Content marketing glossary: 21 terms in plain words

Big Idea

The core idea that all of a brand’s content is built around. Not a slogan or a content series, but a thought from which formats, visuals and copy grow.

A good Big Idea connects what the business wants to say with what the audience wants to hear. If you can’t explain the idea in one sentence, it isn’t an idea yet.

→ What a content strategy should include: a checklist

Brand media

A brand’s own media: a channel, magazine or account that talks not about the product but about what interests its audience. People read it not because it’s advertising, but because it’s interesting.

Brand media doesn’t pay off right away, but the audience stays with you, and every next contact costs less.

→ Brand media instead of advertising: when it pays off

Content marketing

Marketing in which a brand attracts people not with ads but with useful or interesting content. The task is to understand what interests the consumer and start making it on the brand’s behalf.

Content marketing doesn’t cancel advertising, but changes its role: ads help people find the content, and the content makes them stay.

→ How much content marketing costs in Kazakhstan in 2026

Content plan

A publishing schedule: what goes out, where and when. An SMM specialist puts it together in a couple of working days and updates it every month, or even every week.

A content plan without a strategy only works if a very strong marketer writes it. Otherwise it’s flowers planted on the wrong plot.

Content strategy

A document that answers why and for whom a brand makes content: which formats and channels are needed at each stage of the funnel, who is responsible for what and how to measure the effect.

A strategy is made by a strategist, in two to three weeks at least, and reviewed once a quarter. It should be such that any team or agency could work from it.

→ What a content strategy should include: a checklist

CPM

Cost per mille — the cost of a thousand ad impressions. The key metric for comparing the price of a contact across platforms.

CPM in Telegram is usually higher than on Instagram: there is no algorithm, so you pay for every view. But the contact is of higher quality.

→ Paid placements in Telegram: what they cost and how not to waste your budget

Editorial policy

A set of rules by which a brand writes and publishes content: topics we talk and don’t talk about, tone of voice, formats, the approval process.

It keeps content consistent in quality no matter who makes it. In pharma and fintech it also includes regulatory requirements and medical review of texts.

→ How to promote medicines in Kazakhstan when direct advertising is restricted

ER (engagement rate)

The share of people who didn’t just see a post but reacted to it: liked, commented, saved or shared.

It is calculated in different ways: from reach or from the number of followers. So before comparing ER between two contractors, ask which formula each of them uses.

ERR

Engagement rate by reach — the main metric of Telegram channels: what percentage of subscribers viewed a post. It is post reach divided by the number of subscribers.

If a channel has 10,000 subscribers and posts get 500 views, ERR is 5%. That’s a sign the channel has subscribers but no readers.

→ How to launch a brand Telegram channel in Kazakhstan: step by step

Funnel

A person’s path from first meeting a brand to buying and buying again. At the top is awareness, in the middle interest and trust, at the bottom the decision.

Each stage has its own tasks, formats and metrics. A common mistake is trying to hard-sell to people who have only just heard of you.

GEO

Generative Engine Optimization — optimizing for answers given by AI. The goal is the same as SEO: to be found. Only now people don’t search in a search engine, they ask ChatGPT.

AI models cite those who clearly answer real questions, back their answers with numbers and are mentioned in other sources. This site is my GEO experiment.

→ How a brand gets into ChatGPT answers: GEO for business in Kazakhstan

In-house team

A company’s own marketing and content team, as opposed to an agency. It handles regular and showcase content well.

For complex formats, special projects and expertise the company doesn’t have, an in-house team usually needs a strategist or an agency.

→ Content strategist, agency or in-house team: who to hire

Information needs

What the audience searches for, doubts and fears before buying. Every business has them — from big pharma to the corner grocery store.

Good content addresses exactly these needs. Then people come to the brand on their own, organically, without being chased by ads.

→ Content strategist, agency or in-house team: who to hire

Insight

A non-obvious truth about the audience that communication can be built on. Not “mothers care about their children”, but something people don’t say themselves yet instantly recognise when they hear it.

Insights are found through research: interviews, comments, search queries. A Big Idea then grows out of the insight.

KPI

Key performance indicators: the numbers you agreed on in advance to judge the work. In content, each stage of the funnel has its own KPIs: reach at the top, engagement in the middle, leads and sales at the bottom.

Without KPIs you can neither measure content nor improve it. “Publish 12 posts a month” is a plan, not a KPI.

→ What a content strategy should include: a checklist

Reach

The number of unique people who saw a publication. Don’t confuse it with impressions: one person can see a post several times.

Reach is a top-of-funnel metric. On its own it sells nothing, but without it there is no one to engage and no one to turn into customers.

Seeding

A paid placement of a post about your channel in another Telegram channel. The main way to bring subscribers to Telegram, which has no recommendation algorithm.

The price depends on the channel’s topic, reach and audience quality. Check the statistics before buying: channels with fake subscribers are more common than you’d like.

→ Paid placements in Telegram: what they cost and how not to waste your budget

Showcase content

Posts about the product itself: new arrivals, promotions, announcements, the range. Every business needs it, but on its own it doesn’t attract people: a shop window is looked at by those who have already come to the store.

Showcase content can be made by your own team and partly automated. If an account consists only of it, it’s not media, it’s a catalogue.

→ Content strategist, agency or in-house team: who to hire

Situational content

Content on a topical occasion: news, a trend, a meme, a holiday. It’s made quickly while the topic is hot.

That’s why a content plan has to stay flexible. The strategy sets which occasions the brand can react to and which it’s better to stay silent on.

SMM strategy

The part of a content strategy about how the brand will live on specific platforms: where it is present, how it looks and sounds, who is responsible for what.

Today most of any content strategy is about social media, so I wouldn’t separate them. To continue the garden analogy: the strategy is the plot, the SMM strategy is the material for the fence.

Tone of voice

A brand’s voice: how it talks to people. Formal or informal, joking or not, short sentences or long ones, which words it never uses.

Tone of voice is recorded in the editorial policy so that the brand sounds the same no matter who writes: the SMM manager, the agency or the CEO in the comments.