English for marketing and advertising.

These are fundamental terms used to describe aspects of marketing – as well as advertising terms relating to print media, radio and television, and digital marketing.

Customer: Someone who buys a product. These products are usually physical, such as household items or food. Customers also buy electronic products, such as e-books or software.

Client: Someone who purchases services from companies such as energy firms, law firms, or healthcare providers.

Logo: Specific symbol that represents a brand, such as Amazon's “smile”, Mitsubishi's “three diamonds” symbol or Lacoste's green crocodile.

Slogan: Brief statement that promotes a brand and its image. Famous examples of slogans include Nike’s “Just do it”; “Life’s good”, by LG; and “Think different”, by Apple.

Jingle: Short, catchy song with memorable lyrics that promote a specific product or service, such as “I’m lovin’ it”, by McDonald’s; “Nationwide is on your side”, by Nationwide Insurance; “Baby Back Ribs”, from Chili; or “Ch-ch-ch-Chia!”, from Chia Pet.

Branding: The way a brand is presented to the public; it covers everything from the colors associated with a brand (like Amazon's amber and black color scheme) to the fonts, logos, jingles, and slogans used in a brand's advertising. In addition to colors, symbols and sounds, branding includes the brand's personality (business, casual, confident, fun, etc.) and the brand's values (inclusion, sustainability, cost-benefit, innovation, etc.).

Brand loyalty: Tendency of consumers to regularly use products and services from the same brand. Brands try to build consumer trust — and, therefore, brand loyalty — by cultivating an image of reliability and familiarity.

B2B: Means “Business to Business” sales.

B2C: “Business to Consumer” means the marketing of goods or services to the general public (individual consumers).

Persona: Fictional character created by marketers to reflect the interests, income, education levels and spending habits of a company's typical customers.

Ad campaign: Series of advertisements related to a specific theme that are broadcast during a limited period.

Ad buy: Purchase of advertising space from third-party media outlets for an ad campaign.
Marketing and advertising terms in context

    Consistency in branding is essential. A company generally uses the same brand colors, slogan, logo, and jingle to strengthen its public image and identity.
    Whether selling B2B or B2C, companies strive to build brand loyalty to ensure a steady stream of repeat purchases.
    Marketers create personas to help them build ad campaigns and branding that will inspire real people to buy their company’s products or services.



English for digital marketing.

Digital marketing encompasses how products and services can be promoted online. From social media platforms like Instagram, Facebook, TikTok and Twitter to email and pay-per-click advertising, digital marketing reaches people on their laptops, desktop computers, cell phones and tablets.

Ad targeting: Displaying personally relevant ads to individuals as they browse the web or use social media. Algorithms (mathematical formulas) automate this process, using information about a person's web browsing history, web searches, and online spending habits.

Keywords: Internet search terms that contain just one or two words.

Long-tail keywords: specific internet search terms with more than three words.

Content marketing: use of informative and educational content to build a brand’s authority and generate consumer trust; it is usually done through a company's blog.

Social media marketing: promoting companies, products or services via social media through direct interaction with consumers.

SERPs: Search Engine Results Pages are the list of websites that appear when someone performs a web search (through Google, Bing, etc.).

SEO: Search Engine Optimization uses tools such as relevant keywords and links to other web pages to increase the likelihood of a website being listed on the first page of the SERPs, allowing it to be seen by more people.

PPC: Pay-per-click, a type of interactive online advertising that charges advertisers a small fee every time an internet user clicks on a PPC ad to obtain more information. Types of PPC ads include social media ads (formatted to look like regular posts), instream ads (shown on YouTube), and paid search ads (text-only ads that appear at the top of a SERP).

Mailing list: sets of email addresses (and other information) of people interested in certain topics.

A/B testing: The act of testing two different versions of an ad or email campaign to determine which performs better.
Digital marketing terms in context.

  A long-tail keyword can find more specific search results than a shorter keyword, leading to more useful SERPs, a higher SEO ranking, and more successful ad targeting.
  The marketers used A/B testing to figure out which sales offer appealed more to their mailing list. This helped them plan higher-performing PPC ads like social media ads on Facebook and Instagram and instream ads on YouTube.


English for marketing and sales.

Salespeople use special terms to describe the process of selling products or services.

Prospect: potential customer or consumer, identified according to their needs and interests.

Customer base: group of customers who regularly buy from a given company. These customers also tend to engage with the company on social media and recommend its products to friends and family.

Convert: persuade a potential customer or consumer to purchase a product or service.

Customer acquisition cost: average value required for a company to attract a potential customer and convert it into a paying customer. It may include funds for market research and advertising.

Cold call: telephone call (or other contact) from a salesperson to a random potential customer who has shown no prior interest in the company's products or services.

Warm call: telephone call (or other contact) from a salesperson to someone he or she has come into contact with before (or knows through a mutual acquaintance).

Lead: potential customer, usually suggested to the seller by another sales professional.

Purchase order: written agreement between a buyer and a seller detailing the type and quantity of goods to be sold, as well as their price, delivery date and other relevant information.

Close: complete a deal or sale. A well-known saying among salespeople is the following: “ABC: Always be closing”.

Sales and marketing terms in context

    I have ten cold calls to make today, followed by a warm call to a prospect that my sales manager told me about.
    Lee needs to close this deal, so he can get his purchase orders written by the end of the week.
    If Anna can convert more leads, she can grow her customer base and learn how to reduce her company’s customer acquisition cost.

English for products, competition and growth

When a product is launched (available for sale on the market), the work of marketers and salespeople continues. Refinements to product, marketing, and sales processes help companies stay competitive.

Raw materials: items necessary for the manufacture of finished products, such as metals, fabrics or (in the case of food manufacturers) grains or sweeteners.

Finished products: resulting from the manufacturing process, goods that are ready to be sold.
Retail: products sold in small quantities with a high profit margin.

Wholesale: products sold in bulk (large quantities), for a lower price, often in a B2B (business-to-business) agreement.


Landed cost: total price to bring a finished product to the market. This value includes raw materials, labor, manufacturing equipment, advertising and transportation.

How to conduct a skills gap analysis

Profit margin: amount that a company earns from a sale once manufacturing, labor and shipping costs are deducted from the price paid by the consumer.

Inventory: stock or supply of finished products that are available to make advance purchases.

Product development: process of creating and adapting a product to better meet the needs of potential buyers.

Product line: Related products from the same company, such as DeWalt power tools or Rubbermaid food storage containers.

Target audience: the people for whom a product was created or developed.

Feedback: information about the positive qualities of a product or service, as well as areas for improvement.

Focus group: group of people from a product's target audience who agree to provide feedback on a product or ad campaign.

Market research: carefully examining the spending habits of specific groups of consumers, along with the practices of industry competitors, to identify potential customers and create effective business strategies.

Benchmarking: Using industry standards to compare the design, quality and price of competing products or services.

Market share: percentage of sales controlled by a company in a given sector.

Undercutting: offering goods or services to consumers at a price significantly lower than the competition.

Squeezing out the competition: attempt to conquer most or all of the market share.

Market leader: successful business in a certain sector or market, such as Coca-Cola in the beverage sector.