Email Marketing Glossary

Email Marketing Glossary and Terms
Ad Views A visitor seeing an ad. If the same ad appears on multiple pages simultaneously, this statistic may understate the number of ad impressions, due to browser caching. An ad impression is not to be confused with a page view since several ads may reside on one page.

Above-the-fold The top part of an email or web page that is seen without scrolling. This is generally more desirable placement because of its visibility.

Appending E-mail appending is the practice in which a marketer leverages offline data to match profiles with users and contact via e-mail.

Auditor Third party to verify subscriber membership.

Blacklists Lists of IP addresses that are being used by or belong to organizations or individuals that have been identified as sending Spam. Blacklists are often used by organizations and Internet Service Providers as part of their filtering process to block all incoming mail form a particular IP address (or block of addresses).

Bounce - Soft An email address that is rejected by the receiving server for a reason that is most likely temporary in nature (example: "mailbox is full"). Soft bounces are vaild email addresses and should be mailed to unless they become a hard bounce.

Bounce - Hard An email address that is rejected by the receiving server for some permanant reason (example: "email address does not exist"). Hard bounces are not vaild email addresses and should be removed from lists.

Click Rate The percentage of the ad views that resulted in a click-through.

Click-through When a reader takes action and clicks on a link. To determine the click-through rate, divide the number of responses by the number of emails opened (multiply this number by 100 to express the result as a percentage).

Contextual link A Web link incorporated into a line of text. These look less clumsy and perform better than ?click here?.

Cost Per Action (CPA) Advertiser is charged only for the action or acquisition of a transaction

Cost Per Click (CPC) Advertiser is charged only for clicks received.

Cost Per Thousand (CPM) CPM refers to the total cost to deliver 1,000 impressions. Most common method to describe the rate of an online ad purchase. Total cost divided by the number of thousands of visitors.

Creative Terminology used for ad copy. Email ad copy can be in many different formats including HTML, Text, Shockwave, etc.

Demographics Data about the size and characteristics of audience.

Double opt-in With double opt-in, a submitted email address is not immediately added to a mailing list. Instead, an email is sent to the address, asking to confirm that the name should indeed be added. If the recipient of the confirmation email does nothing, the submitted address is taken off of any mailings. The name is only added to a distribution list if the recipient responds to the confirmation email.

Email newsletter an email message sent out to a group of subscribers with relevant information on a topic. Often used to capture Web site visitor?s email addresses, they can also be used to keep in touch with existing customers, or simply as a means of distributing new information product.

Email campaign Coordinated email marketing messages delivered at intervals and with an overall objective in mind.

Email Frequency The intervals at which email marketing efforts are repeated: weekly, bi-weekly, monthly, bi-monthly, etc.

Geo Targeting The ability to target users by geography such as city, state, country and zip code.

Insertion Order An agreement that specifies aspects related to an ad campaign.

List Manager Controller of email list or database entity

Opt-in The action a person takes when they agree, by email or other means, to receive communications. It requires a mechanism to encourage and allow people to become recipients.

Opt-out The action a person takes when they choose not to receive communications. It requires a mechanism by which people can ask to be removed from your email list.

Psychographics Identification of personality characteristics and attitudes that affect a person's lifestyle and purchasing behaviors. Psychographic data points include opinions, attitudes, and beliefs about various aspects relating to lifestyle and purchasing behavior.

Publisher Author of ezine/newsletter or web property.

Rate Card Document listing space or rates of an advertisement, technical specifications and closing dates issued by the seller of the ad space.

Reach Subscribers individual list or publications audience size.

ROI (Return On Investment) Generally refers to the advertiser's desire to have a return on the advertising funds invested in media.

SPAM Unsolicited commercial email.

Spam Filter Software used to redirect unsolicited email away from a users inbox.

Spam Trap Email addresses that have been specifically created to detect individuals who have illegally scraped or collected email addresses. The belief is that any email sent to a spam trap address is indeed Spam, as the email address is not usually used as a real email address.

Sponsorship Highly visible or exclusive ad placement.

Subject line The title of the email message. This is the first element of the communication recipients will see when they access their email. It has to grab attention and be credible or the email will not get opened.

Unique Users The number of different individuals who click on an ad link within a specific period of time.

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