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First off, what's digital marketing?
Marketing, to put it in the simplest terms, is the promotion of products or services to a given business' customers. So where does digital marketing fit in? While the term continues to evolve, it has come to mean every marketing activity that is distributed through a digital device. The rule of thumb? If the marketing activity appears on a screen, it's digital.
Why is digital marketing important?
For decades, traditional marketing practices like billboards, radio, and TV advertisements have been the domain of large companies with big budgets. However, since the mass adoption of the internet, digital marketing has allowed small businesses to engage in the same activities as the big guys. Now, a local children's art class can advertise right alongside Tide, BMW, or Nike.
What's important to know for children's activity providers?
Opportunities and practices in digital marketing are changing and improving every day–what was important to know yesterday, might be entirely different today. However, there are some basic metrics, schools of thought, and terminology that continue to serve as the backbone for modern digital marketing. The glossary below is an overview for the terms, metrics, and definitions that are important for any children's activity provider who wants to use digital marketing to sell their classes, camps, or semesters online.
Schools of digital marketing
Affiliate Marketing - The activity in which a business pays an external website (the "affiliate") commission on a sale, traffic, or other action generated from its referrals
Content Marketing - The creation and distribution of online content that does not explicitly promote a business, but is intended to generate interest and awareness around its products or services
Display Marketing - Often in the form of "banner advertisements", display refers to the placement of advertisements on a network of external websites
Email Marketing - Any marketing communication or activity distributed using email
Paid Search - The act of using search engine's advertising to pay to show up for relevant keywords (See: Keyword). Check out our guide to learn more about Google Ads for small businesses.
Social Media Marketing - Any marketing activity done on a social network (Examples: Facebook, Twitter, LinkedIn, Pinterest)
Search Engine Optimization (SEO) - The process and practice of making a website more easily found in search engines, outside of paid search
Key terms
Advertisement - The tangible manifestation of a marketing activity
Analytics - The collection of data and metrics that determine the efficacy of any online marketing effort
Call to Action - A form of messaging in marketing intended to drive a customer to take a specific action
Campaign - The umbrella term given to a collection of marketing activities that are intended to drive toward a specific business goal
Channel - The chosen platform that a campaign is distributed through
Conversion - When a customer or user completes the intended specific action
Engagement - An umbrella term describing any interaction a user has with a given piece of content online
Key Performance Indicator (KPI) - The specific metrics that determine the efficacy of a marketing activity
Lead - A user or customer that has shown a propensity to convert. Typically refers to a user providing email information to a given business
Organic - Any activity in digital marketing that is not supported by paid methods
Pixel - A small piece of code placed on a users browser used to anonymously track their activity and interactions online
Retargeting - Any marketing activity that uses a customers previous interactions to deliver them relevant advertisements
Traffic - The amount of visits to a website
Metrics
Cost-Per-1000 Impressions (CPM) - The baseline metric for most online advertising, the dollar amount paid for a given advertisement to have the opportunity to be seen 1,000 times (See: Impression)
Cost-Per-Conversion (CPConv) - The dollar cost for a user to take a pre-defined action
Conversion Rate - The percentage of users who received an advertisement and took the intended specific action
Cost-Per-Click (CPC) - The average dollar cost for a user to click on an advertisement
Click-Through Rate (CTR) - The percentage of people who see an advertisement and click on it
Impression - A metric to show when an advertisement is possible to be viewed once on a web page or channel
Reach - The amount of individual people who see a given advertisement
Unique Visitors Per Month (UVPM) - A baseline marketing metric showing the total amount of individual users who visit a website or property within a given month
