity, adoption and business application of specific technologies.
Hyperlink
A method of moving between one website page and another, indicated to the user by text highlighted by underlining and/or a different colour. Hyperlinks can also be achieved by clicking on a graphic image such as a banner advertisement that is linked to another website.
I
Identity theft
The misappropriation of the identity of another person, without their knowledge or consent.
I-Mode
A mobile access platform that enables display of colour graphics and content subscription services.
Inbound customer contact strategies
Approaches to managing the cost and quality of service related to management of customer enquiries.
Inbound e-mail
E-mail arriving at a company.
Inbound e-mail marketing
Management of e-mails from customers by an organisation.
Inbound Internet-based communications
Customers enquire through web-based form and e-mail (see Web self-service).
Inbound link
See backlink.
Incidental offline advertising
Driving traffic to the website is not a primary objective of the advert.
Index inclusion
Ensuring that as many of the relevant pages from your domain(s) are included within the search engine indexes you are targeting to be listed in.
Info me diary
An intermediary business whose main source of revenue derives from capturing consumer information and developing detailed profiles of individual customers for use by third parties.
Information architecture
The combination of organisation, labelling and navigation schemes constituting an information system.
Information organisation schemes
The structure chosen to group and categorise information.
Initiation of the website project
This phase of the project should involve a structured review of the costs and benefits of developing a website (or making a major revision to an existing website). A successful outcome to initiation will be a decision to proceed with the site development phase, with an agreed budget and target completion date.
Insertion order
A printed order to run an advertisement campaign. It defines the campaign name, the website receiving the order and the planner or buyer giving the order, the individual advertisements to be run (or who will provide them), the sizes of the advertisements, the campaign start and end dates, the CPM, the total cost, discounts to be applied, and reporting requirements and possible penalties or stipulations relative to the failure to deliver the impressions.
Integrated marketing communications
The co-ordination of communications channels to deliver a dear, consistent message.
Integrity
See Security methods.
Intellectual property rights (IPRs)
Protect the intangible property created by corporations or individuals that is protected under copyright, trade secret and patent laws.
Interactive banner advertisement
A banner advertisement that enables the user to enter information.
Interactive digital TV (iOTV)
Television displayed using a digital signal delivered by a range of media – cable, satellite, terrestrial (aerial). Interactions can be provided through phone line or cable service.
Internal link architecture
Structuring and labelling links within a site’s navigation to improve the results of SE~.
Internet Protocol Television (IPTV)
Digital television service delivered using Internet protocol, typically by a broadband connection. IPTV can be streamed for real-time viewing or downloaded before playback.
Interactivity
The medium enables a dialogue between company and customer.
Interaction rate (IR)
The proportion of ad viewers who interact with an online ad through rolling over it. Some will be involuntary depending on where the ad is placed on screen, so it is highly dependent on placement.
Intermediaries
Online sites that help bring together different parties such as buyers and sellers.
Internet
The physical network that links computers across the globe. It consists of the infrastructure of network servers and communication links between them that are used to hold and transport the vast amount of information on the Internet.
Internet-based market research
The use of online questionnaires and focus groups to assess customer perceptions of a website or broader marketing issues.
Internet contribution
An assessment of the extent to which the Internet contributes to sales is a key measure of the importance of the Internet to a company.
Internet EOI
Use of electronic data interchange standards delivered across non-proprietary Internet protocol networks.
Internet governance
Control of the operation and use of the Internet.
Internet marketing
The application of the Internet and related digital technologies in conjunction with traditional communications to achieve marketing objectives.
Internet marketing metrics
See Metrics for Internet marketing.
Internet marketing strategy
Definition of the approach by which Internet marketing will support marketing and business objectives.
Internet pure play
An organisation with the majority of its customer-facing operations online, e.g. Egg.
Internet Relay Chat (IRC)
A communications tool that allows a text-based ‘chat’ between different users who are logged on at the same time. Of limited use for marketing purposes except for special-interest or youth products.
Internet service provider (ISP)
Company that provides home or business users with a connection to access the Internet. It can also host websites or provide a link from web servers to allow other companies and consumers access to a corporate website.
Interruption marketing
Marketing communications that disrupt customers’ activities.
Interstitial ads
Ads that appear between one page and the next.
Intranet
A network within a single company that enables access to company information using the familiar tools of the Internet such as web browsers and e-mail. Only staff within a company can access the intranet, which will be password – protected.
Java
A programming language standard supported by Sun Microsystems, which permits complex and graphical customer applications to be written and then accessed from a web browser. An example might be a form for calculating interest on a loan. A competitor to ActiveX.
Joint Photographic Experts Group (JPEG)
A compressed graphics standard specified by the JPEG. Used for graphic images typically requiring use of many colours, such as product photographs where some loss of quality is acceptable. The format allows for some degradation in image quality to enable more rapid download.
K
Key performance indicators (KPIs)
Metrics used to assess the performance of a process and/or whether goals set are achieved.
Key phrase (keyword phrase)
The combination of words users of search engines type into a search box which form a search query.
L
Lagging performance indicator
A metric which indicates past performance. Corrective action can then be applied to improve performance.
Landing page
A destination page when a user clicks on an ad or other form of link from a referring site. It can be a home page, but more typically and desirably a landing page is a page with the messaging focused on the offer in the ad. This will maximise conversion rates and brand favourability.
Last-click method of digital media channel attribution
The site which referred a visitor immediately before purchase is credited with the sale. Previous referrals influenced by other customer touch-points on other sites are ignored.
Latency
The average length of time that different customer types takes between different activities, e.g. log- ins, paying bills, first and second purchase.
Lead
Details about a potential customer (prospect). (See Qualified lead.)
Leading performance indicator
A measure which is suggestive of future performance and so can be used to take proactive action to shape future performance.
Lead generation offers
Offered in return for customers providing their contact details and characteristics. Commonly used in B2B marketing where free information such as a report or a seminar will be offered.
