The Digital Entrepreneur’s Glossary: 113 terms you need to know

So, you are new to the market of digital products, have come across unknown terms and you are still not completely sure what they mean?

Don’t worry, every entrepreneur who has been working with digital marketing has been through this situation!

And to help you out, we have come up with the most important, and most commonly used, terms in the market. Check out our Digital Entrepreneur’s Glossary and feel free to come back to this list whenever you need to!

A

A/B Testing

Tests that identify which function or page has the best performance to be made available to an audience. It divides traffic into two, with two different versions to test which one generates more conversion.

Advanced withdrawal

The possibility of withdrawing the sales commission soon after the payment has been approved. Normally, there is a 30-day wait, but with the Advanced withdrawal, it is possible to do it beforehand.

Affiliates

These are the people who want to promote other people’s products and earn commissions for every sale made through their Affiliate referral.

Affiliate Marketing

Advertising that is managed by Affiliates, with the goal of promoting products from Producers and earning a commission for every sale made.

Affiliate Program

This is a system that works as a bridge, connecting Affiliates to products and Producers. To understand how an Affiliate Program works, click here.

Assets

Visual resources that may enrich a video content, such as icons, animations, text. They are added when the video is being added.

B

Banner

Graphic design piece that can be displayed on websites and blogs, with the objective of inviting the visitor to perform an action, such as be redirected to another page, download content or even make a sale.

Base (email)

Also called “email base”, this is the email list you have built to communicate directly with your leads.

Benchmark

This is a kind of market research which analyzes your competition and finds opportunities that your product can take.

Blueprint

Score that qualifies your digital product registered on the platform. The higher the quality of your product, the higher the Blueprint.

Bonus

Resource commonly used by Affiliates to increase competitive advantage among other Affiliates. The bonus comes in the form of supplementary materials (ebooks, infographics, audio), to raise the value of the offer of a digital product.

Bottom of the Funnel (BoFu)

In this stage of the Sales Funnel, the customer makes a choice of which company or product will better meet her needs.

Buyer Persona

Sometimes referred to simply as “persona” or “avatar”, this is the representation of your ideal client. When you identify your buyer persona, you will know what the profile of your potential buyer is, and you will be able to deal with subjects that interest her and use the correct language to approach her.

C

CAC

Customer Acquisition Cost  – the amount you spend to acquire each new customer.

Chargeback

This is the cancellation of a sale by credit or debit card. When a buyer requests a reimbursement for a sale made and the credit card company gives the money back to the back account, a chargeback has occurred.

Checkout

Page (or pages) in which the customer makes a purchase. Do you know when you make an online purchase and you have to enter your information, including the number of your credit card? That is a Checkout page.

Checkout: Optimized Checkout

When the checkout is totally perfected to improve user’s experience at the moment of purchase and increase the chances that she may effectively conclude the payment process.

Checkout: Standard Checkout

The standard checkout redirects the user to the platform which will act as an intermediary in the payment process, such as PayPal, Payoneer, etc. Only there will the user be able to complete the purchase.

Checkout: Transparent Checkout

It’s a system that keeps the user in the same website she accessed to make the purchase.

Commission

Amount received for sales made.

Content offer

Rick material being offered to visitors in your website or blog with the goal of transmitting knowledge and further engage them with your brand or product.

Conversion

When a visitor performs a very important action in your online page. It may be signing up for your newsletter, downloading some kind of material, purchasing a service or product, among others.

Co-production

When two people get together to produce an online course or another type of digital product to sell on the web.

Copywriting

The art of persuading a user through the use of words. The objective of a copywriter is always to direct the visitor to perform an action that leads to conversion.

CPA

Cost per Action. A term used in paid advertisement campaigns. The advertiser is only charged when the user takes a pre-established action. For example: like a page, share a post, click an ad.

CPC 

Cost per click. The advertiser pays for every click the ad gets.

CPM 

Cost per thousand impressions (cost per ‘mille’). Every thousand times the ad is displayed, the advertiser will pay a determined amount.

