Understanding Marketing

A/B testing is a method used to compare two versions of a system by testing the original against a slightly modified variant. This approach is mainly used in software updates and web design, aiming to increase specific user actions or overall engagement.

AdSense allows website or blog owners to earn money by displaying Google ads on their sites. Publishers receive a small payment each time one of their ads is clicked. In this way, AdSense serves as the counterpart to AdWords.

AI, or artificial intelligence, is a branch of computer science focused on developing machines that can mimic human cognitive abilities through machine learning or programmed algorithms. This enables them to perform tasks methodically, such as through deep learning. In marketing, AI can be used to enhance customer support, generate fresh ideas with tools like ChatGPT, predict customer behavior, personalize advertising, and optimize existing processes.

AIDA stands for Attention, Interest, Desire, and Action. It outlines the four key steps of an engaging user experience and is commonly used in design and marketing, especially for advertising campaigns. Ultimately, the goal is to guide the user from capturing their attention and sparking interest to creating a desire to buy, and finally to taking action and making the purchase.

Affiliate Marketing is a type of online marketing where companies pay partners (affiliates) to drive traffic or sales to their website. Affiliates promote the company’s products or services and earn a commission for each successful referral, such as a sale or lead generated.

This Adobe program is a VFX tool designed for creating visual effects and 3D motion graphics for film, TV, video, and web. After Effects offers presets, templates, and AI-powered tools like the rotoscope brush, enabling you to animate and edit logos, characters, shapes, illustrations, and text. This makes it easy to create titles, intros, and transitions while seamlessly collaborating with other Adobe applications.

Unlike VR applications, AR allows the viewer to experience the real world enhanced with digital elements such as text, images, graphics, animations, and audio recordings. This digital overlay happens in real time and is supported by various mobile devices, with smartphones, tablets, and AR glasses being the most common.

Adobe Systems Incorporated is a US-based software company renowned for developing programs focused on text and image design as well as marketing solutions. Adobe covers a wide range of areas, including digital experience platforms, content management systems, customer data analytics, B2B marketing automation, e-commerce, and enterprise marketing — making their tools versatile and widely applicable.

Backlinks are incoming links from one website to another, also known as inbound links. They play a crucial role in search engine rankings because they signal the relevance and authority of a website. The more high-quality backlinks a site has, the higher it ranks in search engine results.

A benefit simply refers to the clear advantage or value a product or service offers. These benefits should be communicated and showcased clearly in your marketing efforts to effectively convince your target audience to purchase the product or use the service.

Big Data refers to massive volumes of data that are too large and complex to be processed efficiently using traditional data management methods. This data comes from a variety of sources such as social networks, sensors, online transactions, and other digital channels.

A blog (short for “weblog”) is a publicly accessible online journal or diary hosted on a website, where at least one person—the blogger—records entries, describes specific topics, or shares their thoughts. Blog posts can reach a wide audience, which in turn boosts your website’s visibility in search engines.

A bot (short for “robot”) is a computer program that automatically performs repetitive tasks without needing human intervention.

A breadcrumb navigation is a submenu in user interfaces. It’s usually a text line that shows users their current location within the website’s hierarchy.

Business to Business (B2B) refers to commercial relationships between companies, as opposed to interactions between businesses and other groups, like consumers or individual customers.

Business to Consumer (B2C) refers to commercial relationships between companies and private individuals as customers.

Cascading Style Sheets (CSS) are a styling and formatting language used to define the design of HTML documents through fonts, colors, and lines.

The Click Through Rate (CTR) in online marketing is a metric that represents the percentage of clicks an ad (e.g., a Google or Facebook ad) receives relative to its impressions. For example, if an ad is shown 100 times but clicked only once, the CTR is 1%. This makes CTR a key indicator for measuring the effectiveness of advertising campaigns.

Content refers to all types of material published online. This can include text, images, graphics, or videos shared across social networks or websites, designed to entertain or inform users.