Lifetime value (LTV)
The total net benefit that a customer or group of customers will provide a company over their total relationship with a company.
Link anchor text
The text used to form the blue, underlined hyperlink viewed in a web browser defined in the HTML source. For example: Visit Dave Chaffey’s web log is created by the HTML code: <A HREF=”http:/ / www.davechaffey.com •• >Visit Dave Chaffey’s web log</A>
Link building
A proactive approach to gain quality links from third-party sites.
List broker
Will source the appropriate e-mail list(s) from the list owner.
List owner
Has collected e-mail addresses which are offered for sale distinct from test website.
Localisation
Designing the content of the website in such a way that it is appropriate to different audiences in different countries.
Log file
A file stored on a web server that records every item downloaded by users.
Log file analysers
Web analytics tools that are used to build a picture of the amount of usage of different parts of a website based on the information contained in the log file.
Long tail concept
A frequency distribution suggesting the relative variation in popularity of items selected by consumers.
Loyalty techniques
Customers sign up to an incentive scheme where they receive points for repeat purchases, which can be converted into offers such as discounts, free products or cash. (Also known as online incentive schemes.)
Macro-environment
Broader farces affecting all organisations in the marketplace including social, technological, economy, political and legal aspects.
Mailbots
See Auto responders.
Maintenance process
The work involved in running a live website such as updating pages and checking the performance of the site.
Malware
Malicious software or toolbars, typically downloaded via the Internet, which act as a ‘Trojan horse’ by executing other unwanted activates such as keylogging of user passwords or viruses which may collect e-mail addresses.
Marketing-led site design
Site design elements are developed to achieve customer acquisition, retention and communication of marketing messages.
Marketing intermediaries
Firms that can help a company to promote, sell and distribute its products or services.
Marketing mix
The series of seven key variables – Product, Price, Place, Promotion, People, Process and Physical evidence – that are varied by marketers as part of the customer offering.
Marketing planning
A logical sequence and a series of activities leading to the setting of marketing objectives and the formulation of plans for achieving them.
Marketplace
See Business-to-business exchanges or marketplaces.
Marketsite
Exchange, eHub, meta mediaries are terms used to refer to complex websites that facilitate trading exchanges between companies around the globe.
Market Site ™
Is a trade mark of commerce One and considered as the leading e-marketplace operating environment.
Marketspace
A virtual marketplace such as the Internet in which no direct contact occurs between buyers and sellers. (Also known as electron is marketspace.)
Mark-up language
See HTML, XML.
Mashup
Websites, pages or widgets that combine the content or functionality of one website or data source with another to create something offering a different type of value to web users from the separate types of content or functionality.
Mass customisation
The ability to create tailored marketing messages or products for individual customers or a group of similar customers (a bespoke service), yet retain the economies of scale and the capacity of mass marketing or production.
Mass marketing
One-to-many communication between a company and potential customers, with limited tailoring of the message.
Measurement
See Website measurement.
Media broker
A company that places advertisements for companies wishing to advertise by contacting the media owners
Media buyer
The person within a company wishing to advertise who places the advertisement, usually via a media broker.
Media buying
The process of purchasing media to meet the media plan requirements at the lowest costs.
Media fragmentation
Describes a trend to increasing choice and consumption of a range of media in terms of different channels such as web and mobile and also within channels, for example more TV channels, radio stations, magazines, more websites. Media fragmentation implies increased difficulty in reaching target audiences.
Media multiplier or halo effect
The role of one media channel on influencing sale or uplift in brand metrics. Commonly applied to online display advertising, where exposure to display ads may increase click-through rates when the consumer is later exposed to a brand through other media, for example sponsored links or affiliate ads. It may also improve conversion rates on a destination sites through higher confidence in the brand or familiarity with the offer.
Media-neutral planning (MNP)
An approach to planning ad campaigns to maximise response across different media according to consumer usage of these media.
Media owners
The owners of websites (or other media such as newspapers) that accept advertisements.
Media planning
The process of selecting the best combination of media to achieve marketing campaign objectives. Answers questions such as ‘How many of the audience can I reach through different media?’, ‘On which media (and ad vehicles) should I place ads?’, ‘Which frequency should I select?’, ‘How much money should be spent in each medium?’
Media site
Typical location where paid-for ads are placed.
Merchandising
See Web merchandising.
Meta-data
Literally, data about data – a format describing the structure and content of data.
Meta search engines
Meta search engines submit keywords typed by users to a range of search engines in order to increase the number of relevant pages since different search engines may have indexed different sites. An example is the meta-crawler search engine or www.mamma.com.
Meta-tags
Text within an HTML file summarising the content of the site (content meta-tag) and relevant keywords (keyword meta-tag), which are matched against the keywords typed into search engines.
Metrics for Internet marketing
Measures that indicate the effectiveness of Internet marketing activities in meeting customer, business and marketing objectives.
Micro-environment
Specific forces on an organisation generated by its stakeholders.
Micro payments (micro transactions)
Digital cash systems that allow very small sums of money (fractions of 1 p) to be transferred, but with lower security. Such small sums do not warrant a credit card payment, because processing is too costly.
Microsite
Specialised content that is part of a web site that is not necessarily owned by the organisation. If owned by the company it may be as part of an extranet. (See Nested ad content.)
Microsoft Internet Information Server (115)
Microsoft lIS is a web server developed by Microsoft that runs on Windows NT.
Mixed-mode buying
The process by which a customer changes between online and offline channels during the buying process.
Mobile commerce
The use of wireless devices such as mobile phones for informational or monetary transactions.
Multichannel marketing
Customer communications and product distribution are supported by a combination of digital and traditional channels at different points in the buying cycle.
Multichannel marketing strategy
Defines how different marketing channels should integrate and support each other in terms of their proposition development and communications based on their relative merits for the customer and the company.