Cross selling

The practice of offering supplementary products to a client. For example: if you have a subscription to a cooking course, you may offer an ebook about organic food.

CTA

Call-to-action. It is what takes the user to perform an action on a specific page.

CTR

Click through rate. The ration between the number of times an ad is displayed and the number of clicks it gets. Also called Click rate.

D

Digital Producer

The specialist who creates content to teach other people.

Digital Product

Material distributed digitally. It may come in the form of online courses, software, tutorials, audiobooks, and many other types.

Disclaimer

This is a Term of Responsibility and should be used especially when it is imperative to make an agreement or note to your visitor/customer. For example, if your online product is about fitness nutrition, but it is not suitable for diabetics, you need to make this information very clear. So both parties in the agreement are covered: yourself, and the customer.

Display Network

A network of associated Google websites that allow people to advertise on these channels. Google associates the ad with an advertising website according to the niche both parties have in common.

Distance Education

Also referred to as Distance Learning, this is a teaching methodology that establishes that the physical presence of a student in a classroom is not required for learning to take place. Other media can be used, the internet, for instance.

Down-selling 

When the customer chooses or you offer a plan at a lower price in your service. Although it lowers the ticket of your product, you avoid losing a customer.

E

Ebook

A term used for an “electronic book”. This book is made available to the reader in a digital format, and she can read it in a variety of compatible electronic devices (smartphone, tablet, notebook, or ebook reader).

E-learning

Similar to Distance Learning, but differently from the latter that can take place via post, the e-learning system has to happen in an online environment.

Email Marketing

A tool that establishes the connection between seller and customer, and promotes services and products via email.

Engagement

When there are involvement and interaction among prospects, followers, customers, and your brand. It may be likes and comments on social media or email replies.

Evergreen content

Content that is timeless, and will remain relevant. Our post “6 sales techniques for beginners” is a good example of evergreen content. It is different from news content, which has as its goal to inform people of a fact but becomes outdated.

Evergreen funnel

Works like a store that is open 24-hours a day. The customer may purchase the product at any given moment. The digital Producer may choose between evergreen funnel or launch.

F

Forms 

Also known as “conversion forms”, these are fields that must be filled in by the visitor with the objective of leading to conversion. It may be a form to receive some kind of rich material, sign up for a newsletter or make a purchase.

G

Global Payment System

A method that accepts purchases made anywhere in the world, since it converts the currency to the Producer’s or Affiliate’s account.

Goal

Final objective to be reached in a determined period of time. To learn how to set goals, click here.

Google Adsense

Advertising service from Google itself in which a website provides space for advertisers. The owner of the website will get an amount of money every time a visitor clicks an ad or every thousand times the ad is displayed.

Google Adwords

A tool to display ads on websites and on Google itself. The advertiser may choose the best way of paying for the ads: CPC, CPM or CPA.

Google Analytics

Number analysis of your website or blog. It is through this analysis that will know how the access is going, which pages have been visited the most and other relevant information for your business.

Growth Hacking

A set of strategies and experiments focused on growing a business.

H

HotLeads

Integration tool in the Affiliate Program from Hotmart with the email marketing tool. To learn more about it, click here.

HotPay

Payment tool integrated to the Hotmart system. Built based on studies to increase the conversion rate of a digital Producer.

HotLink

The unique link generated by the Hotmart platform which identifies the person responsible for a sale. This link ensures that all the commissions are shared correctly.

Hotmart

Major DL platform for digital products. Active in Brazil since 2010, it started its international expansion in 2015. Currently, there are more than 700 thousand users, Producers, Affiliates, and clients, in 166 countries.

Hotmart Academy

Free online course to train new entrepreneurs who want to start a digital business.

Homart Club

Free Members Area from Hotmart to host online courses. Allows the Producer to organize the whole course, define access and decide how much to charge for it without the need of a designer or programmer.

I

Inbound Marketing

Strategies used to arouse the interest of people and lead them to seek the solution you are offering. It is possible to use multiple resources to apply Inbound Marketing, such as SEO techniques, social media, valuable content and email marketing.

