Marketing Automation Glossary

Reach Marketing

Marketing Automation Glossary

A

A/B Test: Compare two versions (subject line, content, timing) to see what performs better.
Act-On: A B2B marketing automation platform focused on email automation, lead nurturing, and reporting.
API: A way for platforms to exchange data programmatically.
Attribution: How you assign credit for a conversion across touches.

B

Behavior Tracking: Capturing actions like page views, clicks, downloads, and form submits.
Bounce (Hard/Soft): Failed delivery (hard = permanent, soft = temporary).
Branching Logic: “If/then” paths inside a workflow or journey.

C

Cadence: The timing pattern of messages and follow-ups.
Campaign: A coordinated set of touches tied to a goal (pipeline, registrations, renewals).
CRM: System of record for accounts, contacts, deals, and activities.
Creatio Marketing: A marketing automation platform with no-code tools for building segments, journeys, and campaign workflows.

D

Data Warehouse: Data Warehouse: A centralized system that stores structured data from multiple sources (like your CRM, marketing automation platform, website, and finance systems) so teams can report on it consistently and analyze performance over time.
Data Hygiene: Cleaning, standardizing, and correcting data for accuracy.
Deduplication: Finding and merging duplicate records.
Dynamic Content: Content that changes based on rules (industry, persona, stage).

E

Engagement: Opens, clicks, replies, site visits, conversions—signals of interest.
Enrichment: Adding missing firmographic/contact details.
Event Trigger: An action that starts an automation (form submit, status change).

F

Field Mapping: Matching fields between systems (automation ↔ CRM).
Frequency Cap: Limit how often someone can be messaged.
Freshsales Suite (Freshworks): A CRM + marketing automation suite used to capture, nurture, and engage leads with a shared customer view.
Funnel Stage: Where a lead/contact is in the buyer journey.

G

Governance: Rules for data definitions, ownership, access, and change control.
Gating: Requiring a form to access an asset (white paper, webinar).
Gross vs. Unique Metrics: Total actions vs. distinct people who acted.

H

Hand-raiser: A lead showing strong intent (demo request, pricing page, contact sales).
Hard Bounce: Permanent email failure (invalid address).
HubSpot Marketing Hub: A marketing automation platform connected to a built-in CRM for workflows, email automation, segmentation, and reporting.

I

Identity Resolution: Matching the same person/company across systems.
Integration: Connecting platforms so data and actions sync correctly.
Intent Data: Signals suggesting buying interest (internal behavior or third-party).

J

Journey: A multi-step, branching path across channels (common in enterprise platforms).
Journey Builder: A tool used to design and automate journeys (often associated with SFMC).
Job Queue: Background processing of sends/updates (useful for troubleshooting delays).

K

Key Event: A milestone action you track (MQL, demo request, purchase).
Keyword Segmentation: Segmenting based on content/topic interest.
KPI: Key performance indicator (conversion rate, CPL, pipeline influenced).

L

Lead: A person who can be marketed to or contacted by sales.
Lead Nurture: A planned series of touches to move leads toward a decision.
Lead Routing: Rules that assign leads to the right owner/team.

M

Marketo (Adobe Marketo Engage): A B2B marketing automation platform built for lead management, nurturing, and complex campaign/journey orchestration, with strong CRM integration.
Martech Stack: The full set of marketing tools working together.
Marketing Automation: Software + processes to run campaigns and follow-ups based on rules/behavior.
MQL: Marketing Qualified Lead.
Microsoft Dynamics 365 Customer Insights – Journeys: A journey orchestration and marketing automation tool within Microsoft’s Dynamics ecosystem.

N

Normalization: Standardizing values (states, countries, job titles).
Nurture Stream: Ongoing nurture aligned to persona/topic/stage.
Notification: Alert to sales/CS when a trigger happens.

O

Opt-in: Permission to message someone.
Opt-out: Withdrawal of permission (unsubscribe).
Oracle Eloqua: An enterprise B2B marketing automation platform built for complex campaign orchestration and lead management.
Orchestration: Coordinating channels/tools so experiences feel connected.

P

Personalization: Tailoring content to the person/company (tokens + logic).
Progressive Profiling: Collecting new data over time instead of all at once.
Pipeline Influence: How marketing touches contribute to opportunities and revenue.
Platform-Agnostic: Working across tools without forcing a rip-and-replace.

Q

Qualified Lead: A lead meeting your readiness/fit criteria.
Query: A saved filter used to build segments/lists.
Queue: Leads awaiting work (often on the sales side).

R

Reach Marketing: A marketing services and consulting firm specializing in B2B lead generation, database marketing, and marketing automation—helping teams unify data, connect platforms, and run targeted campaigns that produce measurable results.
Re-engagement: A campaign targeting inactive contacts.
Reporting: Dashboards/metrics that track performance and funnel movement.
Routing Rules: Logic used to assign leads (territory, round-robin, account owner).

S

Segmentation: Grouping people by data + behavior for targeted messaging.
Salesforce Marketing Cloud: An enterprise platform for cross-channel messaging and personalization.
Salesforce Marketing Cloud Account Engagement (Pardot): A B2B marketing automation platform built to align marketing and sales within Salesforce.
Suppression List: People excluded from specific sends.

T

Tableau: A business intelligence (BI) and data visualization tool that connects to data sources (like data warehouses, CRMs, and spreadsheets) and turns the data into interactive dashboards and reports.
Tagging: Labels for organizing contacts, behaviors, or content topics.
Throttling: Limiting send speed to protect deliverability/performance.
Trigger: The event that starts a workflow/journey.

U

UTM Parameters: URL tags that help track traffic sources and campaigns.
Unsubscribe: A request to stop receiving messages.
Update Rule: Automation that changes fields based on conditions.

V

Validation: Ensuring data formats are correct (email, phone, state).
Velocity: Speed of movement through lifecycle stages.
Versioning: Tracking changes to workflows/templates over time.

W

Webhook: Real-time event message sent from one system to another.
Workflow: Automated sequence of actions based on triggers and rules.
Warm Lead: A lead showing engagement but not yet high intent.

X

XLS/CSV Import: Bulk loading contacts or updates via file.
Cross-channel (“X-channel”): Coordinated email/SMS/ads/web experiences.
X-Day Nurture: A nurture series scheduled over a set number of days.

Y

Yield: The return from a campaign (conversions, pipeline, revenue influenced).
Year-over-Year (YoY): Comparing performance to the same period last year.
Your Data Model: How records/fields relate across systems (contacts, accounts, leads).

Z

Zero-Party Data: Data a user intentionally shares (preferences, needs).
Zoho CRM Plus: A unified customer experience suite that can support automated marketing + sales workflows.
Zombie Leads: Old/inactive leads still in the database.
Zone/Timezone Sending: Scheduling sends based on recipient timezone.