Email Marketing Glossary
| Word | Description |
Queue |
Where the email goes after the email marketer sends the message to his or her list, but before the email server delivers the message to the group. |
Read Rate |
An important metric measured by the length of time that an email message is opened by each recipient. Listrak labels a message as “read” if the recipient holds the message open more than five seconds. To calculate the read rate, divide the total number of read messages by the total number of emails sent. |
Registration |
The process of subscribing to an email list. |
Reverse DNS |
The process of looking up an IP Address to identify the domain name associated with it. |
Rich Media |
Email messages that contain creative such as video, sound, or animation. |
ROKSO |
A list of spam operators that have been thrown off at least three ISPs (www.spamhaus.org/rokso) |
Routing Information |
One or more lines contained in the header of an email message that describes the path of the message from the sender to the recipient. |
RSS |
A group of web feed formats used to publish and easily distribute frequently updated digital content, such as blogs, news feeds, or podcasts. |
Seed Emails |
Email addresses that are placed on a list to evaluate the sender’s service. |
Segment |
The ability to select a subset of the list according to attributes of the recipients, such as location or product preference. |
Selective Unsubscribe |
Removal process that allows the subscriber to opt-out of receiving some emails from a company while remaining on the list to receive other emails from that same company. |
SEM |
A set of marketing methods, such as pay per click, that increases the visibility or ranking of a website on search engines’ result pages. |
Sender ID |
An anti-spam program made up of Sender Policy Framework and CallerID that authenticates email senders and blocks email forgeries and faked addresses. |
SEO |
The process of improving the volume and quality of traffic to a website from search engines. |
Signature File |
A tagline at the end of an e-mail message used to identify the sender and provide additional information, such as company name, contact information, or a marketing call to action. |
SMTP |
The most common protocol for sending email messages between email servers. |
Soft Bounce |
A message that was undelivered due to a temporary problem, such as a full mailbox. |
Spam |
Email messages that are sent to recipients that did not subscribe to a list. |
Spoofing |
The act of forging another person's email address to get users to open a message. |
Subscribe |
The act of registering for a mailing list. |
Subscriber |
The person who has requested to be added to a mailing list. |
Suppression File |
A list of email addresses of the subscribers that have opted-out of your list. |
Targeted Messaging |
The act of sending relevant emails to a segmented group of subscribers. |
Teaser |
A brief email message designed to arouse curiosity and interest, but without revealing too much detail in itself. |
Throttling |
The act of regulating the number of email messages an email marketer sends to an ISP or mail server at a time. |
Tracking |
The act of collecting and evaluating the statistics from which one can measure the effectiveness of an email or an email campaign. |
Transactional Emails |
A creative format where the recipient can enter a transaction in the body of the email itself without clicking to a web page first, such as responding to a survey. |
UCE |
Email messages that are sent to recipients that did not subscribe to a list. |
Unique Click |
The actual number of subscribers that clicked on a call to action button in an email. It is the measurement of a single click by a single user. |
Unique Reference Number |
An exclusive number assigned to each subscriber so the ESP can track individual emails. |
Unsubscribe |
The act of opting-out of an email list. |
URL |
The Internet Address for a website, web page, or other online resource. |
Verification |
A program that confirms that an email came from the sender listed in the envelope sender header. |
Viral Marketing |
A type of marketing that occurs when a message starts spreading from person to person rapidly and uncontrollably. |
WASP |
A company that provides wireless, web-based access to applications and services that would otherwise have to be stored locally. |
Welcome Message |
Message sent automatically to new list members as soon as they successfully subscribe to the email list. |
Whitelist |
Lists of sites with which ISPs have built good relationships and allow emails from. |
Worm |
A piece of malicious code, often delivered via an executable attachment in email or over a computer network. |
Word of Mouth Marketing |
A term used in the marketing industry to describe activities that companies undertake to generate favorable publicity about products and services that is passed on from person to person without interference from the marketing company. |
WSP |
A company that offers transmission services to users of wireless devices, such as PDAs, through radio frequency signals rather than through end-to-end wire communication. |
XML |
An open standard for exchanging structured documents and data over the Internet. |