Infoproducts

Also known as Digital Products, they are educational materials that are commercialized and sold in the digital environment.

K

Keyword

The main term of a product or text that should receive all the focus in the content. It will help the user to identify what the content is about.

KPI

Key Performance Indicators. Essential metrics to evaluate if your business is achieving the expected results. They should be simple to understand and clearly express if the objective is being reached or not. Example: number of sales or number of leads generated.

L

Launch

Different from the Evergreen funnel, the Launch takes places a few times per year and is based on the premise of building a large base of contacts, warm them up with an offer and then open the shopping cart for a limited time. The Launch uses the principle of scarcity to make many sales.

Landing Page

Any page that leads the visitor to your website, be it through a paid ad, Google search, social media. See: Squeeze page.

Lead

A business opportunity, a potential user that may become a customer. A lead may be the email address from someone who is interested or can also contain more complex information from the contact, such as profession, position in a company, and even telephone number.

Lead generation

The act of turning visitors into potential clients. You can use contact forms when offering some sort of rich material or make a webinar about your business and ask for the email address from the user in exchange, to add it to your lead base.

Link Building

The process of acquiring referrals from other relevant websites through links. This is an important factor for ranking strategies on Google. It is essential, however, to pay close attention to how these links will be built. The ideal strategy is to create valuable content so that other websites link to yours spontaneously.

LMS

It stands for Learning Management System. A system developed to improve the experience of a student in the online environment. Hotmart Club is an example of LMS.

M

Marketing Automation

Automation of marketing processes. This action is performed by software that group efforts and tools that are extremely important so that the marketing strategy is effective, for example: email marketing, lead-capturing, metrics, conversion rates, delivery of rich materials, among others. Hubspot is an excellent example of a Marketing Automation software.

Members Area

Also known as a Membership Area, a Members Area is an online space exclusive to a specific content. Only those with a login and password can access a determined Members Area.

Mental Triggers

Persuasion strategies used to arouse interest from an audience and take them to perform an action.

Metrics

Any kind of measurable data. For example: inhabitants of a city, visitors to a website, number of likes in a fan page. Metrics are part of a bigger set that encompasses KPIs.

Middle of the Funnel (MoFu)

The moment in which the prospect has already found out about a specific problem and now seeks a solution. It is when she looks for products but isn’t sure about where to acquire them or if she should really buy them.

Mindset

A common term in the entrepreneurial community. It’s the attitude, disposition, used in phrases like “entrepreneurial mindset”, “change the mindset”.

N

Native Ads

Short for Native Advertising. These are ads displayed on news websites that are mixed in other postings. The objective is to advertise in a less intrusive way, so as not to repel the click from the user.

Newsletter

An electronic newspaper that is delivered to the user periodically via email. The user herself has to sign up on your blog or website to receive your newsletter.

Niche

Also, Market Niche. The segment that is chosen to produce content or act as an Affiliate. Finances, Relationships, and Cooking are examples of niches. Read our complete post on how to choose a market niche.

O

Original content

When the content is original and nothing from a pre-existing material is used.

Organic traffic

Traffic generated naturally through social media, search engines or referrals from other websites.

P

Payment System

This is the method of payment used in your business. It receives the money from the buyer and then transfers it to the Producer’s and Affiliate’s account.

Performance Media

Media strategies focused on lead-acquisition or sales conversion.

PPC

Pay-per-click. A term used for paid ads in digital channels. Every time the ads is clicked, the advertiser pays for it.

Programmatic Advertising

The tools that automate the process of purchasing media. Google itself has a tool known as DoubleClick Bid Manager (DBM).

Product Approval

The online course or digital product has to be submitted in the chosen platform so that is reviewed and approved according to pre-established approval rules.

R

Refund Period

The period in which a customer can decide to give up on a purchase. Depending on the location the purchase was made, it can be from 7 to 30 days. The Producer can also set a specific period for the products she offers.

Rejection rate 

Percentage of people who have visited your website or blog and left without clicking on no more pages.

Remarketing

A resource that allows the display of content and ads to those who have already come into contact with your website or campaign. To learn more, read our complete post on Remarketing.