Multichannel prioritisation
Assesses the strategy significance of the Internet relative to other communications channels and then deploys resources to integrate with marketing channels.
N
Narrow and deep navigation
Fewer choices and more clicks to reach required content.
Natural or organic listings
The pages listing results from a search engine query which are displayed in a sequence according to relevance of match between the keyword phrase typed into a search engine and a web page according to a ranking algorithm used by the search engine.
Navigation
The method of finding and moving between different information and pages on a website. It is governed by menu arrangements, site structure and the layout of individual pages.
Navigational search
Searchers use a search engine such as Google to find information deeper within a company site by appending a qualifier such as a product name to the brand or site name. Organisations need to check that relevant pages are available in the search results pages for these situations.
Nested ad content
This refers to the situation when the person undertaking the click-through is not redirected to a corporate or brand site, but is instead taken to a related page on the same site as that on which the advertisement is placed. (Sometimes referred to as microsite.)
Net Promoter Score
A measure of the number of advocates a company (or website) has who would recommend it compared to the number of detractors.
Non-reputability
See Security methods.
Notification
The process whereby companies register with the data protection register to inform about their data holdings.
O
Offer
Au incentive in direct marketing or a product offering.
Offline site promotion
Traditional techniques such as print and TV advertising used to generate website traffic.
Offline web metric Offline measures are those that are collated by marketing staff recording particular marketing outcomes such as an enquiry or a sale. They are usually collated manually, but could be col1ated automatically.
On-page optimisation
Writing copy and applying mark-up such as the <title> tag and heading tags <hl> to highlight to search engines relevant key phrases within a document.
One-to-one marketing
A unique dialogue that occurs directly between a company and individual customers (or less strictly with groups of customers with similar needs). The dialogue involves a company in listening to customer needs and responding with services to meet these needs.
Online branding
How online channels are used to support brands that, in essence, are the sum of the characteristics of a product or service as perceived by a user.
Online customer experience
The combination of rational and emotional factors in using a company’s online services that influences customers’ perceptions of a brand online.
Online incentive schemes
See Loyalty techniques.
Online intermediary sites
Websites that facilitate exchanges between consumer and business suppliers.
Online promotion contribution
Au assessment of the proportion of customers (new or retained) who are reached by online communications and are influenced as a result.
Online PR (e-PR)
Maximising favourable mentions of your company, brands, products or web sites on third-party websites which are likely to be visited by your target audience. Online PR can extend reach and awareness of a brand within an audience and will also generate backlinks vital to SE~. It can also be used to support viral or word- of-mouth marketing activities in other media.
Online reputation management
Controlling the reputation of an organisation through monitoring and controlling messages placed about the organisation.
Online revenue contribution
Au assessment of the direct contribution of the Internet or other digital media to sales, usually expressed as a percentage of overall sales revenue.
Online service providers (OS Ps)
Au OSP is sometimes used to distinguish large Internet service providers (ISPs) from other access providers. In the UK, AOL, Freeserve, VirginNet and LineOne can be considered OSPs since they have a large amount of special1y developed content available to their subscribers. Note that this term is not used as frequently as ISP, and the distinction between ISPs and OSPs is a blurred one since all OSPs are also ISPs and the distinction only occurs according to the amount of premium content (only available to customers) offered as part of the service.
Online service-quality gap
The mismatch between what is expected and delivered by an online presence.
Online site promotion
Internet-based techniques used to generate web site traffic.
Online social network
A service facilitating the connection, collaboration and exchange of information between individuals.
Online value proposition (OVP)
A statement of the benefits of online services that reinforce the core proposition and differentiate from an organisation’s offline offering and that of competitors.
Online web metrics
Online measures are those that are collected automatically on the web server, often in a server log file.
Operational effectiveness
Performing similar activities better than rivals. This includes efficiency of processes.
Opt-in
A customer proactively agrees to receive further information.
Opt-in e-mail
The customer is only contacted when he or she has explicitly asked for information to be sent (usually when filling in an on-screen form).
Opt-out
A customer declines the offer to receive further information.
Opt-out e-mail
The customer is not contacted subsequently if he or she has explicitly stated that he or she does not want to be contacted in future. Opt-out or unsubscribe options are usually available within the e-mail itself.
Outbound e-mail
E-mail sent from a company.
Outbound e-mail marketing
E-mails are sent to customers and prospects from an organisation.
Outbound Internet-based communications
The website and e-mail marketing are used to send personalised communications to customers.
Outsourcing
Contracting an outside company to undertake part of the Internet marketing activities.
Overlay
Typically an animated ad that moves around the page and is superimposed on the website content.
Overt
Typically an animated ad that moves around the page and is superimposed on the website content.
Page impression
One page impression occurs when a member of the audience views a web page. (See Ad impression and Reach.)
PageRank
A scale between 0 to 10 used by Google to assess the importance of websites according to the number of inbound links or backlinks.
Page request
The process of a user selecting a hyperlink or typing in a uniform resource locator (URL) to retrieve information on a specific web page. Equivalent to page impression.
Page view
See Page impression.
Paid search marketing (pay-per-click PPC)
A relevant text ad with a link to a company page is displayed on the SERPs when the user of a search engine types in a specific phrase. A fee is charged for every click of each link, with the amount bid for the click mainly determining its position. Additionally, PPC may involve advertising through a content network of third-party sites (which may be on a CPC, CPM or CPA basis).
Pay-for-performance communications
The wastage from traditional media buys can be reduced online through advertising models where the advertisers only pays for a response (cost-per-click) as in pay-per-click search marketing or for a lead or sale as in affiliate marketing.
Payment systems
Methods of transferring funds from a customer to a merchant.
People variable
The element of the marketing mix that involves the delivery of service to customers during interactions with those customers.
Performance drivers
Critical success factors that determine whether business and marketing objectives are achieved.
Performance management system
A process used to evaluate and improve the efficiency and effectiveness of an organisation and its processes.