This form of digital marketing isn’t directly about advertising. Instead, the created “content” — like a blog post — aims to provide valuable information, spark interest, and attract customers naturally. The focus is on communicating meaningful content rather than immediate sales pitches, building a foundation of trust that pays off in the long run.

This refers to a key aspect of branding: the design elements that define your brand’s identity. This includes things like your company logo, website, product packaging designs, and other factors that create a recognizable brand image. A strong corporate design is essential for visibility, the effectiveness of your marketing campaigns, and your overall corporate identity — something we’re happy to develop together with you.

Corporate Identity (CI) includes all the elements that shape and represent a company’s identity. Its goal is to clearly distinguish the business from competitors, align overarching objectives, and create a consistent internal image of the company. CI is a crucial part of a brand’s overall presence and impact.

Derived from the English word “to crawl,” this term refers to software programs designed to browse and analyze specific content on the internet. These programs can, for example, detect and uncover copied content or locate data sets. For marketing purposes, this can be both an advantage and a disadvantage.

This refers to a bundled Adobe subscription that includes programs like Photoshop, Illustrator, and Premiere Pro. It also provides cloud storage and seamless integration across all apps.

A customer journey describes the entire path a customer takes—from awareness and interest through to the purchase decision and ongoing interactions with a company. It includes every touchpoint where the customer engages with the business or its offerings, such as marketing campaigns, websites, social media, customer service, and sales conversations.

Data protection covers aspects such as safeguarding privacy, preventing misuse of data, and controlling when and which personal information is accessible.

The term describes the use of digital media content for advertising purposes such as electronic billboards, in-store promotions, or large-scale public projections. These are designed to engage potential customers.

Display advertising is visually presented on a screen and is also known as display advertising or online advertising. On the internet, it includes any form of ads using images, graphics, or videos.

Dots per Inch (DPI) is a measurement of the dot density in printed images. It indicates how many individual dots can be placed within one inch of a line. The higher the DPI, the better the image quality.

The General Data Protection Regulation (GDPR) officially came into effect on June 25, 2018, establishing a uniform framework for how companies and authorities handle personal data—such as on websites. This means it must always be clear how a user’s data is being processed. Additionally, the data must be transmitted securely, for example through SSL encryption on the website or via a cookie notice.

The General Data Protection Regulation (GDPR) officially came into effect on June 25, 2018, establishing a uniform framework for how companies and authorities handle personal data—such as on websites. This means it must always be clear how a user’s data is being processed. Additionally, the data must be transmitted securely, for example through SSL encryption on the website or via a cookie notice.

This term refers to duplicate content that appears multiple times across the internet. If identical text sections exist on two different URLs, that counts as duplicate content. Google penalizes exact copy-pasted content.

E-commerce refers to the sale and purchase of products or services via the Internet. It is an electronic business model that enables customers to buy and sell goods and services online without having to visit a physical retailer

Email marketing offers the perfect way to reach (potential) customers—not just through classic newsletters, but also with welcome emails, birthday greetings, and more. Think of it as your own personalized social media inbox where you can introduce customers to new products and services.

Launched in 2004, Facebook (now part of Meta) offers its users a platform primarily for communication, sharing photos, spreading information, and organizing events. It quickly reached record user numbers and currently boasts around 3 billion active users worldwide. But especially for businesses, Facebook has become indispensable thanks to its online marketing tools and precise audience targeting.

The tool helps businesses protect information from unauthorized access, misuse, and improper handling by employees. With the manager, you can assign different roles and corresponding permissions to your staff.

This is a generative AI developed by Adobe for enhanced use of Adobe products like Photoshop. It can create new image or text elements, remove old ones, or expand existing visuals based on text inputs. It’s designed to simplify design workflows in a professional context.

File Transfer Protocol (FTP) is a network protocol used to transfer files over an IP network. FTP allows uploading files from a client to a server and vice versa.

