As seasoned marketing experts, we know that there’s a lot of marketing, technology and email marketing-related jargon being tossed around the Knowledge Marketing office. This glossary of terms is here to help our clients better understand exactly what we mean when we talk about triggered messages, CTRs and ISPs.
A/B testing
Through the use of A/B/ testing, marketers can improve their marketing efforts by testing different elements of an email campaign. A/B testing takes the guess work out of which subject line, offer or content will resonate with subscribers more. Therefore, only the strongest campaigns are sent to recipients.
Above-the-fold
The portion of a web page or email message that is visible without scrolling. It is generally more desirable placement because of its visibility. For example, any content or message you need to get across should be placed above the fold to ensure visitors and viewers see exactly what is meant to be seen, and therefore, they can take action.
Acquisition List
A list of prospects who have opted-in to receive information regarding certain subjects and topics. Through the use of permission-based rental lists, marketers can send email messages to audiences targeted by interest, profession, industry, gender, age and more. But a word of caution about acquiring a list, it’s best to make sure that you’re only using a certified permission-based, opt-in list. Lists that don’t meet those requirements can wreak havoc.
API
Is an acronym for Application Program Interface, though it can also be referred to as an Application Programming Interface. An API is a set of commands, functions and protocols, which programmers can use when building software for a specific operating system. Instead of writing them from scratch, API allows programmers to use predefined functions to interact with an operating system.
Auto-Responder
An email function that creates an automatic pre-defined response.
Bandwidth
A rate of data transfer, bit rate or throughput, measured in bits per second (bps).
Blacklists
Lists of IP addresses belonging to organizations that have been identified as senders of SPAM. Blacklists are often used by Internet Service Providers and companies as part of the filtering process that determines which IP addresses they allow and block mail from.
Blocking
When emails are prevented from reaching the intended inbox or recipient, typically due to action taken on the part of the Internet Service Provider (ISP).
Campaign
An email marketing message or a series of email marketing messages planned to accomplish a set objective.
CAN-SPAM Act
The CAN-SPAM Act of 2003 (Controlling the Assault of Non-Solicited Pornography and Marketing Act) is a federal law that establishes requirements for those who send commercial email. It spells out penalties for spammers and companies whose products are advertised in SPAM if they violate the law, and gives consumers the right to ask emailers to stop spamming them.
More information and details can be viewedhere: http://www.ftc.gov/bcp/conline/pubs/buspubs/canspam.htm
Challenge Response
An automated message triggered by the receipt of an email for the purpose of identifying the sender. The challenge is a message to the sender of the original email with instructions on how to identify themselves. If the sender provides a valid response, his email address is added to the recipient’s list of trusted senders and his message is subsequently passed along.
Click-through Rate (CTR)
The number of email recipients who have clicked on links embedded in your email message. For example, they may click on an image of your company logo that takes them directly to your website’s home page—that is a click-through. The click-through rate calculated by the percentage of people who clicked on a link in your email message versus the total number of recipients.
Content
The copy, graphics and images that comprise the email message.
Conversion Rate
The number or percentage of recipients who respond to your call to action in an email marketing campaign.
Copy
The actual text of the email marketing message.
Dedicated IP Address
Used when deploying email campaigns through an Email Service Provider. A dedicated IP helps ensure cleanliness, which means no signs of the provider, the providers’ other customers or any complaints generated from the other customers are visible to the receiving ISP or email message recipient.
Delivery Statistics
Delivery statistics break down the numbers of your email marketing campaign. Such as how many messages were sent, how many messages were opened and how many people clicked through to your website or landing page.
Double Opt-In
When a subscriber joins your mailing list, an automated message is sent requesting confirmation of their subscription. The purpose of having double opt-in subscribers is that it provides an additional layer of security by requiring that email account be both subscribed and then verified by a confirmation email before they are added to the list.
Enterprise Communication Network/ECN™
KM’s Enterprise Communication Network or ECN™ is a cross channel, on-demand marketing platform that helps professional marketers manage and maximize the effectiveness of their marketing campaigns.
Ezine
An ezine is an electronic magazine emailed to a list of subscribers. Topics range depending on interests and industries.
False positive
Permission-based email that is erroneously blocked due to the limitations of current email blocking and filtering techniques.
Font
A specific size and style of type within a type family.
Footer
A footer is the area at the bottom of an email where information on how to unsubscribe is contained.
Frequency
The intervals at which email marketing efforts are repeated: weekly, bi-weekly, monthly, bi-monthly, etc.
From Line
The information that appears in the sender line at the top of an email message and generally identifies who sent the message.
Hard Bounce
A hard bounce is an email message that has been returned to the sender because the recipient’s address is invalid. A hard bounce can occur if the domain name doesn’t exist or if the designated recipient is unknown.
HTML Email Message
An HTML email message is an email message created with HTML that allows for the display of images rather than plain text.
IP Address
Is an acronym for Internet Protocol address—it’s a unique address that certain electronic devices use in order to identify and communicate with each other on a network. In short, it’s a computer address.
