130 Terms You Should Know About Email Marketing

Julie Williams

Email marketing has become the central part of digital marketing. Every other brand or company is into email marketing nowadays. With changing trends and the evolution of current market needs, a marketer must be up-to-date with ever-changing terminologies involved in email marketing.

Making it easy for you, we have jotted down terms from A-Z related to email marketing.

Know every tactic involved in building a sales-intended email marketing strategy.

Terms discussed in the article

A

B

C

D

E

F

G

H

I

L

M

N

O

P

R

S

T

U

W

A

A/B Split Test

Here, we compare the results of 2 different versions of an email campaign content and approach and extract conclusions based on them. Develop two or more variants of an email, say, A, B, C, D, and so on. Try them with your different target audience types, compare the outcomes, and figure out the most effective version for your requirement.

Acceptable Spam Report Rate

Did you know that you can be reported as SPAM without impairing your sender reputation? The maximum number of times a marketing email can be reported spam just before the sender receives a warning or the sender’s reputation is damaged.

Acceptance Rate

The percentage of email a sender sends out that are accepted by the recipient’s email servers. Also, just because an email server receives an email doesn’t mean that it will get into the recipient’s inbox.

Attachment Open Rate

Authentication

Email authentication is the data encoded into every email message. It represents the email data’s details, such as where the email has come from and which servers relayed the information. This data can also be used to check if the email is delivered to the recipient’s inbox or filtered as spam.

Auto follow-up

A continuation email sent to serve as a reminder of a subject to the recipient is called a follow-up email. You can find specific tools to automate this process in the current market and ease your manual efforts.

Autoresponder

An autoresponder is an automated message that gets triggered when an email is sent to a particular address. A well-known example of an autoresponder is an out of office email.

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B

Behavioral Email

A behavioral email can customize the subscriber’s email messages based on their past behavioral patterns.

Blacklist

A list that represents IP addresses as spammer IPs, preventing email deliverability.

Block

Your emails can be stopped from being sent due to spam filters or other factors, and this is called an email block. If you cross the daily sending limit or send a spammy looking email, your email is prone to get blocked.

Bounce rate

The percentage of emails that don’t reach your recipient’s inbox is called bounce rate. A bounce rate of 5% is acceptable.

Bulk mail

Sending a single email to people in bulk numbers at the same time is called bulk mailing.

C

CAN-SPAM

The Controlling the Assault of Non-Solicited Pornography and Marketing Act of 2003 from the USA, also known as the CAN-SPAM act, protects the customers from unsolicited emails, irrespective of bulk spam emails or commercial emails, from businesses.

CASL (Canadian Anti-Spam Law)

Canadian Anti-Spam Law (CASL) is an act from Canada that requires global organizations that send a commercial email within, from, or to Canada to receive recipients’ permission before sending messages.

Call-to-action (CTA)

A term that refers to the next step a trader would want his audience or reader to take is entitled CTA. The CTA also can consist of a direct link to sales.

Cinemagraph

Cinemagraph is a brief looping video with still photographs with minor and repeated movements. Giving your viewers an illusion of watching an animation, a cinemagraph can be embedded into emails and websites.

Clicks Per Open

Clicks per open is the percentage of the number of clicks divided by the number of opens.

Click-through rate

Click-through rate is the percentage of recipients that click on a mentioned URL given in your email content.

CPM (Cost Per Thousand)

Cost per thousand (CPM), also known as cost per mille, a marketing term used to represent the price of 1,000 advertisement impressions on one web page.

Complaint Rate

Complaint rate is the percentage of how many subscribers marked an email as spam.

Contact List

A contact list is another term for subscriber list or mailing list, or email list.

Cold email

When the sender sends an email message to someone he doesn’t know, and for a specific reason, it is a cold email.

Conversion rate

The percentage of your audience who complete your desired task through email is called the conversion rate. For example, when you email your audience to fill up a registration form, and they fill it up, it is a conversion.

D

Dedicated IP

If your website has its address and you can use this IP address or the domain name to access it anywhere from the web, this IP address is known as your dedicated IP.

Dedicated Server

A computer server used for sending email campaigns is called a dedicated server.

Delivery rate

The delivery rate represents the percentage of emails sent from the sender that actually reached your readers’ inboxes.

Deploy

Another term for ‘send’ or ‘set’ in email marketing.

