Below, we share terms that are utilized in our business. They are categorized as follows: Web and Technology terms, Marketing terms, and Production (Broadcast and Print) terms. We hope you find these helpful.


Audience Duplication

People, households, or organizations that read, view, or hear an advertisement or other marketing communication vehicle more than once, whether through a single media vehicle or a combination.

Prewritten, standardized copy used whenever a particular communication need arises. Sometimes used to adhere to legal or company standards or to eliminate the need for original writing when a specific communication requirement is likely to arise frequently.

The overall process of establishing and implementing all the elements of a brand, including its name, identifying symbols and related marketing messages.

Brand Messaging

Call to Action
A statement made in a promotional piece that encourages the reader/viewer/listener to take the desired action. This action may be buying the company’s product or service, or simply taking the next step in the sales cycle, such as requesting a product demonstration.

Protection and ownership of works or expressions fixed in a tangible form, including words, art, images, sounds and music. Copyright gives the owner the exclusive right to copy, display, license or expand work.

Fullfilment Piece
Any materials that are sent in response to a reader, viewer or listner’s request for more information.


301 Redirect

A/B Testing
A/B testing, at its simplest, is randomly showing a visitor one version of a page – (A) version or (B) version – and tracking the changes in behavior on which version they saw. A common usage is when determining headlines and subject lines. A/B tests are commonly applied to clicked-on ads, ecommunications, and landing page copy or designs to determine which version drives the more desired result.

AdWords is a popular way of driving visitors to an online site by implanting certain words in the site’s text. Adwords are pay-per-click (PPC) advertising, and site-targeted advertising for both text and banner ads. The Google AdWords program includes local, national, and international distribution, and it is their flagship advertising product.

ALT Test
Also known as alternative text or alt attribute. An HTML tag (ALT tag) used to provide usages with a text desom the event images are turned off in a web browser. The images text description is usually visible while “hovering” over the image.


Banner Ads
Online, digital ads, usually in a rectangular shape and appearing at the top of a web page. Most websites sell banner ads on their site, which link through to the advertiser’s site

A blog (a contraction of the term Weblog) is a type of Web site, usually maintained by an individual with regular entries of commentary, description of events or other material such as graphics or video. Entries are commonly displayed in reverse-chronological order. The word “blog” can also be used as a verb, meaning to maintain or add content to a blog.


Cascading Style Sheet (CSS)

A form of interactive online communication that enables typed conversations to occur in real-time. When participating in a chat discussion, your messages are instantaneously relayed to other members in the chat room while other members’ messages are instantaneously relayed to you.

Click Through Rate (CTR)
Click Through Rate (CRT) is the number of clicks that an on-line ad  or particular link gets, divided by the total number of times that ad is displayed or served. (Represented as: total clicks / total impressions for a specific ad = CRT).

Content Management System (CMS)

Conversion Rate
The number of visitors who convert (take a desired action at your site) after clicking through on your ad, divided by the total number of click-thoughts to your site for the ad.

Domain Name
The official name of a computer connected to the Internet. Domain names are derived from a hierarchical system, with a host name followed by a top-level domain category. The top-level domain categories are com (for commercial enterprises), org (for non-profit organizations), net (for network services providers), mil (for the military), and gov (for government).

Domain Name System (DNS)
A database system which looks up host IP addresses based upon domain names. For example if you ask for “” it will return Copies of the Domain Name System are distributed through the Internet.

Conducting commercial transactions on the internet where goods, information and services are bought and sold.

Email Advertising
Email advertising includes banner ads, links or advertiser sponsorships that appear in email newsletters, email marketing campaigns and other commercial email communications.

Email Campaign
Advertising campaign distributed by email.

Email Marketing

FTP refers to File Transfer Protocol.

Flash technology was used as a popular method for adding animation and interactivity to website pages. Today it is recommended that Flash not be used due to issues with search and the search engines.


Graphic Interchange Format (GIF)
A standard type of web graphic format which uses compression to store and display images.

Home Page
A web page that is topically the main source of information about a particular person, group, or concept. Many people on the web create home pages about themselves for fun; these are also known as vanity pages.


Hypertext Markup Language (HTML)
The tag-based ASCII language used to create pages on the World Wide Web. See also hypertext.

Hypertext Transfer Protocol (HTTP)

A small graphic image that represents a file or application and when clicked upon produces a programmed result. Use of this mnemonic convention originated at Xerox PARC and was subsequently popularized by the Apple Macintosh. Producing an effective icon is non-trivial because of size and color restraints.


Instant Messaging (IM)
A method of communicating in real time, one-on-one or in groups over the internet.

Internet Service Provider (ISP)
1. A business that delivers access to the Internet, usually for a monthly fee. Go Daddy, Bluehost, Network Solutions are examples of established ISPs but there are thousands of smaller ones all around the world.
2. Any business that provides Internet services such as web sites or web site development.


IP Address
A string of four numbers separated by periods (such as used to represent a computer on the Internet. The format of the address is specified by the Internet Protocol in RFC 791. When a PC accesses the Internet through an ISP, it sometimes receives a temporary IP address.



