BEP 390 – English Collocations: Online Marketing (2)

BEP 390 LESSON - English Collocations: Online Marketing 2

Welcome back to Business English Pod for today’s lesson on business English collocations for discussing online marketing.

The world of ecommerce is extremely competitive. Millions and millions of people are shopping online every day, viewing millions of options. How can businesses stand out in this sea of competition? How can they ensure their potential customers can even find their website? They turn to online marketing. So it’s no wonder there’s so much time, energy, and money put into marketing and measuring performance.

If you’ve ever had a discussion with an online marketing expert, you’ll know there’s a whole new language built up around it. Think about an expression like “search engine optimization,” or SEO. That’s a good example of a type of expression that we call a “collocation.”

A collocation is just a group of words that go naturally together to form an expression. You’ve already heard me use a few English collocations. Consider “measuring performance,” as an example. The verb “measure” and the noun “performance” go together frequently and naturally. By looking at collocations you can learn words together, not in isolation.

In today’s dialog, we’ll rejoin Eduardo, Emma, and Neil, who work for a kitchenware retailer. Last time, they discussed content marketing. Today, we’ll hear them talking about search engine optimization and some ways of measuring success. During their conversation, they use many English collocations, which we’ll explain later in the debrief.

Listening Questions

1. At the start of the conversation, what does Eduardo hope has increased?
2. According to Emma, what have they invested a lot in?
3. What does Neil say about their English site that might not be true about the German version?

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BEP 389 – English Collocations: Online Marketing (1)

BEP 389 - Business English Collocations: Online Marketing 1

Welcome back to Business English Pod for today’s lesson on business English collocations related to online marketing.

Every year, ecommerce accounts for an even bigger chunk of retail sales around the world. How big of a chunk? Almost 5 trillion dollars. And with so much selling happening online, it’s not surprising online marketing has become a hot topic.

With this increasing importance has come a ton of new words and expressions. If you find yourself confused, you’re not alone. And as you navigate this new lexicon, it can be very helpful to focus on a type of expression called “collocations.”

Collocations are simply natural combinations of words. For example, you may know that we use the word “traffic” to talk about how many people visit a website. Well, did you know we normally say “drive traffic” when we talk about techniques for bringing people to a website? We don’t say “make traffic” or “move traffic.” It’s not a grammatical rule. It has just become a natural combination of words.

In today’s dialog, we’ll hear Eduardo, Emma, and Neil, who all work for a retailer that specializes in cooking equipment. They’re discussing their company’s online marketing performance. During their conversation, they use lots of English collocations, which we’ll explain later in the debrief.

Listening Questions

1. What does Eduardo regularly do to understand their online marketing performance?
2. What does Neil say is becoming harder, especially with new privacy rules?
3. What does Emma say is not a good technique for reaching younger audiences?

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Business English News 50 – Streaming TV Services

Business English News 50 - Streaming TV Services

In this Business English News lesson we look at business English vocabulary related to streaming TV services.

The pandemic battered many industries, including entertainment. But when theaters, concert venues, and museums shut down, the streaming wars ramped up. Besides Netflix, Disney, Amazon Prime, and Apple TV signed up thousands of new subscribers a day. In the dying days of the pandemic, however, the question has become whether they can keep them. For Netflix, the king of streaming, the news in 2022 hasn’t been good, as Gizmodo explains:

The most popular streaming service in the world reported on its Q1 earnings call that it had lost 200,000 subscribers where it originally expected to gain 2.5 million. It forecast doom and gloom for next quarter as well, with a predicted loss of two million more. The company has started laying off employees and shutting down productions in order to stave off further declines.

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BEP 386 – English Idioms about Spending Money (2)

BEP 386 - English Idioms about Spending Money 2

Welcome back to Business English Pod for another look at English idioms related to spending money.

Think of the people close to you, particularly your family members, and consider how they spend money. Does everyone have the same approach? Or do they all handle things differently? Chances are, you can easily think of differences in peoples’ approaches to money management. And it shouldn’t be surprising to learn that money is one of the top sources of conflict in a relationship.

This is true in business just as it is in families. How a company uses its financial resources is a huge strategic concern. Does the company risk some to get some? Or does the company favor saving and safety? And does the short-term strategy differ from the long-term strategy? These are all important questions, and it’s no wonder that English has so many idioms to talk about how people spend money.

In today’s dialog, we’ll rejoin Shelly, Martin, and Vince, three managers at a tech company. They are talking about how their company should spend money on staffing. And as we’ll hear, they don’t really agree on the best approach. During their conversation, they use many business English idioms related to spending money. See if you can spot some of these as we go through the dialog, and we’ll explain them later in the debrief.

Listening Questions

1. What does Martin say about companies that already work in the sector they are considering?
2. How does Martin describe office space on the south side of the city?
3. How does Vince describe the company’s possible future situation of having lots more money to spend?

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BEP 385 – English Idioms about Spending Money (1)

BEP 385 - English Idioms about Spending Money 1

Welcome back to Business English Pod for today’s lesson on business English idioms related to spending money.

As a wise person once said: it takes money to make money. In other words, you need to invest money and spend it in order to make more. On the other hand, spending money unwisely can eat into your profits. So, from both perspectives, figuring out how to spend money is one of the keys to business success.

And it should come as no surprise that spending money is a common topic of conversation in any business. It’s not just the folks in the purchasing department who think about it. Everyone has an opinion about how their company should and shouldn’t commit its resources. And for this reason, English has many idioms we use to describe the different approaches to spending money.

In today’s dialog, we’ll hear a conversation between three managers at a tech company: Shelly, Martin, and Vince. The company has just landed a big new project, and so they anticipate having more money to spend soon. But the three aren’t all in agreement about how they should spend that money and they use many different idioms to express their opinions. Try to pick out some of these business English idioms as you listen, and we’ll explain them later in the debrief.

Listening Questions

1. According to Martin, what approach to spending is now in the past?
2. What does Vince believe about competing in a new and different sector of the market?
3. How does Martin describe the salaries of the two positions they previously discussed hiring?

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