A funnel describes the customer buying cycle within a company. Starting from the initial stage when someone becomes aware of a product, through to the purchase phase, this model maps the path to conversion and beyond.

With Google Ads, a website appears among the top results for a search query. However, these paid ad spots are clearly marked as “Ad” to distinguish them from organic search results. Still, this method puts your product front and center, helping it stand out from the competition.

Google’s analytics software lets you evaluate how easily websites can be found online and how they rank on Google. You can track exactly how users arrive at a site (e.g., via social media, Google search, etc.), how long they stay, and how they navigate the site. Demographic data about users can also be gathered this way.

A Google My Business listing is essential for local businesses today. It not only helps you show up in targeted searches but also makes it easier for customers to find a specific service provider “nearby.” Profiles created through Google My Business appear in the right-hand column of search results, displaying your website, phone number, email address, and physical location — making it much easier for customers to get in touch.

Google Tag Manager lets you easily add various code snippets—like tracking codes or conversion pixels—to your website. You only need to embed the Tag Manager once in your site’s source code, and from there, you can manage and collect data efficiently without touching the code again.

What exactly does a graphic designer do? Something with graphics — right? Yes, but just like any profession, there are different specialties and focus areas. One designer might mainly work on photo editing, another on print formats or digital graphics. Within these specialties, there are even more specific roles. For example: Designer A works in print, handling magazines — laying out text and images correctly, inserting graphics in the right file size and format, checking everything, and adding effects. Designer B works for a company creating and adapting packaging for the brand, adding images, and designing graphics and text. As you can see, the graphic designer’s role is incredibly diverse.

This refers to short, punchy headlines on a website designed to grab visitors’ attention and encourage them to keep reading or exploring the content. Websites use headline sizes from H1 to H6. The H1 tag should appear only once per page, especially for accessibility reasons.

Home office is the German term for “working from home”. While it was initially rather controversial, it is now a must for any employer who wants to present themselves as attractive and modern. During Corona at the latest, it has become clear what advantages the home office has to offer – for both the employee and the employer.

HTML (Hypertext Markup Language) is a computer-based language used to create websites and web content.

This Adobe program is a layout and design software for both print and digital media. Its templates, fonts, and typography tools can be used to create flyers, graphics, eBooks, business cards, packaging, magazines, or for team collaboration with interactive documents.

This term refers to a person who has built a substantial community on social media and is used for marketing purposes due to their credibility and influence. Influencers often act as brand ambassadors and can quickly gain large reach. The costs involved are often underestimated; campaigns can quickly run into five-figure sums.

Since 2012 part of Facebook (now Meta), the social network Instagram allows users to edit and share photos and videos with friends, as well as like and comment on posts. While crafting engaging captions is possible, the platform’s main focus is on visuals. Instagram hosts countless influencers who can generate significant attention through their reach.

Impressions are a key metric in online marketing that indicate how often an ad—whether on Google or Facebook—is displayed. Impressions are counted even if a user simply scrolls past the ad without clicking on it. Each individual view, even by the same person, is counted as a separate impression.

This Adobe program is a design software for vector-based illustrations, logos, icons, typography, and graphics. It enables the creation of branding and marketing elements such as product packaging, display designs for websites, posters, billboards, apparel, promotional items, and social media content. Additionally, Illustrator can digitize hand-drawn sketches and create compelling infographics.

This is a programming language commonly used to develop interactive features on websites, enabling things like user interactions or dynamic content updates.

This term refers to a short, catchy melody or sound sequence used in advertising or brand identification to capture the audience’s attention and strengthen brand recognition.

A keyword is a text element that either appears directly in the original text or can be used as a tag for it. Usually, it’s a word that captures the main topic of the content. Keywords come in two types: single keywords and so-called long-tail keywords, which can be short phrases. Keywords help improve your Google ranking because the search engine aims to show the most relevant results containing the search term at an optimal frequency. However, it’s important to note that Google penalizes excessive keyword use by flagging the text as spam, which prevents it from ranking higher.