DKIM (DomainKeys Identified Mail)

DomainKeys Identified Mail (DKIM), a technical practice, protects email senders and recipients from spam, spoofing, and phishing. DKIM is a form of authentication that allows a firm to claim responsibility for a message that the recipient can validate.

Drip Marketing

A communication strategy that sends or drips a pre-written set of messages to customers or prospects over time is called drip marketing.

Dynamic content

Dynamic content is one of the personalization techniques that switches different content into pre-defined parts of an email message according to the reader’s preferences, location, and more.

Domain blacklist

Anti-spam groups can blacklist a domain for sending too many unsolicited emails. If a domain gets blacklisted, it is likely to be considered a spammer. There exist tools to help you out in checking if your domain is blacklisted or not.

Double Opt-in

The process in which you ask your audience or reader to confirm his email address by sending a test email when he is interested to opt-in for your newsletter is called as a double opt-in process. This ensures that your list is clean and all the recipients have a curious mind to receive your emails.

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E

Email Analytics

The technologies used to measure email marketing aspects are called email analytics.

Email Appending

The process in which email names are appended into a customer database by a company that holds the customer’s email addresses.

Email Campaign

A series of emails with a specific concern like lead nurturing, feedback surveys, and so on designed to accomplish a marketing goal is said to be an email campaign.

Email Client

An email client is an application that allows you to use emails from your desktop without logging into a browser. For example, Outlook is one of the best available email clients.

Email Deliverability

It is the ability to deliver an email to a subscriber’s inbox.

Email Filters

Email filters help you block unnecessary emails based on your criteria. The filters could be the subject line, the content of an email, and many more.

Email Harvesting/Scraping

Email harvesting or scraping is when a user harvests a list of email addresses from a similar industry or field to send bulk emails. There are many harvesting tools available to make the job easy. But in many countries, it is illegal to harvest emails without the permission of the user. You must ensure that your audience permits you with the opt-in process rather than spamming them with your emails.

Email Phishing

Phishing is a fraudulent act in which sensitive information like usernames and passwords are obtained to portray themselves as an authorized entity. Email phishing is when a link or content is sent through an email, and it’s one in which someone could acquire sensitive data of a user/audience.

Email Queue

It is a queue of emails that are to be sent one after another. When you automate an email campaign, the line of emails is supposed to be sent in a queue.

Email Shares

The count of how many times your emails have been shared across social networks is termed as email shares.

Engagement

A broader term that includes every communication an email subscriber can have with your messages.

Email Sponsorships

Advertisers need to pay to have their ad inserted into the body of an email. Buying this ad space in an email newsletter or sponsoring a specific article or series of articles is called email sponsorships.

Email List

An email list collects and clubs information of individuals such as names, email addresses, companies’ names, and locations.

Email Marketing

A digital marketing practice using emails to develop and maintain a relationship with leads and clients.

Email Service Provider (ESP)

A company or brand that provides you with emails is known as Email Service Provider (ESP).

Email Templates

Email template is a pre-defined set of designs and an outline to serve a specific purpose. There are different email templates to serve different purposes and for particular actions.

Email Verification

Email verification is a process of cleaning your email list by eliminating the outdated ones like fake, invalid, or unusual emails. It is suggested to verify your mailing database once every three months.

F

Forwards

The count of how many times one of your subscribers forwarded a message you sent them.

False-positive

It occurs when an authentic and genuine permission-based email is incorrectly filtered, blocked, or marked as spam.

G

Google Analytics

Google Analytics tracks the interactions with an email message and how people behave when they land at your website.

Gravestoning

It is an action taken by major ISPs like AOL, Gmail, and Comcast where an inactive email is turned into a spam trap.

Grey mail

If a recipient has opted for receiving your emails but lost interest over time in the subject, and when you send your email to them, the mails are called grey mails. It is because the email fits neither the spam category nor the legitimate email category.

GDPR (General Data Protection Regulation)

General Data Protection Regulation (GDPR) is a European law that protects European internet users’ data. It ensures that a business is not spamming their audience or readers with junk.

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H

Hard Bounce

A hard bounce is a failed email delivery due to permanent reasons like an invalid email address or a non-existent one.

Header

The top part of an email content is said to be a header.

Honey pot

A honey pot is a technique to identify, detect, and counteract unauthorized use of information systems.

House List (or Retention List)

The most valuable part of your business marketing is the house list. It is a permission-based list that you have built yourself with your opt-in subscribers.

HTML5

HTML5 is a markup language that allows email coders and designers to enhance an email’s creativity, including email carousels, video embeds, and many more.