Performance measurement system
The process by which metrics are defined, collected, disseminated and actioned.
Performance metrics
Measures that are used to evaluate and improve the efficiency and effectiveness of business processes.
Performance of website
Performance or quality
Permission marketing
Customers agree (opt in) to be involved in an organisation’s marketing activities, usually as a result of an incentive.
Persistent cookies
Cookies that remain on a computer after a visitor session has ended. Used to recognise returning visitors.
Personal data
Any information about an individual stored by companies concerning their customers or employees.
Personalisation
Web-based personalisation involves delivering customised content for the individual through web pages, e-mail or push technology.
Personas
A thumbnail summary of the characteristics, needs, motivations and environment of typical website users.
Persuasion marketing
Using design elements such as layout, copy and typography together with promotion al messages to encourage site users to follow particular paths and specific actions rather than giving them complete choice in their navigation.
Phishing
Obtaining personal details online through sites and e-mails masquerading as legitimate businesses.
Phone-me
A call-back facility available on the web site for a company to contact a customer by phone at a later time, as specified by the customer.
Physical evidence variable
The clement of the marketing mix that involves the tangible expression of a product and how it is purchased and used.
Pixel
The small dots on a computer screen that are used to represent images and text. Short for ‘picture element’. Used to indicate the size of banner advertisements.
Place variable
The element of the marketing mix that involves distributing products to customers in line with demand and minimising cost of inventory, transport and storage.
Plug-in
A program that must be downloaded to view particular content such as an animation.
Podcasts
Individuals and organisations post online media (audio and video) which can be viewed in the appropriate players (including the iPod which fast sparked the growth in this technique). The latest podcast updates can be automatically delivered by Really Simple Syndication.
Portal
A website that acts as a gateway to information and services available on the Internet by providing search engines, directories and other services such as personalised news or free e- mail.
Portfolio analysis
Evaluation of value of current e-commerce services or applications.
Positioning
Customers’ perception of the product and brand offering relative to those of competitors.
Prescriptive strategy
The three core areas of strategy analysis, strategy development and strategy implementation are linked together sequentially.
Price comparison sites
See Aggregators.
Price dispersion
The distribution or range of prices charged for an item across different retailers.
Price elasticity of demand
Measure of consumer behaviour that indicates the change in demand for a product or service in response to changes in price.
Pricing level
The price set for a specific product or range of products.
Price transparency
Customer knowledge about pricing increases due to increased availability of pricing information.
Price variable
The element of the marketing mix that involves defining product prices and pricing models.
Pricing model
Describes the form of payment such as outright purchase, auction, rental, volume purchases and credit terms.
Primary persona
A representation of the typical site user.
Privacy
A moral right of individuals to avoid intrusion into their personal affairs. (See Security methods.)
Regulations Act
A law intended to control the distribution of e-mail and other online communications including cookies.
Privacy statement
Information on a website explaining how and why individuals’ data are collected, processed and stored.
Process variable
The element of the marketing mix that involves the methods and procedures companies use to achieve all marketing functions.
Product variable
The element of the marketing mix that involves researching customers’ needs and developing appropriate products. (See Core product and Extended product.)
Profiling
See Customer profiling,
Promotion (online and offline)
Online promotion uses communication via the Internet itself to raise awareness about a site and drive traffic to it. This promotion may take the form of links from other sites, banner advertisements or targeted e-mail messages. Off line promotion uses traditional media such as television or newspaper advertising and word-of-mouth to promote a company’s website.
Promotion variable
The element of the marketing mix that involves communication with customers and other stakeholders to inform them about the product and the organisation.
Propensity modelling
A name given to the approach of evaluating customer characteristics and behaviour and then making recommendations for future products.
Prosumer
‘Producer + consumer. The customer is closely involved in specifying their requirements in a product.
Prototypes and prototyping
A prototype is a preliminary version of part (or a framework of all) of a website that can be reviewed by its target audience, or the marketing team. Prototyping is an iterative process where website users suggest modifications before further prototypes are made and the final version of the site is developed.
Proximity marketing
Marketing messages are delivered in real time according to customers’ presence based on the technology they are carrying, wearing or have embedded. Blue casting is the best-known example.
Psychographic segmentation
A breakdown of customers according to different characteristics.
Public key
A unique identifier of a buyer or a seller that is available to other parties to enable secure e-commerce using encryption based on digital certificates.
Public-key encryption
An asymmetry form of encryption in which the keys or digital certificates used by the sender and receiver of information are different. The two keys are related, so only the pair of keys can be used together to encrypt and decrypt information.
Public-key infrastructure (PKI)
The organisations responsible for issuing and maintaining certificates for public-key security together form the PKI.
Public relations
The management of the awareness, understanding and reputation of an organisation or brand, primarily achieved through influencing exposure in the media.
Pull media
The consumer is proactive in selection of the message through actively seeking out a website.
Push media
Communications are broadcast from an advertiser to consumers of the message, who are passive recipients.
Push technology
The delivery of web-based content to the user’s desktop without the need for the user to visit a site to download information. E-mail can also be considered to be a push technology. A particular type of information is a push channel.
Q
Qualified lead
Contact and profile information for a customer with an indication of the level of their interest in product categories.
Quality score
An assessment in paid search by Google AdWords (and now other search engines) of an individual ad triggered by a keyword which, in combination with the bid amount, determines the ranking of the ad relative to competitors. The primary factor is the click-through rate for each ad, but quality score also considers the match between the keyword and the occurrence of the keyword in the text, historical click-through rates, the engagement of the searcher when they click-through to the site and the speed at which the page loads.
Quick Response (QR) code
A QR code is a two- dimensional matrix bar code. QR codes were invented in Japan where they are a popular type of two-dimensional code used for direct response.
R
Reach
The number of unique individuals who view an advertisement.
Really Simple Syndication (RSS)
Blog, news or other content is published by an XML standard and syndicated for other sites or read by users in RSS reader software services.
