Marketing Terms and Definitions - Glossary

Index of terms

A/B testing

A/B testing

A/B testing is a valuable tool for marketers that can provide insights into customer behaviour. By creating two different versions of a marketing asset and

Abandoned Cart

Abandoned Cart

Abandoned cart is when a customer doesn’t complete the checkout process on an e-commerce site. When this happens, the business owner has a few options

Ad Copy

Ad copy is the main text in an advertisement that persuades users to take a particular action. This includes emails, social posts and even video

Alt Text

Alt Text

Alt text is a description of an image that’s shown in its place when the picture doesn’t load. The ALT attribute or “alt” tag goes

Anti Spam

Anti Spam

Anti spam laws were created to prevent people from receiving unwanted emails, but depending on where you live these laws can vary. It’s important for

Autoresponder

Autoresponder

An autoresponder is a marketing tool that sends an automated email to a recipient after they’ve performed a specific action. For example, if someone signs

Backlink

Backlink

Backlinks are one of the most important factors in SEO. A backlink is when one website links to another. The more backlinks a website has,

Black Hat Sender

Black Hat Sender

Black hat senders are email senders with a poor sending reputation. They are often blacklisted and their emails are sent directly to spam folders by

Blacklist

Blacklist

A blacklist, is a compiled list of email domains that has sent Spam. These lists help inform Email Service Providers know which emails to block

Bounce

A bounce is when an email doesn’t go through to the recipient and is returned to the server. There are two kinds of bounces- a

Bulk Email

Bulk Email

Bulk email, also known as direct email or mass email, is when an organization sends a single email to a large number of recipients. Bulk

CAN-SPAM

CAN-SPAM

The CAN-SPAM Act is a law that was enacted in 2003 in order to help regulate the email industry and protect consumers from receiving unwanted

Call To Action

Call To Action

A Call to Action, or CTA, is a word or phrase used in a marketing message to prompt customers to take the desired action. A

Click Through Rate

Click Through Rate

CTR, or click-through rate, is a key metric for understanding how your email campaigns are performing. CTR is calculated by dividing the number of clicks

Click To Open Rate

Click To Open Rate

CTOR, also known as click-to-open rate, is a metric used to evaluate how effective an email campaign is. CTOR is calculated by dividing the number

Conversion Rate

Conversion Rate

A conversion rate is the percentage of people who take a desired action after being exposed to an email marketing campaign or visiting a particular

Customer Retention

Customer Retention

Customer retention is a vital aspect of ecommerce success. Just Acquisition marketing (finding new customers) is not enough – businesses need to encourage their existing

DKIM

DKIM is an email authentication system that uses digital signatures to verify that an email message has not been altered during transit. DKIM uses a

DMARC

DMARC is an email authentication protocol that stands for “Domain-based Message Authentication, Reporting, and Conformance”. DMARC is designed to give email senders and receivers a

Dedicated IP Address

Dedicated IP Address

A dedicated IP address is an IP address that is used exclusively by one email account. This means that the IP address is not shared

Deliverability

Deliverability

Deliverability is a term used to describe the percentage of emails that are successfully delivered to their intended recipients. It’s a key metric for email

Direct Email Marketing

Direct Email Marketing

Direct email marketing is a tool that should be in every business’s marketing arsenal. Direct email marketing is when an email is sent to target

Domain Name System (DNS)

Domain Name System (DNS)

The Domain Name System (DNS) is a network of servers that translates human-readable domain names like www.example.com into machine-readable IP addresses like 192.0.2.1. DNS is

Email Authentication

Email Authentication

Email authentication is a powerful tool that helps protect users from harmful phishing or spam emails. When an email is authenticated, it means that the

Email Automation

Email Automation

Automation is a feature that allows marketers to create emails and set them up to send without having to do it manually each time. This

Email Marketing

Email Marketing

Email marketing is a powerful tool for businesses of all sizes. By sending emails to customers who have opted in to receive them, businesses can

Email Service Provider (ESP)

Email Service Provider (ESP)

ESPs or Email Service Providers are businesses that provide a service for businesses to send marketing campaigns. The providers can have many features to help

Error 404

Error 404

Email campaigns are a great way to reach out to potential customers and promote your products or services. However, if you’re not careful, your email

