Glossary

CAC (consumer acquisition cost) is the expense a business incurs to gain new customers. The CAC formula is:

CPA (cost per action) is a digital advertising pricing model wherein advertisers are charged based on the actions of prospective consumers, like clicking on a call-to-action (CTA), signing up for a newsletter, or making a purchase. It’s calculated by factoring in the total marketing spend in a time period divided by the total number of customers acquired. Here’s how it’s expressed in a formula:

CPM stands for “cost per mile” or, alternatively, cost per 1,000 clicks. It refers to the monetary expense associated with obtaining 1,000 advertising impressions on a web page and helps marketers better understand a campaign’s budget and impact. 

A call-to-action (CTA) seeks to persuade users to take action, whether that’s signing up for a newsletter, receiving information, or buying a product. It uses elements like branding, graphics, and copywriting to entice users to follow through, boosting conversion rates.

A click-to-open rate (CTOR) is the percentage of recipients who open a marketing email and click on a link within the email. It’s derived through the following formula: 

Commercial emails reach subscribers in the form of promotional content like newsletters, new product information, onboarding, and coupons. Since these emails aren’t content that recipients request, the best practice is to seek a double opt-in subscription from them to ensure their consent to extra marketing materials. This ensures recipients aren’t marking emails as spam.

A contact form is a brief questionnaire on a website providing customers with a simple way to contact businesses. When a user submits a contact form, the business receives an email notification, usually to a separate inbox. This allows companies to directly filter through general customer requests from a contact form, freeing up space in customer support’s inbox.

Content marketing uses online materials like videos, blog posts, and infographics to connect with an audience and convince them to buy a product or service. It also builds brand awareness by sending communications to potential customers and turns them into loyal ones by encouraging them to make a purchase. When that happens, brands slowly (but surely) build their customer bases.

A content marketing strategy uses various forms of media – like videos, podcasts, or blogs – to help a company reach sales targets and increase conversions. This content aims to generate curiosity or introduce potential customers to a brand. Companies tailor their content marketing strategies by thoroughly researching and understanding their target audience, but they must first have a framework in place to optimize their strategies and achieve their desired results.

A conversion percentage is the proportion of users taking action on a website. It’s expressed as a percentage and accounts for the total number of users who made a purchase divided by the total number of website visits, multiplied by 100. Here’s how:

A conversion is when the recipient of a marketing communication follows through on a call-to-action (CTA) provided in emails, paid advertisements, or social media posts. Email marketers have the flexibility to choose from a wealth of strategies, like market segmentation and email list hygiene, to convert leads into loyal customers. Not only does this boost sales, but it helps retain customers.

Copywriting is a type of marketing content designed to persuade an audience to take action. To promote products or services, brands hire copywriters who draft fresh, catchy content for product description, marketing channels, and blogs.

A customer data platform is a bundled software that creates a central database of customers. It also creates customer profiles with statistics from many sources, like social media and email participation, ecommerce, web forms, and transactional systems that marketing, sales, and product teams can use to gauge engagement from different audience segments and campaign performance.

A customer journey defines a user’s involvement and interaction with a brand. Its stages include awareness, consideration, purchase, retention, and advocacy.