Email Marketing Glossary and Terms
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A B C D E F G H I J K L M N O P Q R S T U V W X Y Z
Above-the-fold: An area near the top of an email or web page that can be seen without scrolling in a browser.
ASP: Application Service Provider – An organization that hosts software applications and related services on their own servers, that their clients would have access by the Internet or private connection.
Auto responder: A computer program that automatically responds to an email sent to a particular email address, with a message containing prewritten content.
B2B: Business-to-Business – one business exchanging information, products or services with another business.
B2C: Business-to-Consumer – A business exchanging information, products or services with a consumer – as opposed to another business (B2B).
Bayesian filter: A spam filter that is adaptable and “learns” to identify new patterns of spam by examining the words and punctuation of both valid and spam email.
Bounces: An email that does not reach the end recipient and is returned to sender. Misspelling of the name or an incorrect address will cause a bounce. Emails can also bounce if the size of the attached file exceeds a set limit by your ISP. "Hard" bounces are caused by invalid email addresses, whereas "soft" bounces are due to temporary conditions, example being mailbox is full.
Challenge-Response:A method that authenticates that a human responded to an email challenge message and upon completion of the challenge, the original email that triggered the challenge is delivered to the recipient.
Click-through tracking: When a particular hyperlink is tracked to determine how many recipients clicked on that link in an online advertising format. Marketers can use this format to measure the success of email marketing campaigns.
Conversion rate: A measurement of success in email marketing. This generally is the percentage of visitors that complete a desired action (for example complete a purchase or form).
Cost Per Action (CPA): Advertiser is charged only based on items that relate directly to some type of conversion, transaction or sale. Cost Per Click (CPC) A set charge that an advertiser would be billed for each time a visitor clicks on a banner or ad.
Cost Per Thousand (CPM): CPM refers to the total cost to deliver 1,000 impressions. Often Web sites that sell advertising will guarantee an advertiser a certain number of impressions. Demographics Data about the size and characteristics of audience.
DNS: Domain Name System – A name resolution system that translates domain names into IP addresses.
Domain name: A name that identifies one or more IP addresses and distinguishes them from other systems on the network. There are at least two parts to Domain names that are separated by dots. The part on the left is the second-level domain (more specific), while the part on the right is the top-level domain (more general). Take For example the www.abc.org Example Sub domain: www
Second level domain: abc
Top level domain: org
Double opt-in: When subscribing email recipients to an email list or newsletter, this is the recommended format by best practices. With double opt-in, the submitted name is not immediately added to a mailing list. After a person requests to subscribe to a list, a confirmation email message is automatically sent to the supplied email address asking the person to verify. Once confirmed then they are added, if nothing is done with the conformation email then address is not submitted or added to the list.
Download: To transfer a copy of a file from an Internet server to one's own computer.
Email Blacklists: A database of IP addresses that are being used by or belong to organizations or persons that have been identified as sending Spam. Various organizations and Internet Service Providers often subscribe to the blacklists as part of their filtering process to block all incoming mail from a particular IP address.
Email Contextual link: In the email content the use of a Web link versus a “click here” which is incorporated into a line of text. Email Frequency Set intervals at which email marketing efforts are repeated: weekly, bi-weekly, monthly, bi-monthly, etc. Email newsletter an email message sent out, which contains information on a relevant topic for a specific group of subscribers. Most subscribers sign up for newsletters at websites of their choice.
Email Marketing Campaign: An organized and designed email-marketing message, which can be delivered at intervals or only once.
Email Subject Line: This is the first stage of the communication port with your recipient. Your choice for the subject line is not just the title of the email message but the required item to grab attention as well as show your creditability to the recipient.
False Positive: When a legitimate email is mistakenly blocked by the limitations in current filters and email blocking techniques.
FTP: File Transfer Protocol – A protocol that is used for uploading or downloading files which allows users to copy files between their local system and any system they can reach on the network.
HTML: Hypertext Markup Language – The most commonly used coding language for creating Web pages. HTML can also be used in email messages.
IP address: (Internet Protocol address) An IP address is a unique identifier for a computer on the Internet. It is written as four numbers separated by periods. This is called "dotted decimal" notation.
Landing Page: is the first page of your site viewed, when a user is directed to your site from a link. Any page can be a landing page the general purpose is to provide additional information directly related to products or services promoted in the email.
Multi-threading: The ability of an operating system to run different parts of a program called threads, simultaneously. In email marketing a process, which is designed, so a mail server can perform multiple concurrent deliveries, which greatly speeds up the delivery of large volumes of email.
Multipart: A message format that allows the recipient to open the message in preferred format, as the message includes both text and HTML versions.
Opt-in Email: An explicit request by the recipient to receive an email or communications.
Publisher: Author of ezine/newsletter or web property.
Rate Card: Document detailing prices for various ad placement options including closing dates issued by the seller of the ad space.
Reach: is defined as the size of the audience or overall subscribers list size, who listen to, read, view or otherwise access an particular item in a given time period.
Reverse DNS Lookup: DNS is used to determine what IP address is associated with a given hostname. This process is using a known IP address is to lookup what the associated the hostname/domain for it is.
ROI: Return On Investment
SPAM: Unsolicited commercial email.
SMTP: Simple Mail Transfer Protocol – The standard email protocol on the Internet. SMTP defines the message format and the message transfer agent; it is the set rules between sending and receiving email programs.
Spam Filter: Software that uses various techniques to redirect unwanted email away from a users inbox. These filters can be based on a variety of criteria, including sender's email address; specific words in the subject or message body, and can be implemented by end-users as well as ISPs. Unique Clicks: The number of different individuals who click on an ad link within a specific period of time.
Whitelist aka – buddy list: A list of pre-authorized email addresses determined by the end recipient and email messages will be delivered regardless of spam filters.
Worm: A malicious code or program that is often spread through an executable attachments in emails and when activated it will replicate and fills up storage space on a drive or network.