HTML Emails

An HTML email encourages you to be creative in terms of your design of the emails.

I

Image blocking

A hard bounce is a failed email delivery due to The images in your email may get blocked automatically if your email client has a personal preference for such a setting. This saves time and data for the recipients and affects the efficiency of the sender’s communication. Image blocking is one of the factors to prefer plain emails by mass email senders.

IP Warmup

A new IP address needs warmup. When you start sending an email from a new IP address, you should send emails, gradually increasing its volumes. For example, if you send 25 emails today, you should send 50 tomorrow. This way, your IP will gradually warm-up, and the spam filter won’t get triggered.

Inactives

The individuals who subscribe to your email content but do not open or click for more than a month are called the inactives.

Inbox Placement Rate

Inbox placement rate is the percentage that represents how often the emails you sent reach your subscribers’ inboxes.

L

Label

A category in which you want an email to go is called a label. You may label different emails according to priorities. For example – important, promotional, urgent, and many more.

Landing Page

A page where a person would land when clicked the mentioned link given in the email sent is called a landing page.

Levels of Authentication

Includes how to enhance a sender’s identity and ensure that a sender is permitted to send from a given domain.

Tip

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List Broker

A list broker is a professional who networks and brings in the list owners and email marketers to close deals. List brokers are likely to take a percentage of how much the email marketer pays to buy or rent an email list.

List Churn

A broad term including all the ways people can disconnect from a list is referred to as list churn. This may include actions like changing their email address, not opening emails or opening links, or any event that leads to inactivity.

List Fatigue

Engagement with the subscribers deteriorates overtime after an email list is the one used to email frequently.

List Growth

It is the rate of how quickly you add new subscribers to your subscriber list. The list growth rate counts the effects of list churn while showing results. Thus, the list growth refers to how much larger your list is getting, only after considering the list churn.

List Hygiene

As the name suggests, maintaining an email list’s accuracy with regular cleaning and verification ensures that the email list is free from defects or outdated information.

List Rental

Purchasing an email list for one-time use from a third-party is known as list rental. You may use this mailing list for your email campaign according to your precise requirements and targets.

List Segmentation

List segmentation is classifying your email list into various segments according to different criteria such as location, demographics, behavioral patterns, and many more.

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M

Marketing Automation

In the case of an email, marketing automation is the process of email marketing software sending email campaigns to your audience and prospective clients based on your set of pre-defined preferences.

MIME (Multi-purpose Internet Mail Extensions)

MIME is an extension of the original email protocol that allows people to send different messages in various file formats.

Multivariate testing

Multivariate testing is a technique in which different email variables are tested to determine what works the best.

Tip

Do not confuse multivariate testing with A/B testing. A/B testing is applicable only for one variable, whereas multivariate testing involves several variables.

N

Newsletter

A news bulletin or a message sent regularly to your readers who have opted to receive them through emails is called newsletters.

O

Onboarding emails

A message that a user receives immediately after the subscription is known as an onboarding email. In general, an onboarding email consists of a series of guidance on using a (brand’s) product effectively.

Opt-in box

The specific area on your website where your audience can opt-in to your list is called the opt-in box.

Open rate

Open rate is the percentage of people that have opened your email.

Opt-Out

The choice of not continuing in an email list is called an opt-out. This could happen as your reader lost interest in receiving your content or mistakenly opted-in for your content.

You should be flexible enough to your audience, giving them an option to opt-out with an unsubscribe button at the end of your email.

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P

Personalized Email

An email sent to one of your readers personalizing it with their name, and further addressing his specific concerns or pain points, is called personalized email.

Physical Address

Including the physical address of a company is a legal requirement for various forms of email marketing. It is usually found in the footer of an email.

Plain Text Email

An email with plain text without using HTML is called plain text email. It is suggested to give your recipients an option to read your emails in either HTML or plain text for better readability.

Pre-header text

When viewed in an inbox, the pre-header text is a part of an email that appears below the subject line.

Privacy Policy

A privacy policy in email marketing should consist of the details of what personal data you collect and the extent to which this data is used. You also should include if this data might be shared with or used across any third-parties.

Preference Center

Preference center is a page on your website provided by your email service provider where subscribers can edit their information and manage how often they receive emails.

Preview Pane

The preview pane is a small window within your mail inbox that allows you to give you a preview of your email.

Png (Portable Network Graphics)

It is a file format often used in email messages.

