Glossary: Inbound Marketing

Every key term from the course, in plain English. When a lesson says a word you don't know, it lives here.

The Magnet Method

Creating content so genuinely useful that customers discover you while searching for answers — attraction through helpfulness, not interruption. Built on real customer questions, plain language, complete answers, and consistent publishing.

The Journey Map

The practice of tagging every piece of content with the buyer stage it serves — awareness, consideration, or decision — so no stage of the journey is left empty and no content aims at the wrong mindset.

The Delight Loop

The cycle where delighted customers produce the reviews, referrals, and word-of-mouth that attract your next customers — so each sale makes the next sale easier, and growth compounds instead of resetting every month.

Inbound marketing

Marketing that pulls customers in with useful content instead of pushing messages out at them. The four stages: attract strangers, convert them to leads, close them into customers, delight them into promoters.

Outbound marketing

The old playbook: pushing your message out through interruption — cold calls, purchased lists, interruptive ads. Rents attention by the month; the leads stop when the spending stops.

Buyer's journey

The three mindsets every buyer passes through: awareness ('do I have this problem?'), consideration ('what are my options?'), and decision ('who do I choose?'). Content must match the mindset.

Lead

A visitor who traded contact information for something valuable — raising their hand to keep hearing from you. A name on a list is only a lead if you have permission to follow up.

Lead magnet

The specific, fast, valuable thing you offer in exchange for an email address — a checklist, template, calculator, or guide. People trade contact info for outcomes, not homework.

Landing page

A page with exactly one job: getting the signup. No navigation, no competing links — headline, promise, form, button. Average ones convert 2–5% of visitors; strong ones convert 10% or more.

Call-to-action (CTA)

The prompt that moves a visitor to the next step — a button, link, or banner. Best placed where attention already lives, and worded as the outcome ('Send me the checklist'), never 'Submit.'

Nurture sequence

A series of emails that arrives after someone becomes a lead: deliver, teach, teach, teach, prove, invite — typically across two weeks. A conversation stretched over time, not a newsletter.

Lead scoring

Ranking leads by fit (do they match your ideal customer?) times behavior (what have they actually done?). Attention is the scoreboard: opens, clicks, replies, and pricing-page visits.

Conversion rate

The percentage of people who take the desired step — visitors who become leads, leads who become customers. The diagnostic number for each funnel stage.

Promoter

A delighted customer who actively brings you new business through reviews, referrals, and word-of-mouth. The highest-value customer you'll ever acquire — earned by the delight system, not bought.

Onboarding

The first 30 days after a sale: the sequenced small wins — welcome, quick win, check-ins, review ask — that make a new customer feel smart for choosing you and kill buyer's remorse before it grows.