The Terms

Marketing Terms Every Owner and Student Should Know

Each term below is taught by its real textbook name in Marketing for Small Businesses, Book 4 of Dr. Paul's Fabled Forest Business School Series. The tag under each definition shows the chapter that teaches it. Click it to see the full foundation on the small business marketing guide.

Asking for the Referral
Inviting a happy customer, in plain words, to send you someone they know.
Chapter 13: Referral Marketing →
Asking for the Review
Giving customers an easy way to say in public what they would tell you in private.
Chapter 13: Referral Marketing →
Attention vs. Action
Attention is a view, a like, a visit. Action is a sale, a booking, a call. Track both, and pay the rent with the second.
Chapter 17: Conversion Rate →
Benefit
What the customer gets because of a feature, like it stays fixed. Customers buy benefits.
Chapter 5: Value Proposition →
Brand
What a customer recognizes and expects when they see your business, before you say a word.
Chapter 7: Brand Identity →
Brand Awareness
Whether the people you serve know you exist at all.
Chapter 3: Brand Awareness →
Brand Consistency
The same name, look, colors, lettering, and voice everywhere, long enough that strangers stop having to think about it.
Chapter 8: Brand Consistency →
Brand Identity
The name, mark, colors, and look that let a stranger recognize you the second time.
Chapter 7: Brand Identity →
Brand Promise
What a customer can count on from you every time, because you can deliver it every time.
Chapter 6: Brand Promise →
Brand Protection
Registering your name and mark so they are legally yours. Worth doing early, but not a full defense against a copycat by itself.
Chapter 15: Differentiation →
Brand Standards
One page that locks the name, mark, colors, lettering, and tagline, so nothing drifts over time.
Chapter 8: Brand Consistency →
Brand Story
The short, true account of who you are and why you do the work the way you do.
Chapter 4: Positioning →
Brochure
A printed piece that says what you do, shows your work, and tells a stranger what it costs and who to ask for. It must be true today.
Chapter 9: Marketing Collateral →
Cadence
The steady rhythm customers learn to expect from you, like a newsletter every month or a post every Tuesday.
Chapter 12: Marketing Calendar →
Catalog
A page or booklet showing what you offer and how to order without coming in: prices, delivery cost, payment, and order deadlines.
Chapter 10: Direct Marketing →
Consistency Over Perfection
The piece goes out on the scheduled date, whether or not it meets the owner's private idea of finished.
Chapter 12: Marketing Calendar →
Content Marketing
Being useful to the people you want as customers before they buy, so they trust you when they need you.
Chapter 11: Content Marketing →
Conversion Rate
The share of people who noticed you who then took the action you wanted.
Chapter 17: Conversion Rate →
Cost per Customer
What you spent on a marketing channel, divided by the number of customers it brought in.
Chapter 18: Marketing Budget →
Customer List
Every customer by name: where they are, what they buy, how often, and how to reach them.
Chapter 10: Direct Marketing →
Differentiation
Making the real difference between you and a competitor visible to the customer. Usually the people, place, process, or proof, not the product.
Chapter 15: Differentiation →
Direct Marketing
Reaching customers where they are, by name, instead of waiting for them to pass your door.
Chapter 10: Direct Marketing →
Expectation vs. Experience
What your marketing made customers picture, compared with what they actually got. The gap decides whether they come back.
Chapter 6: Brand Promise →
Feature
What your product or service does or has. True, and often invisible to the customer.
Chapter 5: Value Proposition →
Good Enough to Ship
True, useful, and clear. Not flawless.
Chapter 12: Marketing Calendar →
Helpful vs. Selling Content
Helpful content is something a reader would keep even if your name fell off it. Selling content is only about you and gets thrown away.
Chapter 11: Content Marketing →
Honest Marketing
Never advertising something your business does not actually deliver.
Chapter 6: Brand Promise →
How Did You Hear About Us?
The one question that makes attribution possible. Asked every time, written down every time.
Chapter 16: Marketing Attribution →
Keeping Materials Current
Checking every printed piece for accuracy (prices, people, hours, contact name) at least once a year and whenever something changes.
Chapter 9: Marketing Collateral →
Lead Source
Where a customer came from: the card, the referral, the sign, the search, the friend.
Chapter 16: Marketing Attribution →
Logo and Look
One mark, one or two colors, and one style of lettering that still works small on a box lid.
Chapter 7: Brand Identity →
Long Tail
A long spread of one-off items, each wanted by almost nobody, bought on a guess and kept on a hope.
Chapter 2: Market Segmentation →
Making It Easy to Recommend You
A card to hand over, a line to repeat, a place to leave a review, and a small thank-you.
Chapter 13: Referral Marketing →
Market Segmentation
Dividing customers into groups that want the same thing for the same reason, then serving each group well.
Chapter 2: Market Segmentation →
Marketing
Helping the right people find out you exist and giving them a true reason to choose you.
Chapter 3: Brand Awareness →
Marketing Attribution
Knowing which piece of your marketing each customer came from.
Chapter 16: Marketing Attribution →
Marketing Budget
A fixed amount, decided in advance, spent on purpose in the places that reach customers.
Chapter 18: Marketing Budget →
Marketing Calendar
A fixed schedule for what goes out and when, with one owner and a set date.
Chapter 12: Marketing Calendar →
Marketing Collateral
Every printed or posted item that speaks for you when you are not there: brochure, sign, card, price list, vehicle lettering, menu, and listing.
Chapter 9: Marketing Collateral →
Plain Language
If a stranger on the sidewalk cannot understand it in five seconds, it is not finished.
Chapter 5: Value Proposition →
Positioning
The place you hold in a customer's mind next to the other choices. You have one whether you chose it or not.
Chapter 4: Positioning →
Price List
The piece of collateral a stranger trusts completely. It must match what you actually charge.
Chapter 9: Marketing Collateral →
Public Complaint
A complaint made where other customers can see it. The real audience is everyone reading over the complainer's shoulder.
Chapter 14: Reputation Management →
Rebranding
A deliberate, rare, explained change of name or look, done when the business has truly changed. It costs much of the recognition you built.
Chapter 8: Brand Consistency →
Recognition Takes Repetition
A brand is built by being seen the same way many times, not a new way once.
Chapter 8: Brand Consistency →
Referral Marketing
Turning customers who already like you into the way new customers find you, on purpose.
Chapter 13: Referral Marketing →
Relationship Marketing
Marketing built on knowing customers as individuals and staying in touch with them on purpose.
Chapter 20: Relationship Marketing →
Reputation Management
What you do about what is said about you where other customers can see it.
Chapter 14: Reputation Management →
Responding in Public
Answering a public complaint where it was posted: thank them, say what you did, invite them back, sign your name, and leave it up.
Chapter 14: Reputation Management →
Segment
A group of customers who want roughly the same thing for roughly the same reason.
Chapter 2: Market Segmentation →
Spend With a Plan
Deciding where marketing money goes before anyone asks for it.
Chapter 18: Marketing Budget →
Sponsorship
Paying to put your name on something. It is marketing only if the people who see it could become customers. Otherwise it is a gift, which is fine if you call it one.
Chapter 18: Marketing Budget →
Standing Order
Tell me once and it keeps coming. Turns a one-time buyer into a regular.
Chapter 10: Direct Marketing →
Target Customer
One member of your target market, described clearly enough that you would recognize them walking in. Also called the ideal customer.
Chapter 1: Target Market →
Target Market
The specific group of customers your business is built to serve best.
Chapter 1: Target Market →
Teaching as Marketing
Answering a real question well, for free, so the reader learns you know your work and where to find you.
Chapter 11: Content Marketing →
Tracking by Channel
A running count of new customers by lead source, totaled every month.
Chapter 16: Marketing Attribution →
Value Proposition
One clear sentence that tells a customer what they get from you and why from you.
Chapter 5: Value Proposition →
Vanity Metrics
Attention numbers that feel good and rise easily but do not pay anyone: views, likes, followers.
Chapter 17: Conversion Rate →
Visibility
The practical side of awareness: a sign, your name on the work, a sentence you can say out loud.
Chapter 3: Brand Awareness →
Who You Are Not For
The customers who cost more to serve than they are worth, and whom you can politely let go.
Chapter 1: Target Market →
Word-of-Mouth Marketing
Customers telling other people about you. Real and free, but only as far-reaching as your customers' own circles unless you feed it on purpose.
Chapter 19: Word-of-Mouth Marketing →
Marketing for Small Businesses book cover