A competitor analysis involves gathering and examining all business-relevant information about your competitors. Key data points include pricing, marketing, customer service, quality, and distribution channels. The main goal is to identify your competitors’ strengths and weaknesses compared to your own company, so you can uncover opportunities for gaining a competitive edge.

KPI stands for “Key Performance Indicator” and refers to measurable values used to monitor the progress and performance of an organization, project, or process. KPIs help businesses understand and track their goals, measuring success across key areas such as revenue, customer satisfaction, marketing campaigns, and more.

A landing page is a dedicated entry page on a website created specifically for a marketing or advertising campaign. Its main goal is to encourage visitors to take a specific action, such as leaving their email address, making a purchase, or filling out a form.

Potential customers who show interest in a product or company are called leads. In lead marketing, the company addresses one of the leads’ needs by offering special deals or incentives. In return, these prospects are likely willing to provide their contact information for follow-up communication at a later time.

After generating traffic, it’s crucial to retain and further engage potential new customers. Lead generation involves implementing calls to action, newsletters, surveys, and more to establish an interactive and ongoing connection with the customer. This increases the likelihood of initiating a purchase.

This refers to an approach to starting a business with minimal time and cost investment.

A proofreading/editing process in which texts are reviewed for quality, logical coherence, and meaningful connections, with comments added and corrections made in direct consultation with, or according to the guidelines of, the client.

LinkedIn is an essential platform for anyone looking to market themselves as a professional. It allows you to build your own network and stay up to date with the latest industry developments.

This refers to a combination of various marketing tools—such as product, price, promotion, and distribution—strategically used to meet the needs of the target audience and achieve marketing goals.

This involves developing the various actions to be used in a marketing or advertising campaign—such as cost-benefit analysis or competitor analysis—so that the promotional materials effectively achieve their goals. With your customized media plan, we can perfectly coordinate your next steps.

Midjourney is a generative AI developed by a U.S. research institute. By processing human text prompts, the AI analyzes datasets, recognizes patterns, and generates high-resolution image compositions or edits existing images. It enables combining two images or an image with a text prompt for quick, creative results and visualizations.

This describes the systematic monitoring and analysis of data and information to track the success of marketing activities, brand perception, or online reputation, and to derive appropriate actions.

This is a sales method where products or services are promoted and sold through a network of independent sales partners, with a focus on word-of-mouth and recommendations. We can’t deny it: if you ever come across pyramid schemes, you’ll also hear the term Network Marketing.

This is the process of acquiring new customers for a company or brand, whether through targeted marketing campaigns, sales activities, or customer referrals.

Newsletter marketing refers to the use of email newsletters to regularly provide potential and existing customers with information, offers, and news about a company or brand.

This refers to a specific, narrowly defined target group or market segment that a company focuses on with its product or service to differentiate itself from the competition and achieve a distinct positioning.

This refers to a product that has no recognizable or known brand and is often offered at a lower price, based on the assumption that the customer primarily values the utility rather than the brand itself.

This term refers to marketing activities carried out by nonprofit organizations, foundations, or social projects to communicate their mission, gain support, and raise awareness for social causes.

This refers to the optimization of a website through building external backlinks to improve visibility in search engine results and increase organic traffic.

This is a printing process where the ink is transferred from a plate to a rubber blanket roller and then onto the printing substrate, producing high-quality and precise printed materials such as books, magazines, and brochures.

These are marketing activities carried out via the internet and digital channels, such as websites, social media, email marketing, and search engine optimization, aimed at acquiring customers and increasing online sales.

In this field, we are experts. Whether it’s website, social media, or SEO, we’re happy to help you become visible online.

