D098 Digital Marketing Study Questions Flashcards

Comprehensive practice flashcards covering all core concepts, terminology, formulas, and frameworks from the Western Governors University (WGU) D098 Digital Marketing course study guide.

How is digital marketing defined?

Marketing activities that use electronic devices or the internet to connect with customers.

What is the key difference between inbound marketing and outbound marketing?

Inbound marketing (pull marketing) is a two-way marketing activity that attracts and pulls consumers through different stages of the sales funnel, where contact is initiated externally from the client to the company. Outbound marketing (push marketing) is a one-way marketing activity initiated by the company to send messages out to consumers (e.g., trade shows, cold calling, paid ads).

What are behavioral targeting, individual marketing, and local marketing?

Behavioral targeting involves technologies and techniques used to increase campaign effectiveness by capturing and analyzing consumer data. Individual marketing consists of individualized messages and offerings targeted to specific customers based on data analysis. Local marketing involves marketing activities targeted to a specific geographic area.

What is the distinction between an Integrated Marketing Campaign (IMC) and Omnichannel Integration?

An IMC provides immersive and targeted communication to move customers through the buying process by aligning communication across touchpoints. Omnichannel Integration creates a cohesive, seamless brand experience optimized for each channel and device by aligning the entire customer experience across touchpoints.

How are first-party, second-party, and third-party data defined and differentiated?

First-party data is collected directly by a company about its consumers (most reliable and effective). Second-party data is first-party data collected by another source and sold, acting as a customization of third-party data. Third-party data is collected from a variety of sources with no direct connection to the data source and is generally purchased from outside vendors (often suffers from accuracy issues).

What are the six specialization areas of digital marketing?

1. Content Marketing
2. Social Media Marketing
3. Digital Advertising
4. Search Engine Optimization (SEO)
5. Web Development and Analysis
6. Marketing Automation

What are the three primary objectives of social media marketing?

1. Creating buzz (developing and publishing messages spread via user-to-user contact)
2. Fostering community (building ways for fans to engage around shared brand interests)
3. Facilitating two-way communication (promoting user participation, feedback, and dialogue)

How do retention-based emails differ from promotional emails?

Retention-based emails are designed to help customers understand product value, prompt ongoing engagement, and reduce churn rate. Promotional emails are direct marketing emails with an immediate conversion goal, such as making a purchase or downloading content.

How are Clickthrough Rate (CTR) and Conversion Rate calculated?

$\text{Clickthrough Rate (CTR)} = \frac{\text{Clicks}}{\text{Impressions}}$$\text{Conversion Rate} = \frac{\text{Conversions}}{\text{Clicks}}$

How do the 4Ps adapt to digital marketing?

Product: The digital discovery and purchasing experience can become part of the product itself. Price: Digital search and comparison tools enable personalized, flexible pricing and value differentiation. Place: Digital distribution reaches global/niche markets beyond physical location. Promotion: Digital communication is measurable, two-way, targeted, and conversational.

What are the four stages of the AIDA sales funnel model?

1. Attention/Awareness: Consumer becomes aware of a problem and potential brand solutions.
2. Interest: Consumer explores available options and brand benefits.
3. Desire (Consideration): Consumer wants to purchase but has not selected a specific product or brand.
4. Action: Consumer takes action by purchasing or deciding not to buy.

What are the three stages of the buyer's journey?

1. Awareness: Buyer recognizes a problem or opportunity and conducts high-level research.
2. Consideration: Buyer has defined the problem and evaluates potential solutions via technical comparisons.
3. Decision: Buyer evaluates identified options to make a final purchase decision using demos, trials, and case studies.

What do TOFU, MOFU, and BOFU represent in the sales funnel?

TOFU (Top of Funnel): Focuses on awareness, educating users about needs and problems. MOFU (Middle of Funnel): Focuses on consideration, nurturing leads and explaining potential solutions. BOFU (Bottom of Funnel): Focuses on the decision phase, facilitating the purchase process.

What is affiliate marketing?

A system of reward whereby referrers are given a "finder's fee" for every referral they generate.

What is the difference between single-touch attribution and multitouch attribution?