Knowing the word does not ring the phone. Using it does.

Every term here shows up in the book inside a real problem: six hundred flyers and a quiet phone, a jar with a blank label, a bad review taped to a board. 20 foundations, a Nutshell for each, and the Owner's Scorecard. Book 4 of Dr. Paul's Fabled Forest Business School Series.

Get the Book →

Put the Terms to Work

Start With the Foundation You Need

A definition helps you follow the conversation. A foundation helps you get the customer. These are the ones owners ask about most.

Foundation 01Target MarketFoundation 05Value PropositionFoundation 14Reputation ManagementFoundation 13Referral MarketingFoundation 04PositioningFoundation 18Marketing BudgetFoundation 16Marketing AttributionFoundation 03Brand AwarenessFoundation 02Market SegmentationFoundation 11Content MarketingFoundation 17Conversion RateFoundation 20Relationship Marketing

All 20 are on the small business marketing guide, with a free self-check and a sample chapter. More subjects are in the Small Business Education Center.

Written by Dr. Paul Borosky, DBA, MBA, business consultant and author who helps owners figure out who to reach and what to stop paying for. Want a second set of eyes on yours? Dr. Paul works with owners one-on-one.

This page is for general educational purposes only. It is not legal or other professional advice. For decisions about your own business, consult a qualified professional.