OnPage optimization refers to all measures taken on your own website to improve it through technical (e.g., adjusting page load speed or fixing faulty URLs) and content-related (e.g., changing text, headings, meta tags, or images) factors, thereby enhancing search engine rankings. In general, this includes all factors you can influence on and with your own domain.

This refers to the explicit consent of a person allowing their personal data to be used for specific marketing purposes, such as receiving newsletters or promotional offers.

This refers to the natural and unpaid search results delivered by search engines based on their relevance to a person’s search query.

PPC is an advertising model where advertisers pay for each click on their ads, which are displayed on websites or search engine results pages.

This Adobe program is a software used for editing or creating images and graphics. Photoshop enables detailed, high-resolution photo retouching, the use of graphic tools, creating image montages, short animations, and text graphics. It can also be combined with Adobe Firefly’s AI enhancement tools. Thus, Photoshop allows marketing professionals to bring very specific visual ideas to life when it comes to image design.

Plug-ins are extensions for websites, web apps, and web-based applications. They can be free or paid. Examples include browser extensions or website plug-ins that provide translation functionality. There are many other possibilities and features that plug-ins enable to enhance user experience and functionality.

This term refers to the moment or place where a customer makes a purchase decision and actually buys the product, whether online or offline.

This refers to the place where a product or service is sold, often a physical retail store or a point of sale where customers come into contact with the product.

In marketing, this refers to a structured and systematic analysis aimed at making predictive statements about growth opportunities. This analysis estimates a market’s capacity to adopt new innovations and serves as a key decision-making tool for planning, developing, and launching new products and services. Additionally, it is part of a broader market analysis.

This Adobe program is video editing software used to edit and customize videos for web, social media, film, and TV. With templates, effects, transition tools, audio mixing, automatic transcriptions, and format adjustments, it enables the production of high-quality videos and short films that can be widely used in attention-grabbing advertising campaigns.

Print refers to printed materials such as brochures, flyers, posters, and newspapers, which are produced to distribute information and advertising to customers or target audiences.

Proof refers to evidence or confirmation used to demonstrate the credibility or quality of a product, service, or claim, helping to build trust with customers.

Pull Marketing refers to a marketing strategy where companies take targeted actions to attract and increase customer demand by offering incentives, providing valuable information, or building a strong brand.

Push Marketing is a marketing strategy where companies proactively send their messages and promotional campaigns directly to their target audience to grab attention and boost sales.

This refers to a quote, statement, or pricing model used in marketing communications to convey the value or cost of a product or service.

When a website or website layout automatically adjusts to all screen sizes—whether on a smartphone, desktop, or tablet—it is called responsive web design. Since screen sizes and resolutions vary from device to device, it is always advisable and practical to design websites responsively. This ensures that page elements rearrange themselves to provide the best possible viewing experience for the user.

Search engine advertising (SEA) ensures that a website appears directly on the first page among the top results of a search engine query. The most well-known example of this is Google Ads. Pages boosted through ads can be identified by the label “Ad” or “Sponsored.” However, many consumers are hesitant about “paid” results and tend to trust organically ranked websites more.

SEM stands for Search Engine Marketing and includes all measures aimed at improving a website’s visibility on the internet.

SEO stands for Search Engine Optimization. It refers to the set of techniques used to optimize a website so that it ranks better on Google and other search engines—without relying on paid advertising.

Snapchat is a free instant messaging app designed for smartphones and tablets. The platform lets users send pictures and videos that are only briefly visible to the recipient before they automatically delete themselves. It’s especially popular among teenagers, as the short visibility of the content gives a sense of security against further sharing.

Social media marketing enables companies to reach potential customers exactly where they spend their time daily—through posts, stories, and targeted ads on platforms like Facebook, Instagram, or LinkedIn. This form of marketing is indispensable today, helping businesses not only acquire new customers but also strengthen their presence with existing ones, thereby building long-term relationships.

