Email Marketing Terminology

To ensure everybody's on the same page, we've come up with this brief glossary explaining the terminology you're most likely to come across when reading, or indeed, talking about email marketing, from the obscure to the commonplace.

These definitions have been written to make every aspect of email marketing as clear and comprehensible as possible - so even the the biggest technophobe can follow the conversation.

Autoresponders

A targeted, pre-prepared message sent to inboxes automatically when a trigger action is taken. These messages are timed for delivery - anything from instantly up to several weeks after the trigger has taken place.

Black-listed

The opposite of white-listed, black-listed email senders suffer from a poor sender reputation and reduced deliverability. Each time a recipient marks your message as spam, a black mark is put against your name. ISPs are notified each time this happens. If you are subsequently black-listed by an ISP, your emails will be sent to the junk box automatically.

Bounced emails

When an email is unable to reach the recipient's inbox and is 'bounced' back to the sender, unopened. This generally happens because the recipient's email address has been noted inaccurately or no longer exists.

Call to action

An instruction within the body of the email that the recipient is encouraged to follow, usually with the aid of an incentive. For example, 'for a free consultation, ring us on: 0800 999 9999'.

Click-through

The act of clicking on a link within the campaign email. Normally, these links take the recipient through to a landing page where they can find out more information about the product or service on offer.

Conversion

The process of turning a contact on your mailing list into a lead, then a paying customer.

Copy

The written word used to communicate your marketing message.

Deliverability

The success of your email campaign at passing through spam filters and being delivered to recipients' inboxes. Emails sent from white-listed senders enjoy a higher deliverability.

DIY email marketing

When a company sends out email marketing materials using its own, 'home-made' system. Although useful for small-scale projects and pre-campaign testing, DIY Email Marketing is difficult to maintain as an effective and legal marketing process.

Electronic mailing list

Also known as elists and contact lists, an electronic mailing list is a database of email addresses allowing for the widespread, automatic and instantaneous distribution of information, making them ideal for marketing and customer service tasks.

For an indepth look at the different kinds of electronic mailing list and how they work, please follow the link.

Email campaign

A series of emails sustained by a uniform marketing message. This can take the form of any of the following:

  • Email marketing newsletters
  • Special offers
  • Auto responders
  • Event invitations/RSVPs
  • Questionnaires/surveys

Campaigns can be targeted at customer acquisition (new business generation) or retention of existing business.

Email service provider

A provider of email capabilities and other related tools and functions.

Forward to a friend

The recipient of your email passes it on to another contact (most likely not on your mailing lists) because they think it might be useful to them. This is usually done spontaneously because the original recipient enjoyed the message and thought it was of value. This is an example of viral email marketing.

Friendly 'from' address

A recognisable, trustworthy source of emails. Messages sent by friendly 'from' addresses are more likely to enjoy higher open rates.

Goodbye message

An auto-responder sent when recipients opt-out of your mailing list. It is good practice to send this message as an acknowledgement and confirmation of the recipient's decision to unsubscribe. It is also an opportunity to find out why they unsubscribed and whether or not they would like to continue receiving any other emails/newsletters: offer them a simple tick box to complete and return.

HTML

HTML, or HyperText Markup Language is a form of computer code used to create web pages, emails and other on-screen information. It can organise the page into headings, paragraphs and tables and create the visible content e.g. text, images, animations.

Inbox preview

The process of testing your email's renderability, i.e. how it will look in various web browsers and email inboxes. The preview is used to check whether the message formats correctly, the links are active, the images are displaying and the interactive content functioning correctly.

Internet service provider

Often shortened to ISP, the Internet Service Provider gives users access to the internet as well as providing some other services: SPAM filters for example.

IP address

Short for Internet Protocol Address, the IP address is a unique number made up of four parts divided by dots e.g. 123.321.213.4. Every computer has an individual IP address and is used for verification purposes.

Junk button

The junk button allows recipients to mark messages as Spam before opening them. Most recipients judge the authenticity and relevancy of the email based on the sender's identity and the subject line, so it's important to ensure these are honest and informative.

Key performance indicators

Often shortened to KPI, key performance indicators are the criteria used to measure the success of an email campaign. Common KPIs include: open rate, click through rate and conversion rate.

Landing page

The web page that a click-through link leads to, used to advertise a product/service or offer, or to encourage browsers to explore the rest of the site. The landing page is not necessarily the website's home page.

List-clean

The process of deleting obsolete and inaccurate email addresses on a mailing list. These email addresses are the ones that produce bounced emails, which affects your deliverability rate.

Mailing list

A list of collected email addresses that will receive your email marketing message. You can have multiple mailing lists, segmented for particular email campaigns. It is advisable to subject you mailing list to a list-clean periodically.

Open rate

The percentage of people who actually open your email. A high open-rate indicates your message is appealing to reader's interests. Open rates are often used as a key performance indicator.

Opt-in (Double opt-in)

When recipients give you permission to send them emails, usually via a tick box or by volunteering their email information. A 'double opt-in' is when a confirmation message is sent to the recipient's inbox, requiring them to confirm they want to receive the emails - this is the strongest form of permission granting).

Opt-out

When recipients withhold or retract their permission for you to send them emails, usually by clicking on an 'unsubscribe' link or un-ticking a tick box. All marketing emails and newsletters are required by law to have a working opt-out feature.

Render / Renderability

The ability of the email to appear as intended in all web browsers and inboxes with no formatting errors and all links and features working as planned.

Spam

An electronic form of junk-mail, Spam is an irrelevant email sent without the recipient's permission. Most Spam messages are harmless but some can contain viruses, so all are redirected when detected by the Spam filters to email junk boxes automatically.

Spam filter

A feature of most ISPs and other email providers, Spam filters are used to screen incoming emails for certain criteria e.g. keywords in the subject title, whether the IP address matches the domain name etc. and tallies a score based on the findings. If the score is above a certain number, the email is designated as SPAM and goes to the junk box.

Subject line

The main heading for your email. A good subject line should be attention grabbing, concise, intriguing and informative. Avoid capitalising words or using exclamation marks to try to grab attention as these are normally detected by Spam filters.

Trigger

An pre-determined action that sets off an auto-responder message e.g. signing-up for a newsletter.

Verification

The screening of an email sender's identity to check whether it's genuine e.g. when ISPs compare the domain name with the sender's IP address. Successfully verified or 'authenticated' emails generally enjoy improved deliverability.

Viral emails

Emails that encourage recipients to forward to a friend, either directly through a call to action or indirectly through the quality of the content.

White-listed

The opposite of black-listed, white-listed email senders benefit from an improved sender reputation and have fewer messages misdirected to junk boxes. To become white-listed you have to send relevant, targeted emails in a timely manner on a consistent basis.

For a 'plain speaking' email marketing solution that delivers results, call Docnet on 0845 521 0444

Last Updated ( Friday, 22nd May 2009 )
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