Joint Photographic Experts Group (JPEG)

The purpose of jQuery is to make it much easier to use JavaScript on your website. A very popular jQuery example would be a slide show on a webpage. jQuery is easy to implement and has a huge library.

A single word that relates to a specific subject or topic.

Keyword Phrase
Two or more keywords relating to a specific topic

Keyword Density

Keyword Stuffing

Landing Page
In online marketing, this is a specific web page that a visitor reaches after clicking an ad (or link). Often, this page features content that is an extension of the link or ad, or the page is optimized for a specific keyword term or phrase to attract search engines (SEO).

A highlighted word or picture within a hypertext document that when clicked bring you to another place within the document or to another document altogether. See also hyperlink.

Local Area Network (LAN)
A group of computers at a single location (usually an office or home) that are connected by phone lines or coaxial cable.

Mailing List

A system of measures that helps to quantify particular characteristics. In SEO the following are some important metrics to measure: overall traffic, search engine traffic, conversions, top traffic driving words, top conversion-driving keywords, keyword ranking, etc.

Mobile Devices
A mobile device is a small, hand-held computing device, typically having a display screen with touch input and/or a miniature keyboard. Manufacturers include Apple, LG, and Motorola. Also see Smart Device

1. As an adjective, not connected to a computer network.
2. As an adverb, not here or not now, as in “Let’s take this discussion offline.” Often used to indicate that a topic should be discussed privately rather than in a public forum.
1. Currently connected to a host, opposite of offline.
2. Referring to anything connected to a computer network.

Opt-In Email
List of internet users who have voluntarily signed up to receive commercial email about topics of interest.

When a company states that it plans to market its products and services to an individual unless the individual asks to be removed from the companies mailing list.

A secret code that you utilize along with your user ID in order to log on to a network.


Really Simply Syndication, Rich Site Summary, RDF Site Summary (RSS)
RSS is a family of web feed formats used for distributing frequently updated digital content, such as blogs, news, podcasts, and videos.



Responsive Web Design

Search Engine
A program or web site that enables users to search for keywords on web pages throughout the World Wide Web. For example, Google or Yahoo

Search Engine Marketing (SEM)
A form of internent marketing that seeks to promote websites by increasing their visibility in search engine results pages (SERPS). SEM methods include: search engine optimization (SEO), paid placement, contextual advertising, digital asset optimization, and paid inclusion.

Search Engine Optimization (SEO)
Improving or maximizing volume of traffic to a website by use of algorithmic search results.

Search Engine Page Result (SERP)

Smart Devices
A smart device is simply defined as an electronic device that is wireless, mobile, always connected, capable of voice and video communications, internet capable, GPS-enabled, and able to act autonomously to some extent. Also see Mobile Device.

Snail Mail
Regular postal mail, as opposed to email. Pejorative when implying postal mail’s slowness relative to email.

Social Media
Social media are primarily Internet- and mobile-based tools for sharing and discussing information among people. It most often refers to activities that integrate technology, telecommunications and social interaction, as well as the construction of words, pictures, videos and audio. Examples include Facebook, Twitter, Pinterest and LinkedIn.

Social Networking
Social networking is the use of a dedicated web site(s) to communicate informally with other members of the site, by posting messages, photographs, etc.

To send a message (usually an advertisement) to many discussion groups (bulletin boards, mailing lists, and/or newsgroups), without regard for its topical relevance.

The load of packets carried by a network or portion of a network. Heavy traffic slows down the response time of the individual packets.

To send a file to a network. See also download and crossload.

Unique VisitorA unique user who accesses the web site withing a specific time period.

Uniform Resource Locator (URL)
The unique identifying addresses of any particular page on the Web. It contains all the information required to locate a resource, including its protocol (usually HTTP), server domain name (or IP address), file path (directory and name) and format (usualy HTML or CGI).

A commonly used adjective that means having all of the properties of x while not necessarily being x. For example, “virtual Friday” in a workplace is the last day of work before a break, that is to say it is like Friday but may or may not actually be Friday. A “virtual reality” is an artificial environment that appears to be its own reality. On a mainframe, a “virtual machine” gives the user all of the properties and “feel” of a separate personal computer.

The person in charge of administrating a World Wide Web site. By convention, the webmaster of Internet domain can be reached at the email address


Refers to the type of paper used for a printed piece, including the weight, coating, and texture of the paper.

Refers to an image that is printed on the full size of the piece, as to ‘run off’ the edges.


Desktop Publishing

Die Cut
To cut irregular shapes in paper or paperboard using a die.

Digital Proofing

Mock Up

Press Check
Stopping the press after running off a few copies of a printed piece, in order to examine the color, sharpness, and overall quality of the printing

Prepress Proof

Press Proof


Self Mailer


Variable Printing
Allows for multiple uses of personal data on one printed piece, for example, each postcard that gets mailed contains references to the recipient’s name, business type, area of interest, and years in business – any individualized information you may have.