Single-touch attribution awards 100% of the sales credit to one specific marketing touchpoint (such as first-touch or last-touch). Multitouch attribution recognizes that the buyer's journey is nonlinear and awards fractional credit across multiple contributing touchpoints.

What are four key challenges of single-touch attribution?

1. Customer interactions span multiple devices.
2. Journeys include many distinct touchpoints.
3. Interactions may occur off-site (e.g., social media likes, shares).
4. Journeys may cross channels from digital touchpoints to offline sales.

What are the three main organizational benefits of content marketing?

1. Brand Awareness
2. Brand Preference
3. Brand Reach

What is thematic content?

A common topic or category that is explicit and implicit in the message meaning (such as "The Real Cost" campaign creating content exclusively focused on the costs and harms of smoking and vaping).

How do traditional marketing and content marketing contrast regarding audiences and communication?

Traditional marketing relies on "rented" audiences (paying to interrupt other platforms), talks at customers, is static, and is merely tolerated. Content marketing earns its audience by offering valuable content, holds a conversation with customers, hones campaigns in real time, and is appreciated.

What is a thought leader, and how does thought leadership content differ from sales content?

A thought leader is a person, organization, or publication regarded as an authoritative source of new ideas or intellectual trends. Thought leadership educates, pulls customers in, and provides best practices. Sales content directly sells, pushes marketing messages, and highlights specific product details.

What does the 4-1-1 rule dictate in content mix planning?

For every six pieces of content shared: four must be created or curated educational/informative posts; one must be a reposted or shared piece (e.g., user-generated content) to build relationships; and one must be a promotional, sales-oriented piece.

What are the content components versus people components of a content marketing strategy?

Content Components: Substance (who you are trying to reach and why) and Structure (where content is located, how it is organized, and how it is found). People Components: Workflow (how content creation happens) and Governance (the politics, guidelines, and standards of the brand).

What are the four key content planning documents?

1. Brand Style Guides (rules for tone, voice, fonts, and visual presentation)
2. Content Calendars (schedules mapping content distribution throughout the year)
3. Workflow Maps (repeatable processes and approval steps for content production)
4. Customer Persona Maps (detailed audience profiles used to personalize marketing)

What is content gating, and what is the best practice regarding sales funnel stages?

Gating requires users to fill out a form with contact information before accessing content. Best practice is to gate content only in the Middle of Funnel (MOFU) when buyers show genuine intent, and avoid gating at Top of Funnel (TOFU) or Bottom of Funnel (BOFU).

How does reach differ from impressions?

Reach is the total number of unique accounts or individual users a piece of content was delivered to. Impressions represent the total number of times content is displayed or viewed (e.g., if one person views a post four times, reach is 1 and impressions are 4).

What is the difference between pageviews and unique pageviews?

A pageview is counted every single time a page loads. A unique pageview tracks the number of user sessions during which a specified page was viewed at least once, filtering out repeat views within the same session.

What is a heat map?

A digital tool that provides a visual representation of data, such as where users click, scroll, or hover on a web page.

How does traditional media contrast with social media in flexibility, commentary, and publishing?

Traditional media is fixed/unchangeable, has limited delayed commentary, finite content, committee publishers, and tight control. Social media is instantly updatable, supports unlimited real-time commentary, infinite content, individual publishers, and user freedom/sharing.

How does Glossier's #maskforce campaign illustrate user-generated content (UGC)?

Glossier encouraged customers to share personal selfies wearing the Mega Greens Galaxy Mask using the hashtag #maskforce, which the brand then reposted to drive organic engagement and build community without relying purely on professional models.

What are the core definitions of paid, owned, and earned media?

Paid Media: Channels you pay to leverage (e.g., paid search, display ads, sponsorships). Owned Media: Channels and content your brand fully controls (e.g., website, blog, brochures). Earned Media: Third-party interactions and word-of-mouth achieved organically (e.g., viral buzz, press coverage, customer reviews).

What are the best practices for handling negative customer feedback and internet "trolls" on social media?

For legitimate complaints: acknowledge the issue, apologize, own mistakes, be empathetic, and move complex discussions offline to phone or email. For trolls: do not engage in arguments, monitor and screenshot comments, issue warnings, block repeat offenders, and remove abusive posts.

