Email Marketing Glossary Terms

Rate this: 1 Stars

B2B email marketing is one of the most effective and trusted methods for communicating with customers and prospects alike. But maximizing email marketing success requires a deeper understanding of deliverability, testing and reporting best practices. Take your B2B email marketing to the next level by familiarizing yourself with these common industry terms: A/B Split – Refers to a test situation in which a list is split into two pieces with every other recipient being sent one of two specific emails, to determine which email is more desirable. Above the fold – The part of an email message or web page that is visible without scrolling. Material in this area is considered more valuable because the reader sees it first. Acquisition Cost – In email marketing, the cost to generate one lead, newsletter subscriber or customer in an individual email campaign; typically, the total campaign expense divided by the number of leads, subscribers or customers it produced. Authentication – Technical standards through which ISPs and other mail gateway administrators can establish the true identity of an email sender. Examples of proposed authentication standards include: SPF (PO Box, AOL), Sender-ID (Microsoft), DomainKeys (Yahoo), and DKIM (Cisco and Yahoo). Attachment – A file that is sent in addition to the text or html in an email message BANT – The acronym for Budget, Authority, Need, Timeline—fundamental ways to determine the sales readiness of a lead Blacklist — A list of IP addresses believed to send spam. Bounce – A message that is returned to the sender because it was not deliverable. CAN-SPAM – Federal legislation governing unsolicited commercial email that went into effect on January 1, 2004. This law does not prohibit unsolicited commercial email, but it does regulate how it must be sent. Dynamic Content – Email content that changes from one recipient to the next according to a set of predetermined rules or variables, either by preferences the user sets when opting in to messages or based on behavior or demographics of the recipient. Email Campaign Management – The process of creating, executing and measuring email marketing programs directed at specific audience segments De-duplication – The process of finding and consolidating and/or updating duplicate sets of contact information 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 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. Email Marketing – The use of email communication to increase awareness, generate leads and build relationships with prospective and existing customers List Hygiene – Process of cleaning and de-duplicating email files to ensure all addresses are accurate, unique, current, opt-in and deliverable. Lead Nurturing – The process of building relationships with qualified prospects regardless of their timing to buy, with the goal of earning their business when they are ready 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. Marketing Asset – A piece of marketing content (e.g. whitepapers, videos, newsletters, Webinars, etc.) used to educate and generate interest for a company’s products or services Opt-in – The agreement to receive email from a business source. Confirmed or Double opt-in refers to a double-check procedure in which a decision to be included on a mailing list is confirmed. Personalization – A targeting method in which an email message appears to have been created only for a single recipient. Personalization may include any known demographic or behavioral information including recipient name, company name, website page visited and more. Plain Text – Text in an email message that includes no formatting code Segment – The ability to slice a list into specific pieces determined by various attributes, such as open history or name source. Suppression File – A list of email addresses you have removed from your regular mailing lists, either because they have opted out of your lists or because you do not wish to email them (competitors, etc…)_ Trigger – An event based on a change or update in status, demographic information or user behavior that causes a lead to proceed along a specific workflow branch or new path Unsubscribe – To remove oneself from an email list, either via an emailed command to the list server or by filling in a web form. Workflow – A pre-determined path of interactions for individuals to experience based on their profile, demographic, and/or behavioral data with the goal of nurturing and building relationships

Maria Pergolino, Senior Director of Marketing