Real Names
A service for matching company names and brands with web addresses.
Reciprocal links
Links which are agreed between yourself and another organisation.
Referrer
The site that a visitor previously visited before following a link.
Referring sites
A log file may indicate which site a user visited immediately before visiting the current site. (See Click-through, Destination site and Exit page.)
Referrer or referring site
The source of a visitor to site delivered via a digital media channel. Typically a specific site, e.g. Google AdWords or a media site or an individual ad placement on the site.
Registration (individuals)
The process whereby an individual subscribes to a site or requests further information by filling in contact details and his or her needs using an electronic form.
Registration (of domain name)
The process of reserving a unique web address that can be used to refer to the company website.
Reinter mediation
The creation of new intermediaries between customers and suppliers providing services such as supplier search and product evaluation.
Relationship marketing
Consistent application of up-to-date knowledge of individual customers to product and service design, which is communicated interactively in order to develop a continuo us, mutually beneficial and long-term relationship.
Render ability
The capability of an e-mail to display correctly formatted in different e-mail readers.
Repeat visits
If an organisation can encourage customers to return to the website then the relationship can be maintained online.
Representation
The locations on the Internet where an organisation is located for promoting or selling its services.
Repurposing
Developing for a new access platform, such as the web, content which was previously used for a different platform.
Resource analysis
Review of the technological, financial and human resources of an organisation and how they are utilised in business processes.
Resources
Resources are defined as physical assets over which an organisation has control. This narrow definition of resources allows them to be clearly distinguished from capabilities (Beard and Sumner, 2004 – see Chapter 11).
Results-based payment
Advertisers pay according to the number of times the ad is clicked on.
Retail channel
Retailers’ use of the Internet as both a communication and a transactional channel concurrently in business-to-consumer markets.
Retail format
This is the general nature of the retail mix in terms of range of products and services, pricing policy, promotional programmes, operating style or store design and visual merchandising; examples include mail-order retailers (non-store-based) and department-store retailers.
Retention
See Customer retention.
Return on advertising spend (RaAS)
This indicates amount of revenue generated from each referrer. ROAS = Total revenue generated from referrer/Amount spent on advertising with referrer.
Return on investment (Ral)
This indicates the profitability of any investment, or in an advertising context for each referring site.
ROI = Pro fit generated from investment/Cost of investment.
ROI = Profit generated from referrers/Amount spent on advertising with referrer.
Return path
An interaction where the customer sends information to the iDTV provider using a phone line or cable.
Revenue models
Describe methods of generating income for an organisation.
Reverse auctions
Item purchased from lowest-bidding supplier in bidding period.
Reverse path analysis
indicates the most popular combination of pages and/or calls-to-action which lead to a page. This is particularly useful for transactional pages such as the first checkout page on a consumer site; a lead generation or contact-us page on a business-to-business site; an e-mail subscription page; a call-me back option.
Rich media
Advertisements that are not static, but provide animation, audio, sound or interactivity as a game or form to be completed. An example of this would be a banner display advertisement for a loan in which a customer can type in the amount of loan required, and the cost of the loan is calculated immediately.
Rich Internet Applications (RIA)
Interactive applications which provide options such as product selectors or games. They may incorporate video or sound also. Typically built using technologies such as Adobe Flash, Ajax, Flex, Java or Silverlight.
Robot
A tool, also known as a spider, that is employed by search engines to index web pages of registered sites on a regular basis. See Spider.
Run-of-site
A situation where a company pays for banner advertisements to promote its services across a website.
Sales generation offers
Offers that encourage product trial. A coupon redeemed against a purchase is a classic example.
Sales promotions
The Internet offers tremendous potential for sales promotions of different types since it is more immediate than any other medium – it is always available for communication, and tactical variations in the details of the promotion can be made at short notice.
Satisficing behaviour
Consumers do not behave entirely rationally in product or supplier selection. They will compare alternatives, but then may make their choice given imperfect information.
Saturation of the Internet
Access to the Internet will reach saturation as home PC ownership reaches a limit, unless other access devices become popular.
Scenario-based analysis
Models of the future environment are developed from different starting points.
Scenario of use
A particular path or flow of events or activities performed by a visitor to a website.
Scripts
Scripts can run either on the user’s browser (client -side scripts) (see Web browser) or on the web server (server-side scripts).
Scrum
A methodology that supports agile software development based on 15-30 day sprints to implement features from a product backlog. ‘Scrum’ refers to a daily project status meeting during the sprint.
Search engine
Specialised website that uses automatic tools known as spiders or robots to index web pages of registered sites. Users can search the index by typing in keywords to specify their interest. Pages containing these keywords will be listed, and by clicking on a hyperlink the user will be taken to the site.
Search engine listing
The list of sites and descriptions returned by a search engine after a user types in keywords.
Search engine marketing (SEM)
Promoting an organisation through search engines to meet its objectives by delivering relevant content in the search listings for searchers and encouraging them to click-through to a destination site. The two key techniques of SEM are search engine optimisation (SEO) to improve results from the natural listings and paid-search marketing to deliver results from the sponsored listings within the search engines through pay-per-click (PPC) paid-search engine marketing and through content-network paid-search marketing (which may be on a PPC basis or on a CPM basis). SEM is about connecting the searchers with information which will help them find what they are looking for and will help site owners generate revenue or disseminate information.
Search engine optimisation (SEO)
A structured approach used to increase the position of a company or its products in search engine natural or organic results listings (the main body of the search results page) for selected keywords or phrases.
Search engine ranking
The position of a site on a particular search engine.
Search engine results pages (SERPs)
The page(s) containing the results after a user types in a key phrase into a search engine. SERPs contain both natural or organic listings and paid or sponsored listings.
Search engine submission
The process of informing search engines that a site should be indexed for listing in the search engine results pages.
Secure Electronic Transaction (SET)
A standard for public-key encryption intended to enable secure e-commerce transactions, lead-developed by Mastercard and Visa.