ISP
Is an acronym for an Internet Service Provider, which is a company that provides access to the Internet.
Landing Page
A Web page that is linked to an email for the purpose of providing additional information directly related to products or services promoted within the email message.
Layout
The arrangement of content within an email message—designed to augment the use of space while presenting the essential text and graphics in the portion above the fold.
Links
Text links, hyperlinks, graphics or images which, when clicked, direct the reader to another online location.
Mailing List
A set of email addresses designated for receiving email messages on certain products and services.
Open Rate
The open rate is calculated as the total number of emails opened by recipients, expressed as a percentage of the total number of emails delivered.
Opens Tracking
Email opens are tracked using an HTML IMG tag embedded in outgoing emails, calling for a small, transparent tracking image. When the client or browser used to display the email requests that image, an open is recorded for that message. Reported numbers will be artificially lower than actual values because many recipients have images disabled on their email clients.
Opt-In
Opting-in is the action a person takes when he or she actively agrees to receive communications from an email marketer. An opt-in can be as simple as filling out a form in a salon to entering your contact information on a website.
Opt-Out
Also known as unsubscribing, which means to remove oneself from a mailing list.
Permission-based Email
The practice of only sending email messages to those recipients who have agreed to receive messages by opting-in.
Personalization
The practice of composing an email message to make the recipient feel that it is more personal and was sent with him or her in mind. A few ways of personalizing an email message involve including the recipient’s name in the greeting or subject line, referring to previous purchases or subscriptions or offering recommendations based on previous buying patterns.
Phishing
Is when a sender impersonates a trusted party such as a bank, government official or trustworthy online vendor, sends millions of email messages directing recipients to websites with the sole purpose of collecting and stealing confidential and important information.
POP (Post Office Protocol) Account
Is an acronym for Post Office Protocol—a communications protocol is the language used between your email program (a POP client) and your Internet Service Provider’s mail.
Privacy Policy
A clear description of an organization’s policy regarding the use of information collected from and about website visitors and what they do, and do not do, with the data.
Salutation
Just like an old fashioned letter, this is the area in an email message where you address your recipient.
Segmentation
Segmenting a list allows the sender to create subsets of data that grant the sender increased demographic targeting. Based on various criteria, segmenting your list is great for birthday offers, specific product and service promotions and event notifications—instead of sending to your entire list each and every time. List segmentation increases the likelihood of a response to your message or offer.
Soft Bounce
A soft bounce is an email message that gets to the recipient’s mail server but is undeliverable. Many times, a soft bounce occurs before it reaches the recipient if the recipient’s inbox is full and may be deliverable at another time, or may be forwarded manually by the network administrator in charge of redirecting mail on the recipient’s domain.
SPAM
SPAM is unsolicited email, particularly of a commercial nature. Sending email messages to those who have not requested it will likely result in SPAM complaints.
Spoofing
Email spoofing involves forging a sender’s address on email messages. It can be used by malicious individuals to mislead email recipients into reading and responding to deceptive mail. These phony messages can jeopardize the online privacy of consumers and damage the reputation of the companies purported to have sent the messages. Spoofed email often contains phishing scams. SSH
Static IP
A static IP address is an identifier that helps one computer find another in the vast world of computer networks.
A Static IP address is when a computer uses the same address every time a user logs on to a network, such as the Internet. With a static IP address, a computer’s identity can be easily identified by others, and users can easily connect with it. That way, for example, a website, email server, or other type of server connection can be hosted.
Subject Line
The line of text in an email message that implies what the message is about. We always recommend that you keep subject lines short since so many people are viewing email on mobile devices now—think no more than 40 characters. Also, federal law prohibits the use of misleading subject lines.
Suppression Lists
Are comprised of a list of email addresses whose owners no longer want to receive messages regarding an advertiser’s products or services. Generally, this process is automated by your email service provider. However, if you use multiple email products, or have multiple databases from which you send emails, you should use a suppression list to process all unsubscribe requests across all lists.
Targeting
Selecting a target audience or group of individuals likely to be interested in a certain product or service so that you can market to them. Targeting is very important for an email marketer because targeted and relevant email campaigns yield a higher response rate.
Tracking
Gathering and analyzing the statistics from an email campaign.
Tracking Statistics
Tracking statistics tell you about the status of your email marketing campaign—how many messages were sent, how many of those messages were opened and how many people clicked through from your email message to your landing page or website.
Triggered Email Messages
Triggered email messages allow you set up automated messages when your subscribers complete certain predetermined actions. These can be reminders or promotional offers geared toward improving response rates.
Unsubscribe
The action taken when a subscriber to an email list no longer wishes to receive email marketing messages from a sender. Generally, unsubscribing can be done by clicking the unsubscribe link at the bottom of email messages. This process I also known as opting-out.
Whitelist
Whitelists are lists of mailers who have been approved to send mail through the Internet Service Providers. Whitelists contain contacts that the user deems acceptable to receive email from and should not be sent to the trash folder.
