HubSpot Digital Marketing flashcards

32 cards. Read the term and the definition here. The deck at the top of this page is optional.

Lifecycle stage

A single-select contact property marking funnel position, from subscriber and lead through MQL, SQL, opportunity, customer, and evangelist. It reflects where a contact sits, not how recently they engaged.

Lead status

A contact property describing sales follow-up state, such as new, open, in progress, connected, or unqualified. It answers what sales is doing, while lifecycle stage answers where the contact is.

Dynamic versus static list

A dynamic list recalculates automatically whenever a contact's properties change. A static list is a snapshot modified only by manual additions or workflow actions, so it can go stale.

Contact merge

Combining two contact records into one. The surviving record keeps its ID and most recent property values, and both records' activity history and list memberships are combined. The merge cannot be undone.

Calculated contact property

A property whose value is computed from other properties rather than entered manually. It recalculates when inputs change, so it cannot store a fixed value requiring audit history.

Global unsubscribe

A contact-level suppression that blocks all marketing email regardless of which lists the contact belongs to. It overrides list membership, so segment-based sending cannot bypass it.

Pillar and cluster

A content structure pairing one comprehensive pillar page with multiple supporting posts on subtopics. Every cluster post links to the pillar, consolidating topical authority and internal link equity.

Content audit criteria

The measures used to judge existing content: traffic, conversions or assists, backlinks, and freshness. Pages scoring low across these are candidates for consolidation, redirect, or removal.

Gated versus ungated content

Gated assets sit behind a form and capture contact data but reduce reach and backlinks. Ungated assets maximize distribution. Gate only assets with high perceived value at later funnel stages.

Content repurposing

Turning one long-form asset into multiple formats, such as social posts, email snippets, and video scripts. It multiplies reach from existing research instead of requiring new research.

Hard versus soft bounce

A hard bounce is a permanent delivery failure, such as an invalid address, and warrants immediate suppression. A soft bounce is temporary, such as a full mailbox, and is retried before suppression.

Click-to-open rate

Unique clicks divided by unique opens. It measures how relevant the content was to readers who actually opened, excluding the large group that never engaged with the message.

Email authentication trio

SPF, DKIM, and DMARC are DNS-based standards that verify a sending domain's identity. They improve trust with mailbox providers but do not by themselves guarantee inbox placement.

Personalization token fallback

A default value rendered when a contact property used in a token is empty. Without a configured fallback, the message may display blank or broken text to recipients.

Form conversion rate

Form submissions divided by form views. Because it excludes visitors who never reached the form, a low value points to form friction rather than poor traffic quality.

Progressive profiling

Collecting different form fields from a returning contact across multiple visits instead of all at once. It raises completion rates while building a fuller profile over time.

Lead scoring inputs

Explicit fit attributes such as job title, company size, and industry, combined with implicit engagement signals such as page views and email clicks. Negative scores can demote poor fits.

MQL versus SQL

A marketing qualified lead meets a score or fit threshold set by marketing. A sales qualified lead has additionally been accepted by sales, so the two counts must be tracked separately.

Search intent types

Informational, navigational, commercial, and transactional describe what a searcher wants. The page type must match the intent, or the page will not rank for that query.

Canonical tag

An HTML element telling search engines which URL is the preferred version of duplicate or similar pages. It consolidates indexing signals but does not prevent crawling of the alternate URLs.

Core Web Vitals

Google's page experience metrics: Largest Contentful Paint, Interaction to Next Paint, and Cumulative Layout Shift. They measure loading, responsiveness, and visual stability, and feed into ranking.

Orphan page

A page with no internal links pointing to it. Because crawlers reach it rarely and it receives no internal link equity, it typically ranks poorly despite good content.

Custom versus lookalike audience

A custom audience is built from known data such as a CRM upload or pixel-tracked site visitors. A lookalike audience is modeled by the platform from a seed custom audience.

Social engagement rate

Engagements divided by a consistent denominator such as reach or impressions. A consistent denominator keeps rates comparable across posts with different audience sizes.

Social pixel

Tracking code placed on a website that records visitor actions from social ads. Without it, paid social can report clicks and impressions but not downstream conversions.

Social listening

Monitoring brand mentions and competitor share of voice across platforms. It measures mention volume and sentiment, not revenue attribution to specific campaigns.

Inbound flywheel stages

Attract, engage, and delight. Delighted customers generate referrals and word of mouth that feed back into attract, so momentum compounds rather than resetting after each purchase.

Inbound versus outbound

Inbound is pull-based: prospects find the brand through search, content, or referral. Outbound is push-based: interruption through ads, cold email, or calls. Their metrics and economics differ.

Buyer persona

A profile of a segment's goals, pain points, and objections. Content and messaging decisions should trace to a specific persona rather than a generic audience description.

First-touch versus last-touch

First-touch attribution credits the earliest interaction in a journey; last-touch credits the final one before conversion. The choice changes which channels appear effective in reporting.

Sessions versus contacts

Sessions count visits and can repeat for one person. Contacts count unique people. Mixing the two units in a single report overstates reach and distorts conversion rates.

Cohort analysis

Grouping contacts by acquisition period and tracking their retention or revenue over subsequent periods. It separates genuine growth from churn that aggregate totals hide.