SSL (Secure Sockets Layer) encryption refers to the active protocol placed between customers and web servers that protects data exchange and secures sensitive information. End-to-end encryption is also part of the domain’s copyright and security classification as a certificate. Thus, SSL encryption is indispensable for establishing a trustworthy, authentic website.

Targeting is a marketing strategy in which details and data about the specific target group of the purchase performance are collected. By designing specific advertising campaigns, this target group is now addressed directly and the ‘hit rate’ of leads is improved.

Tonality—or tonalität—refers to the distinctive style, mood, and atmosphere that a company or brand conveys as part of its advertising message. This core tone strategically shapes the brand’s identity and evokes specific feelings and associations in consumers. In marketing texts, tonality is also known as the “tone of voice.”

Touchpoints refer to any interaction points that users or customers encounter throughout the customer journey with a brand, company, or product. These can arise through various actions such as targeted advertising campaigns, visiting a website, or other forms of interaction and communication. Touchpoints are crucial for engaging potential customers and positively influencing their purchasing decisions. Some touchpoints can also be managed or enhanced through indirect marketing.

This term refers to website traffic—that is, visits to your website from people who could become your future customers. Generating traffic helps increase sales and acquire new customers. Additionally, your online visibility improves through successful traffic generation.

The Unique Advertising Proposition (UAP) describes the distinctive features of a brand’s or company’s advertising presence. In German, it is called „kommunikative Profilierung.” It is an advertising promise that highlights a product characteristic which may also exist in competitors’ products but is not emphasized by them. The UAP helps make products without a truly unique selling point competitive in the market.

A URL (Uniform Resource Locator) is an address that specifies the location of a file on a server and is part of the URI (Uniform Resource Identifier). Colloquially, a URL is often called an “internet address” or “web address.” Ensuring correct linking is important in marketing to direct customers to the right pages.

Usability refers to the user-friendliness or ease of use of a website or app for the user. Therefore, when building a website, the focus should never be solely or primarily on an attractive design, but above all on functionality, so that the site or app can be used effectively, efficiently, and satisfactorily.

USP is an acronym for Unique Selling Proposition/Point, which translates to “unique selling feature” or “unique selling point” in German. The term describes the uniqueness of a product or the special qualities that set a company apart from its competitors. A USP could be, for example, a special function on a kitchen appliance or exceptional services like an unlimited return policy.

The viewer usually enters “virtual reality” through a VR headset, which completely blocks out the real world and replaces it with screens. The software creates two slightly offset images—one for the right eye and one for the left—that our brain combines into a single overall picture. The feeling of visual immersion is then created by the image in the headset changing according to the user’s head movements.

A website today can serve many purposes. Primarily, it acts as an online business card for a company, establishing presence and providing a point of contact. Beyond that, it can be developed into an online shop. Nowadays, it’s common for websites to also offer added value to customers through content. With blogs or interactive pages, customers are entertained and engaged as part of storytelling marketing, fostering long-term loyalty.

WordPress is an open-source software used for building and managing websites. It belongs to the category of CMS (Content Management Systems) and is the most widely used among them. In fact, 61% of websites created with a CMS are WordPress sites. The software is continuously improved through extensions and updates.

This term refers to a social network for professional contacts that is especially popular in German-speaking countries. It enables professionals to connect with business contacts, explore career opportunities, and exchange expertise.

This refers to an XML-format file that contains a hierarchical structure and information about the pages of a website to help search engines crawl and index the site.

YouTube is often overlooked as a social media platform, yet it’s stronger than ever. With 1.9 billion active monthly users (as of 2020) spanning a wide range of age groups, the platform makes it easy to showcase your brand. Plus, YouTube offers various types of advertising at relatively affordable click costs.

This refers to a specific group of people identified as potential customers for a product or service, based on shared characteristics such as age, gender, interests, or demographic information.

Zoom is a video conferencing tool that enables users to host online meetings, presentations, or training sessions, facilitating communication through both audio and video.