What are the six categories of social media influencers by follower count?

1. Everyday: 1–1,000 followers
2. Brand: 1–100,000+ followers
3. Micro: 1,000–100,000 followers
4. Professional: 20,000–100,000 followers
5. Macro: 100,000–1,000,000 followers
6. Celebrity: More than 7,000,000 followers

What are the four stages of the "4S filter" used to identify influencers?

1. Search: Finding a pool of potential influencers.
2. Surface: Assessing appropriateness based on reach and campaign relevance.
3. Screen: Vetting qualifications, brand values, and safety.
4. Select: Reaching mutual agreement and signing formal contracts.

What are the four core components of a social media marketing strategy?

1. Goals: Defining campaign purpose.
2. Channels: Choosing specific social platforms.
3. Implementation: Developing content schedules and managing engagement.
4. Monitoring: Measuring, analyzing, and optimizing campaign performance.

What is the difference between the Social Tool Matrix and the Social Viral Spiral?

The Social Tool Matrix organizes platforms and assigns values based on the purpose of the content. The Social Viral Spiral provides tactical guidance on what, when, where, and how frequently to post, emphasizing timing, velocity, and publication frequency.

What is Share of Voice (SOV) in social media analysis?

A brand's advertising weight or mention count expressed as a percentage of the total market or market segment conversations in a given timeframe.

What are applause rate and amplification rate?

Applause rate measures the number of approval actions (such as likes, stars, or hearts) a post receives. Amplification rate measures the rate at which followers share or redistribute content (via retweets, shares, or repins) across their own networks.

What five signals do search engines look for to rank content?

1. Popularity
2. Authority
3. Relevance
4. Trust
5. Importance

What are the three main disciplines of Search Engine Optimization (SEO)?

1. Technical SEO: Optimizing web architecture for crawler discovery and indexing.
2. On-page SEO: Optimizing direct webpage elements like keywords, headers, and meta tags.
3. Off-page SEO: Building external signals such as backlinks, social mentions, and directory listings.

What is the relationship between SEO and Search Engine Marketing (SEM)?

SEM is the overarching umbrella discipline that includes both organic SEO techniques and paid search strategies (such as PPC, Google Ads, and paid inclusions).

What are the three essential functions performed by search engines?

1. Crawling: Bots (spiders) discover and fetch web pages by following hyperlinks.
2. Indexing: Search engines parse, categorize, and store webpage data in massive databases.
3. Ranking: Proprietary algorithms order indexed pages to return the most relevant results for a user's query.

What are the distinct roles of HTML, CSS, and JavaScript in web design?

HTML (HyperText Markup Language) provides the core structure of the page. CSS (Cascading Style Sheets) controls visual appearance, formatting, and layout. JavaScript controls interactive features, animations, and dynamic behavior.

How does an XML sitemap differ from an HTML sitemap?

A standard HTML sitemap is designed for human users to navigate a site's hierarchical page structure. An XML sitemap is a machine-readable document specifically engineered to guide search engine crawlers through all website URLs and metadata.

What are the three core best practices for optimizing local SEO?

1. Build consistent NAP citations (Name, Address, Phone number) on platforms like Google Business Profile.
2. Solicit and manage high-quality customer reviews.
3. Conduct on-page local SEO by embedding city, region, and localized keywords into titles, URLs, H1 tags, and image alt text.

What are the three common user search intents?

1. Informational ("Know"): Seeking general knowledge (e.g., "When did Apollo 11 land on the moon?").
2. Navigational ("Go"): Seeking a specific website or brand destination (e.g., "Cuisinart ice cream maker").
3. Transactional ("Do"): Seeking to complete an action or purchase (e.g., "Best deals on ice cream machines").

What is a long-tail keyword, and what are its main advantages?

A long-tail keyword is a longer, highly specific keyword phrase (e.g., "elm wood veneer day-bed" vs. "sofa"). It typically has lower search volume, lower competition, and attracts visitors who are closer to making a purchase.

What is click depth in website analysis?

The number of clicks required for a user to navigate from the website's homepage to a specific subpage. Lower click depth improves both user experience and search engine crawlability.

