37 email marketing-related terms you need to know

What differentiates a blocklist from a blacklist? What exactly does CTA mean? What exactly does "double-opt in" mean? When discussing email marketing, a lot of terminology is used and occasionally, users are unsure of their actual meanings. If this is you, you don’t have to worry. Our glossary of email marketing vocabulary explains 37 widely used phrases that you should know.

Let's get right to the list without further delay.

1. A/B Split Test

It is a technique for comparing the outcomes of two different emails and drawing conclusions about them. You compose two or more variations of an email and label them A, B, C and so on. To determine which has the greatest influence, you test it out on various people and compare the outcomes.

2. Attachment

Any form of file delivered with an email message is considered an attachment. Sharing documents and photographs is made easier by including an attachment in an email. A recipient of an email can get one or more files attached. Any type of content can be attached, including mp3s, zipped files, folders and even images and documents.

3. Authentication

This is a word used to describe protocols like Sender ID, SPF and DomainKeys/DKIM that confirm an email was sent from the address and person specified as the sender. Spam and spoofing are combated using authentication standards.

4. BCC

An email message that is copied to a receiver whose email address does not appear (as a recipient) in the message is referred to as a Bcc, or "blind carbon copy."

5. Blacklist

This is a list of alleged spammers' email addresses or IP addresses. Incoming mail can occasionally be rejected using blacklists at the server level, before it reaches the receiver.

6. Bounce rate

Bounce rate is the percentage of emails that could not be successfully delivered, for a variety of reasons. A hard bounce indicates a permanent issue (such as the email address not existing anymore), while a soft bounce is temporary (such as a full mailbox).

7. Bulk mail/mass email

Mass/bulk emailing is the practice of sending a single email to many recipients at once.

8. Call to action (CTA)

An instruction or request made to the recipient of an email, typically at the end of the email. "Book now," for instance.

9. Cc

A carbon copy, or Cc, is a duplicate email sent to a recipient whose email address can be found in the email’s Cc header field.

10. Click-through rate

The proportion of recipients in an email marketing campaign that clicked on a certain link inside the email.

11. Conversion rate

The conversion rate is the percentage of recipients who successfully took your desired action after receiving an email.

12. Deliverability

This is a word used to describe best practices and authentication methods for mass email communication. The goal is to make sure that opt-in email messages will reach their intended recipients successfully rather than being mistakenly blocked by ISPs and spam filters.

13. DKIM

Using DomainKeys Identified Mail (DKIM), a company can take responsibility for emails that are sent. Emails from the organisation will be processed further based on the reputation of their prior emails.

14. Domain name

a name that distinguishes one or more IP addresses. There are usually two parts to a domain name that are separated by dots. More specifically, the left portion represents the second-level domain, and the right portion represents the top-level domain.

15. Double opt-in

This is how email recipients should ideally subscribe to a mailing list or newsletter. A confirmation email message requesting the user to confirm that they have indeed asked to be included in future mailings is automatically sent to the provided email address after the person subscribes to a list.

16. Email header

This is the part of an email message that has the email addresses of the sender and recipient as well as the routing details.

17. Email phishing

Scammers engage in this fraudulent practice by mass emailing, where they send unsolicited emails to large numbers of people using the names of well-known companies in an effort to get sensitive information from their targets.

18. Firewall

In email, a firewall can be designed so that messages from domains or users listed as suspect because of spamming, hacking or forging will not be delivered.

19. Grey mail

When a recipient who initially opted in to receive your emails has stopped opening your emails because he no longer finds the subject matter interesting. These emails are referred to as "grey emails" because they don't entirely fall under either the "legitimate email" or the "spam" categories.

20. Hygiene

Cleaning a database to replace inaccurate or out-of-date data is known as "hygiene."

21. IMAP

An industry-standard protocol for obtaining email from a server is known as Internet Message Access Protocol.

22. IP address

This is a different number given to each Internet-connected device. An IP address can either be dynamic, which means it varies each time an email is sent or a campaign is launched, or static, which means it stays the same. The ideal IP addresses are static ones because dynamic ones frequently set off spam filters.

23. ISP

Internet Service Provider. Examples: AOL, EarthLink, MSN

24. List segmentation

List segmentation is the process of dividing your email list into groups based on factors like interests or geography.

25. Mailing list

A list of email addresses that receive mailings.

26. Opt-in

This is an express, proactive request made by a single email receiver to have their own email address included on a particular mailing list. These days, a lot of list renters and buyers need list owners to show proof of opt-in, such as the actual email or IP address used to send the request and the time and date it was received.

27. Opt-out

People who unintentionally sign up for your email newsletter may decide to unsubscribe after receiving an update, since it is unrelated to them. Opting out is the choice to remove one’s name from an email list. You must include an unsubscribe or opt-out button in your email (at the bottom of the email is the recommended positioning).

28. Personalisation

This is a targeting technique where an email message looks to have been written just for one recipient. Add the recipient's name to the message's subject line or body, or customise the offer so that it takes into account their past purchases, link clicks or other transactions.

29. Queue

This is where an email message goes after you send it, but before the list owner authorises it or the list server has a chance to deliver it. Some list software enables you to queue a message and then schedule a time for it to be automatically sent, either during a slow server period or when human approval is not available.

30. Reply rate

The percentage of people that reply to your email is called the reply/response rate.

31. Spam

The popular name for unsolicited commercial email. However, some email recipients define spam as any email they no longer want to receive, even if it comes from a mailing list they joined voluntarily.

32. SPF

Sender Policy Framework is an authentication protocol that receiver email servers use to confirm that the sending IP address is valid for sending email on behalf of the domain name specified in the "MAIL FROM" line of the email envelope.

33. Transactional email

These are one-to-one emails that contain information that completes a transaction or process the recipient has started with you (for example, order details once you have placed an order on an e-commerce store)

34. URL

The Uniform Resource Locator is the address of a file or Web page accessible on the Internet (for example, http://www.mailblaze.com).

35. Virus

This is a program or computer code that affects or interferes with a computer’s operating system and gets spread to other computers accidentally or on purpose through email messages

36. VPN

The Virtual Private Network provides online security, privacy, and anonymity. It can be used for protecting daily digital activities, both business and personal.

37. Whitelist

This is a list of pre-authorized email addresses from which email messages can be delivered, regardless of spam filters.

We hope this glossary answered whatever questions you had about various terms used in email marketing. Many terms exist that we have not included in this list. Which of your favourite email marketing terms did not make the list? Please share with us in the comments section below.