The world of marketing is filled with acronyms, and this doesn’t cease to be true for financial services.

In light of the fact there are lots of unfamiliar acronyms and jargon flying around in our world of financial marketing, we’ve put this short guide of marketing terms together.

We hope you find it useful.

Analytics

This refers to finding meaning, or patterns, in financial marketing data. For instance, your reports might show that your conversion rate (e.g. website traffic to leads) is, overall, about 5%.

Yet your conversion rate for organic search is 10%. Your analytics may therefore lead you to conclude that organic is your best digital marketing channel for conversions, and you should therefore invest more time and resources in it compared to other marketing channels.

A common tool used to gather website data and derive analytic observations is Google Analytics.

Bounce Rate

This refers to the percentage of website visitors who arrive at your website, and who take no action or leave your website from that page.

Ideally, therefore, in most cases you should be aiming for as low a bounce rate as possible in your financial marketing. The reasoning goes that a lower bounce rate signifies more website engagement.

Content Management System

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A common example of a CMS (content management system) is WordPress. It’s a part of your financial website which allows you to login, and update the content such as blogs.

HTML

Shorthand for HyperText Markup Language, HTML is a type of coding language used to create websites.

It can be thought of as the code which provides the essential “architecture” to your financial website. Think of it like the floor, doors, walls and ceilings of your house.

Very few websites these days are built by financial website designers completely from scratch using HTML. It’s now much more cost-effective to build upon a pre-built, HTML foundation and customise from there.

The other important coding languages used on website include CSS (the “styling” code) and Javascript (the code which tells your website how to “behave” – e.g. page transitions, contact forms etc.).

Inbound Marketing

This kind of marketing can be thought of as “attractional”, or “invitational.” In other words, any marketing which draws website visitors in – rather than requiring to actively go out into the world and catch their attention – can be classed as “inbound marketing.”

A good example of inbound marketing is content marketing. This is where you publish amazing, interesting articles on your niche. These then get read and shared by your target audience, therefore drawing in website visitors and generating online enquiries.

KPI (Key Performance Indicator)

This is a kind of measurement to gauge marketing performance.

There are many different types. For instance, there are KPIs relating to staff – for instance, requiring them to publish a certain number of articles each month on your website, at a certain standard or length.

In addition, there are KPIs pertaining to marketing systems and performance.

For example, one KPI might be to maintain a minimum conversion rate of 5% each month from your website. This might be there to ensure your sales team keeps getting a steady stream of leads.

Landing Page

A landing page is a special kind of page on your financial website. Whilst your “main” pages include things like your Home, About and Contact pages, a landing page is often not easily found via your website navigation bar. Indeed, sometimes these pages can sit on a completely different domain.

The purpose of these landing pages is that they each target a specific user intent, set of keywords or campaign purpose. For instance, if you are running a short Facebook advertising campaign to attract people to a pension seminar event, you might want to drive the traffic to a special landing page.

Monthly Recurring Revenue (MRR)

If your business offers a monthly subscription of sorts, then MRR stands for the amount of revenue this brings in each month. This includes revenue generated from new accounts, as well as lost revenue from lost accounts (e.g. cancellations).

Net Promoter Score (NPS)

Financial Adviser Websites

This is a customer satisfaction scale, ranging from 0-10. It signifies the willingness or likelihood of an individual to recommend your business to other people.

If people answer 0-6, then this signifies negative sentiment towards your brand and service, so these people are called “detractors”. 9s and 10s, however, are promoters. These are very positive.

Frequently measuring your company’s NPS is a vital way to track your brand perception and reputation.

Pay Per Click (PPC)

A form of digital advertising, this type of financial marketing involves paying for adverts to appear online to your potential clients and target audience.

Examples of PPC channels include Facebook Advertising, where you pay Facebook for your company’s ads to appear in users’ news feeds. Another is Google Ads, where you pay Google to display your adverts in your audience’s search results.

Search Engine Optimisation (SEO)

Whereas Google Ads involves paying Google to make your website appear in search results, SEO refers to the practice of pushing your website higher up your users’ search results naturally.

There are many moving parts involved with making SEO work for a financial adviser’s marketing. For instance, there are on-page methods such as optimising meta tags, alt tags and website links. There are also off-site techniques involved as well, such as backlink building.

URL

Shorthand for Unique Resource Locator, it stands for your financial website’s address. (E.g. www.marketingadviser.co.uk).

XML Sitemap

Think of this like a menu for your financial website. It tells Google and other search engines which pages live on your website, and where they can be found. Very useful for helping your SEO.

In addition, when it comes to redesigning your financial website down the line, this file can be incredibly useful for helping you make sure you find all the pages which need re-doing.

 

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