Rich Materials

These are materials that are more complex than blog posts, such as ebooks, infographics, spreadsheets, and that may be used as an offer in a lead-generating campaign.

ROI

ROI stands for Return on Investment. It is the proportion between the amount invested in your business and what you get in return.

S

Sales Funnel

The process that leads the prospect up to the moment of purchase. In this journey, she will go through Top (ToFu), Middle (MoFu) and Bottom (BoFu) until she becomes a customer.

Sales Page

Web page designed to present a product. It is completely focused on taking the user to the Checkout, where she will make a purchase.

Sales video

A video with the aim of convincing the user about the quality of a product or service, so that she will make a sale.

Scalability

The possibility of growth in large proportions without increasing production costs. Online courses, for example, may be very scalable, since once the material is produced, you can reach people all over the world.

Screencast

This is a video recording of a computer’s screen output. It is mainly used to supplement materials with practical on-screen tutorials, such as how to access a platform or create a spreadsheet. To learn more, read our post on Screencasts.

Segmentation

It is the division of markets according to the subjects they focus on. A segment may also be referred to as a niche.

SEO

It stands for Search Engine Optimization. The practices and techniques used to improve the ranking of a website or blog in the organic results from search engines, such as Google and Bing.

SERP

It stands for Search Engine Results Page. This is a term for the pages shown when you search for something on search engines such Google and Bing.

Social Media

Channels where people connect to one another, share opinions and everyday facts. There are more social networking sites, not just Facebook and Instagram, and they can even be segmented in different topics.

SSL Certificate

Secure Socket Layer is a standard technology that ensures the safety of link exchange between server and browser. This exchange guarantees that all the information remains private. This information is extremely for the user feel safe when visiting a website.

SPAM

It stands for Sending and Posting Advertising in Mass. These are messages that are sent to users without their consent. If you have already got an email from someone or from a company that you don’t know, nor has had any contact with, you were the “victim” of SPAM.

Sponsored links

Another term for PPC, also found in this glossary.

Squeeze page

Also called Capture Page. A squeeze page should be optimized to capture the email address and other additional information from a contact.

SRC

This is the code that has to be inserted in your HotLink to identify where the customer comes from.

Storytelling

In Marketing, it is the practice of narrating stories in an involving way, focusing on engaging a user with your brand and making sales.

Subscription Club

Services or products package that the user subscribes to and receives regularly. Netflix itself is a good example since the user pays for the service monthly.

SWOT

An analysis of Strengths, Weaknesses, Opportunities and Threats to your business.

T

Thank you Page

This is where the user is redirected to when she makes a purchase, downloads some kind of content or any other action.

Transference Fee

The fee paid to the payment system to collect commissions from your online business.

Top of the Funnel (ToFu)

The widest area of the Funnel. Moment of discovery in which the person still is not aware she has a problem, let alone need a service or product to solve it. At this moment, your business should bring up content that interests the buyer persona so that she is made aware of a need and move further down the funnel with you.

Tracking pixel

The code added to an image so that the website in which this image is inserted is tracked. This way, it is possible to measure the behavior of the user.

Traffic buying

When ads are bought, to take visitors to a specific channel, a website or blog, for example.

U

Up-selling

When the client is encouraged to get a better plan, thus spending a bit more on your service. Example: when you have a simple Netflix subscription and the company offers you a better plan, with more advantages.

URL

Stands for Uniform Resource Locator. In short, it’s the website’s address.

Sigla para Uniform Resource Locator (Localizador Uniforme de Recursos). Resumidamente é o endereço de uma página na internet.

V

Video Lessons

Lessons distributed in video format.

W

Webinar

An online seminar that usually takes place live. It happens when a specialist wishes to present a lesson, answer questions and attract or engage an audience.

WordPress

Content Management System (CMS) most commonly used by those who own a blog.

So, did you manage to learn all the important terms in the market of digital products? Remember to come back to this Digital Entrepreneur’s Glossary whenever you have a doubt!

If this content was useful for you, or if you think we missed an important term in our list, leave a comment in the section below!