Authority-First Content
Content designed to establish your brand as a go-to expert in your space. This includes high-level insights, opinions, and tactical frameworks that educate your broader audience, not just your ICP. Authority-first content builds credibility over time and attracts passive buyers who aren't actively searching for solutions yet.
Buying Intent
The likelihood that a prospect is ready to make a purchase decision. Intent grows slowly and doesn't match engagement metrics like likes or clicks. You build it through consistent positioning and relevance over time.
Client Acquisition
The process of bringing new customers into your business. While important, acquisition isn't the only revenue lever. Many businesses overlook faster revenue opportunities in their existing customer base through upselling, price increases, or service expansion.
Firmographics
Company-level characteristics used to identify target accounts: industry, company size, revenue, location, technology stack. Many teams rely only on firmographics and miss deeper psychological motivations and operational challenges that drive buying decisions. See Psychographics.
ICP (Ideal Customer Profile)
A detailed description of the company and buyer that gets the most value from your solution. A strong ICP guides where you spend marketing and sales resources. It should be reviewed and updated annually because your market and customer needs shift.
Intent Signals
Indicators that a prospect is actively searching for a solution or experiencing a problem. These can be first-party signals (website visits, content downloads, demo requests) or third-party signals (industry events, job postings, technology adoption). Intent signals help you prioritize outreach and improve conversion rates.
Inbound Marketing
Marketing that pulls prospects toward you through valuable content, strong online presence, and organic visibility. Inbound builds long-term results but requires consistency. It works best when combined with outbound tactics.
Marketing Foundations
The core elements that support all marketing activities: a clear ICP, a strong value proposition, a distinct brand narrative, and a deep understanding of why customers buy. Without solid foundations, tactics fail. Review these yearly.
Marketing System
A set of connected, intentional marketing programs that work together toward consistent results. This is different from random acts of marketing (individual, disconnected campaigns). Systems approach marketing as proactive strategy rather than reactive firefighting.
Messaging
The specific language and talking points your brand uses to communicate value and differentiate from competitors. Effective messaging is grounded in customer research and reflects the real problems you solve, not invented benefits.
Outbound Marketing
Marketing that pushes your message directly to prospects: cold outreach, email campaigns, paid ads, direct engagement. Outbound delivers immediate results but requires sustained investment and becomes noise if not grounded in relevance and timing.
Passive Buyers
Prospects who aren't actively searching for a solution but fit your ICP. They need education and consistent brand visibility before they move into active buying mode. Don't rush them. Becoming spammy happens fast; becoming the go-to expert takes patience.
Persona
A semi-fictional representation of an ideal customer based on research, interviews, and operational data. Personas should include psychographics (motivations, pain points, values) and be updated annually as market conditions and customer needs change.
Positioning
How your brand sits relative to competitors in the minds of customers. Strong positioning is built on a clear ICP, a defensible value proposition, and authentic brand narrative. Weak foundations make positioning feel generic.
Proactive Marketing
Marketing strategy built on intentional planning and systems thinking. Proactive teams connect their programs, measure results, and iterate based on data. This approach produces consistent results over time.
Psychographics
The motivations, challenges, values, and decision-making patterns of your customers. This goes deeper than firmographics and reveals why customers buy, not just what company they work for. Strong customer research reveals psychographics that inform positioning and messaging.
Pull Marketing
See Inbound Marketing.
Push Marketing
See Outbound Marketing.
Reactive Marketing
Marketing driven by short-term demand or immediate requests rather than strategic planning. Reactive teams launch disconnected campaigns, measure surface-level metrics, and struggle with consistency. This approach produces unpredictable results.
Revenue Levers
Multiple ways to increase revenue beyond client acquisition: price increases, upselling existing customers, adding new service offerings, or converting one-time contracts into recurring subscriptions. Many teams leave revenue on the table by focusing only on acquisition.
Sales Enablement Content
Content designed to help close deals and move prospects through the final stages of the buying journey: case studies, ROI calculators, implementation frameworks, contract templates, comparison guides. Sales enablement content answers specific objections and builds confidence before purchase.
Shiny Object Syndrome
The tendency to chase the latest marketing tactic, tool, or trend instead of focusing on marketing foundations that drive real results. In 2026, the difference between average teams and winning teams is focus: foundations over novelty.
Upselling
Offering existing customers additional or premium products and services. Since existing customers are already qualified and have no acquisition cost, upselling is often faster than acquiring new clients. It requires understanding their evolving needs.
Value Proposition
The specific benefit or outcome your solution delivers to your ICP. A strong value proposition is grounded in customer research and articulates the real problem you solve, not generic benefits. It should be reviewed annually.