Promotional emails

Emails sent with an intent to promote a service or a product are promotional emails.

R

Re-engagement Campaign

As the name says, a re-engagement campaign is an email campaign sent to get the inactive subscribers to re-engage.

Read or Open Length

The time a person opens the email until they close it.

Rental List

A rental list is an email list an organization rents from a third party.

Rendering

Reply n rate is the percentage of people that reply to your email. It is also called as response rate.

Reply rate

Reply n rate is the percentage of people that reply to your email. It is also called as response rate.

Responsive Design

Emails that respond to the actions of the recipient are known as responsive emails.

Retention

Retention is focusing on making existing clients do more and more business with your brand.

Revenue Per Email Sent

A metric represents how much you have earned per each email that you sent.

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S

Sender Name

It is a part of your email where your subscribers see who has sent them the message.

Sender Score

The sender score ranges from 0-100, which signifies your sender’s reputation. You can use it to improve your performance accordingly. A score of 90 and above is considered good.

Sender Server

The server through which you send your email campaigns is called as sender server.

Shared IP

A shared IP address is used for multiple sites on the server. This way, one site’s bad actions can deteriorate all other websites’ IP reputations sharing that IP on the server.

Signature File

A tagline at the end of an email content representing the sender and adds extra information such as company name and contact information is a signature file.

Single Opt-in

It is the process where only one step is involved in opting in the list of subscribers.

SMTP (Simple Mail Transfer Protocol)

The set of rules to coordinate that servers use in sending emails across the world is SMTP.

Soft Bounce

When the email cannot be delivered because of a full mailbox or the recipient’s server is down, or the email message is too large for the recipient’s inbox, it is called a soft bounce.

Solo Ads

Solo ads are advertisements reflected on other people’s email lists. In such ads, you are the only brand advertised in the email list. Solo ads drive traffic to your website.

UCE (Unsolicited Commercial Email)

Another term for ‘spam’.

Spam Cop

The filters that automatically figure out emails if they are spammy or unsolicited and move them into the spam folder are called spam filters.

Spam Filters

The filters that automatically figure out emails if they are spammy or unsolicited and moves them into the spam folder are called spam filters.

Spam Trap

A spam trap is an email address that’s not used regularly but monitored actively by Internet Service Providers (ISPs). It is used to identify senders who aren’t following the best email practices.

Spammer

Those sending unwanted and unnecessary emails.

SPF (Sender Policy Framework)

SPF is an email authentication technique used to prevent spammers from sending emails on behalf of a domain. Only after you authenticate your domain will the filters know that your emails are not spammy and sent for a purpose and not for fraudulent activities.

Statistical Relevance

Statistical relevance is a term used in A/B split-testing. It is suggested that you should have a confidence level of a minimum of 90-95% to determine that your results are statistically considerable and valid.

Subject line

The title or headline of an email message is referred to as the subject line.

Subscriber

Individuals who have signed up to receive your email messages are your subscribers.

Subscriber value

The subscriber value defines how much a subscriber is worth to you financially.

Suppression File

A suppression file is a list of email addresses that should not be mailed to. Also, some companies maintain a global suppression file.

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T

Targeting

A targeted list means a list of subscribers who strongly reflect the company’s ideal buyer persona.

Throttling

Throttling is an email deployment technique. It sends email messages in groups. This enhances the deliverability rates and server load management.

Transactional email

These are the emails sent to confirm reservations, orders, and related.

Triggered emails

A triggered email is sent whenever a specific action or event occurs over a specific time period. Birthday emails are the best example of triggered emails.

U

Unique clicks

Unique clicks are the number representing how many individual subscribers have clicked on the links in your emails.

Unique opens

Unique opens show how many individuals have opened your emails, not just the number of times your email was opened.

Unsubscribe rate

Unsubscribe rate is the percentage of people from your list that opt-out after you start sending your email contents.

W

Whitelist

A list of email addresses that a recipient considers authentic and interested in is called a whitelist. The greater the number of people who whitelist you, the higher your domain reputation will be.

Welcome Email

The very first email that you send to people who opted-in or subscribed to content or newsletters.

Know every tactic involved in building a sales-intended email marketing strategy.

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Julie Williams

Julie writes to motivate, inform, and educate people. Her major interests are marketing, artificial intelligence, and related areas. She is passionate about poetry on nature and human psychology. When not writing, she's found dancing or exploring new tourist places around!

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