What are white hat, black hat, and negative SEO?

White hat SEO uses legitimate, search-engine-approved best practices for sustainable, long-term rankings. Black hat SEO uses manipulative, rule-breaking tactics (such as cloaking, keyword stuffing, or link farms) that risk search engine bans. Negative SEO uses black hat tactics deliberately against a competitor to damage their search ranking.

What is the difference between domain authority and page authority?

Domain authority evaluates the authoritative strength and ranking credibility of an entire root website name. Page authority measures the predictive ranking strength of a single, specific webpage URL on that domain.

What are remarketing/retargeting and geo-fencing in digital advertising?

Remarketing/retargeting serves display ads to users who previously engaged with a site (such as abandoning items in an e-commerce cart). Geo-fencing triggers advertisements when user mobile devices enter specific, boundary-defined GPS coordinates.

What are the four common digital advertising bidding models?

1. Cost-Per-Click (CPC): Advertisers pay only when an ad is clicked.
2. Cost-Per-Thousand (CPM): Advertisers pay a fixed rate per 1,000 ad impressions.
3. Cost-Per-Acquisition (CPA): Bids focus directly on driving completed conversions.
4. Cost-Per-View (CPV): Advertisers pay based on video views and user interactions.

What differentiates user-centered design from other design approaches?

User-centered design tailors the product and interface to accommodate natural user behavior, rather than forcing users to adapt their behavior to the constraints of the system.

How do responsive websites differ from adaptive websites?

A responsive website uses fluid grids to dynamically reflow the same layout across any screen width (preferred by search engines). An adaptive website deploys multiple distinct, static layouts tailored to specific predefined screen widths (typically the six most common sizes).

What are the five planes of web development in user-centered design?

1. Strategy Plane (user needs and business objectives)
2. Scope Plane (functional and content requirements)
3. Structure Plane (interaction design and site information architecture)
4. Skeleton Plane (navigation, interface layout, and wireframing)
5. Surface Plane (visual design, fonts, styling, and sensory experience)

What are the four main organizational structures used in the web development Structure Plane?

1. Hierarchical (broad parent pages flowing down to specific child pages)
2. Matrix (users navigate freely via links without strict parent-child hierarchies)
3. Organic (unstructured, exploratory content layouts)
4. Sequential (step-by-step sequential workflows moving forward and backward)

What is bounce rate, and how is it defined in web analytics?

The percentage of website sessions that consist of viewing only a single page before the user exits without clicking any further links. Slow page load speeds directly increase bounce rates.

What is the difference between first-party cookies and third-party cookies?

First-party cookies are set directly by the domain a user is visiting to preserve user settings and improve user experience. Third-party cookies are set by external domains for cross-site behavioral tracking, advertising, and retargeting.

What is Conversion Rate Optimization (CRO), and how does it differ from SEO?

SEO focuses on driving higher volumes of organic traffic to a website. CRO uses data collection, testing, and behavioral analysis to increase the percentage of existing visitors who take a desired action (e.g., purchasing, filling out a form).

What are the three steps in the lead management process?

1. Lead Capturing: Collecting demographic and contact information from a prospect.
2. Lead Qualification: Evaluating where the lead is situated along the buyer's journey.
3. Lead Nurturing: Delivering ongoing, targeted, and relevant communications.

How does a trigger campaign differ from a drip campaign?

A trigger campaign is behavior-based, operating on an "if-then" rule that automatically sends communication immediately when a user completes a specific action. A drip campaign is a time-based series of automated messages scheduled to deploy at predetermined intervals.

What is the difference between a soft bounce and a hard bounce in email marketing?

A soft bounce is a temporary delivery failure (e.g., full mailbox, offline server), and the recipient remains on the list. A hard bounce is a permanent delivery failure (e.g., non-existent address or blocked domain), requiring the address to be removed immediately from the active subscriber list.

How are phishing, pharming, and spam differentiated?

Phishing uses deceptive emails masquerading as legitimate entities to steal credentials or install malware. Pharming maliciously redirects user web traffic from authentic sites to fraudulent clone sites. Spam is the unauthorized sending of bulk unsolicited commercial emails at minimal cost.