B2B Marketing Glossary

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Familiarize yourself with these glossary terms and move towards better email deliverability at your organization. Get to know the basic terminology of email deliverability and start improving response rates, inbox placement and sender reputation. Take your email programs to the next level by understanding these common industry terms.

Authentication – Technical standards through which ISPs and other mail gateway administrators can establish the true identity of an email sender

Blacklist – A list of IP addresses believed to send spam

Bounce – A message that is returned to the sender because it was not deliverable

Cascading Style Sheet (CSS) – Controls the design and format of a document written in HTML

Deliverability – The ability of an email message or campaign to reach the intended recipient’s inbox, which is affected by spam filters, client-side filters and junk folders

Delivery Status Notification (DSN) – Also known as “bounce message”, a system that informs the sender of a delivery problem

DNS Records – The database records stored in the domain name system

DomainKeys Identified Mail (DKIM) – A method for email authentication that allows an organization to take responsibility for a message in a way that can be validated by a recipient

Domain Name System – A naming system for computers connected to the Internet or private network

Email Service Provider (ESP) – A company that provides email services, including batch email and email marketing

Internet Protocol Address (IP Address) – A number assigned to each computer or network in order to distinguish each network interface and networked device

Internet Service Provider (ISP) – Sometimes referred to as Internet access provider (IAP), gives customers access to the Internet

ISP Feedback – When the ISP forwards complaints of recipients to the organization that sent the email

List Fatigue – A condition producing diminishing returns from a mailing list whose members are sent too many offers, or too many of the same offers, in too short a period of time

Phishing – Sending email that claims to be from a legitimate organization to trick recipients into providing personal information

Role Accounts – An email account that is associated with a department, office, position or task

Seed Email Accounts – Accounts created by a monitoring service with each of the ISPs

Sender Policy Framework (SPF) – An email vailidation system that is used to prevent spam

Sender Score – An indication of the trustworthiness of an email source

Spam Traps – Old inboxes that ISPs reactivate specifically to trap spammers. Because these addresses have never been registered to receive email, any mail that lands in the trap inbox is labeled as spam

Spoofing – A fraudulent email activity in which the sender address and email header are changed to look as though the email originated from a different source

Maria Pergolino, Senior Director of Marketing