Secure HTTP
Encrypted HTTP.
Secure Sockets Layer (SSL)
A commonly used encryption technique for scrambling data such as credit card numbers as they are passed across the Internet from a web browser to a web server.
Security methods
When systems for electronic commerce are devised, or when existing solutions are selected, the following attributes must be present:
- Authentication – are parties to the transaction who they claim to be? This is achieved through the use of digital certificates.
- Privacy and confidentiality- are transaction data protected? The consumer may want to make an anonymous purchase. Are all non-essential traces of a transaction removed from the public network and all intermediary records eliminated?
- Integrity – checks that the message sent is complete, i.e. that it is not corrupted.
- Non-reputability – ensures sender cannot deny sending message.
- Availability- how can threats to the continuity and performance of the system be eliminated?
Seeding
The viral campaign is started by sending an e-mail to a targeted group that are likely to propagate the virus.
Segmentation
Identification of different groups within a target market in order to develop different offerings for each group.
Sell-side e-commerce
E-commerce transactions between a supplier organisation and its customers.
Sense and respond communications
Delivering timely, relevant communications to customers as part of a contact strategy based on assessment of their position in the customer lifecycle and monitoring specific interactions with a company’s website, e-mails and staff.
Server log file
See Online web metrics.
Service quality
The level of service received on a website. Dependent on reliability, responsiveness and availability of staff and the website service.
Serving
Used to describe the process of displaying an advertisement on a website (ad serving) or delivering a web page to a user’s web browser. (See Web server.)
Session
See Visitor session.
Session cookie
A cookie used to manage a single visitor session.
Share of search
The audience share of Internet searchers achieved by a particular audience in a particular market.
Share of voice
The relative advertising spend of the different competitive brands within the product category. Share of voice (SOV) is calculated by dividing a particular brand’s advertising spend by the total category spend.
Short code
Five-digit numbers combined with text that can be used by advertisers or broadcasters to encourage consumers to register their interest. They are typically followed-up by an automated text message from the advertiser with the option to opt in to further information by e-mail or to link through to a WAP site.
Short Message Service (SMS)
The formal name for text messaging.
Site
See Website.
Site announcements
Usually used to describe the dissemination of information about a new or revised website.
Site auditors
Auditors accurately measure the usage for different sites as the number of ad impressions and dick- through rates. Auditors include ABC (Audit Bureau of Circulation) and BPA (Business Publication Auditor) International.
Site availability
An indication of how easy it is to connect to a website as a user. In theory this figure should be 100 per cent, but for technical reasons such as failures in the server hardware or upgrades to software, sometimes users cannot access the site and the figure falls below 90 per cent.
Site design page template
A standard page layout format which is applied to each page of a website. Typically defined for different page categories (e.g. category page, product page, search page).
Site map
A graphical or text depletion of the relationship between different groups of content on a website.
Site measurement
See Website measurement.
Site navigation scheme
Tools provided to the user to move between different information on a website.
Site re-Iaunch
Where a website is replaced with a new version with a new ‘look and feel’.
Site statistics
Collected by log file analysers, these are used to monitor the effectiveness of a website.
Site ‘stickiness’
An indication of how long a visito stays on a site. Log file analysers can be used to assess average visit times.
Site visit
One site visit records one customer visiting the site. Not equivalent to User session.
Site-visitor activity data
Information on content and services accessed by e-commerce site visitors.
Site mapping tools
These tools diagram the layout of the website, which is useful for site management and can be used to assist users.
Situation analysis
Collection and review of information about an organisation’s external environment and internal processes and resources in order to inform its strategies.
SMART metrics
SMART metrics must be:
- Specific
- Measurable
- Actionable
- Relevant
- Timely.
Smartcards
Physical cards containing a memory chip that can be inserted into a smartcard reader before items can be purchased.
Social exclusion
Part of society is excluded from the facilities available to the remainder.
Social bookmarking
Web users keep a shared version of favourite sites (‘Favourites’) online. This enables the most popular sites in a category to be identified.
Social network
A site that facilitates peer-to-peer communications within a group or between individuals through providing facilities to develop user-generated content (UGC) and to exchange messages and comments between different users.
Soft launch
A trial version of a site launched with limited publicity.
Soft look
In Electronic linkages between supplier and customer increase switching costs.
Software agents
See Agents.
Spam
Unsolicited e-mail (usually bulk mailed and untargeted).
Spamming
Bulk e-mailing of unsolicited mail.
Specified offline advertising
Driving traffic to the website or explaining the online proposition is a primary objective of the advert.
Spider
Spiders are software processes, technically known as robots, employed by search engines to index web pages of registered sites on a regular basis. They follow links between pages and record the reference URL of a page for future analysis.
Splash page
A preliminary page that precedes the normal home page of a website. Site users can either wait to be redirected to the home page or can follow a link to do this. Splash pages are not now commonly used since they slow down the process of customers finding the information they need.
Sponsorship
Sponsorship involves a company paying money to advertise on a website. The arrangement may involve more than advertising. Sponsorship is a similar arrangement to co-branding.
Stage models
Models for the development of different levels of Internet marketing services.
Stages in website development
The standard stages of creation of a web site are initiation, feasibility, analysis, design, development (content creation), testing and maintenance.
Static (fixed) web page
A page on the web server that is invariant.
STEP
A framework for assessing the macro environment, standing for Social, Technological, Economy and Political (including legal).
Storyboarding
Using static drawings or screenshots of the different parts of a website to review the design concept with customers or clients.
Strategy agility
The capability to innovate and so gain competitive advantage within a marketplace by monitoring changes within an organisation’s marketplace and then to efficiently evaluate alternative strategies and then select, review and implement appropriate candidate strategies.
Strategy analysis
Collection and review of information about an organisation’s internal processes and resources and external marketplace factors in order to inform strategy definition.
