Glossary

Above-the-fold: It is the part of a web page that is visible without scrolling. It is beneficial to place your action point in this part of the web page. Even for brand promotions, it is highly recommended that you should place awareness generating content "above the fold" making it easy for visitors to see in one glance.

Affirmative Consent: A permission to collect and use details or information collected for leads generation. Affirmative consent is not only the best practice; it is also required by all reputable email marketing services.

Auto Responder: A program or a script that is automatically generated receiving email to its address. Auto responders are usually used to subscribe and unsubscribe confirmations, for welcome emails and customer-support questions.

Campaign: An email marketing message or a series of messages that are conducted to attain an overall objective. A campaign is promotional in nature.

Challenge Response: An automated message generated due to the receipt of an email, where the content demands identification of the sender as a trusted source.

Click-through Rate (CTR): The percentage (the number of unique clicks divided by the number that were opened) of recipients that click on a given URL in your e-mail.

Confirmed Opt-In: A very strict method of obtaining permission to send promotional emails and collect personal information. Confirmed opt-in is a double check on the opt-in process. In this the subscriber has to respond to a confirmation email, either by clicking on a confirmation link, or by replying to the email to confirm their subscription. Only those subscribers who take this additional step are added to the list.

Conversion Rate: The number or percentage of recipients of your email, who act as per your directions in an e-mail marketing campaign or promotion. This measures the success rate of your e-mail campaign. Conversion can mean sales, phone calls, appointments etc.

Cost per Thousand (CPM): In e-mail marketing, CPM commonly refers to the cost per 1000 names on a given rental list. For example, a rental list priced at $250 CPM would mean that the list owner charges $.25 per e-mail address.

Email Blocking: Blocking of emails by ISPs, this ensures that emails that are blocked are not processed through the ISP and are essentially stopped from reaching their addressed destination.

Email Newsletter Ads or Sponsorships: Ads that are placed in emails. This is done by buying ad space in an email newsletter or by financing a specific article or series of articles. Advertisers have to pay to insert their ads (text, HTML or both depending on the publication) into the body of the email.

False Positive: This is an industry wide problem where legitimate permission-based emails are erroneously blocked due to the limitations of current email blocking and filtering techniques. At present, approx. 17% of permission-based email is erroneously blocked.

From Line or Sender Line: The line that gives you the name and email address of the sender of an email. There are two parts: Name and Address. "From Address" is the email address which has "@" to distinguish the source. Your recipients may see just the from name, just the from address, or both depending on the configuration of their email client.

HTML E-mail: An e-mail that has been formatted using Hypertext Markup Language instead of plain text. HTML enables usage of unique fonts, rich graphics and background colors. This makes it more interesting and eye catching. This can bring in higher response rates than plain text.

Hard Bounce/Soft Bounce: A hard bounce is when an email fails to get delivered due to a permanent reason like a non-existent address. A soft bounce is when an email fails to get delivered due to a temporary issue, like a full mailbox or an unavailable server.

Landing Page: A web page that is linked to an email such that when the reader clicks on the link, he / she is taken to this page for the purpose of providing additional information directly related to products or services that the email talks about.

Links: Links are basically text links, hyperlinks, graphics or images with links that, when clicked or when pasted into a browser, send the reader to another online location like the landing page or other relevant page of another website.

Open Rate: The percentage of e-mails that are opened in an e-mail marketing campaign.

Opt-in: Opt-in emails are those which the readers or visitors choose to subscribe to, like newsletters. They provide their email ids and other details necessary to send them customized communications.

Opt-out: When a subscriber does an opt-out, the subscriber unsubscribes from an e-mail list and chooses not to receive communications from the sender.

Permission-Based E-mail: E-mail sent to recipients after having their prior approval. This is a good practice and also keeps one away from SPAMs.

Phishing (pronounced "fishing"): This is a fraudulent activity in emails where the purpose is to steal relevant personal data. Also known as identity theft, thieves send fraudulent email messages with return addresses, links, and branding that appear to come from credit card companies, banks and some of the Web's popular sites including eBay®, PayPal®, MSN®, Yahoo®, and AOL®. These messages "phish" for personal and financial information (e.g. passwords, usernames, social security numbers, credit card numbers, mother's maiden name, etc.) from the recipient.

Preexisting Business Relationship: The recipient of your email and you have prior relationship which can happen during a purchase, information requested, response to a questionnaire or a survey, or due to offline contact with you.

Rental List (or Acquisition list): A list of potential or targeted group of email recipients who have opt-in to receive information about specific topics.

Segmentation: Division of recipients in an email list based on demographics, interest categories, purchasing behavior to target specific target audience who will most likely respond to your messaging or offer.

Spam or UCE (Unsolicited Commercial E-mail): E-mail sent to someone who has not opt-in or given permission to the sender.

Spoofing: Spoofing is a false email header. This makes the email appear to have come from someone or somewhere other than the actual source. This is a fraudulent activity.

Subject Line: This is the space where you specify the topic of your emails. Many advertisers write catchy subject lines in order to intrigue the reader to open it and see.

Targeting: Selecting a target audience or group of individuals who maybe interested in a certain product or service. It is a critical activity to ensure communications reach targeted and relevant audience, which increases chances for a higher response and results.

Viral Marketing: This is a type of marketing that is done voluntarily by a company's customers. Viral Marketing is also known as word-of-mouth advertising. Email has made this type of marketing very prevalent. Elements like "send this page, article or website to a friend" encourage people to refer or recommend your product, service or a specific offer to others.