Strategy positioning
Performing different activities from rivals or performing similar activities in different ways.
Strategy windows
Opportunities arising through a significant change in environment.
Strategy formulation
Generation, review and selection of strategies to achieve strategy objectives.
Strategy process model
A framework for approaching strategy development.
Streaming media
Sound and video that can be experienced within a web browser before the whole clip is downloaded.
Streaming media server
A specialist server used to broadcast audio (e.g. podcasts) or video (e.g. IPTV or webcast presentations). Served streams can be unicast (a separate copy of stream is served for each recipient), multicast (recipients share streams) or peer-to-peer where the media is shared between different recipient’s computers using a Bittorrent or Kontiki approach.
Style guide
A definition of site structure, page design, typography and copy defined within a company. (See Graphic design.)
Subject access request
A request by a data subject to view personal data from an organisation.
Superstitials
Pop-up adverts that require interaction to remove them.
Surfer
An undirected information seeker who is often looking for an experience rather than information.
Symmetry encryption
Both parties to a transaction use the same key to encode and decode messages.
Syndication
Content or product information is distributed to third parties. Online this is commonly achieved through standard XML formats such as RSS.
T
Tagging
Tracking of the origin or referring site or of visitors to a site and their spending patterns. Also tagging refers to where users or web page creators categorise content on a site through adding descriptive terms. A common approach in blog posts.
Target marketing strategy
Evaluation and selection of appropriate segments and the development of appropriate offers.
Targeting
(through banner advertisers) Advertising networks such as DoubleClick offer advertisers the ability to target advertisements dynamically on the World Wide Web through their ‘DART’ targeting technology. This gives advertisers a means of reaching specific audiences.
Technology convergence
A trend in which different hardware devices such as TVs, computers and phone merge and have similar functions.
Telemarketing using the Internet
Mainly used for inbound telemarketing, including sales lines, carelines for goods and services and response handling for direct response campaigns.
Telnet
A program that allows remote access to data and text-based programs on other computer systems at different locations. For example, a retailer could check to see whether an item was in stock in a warehouse using a telnet application.
Template
See Site design page template.
Test website
A parallel version of the site to use before the site is made available to customers as a live website.
Testing content
Testing should be conducted for plug- ins; for interactive facilities and integration with company databases; for spelling and grammar; for adherence to corporate image standards; for implementation of HTML in different web browsers; and to ensure that links to external sites are valid.
Testing phase
Testing involves different aspects of the content such as spelling, validity of links, formatting on different web browsers and dynamic features such as form filling or database queries.
Third-party cookies
Served by another site to the one being viewed – typical for portals where an ad network will track remotely or where the web analytics software places a cookie.
Tipping point
Using the science of social epidemics explains principles that underpin the rapid spread of ideas, products and behaviours through a population.
Trademark
A trademark is a unique word or phrase that distinguishes your company. The mark can be registered as plain or designed text, artwork or a combination. In theory, colours, smells and sounds can also be trademarks.
Traffic-building campaign
The use of online and off-line promotion techniques such as banner advertising, search engine promotion and reciprocal linking to increase the audience of a site (both new and existing customers).
Transactional sites
Sites that support online sales.
Transaction log file
A web server file that records all page requests.
Transfer Control Protocol/Internet Protocol (TCP/IP)
The passing of data packets around the Internet occurs via TCP/IP. For a PC to be able to receive web pages or for a server to host web pages it must be configured to support this protocol.
Trialogue
The interaction between company, customer and other customers facilitated through online community, social networks, reviews and comments.
Trusted feed
A trusted feed is an automated method of putting content into a search engine index or an aggregator database.
Trusted third parties (TT Ps)
Companies with which an agreement has been reached to share information.
U
Undirected information seeker
A person who does not know what information they are looking for – a surfer.
Uniform (universal) resource locator (URL)
Text that indicates the web address of a site. A specific domain name is typed into a web browser window and the browser will then locate and load the website. It is in the form of: http://www.domain-name.extension/filename.html.
Unique visitors
individual visitors to a site measured through cookies or lP addresses on an individual computer.
Universal search
The natural listings incorporate other relevant results from vertical searches related to a query, such as video, books, scholar, news, site links and images.
Unsubscribe
An option to opt out from an e-mail newsletter or discussion group.
Upload
The transfer of files from a local computer to a server. Usually achieved using FTP. E-mail or website pages can be uploaded to update a remote server.
Up-selling
Persuading existing customers to purchase more expensive products (typically related to existing purchase categories).
URL strategy
A defined approach to how content is labelled through placing it in different directories or folders with distinct web addresses.
Usability
An approach to website design intended to enable the completion of user tasks.
Usability/user testing
Representative users are observed performing representative tasks using a system.
Usenet newsgroup
An electronic bulletin board used to discuss a particular topic such as a sport, hobby or business area. Traditionally accessed by special newsreader software, these can now be accessed via a web browser from www.deja.com.
User-centred design
Design based on optimising the user experience according to all factors, including the user interface, which affect this.
User journey
See Customer scenarios.
User session
Used to specify the frequency of visits to a site. Not equivalent to site visit.
Validation
Validation services test for errors in HTML code which may cause a web page to be displayed incorrectly or for links to other pages that do not work.
Value chain
A model that considers how supply chain activities can add value to products and services delivered to the customer.
Value event scoring
Value events are outcomes that occur on the site as indicated by visits to different page or content types which suggest marketing communications are effective. Examples include, leads, sales, newsletter registrations and product page views. They can be tagged and scored using many web analytics systems, for example Google refers to them as conversion goals.
Value network
The links between an organisation and its strategy and non-strategy partners that form its external value chain.
Value proposition of site
The benefits or value of a website that are evident to its users.
Vertical portals
These are generally business-to-business sites that will host content to help participants in an industry to get their work done by providing industry news, details of business techniques, and product and service reviews.
View
See Page impression.
View-through
A view-through indicates when a user views an ad and subsequently visits a website.
Viral marketing
A marketing message is communicated from one person to another, facilitated by different media, such as word of mouth, e-mail or websites. Implies rapid transmission of messages is intended.
Viral referral
An ‘e-mail a friend or colleague’ component to an e-mail campaign or part of website design.
Virtual cash
See Digital cash.
Virtual community
An Internet-based forum for special-interest groups to communicate using a bulletin board to post messages.
Virtual mall
A website that brings together different electronic retailers at a single virtual (online) location. This contrasts with a fixed-location infrastructure – the traditional arrangement where retail organisations operate from retail stores situated in fixed locations such as real- world shopping malls. (Also known as electronic mall.)
Virtual merchants
Retailers such as Amazon that only operate online – they have no fixed-location infrastructure.
Virtual organisation
An organisation that uses information and communications technology to allow it to operate without clearly defined physical boundaries between different functions. It provides customised services by outsourcing production and other functions to third parties.
Virtual private network
Private network created using the public network infrastructure of the Internet.
Virtualisation
The process whereby a company develops more of the characteristics of a virtual organisation.
Visit conversion rate
An indication of the capability of a site in converting visitors to defined outcomes such as registration. Calculated by dividing the number of conversion events by the number of visitor sessions within a time period.
Visitor conversion rate
An indication of the capability of a site in converting visitors to defined outcomes such as registration. Calculated by dividing the number of conversion events by the number of unique visitors within a defined time period.
Visitor session (visit)
A series of one or more page impressions, served to one user, which ends when there is a gap of 30 minutes or more between successive page impressions for that user.
W
Walled garden
A limited range of e-commerce services on iDTV (compared to the Internet).
WAP
WAP is a technical standard for transferring information to wireless devices, such as mobile phones.
Web 2.0 concept
A collection of web services that facilitate interaction of web users with a site to create user- generated content and encouraging certain behaviours online such as community or social network participation and user-generated content, mashups, content rating, use of widgets and tagging.
Web 3.0 concept
Next-generation web incorporating high-speed connectivity, complex cross-community interactions and an intelligent or semantic web where automated applications can access data from different online services to assist searchers perform complex tasks of supplier selection.
Web accessibility
Designing websites so that they can be used by people with visual impairment whatever browser/access platform they use.
Web addresses
Web addresses refer to particular pages on a web server, which is hosted by a company or organisation. The technical name for web addresses is uniform or universal resource locators (URLs).
Web analytics
Techniques used to assess and improve the contribution of e-marketing to a business, including reviewing traffic volume, referrals, clickstreams, online reach data, customer satisfaction surveys, leads and sales.
Web Application Protocol (WAP)
A standard that enables mobile phones to access text from websites.
Web browsers
Browsers such as Mozilla Firefox and Microsoft Internet Explorer provide an easy method of accessing and viewing information stored as HTML web documents on different web servers.
Webmaster
A webmaster is responsible for ensuring the quality of a website. This means achieving suitable availability, speed, working links between pages and connections to company databases. In small companies the webmaster may be responsible for graphic design and content development.
Web merchandising
The aims of web merchandising are to maximise sales potential of an online store for each visitor. This means connecting the right products, with the right offer to the right visitor, and remembering that the online store is part of a broader experience including online and offline advertising, in-store visits, customer service and delivery.
Web radio
Internet radio is when existing broadcasts are streamed via the Internet and listened to using plug-ins such as Real Media or Windows Media Player.
Web response model
The website is used as a response mechanism for offline campaign elements such as direct mail or advertising.
Web self-service
Content and services provided by an organisation to replace or complement in-store or phone customer enquiries in order to reduce costs and increase customer convenience.
Web servers
Web servers are used to store the web pages accessed by web browsers. They may also contain databases of customer or product information, which can be queried and retrieved using a browser.
Website auditors
Auditors accurately measure the usage of different sites in terms of the number of ad impressions and click-through rates.
Website content
Accessible on the World Wide Web that is created by a particular organisation or individual. The location and identity of a website is indicated by its web address (URL) or domain name. It may be stored on a single server in a single location, or a cluster of servers.
Website measurement
The process whereby metrics such as page impressions are collected and evaluated to assess the effectiveness of Internet marketing activities in meeting customers, business and marketing objectives.
Wide Area Information Service (WAlS)
An Internet service that has been superseded by the World Wide Web.
Widget
A badge or button incorporated into a site or social network space by its owner, with content or services typically served from another site making widgets effectively a mini-software application or web service. Content can be updated in real time since the widget interacts with the server each time it loads.
Wi-Fi (‘wireless fidelity’)
A high-speed wireless local- area network enabling wireless access to the Internet for mobile, office and home users.
Wireframe
Also known as ‘schematics, a way of illustrating the layout of an individual web page.
Wireless Mark-up Language (WML)
Standard for displaying mobile pages such as transferred by WAP.
Word-of-mouth marketing
According to the Word-of- Mouth Marketing Association it is giving people a reason to talk about your products and services, and making it easier for that conversation to take place. It is the art and science of building active, mutually beneficial consumer- to-consumer and consumer-to-marketer communications.
World Wide Web
A medium for publishing information on the Internet. It is accessed through web browsers, which display web pages and can now be used to run business applications. Company information is stored on web servers, which are usually referred to as websites.
X
XML
An advanced mark-up language giving better control than HTML over format for structured information on web pages.
XMOS (cross-media optimisation studies)
XMOS research is designed to help marketers and their agencies answer the question ‘What is the optimal mix of advertising vehicles across different media, in terms of frequency, reach and budget allocation, for a given campaign to achieve its marketing goals?’ The mix between online and offline spend is varied to maximise campaign metrics such as reach, brand awareness and purchase intent.
3G
Third generation of mobile phone technology.
4G
Fourth-generation wireless, expected to deliver wireless broadband at 20-40 Mbps (about 10-20 times the current rates of ADSL broadband service).