Follow Up Email

Follow Up Email

When it comes to email marketing, follow-up emails are an essential tool for increasing conversion and boosting revenue. A follow-up email is a message that

GDPR

GDPR, or the General Data Protection Regulation, is a set of laws enacted by the European Union in order to protect the privacy of individuals

HTML

HTML, or Hypertext Markup Language, is the standard code used to create email, webpages, and other digital documents. HTML is made up of a series

Hard Bounce

Hard Bounce

Hard bounces are email addresses that have permanently failed. This means that the email address no longer exists, is invalid, or is unable to receive

IP Address

IP Address

An IP address is a unique address that helps in transferring, finding, and receiving data from one machine to another. The address is made up

IP Warmup

IP Warmup

IP Warmup is the process of gradually increasing the volume of email sent from a new IP address to build up its reputation as a

Inbound Marketing

Inbound Marketing

What is inbound marketing? In simple terms, inbound marketing is any form of marketing that is meant to bring the customers to you, instead of

Invalid Email

Invalid Email

An invalid email address can cause serious problems for both individuals and businesses. For individuals, an invalid email can lead to bounced messages and difficulty

Landing Page

Landing Page

A landing page is a webpage that visitors are directed to after clicking on a link in an email or other digital marketing campaign. The

Leads

A marketing lead is a potential sales contact, usually generated through an opt-in form on a company’s website or through an email marketing campaign. Once

List Hygiene

List Hygiene

List hygiene is the process of keeping your email list clean and engaged. This means removing subscribes who have bounced (hard or soft), or who

MTA

MTA or mail transfer agent is a software that helps in transfering electronic messages or emails from one computer to another by using SMTP. MTA’s

Mailing List

Mailing List

A mailing list is a database of email addresses that businesses can use to send marketing communications. People can volunteer to receive these emails by

Marketing Automation

Marketing Automation

Marketing automation is the technology that takes repetitive tasks and completes them for the marketer. By automated the repetitive tasks, marketers have more time to

Merge Fields

Merge Fields

Merge fields are a great way to personalize emails, especially on a large scale. Essentially, merge fields are variables that you can insert into your

Multivariate Testing

Multivariate Testing

Multivariate testing is a method of experimentation where you test multiple variations of an asset, like an email, to see which combination performs the best.

Newsletter

Newsletter

Email newsletters are a great way for businesses to keep their customers in the loop about new developments and share relevant, informative content on a

Opt-in

Opt-in simply means that someone has given their permission to receive emails from you. They can do this by checking a box when they sign

Opt-out

Opt-out is an option given to users so that they can unsubscribe from an email list. It is required by law to provide an opt-out

ROI

ROI or Return on Investment is used to measure how a certain investment is doing. It is the ratio between net profit and the initial

Reactivation Email

Reactivation Email

A reactivation email is an email sent to a subscriber who has not been opening your email or interacting with your business for at least

Referral Marketing

Referral Marketing

Referral marketing is a type of marketing where businesses encourage customers to give referrals to other potential customers. Referral marketing can be an effective way

Retention Marketing

Retention Marketing

Retention marketing is the marketing strategy to create repeat customers. Simply put, retention marketing is the process of keeping your current customers and bringing back

SMTP

SMTP, or Simple Mail Transfer Protocol, is a set of guidelines for transferring electronic mail between computers. It allows users to send and receive emails

SPF

SPF, or Sender Policy Framework, is a protocol businesses use to verify their identity when sending emails. By looking up the SPF record for a

Segmentation

Segmentation

Segmentation is when contacts are organized so that they only receive marketing content that relates to them. This is considered a form of personalization and

Sender Reputation

Sender Reputation

Sender reputation is the measure of how likely an email sender is to sender emails that will be considered spam by internet service providers (ISPs).

Soft Bounce

Soft Bounce

When an email doesn’t reach the inbox of a recipient because of a temporary issue, it’s called a soft bounce. Soft bounces can happen for

Spam

Spam is a form of unsolicited email marketing. The term “spam” covers any unwanted email, whether it’s commercial in nature or not. Spam is a

Target Reputation

Target Reputation

In email marketing, the target audience is the group of people who are the intended recipients of an email campaign. To determine the target audience

Transactional Email

Transactional Email

Transactional email is best defined as a message that has been sent as a result of an event or action. transactional emails are usually transactional

Triggered Emails

Triggered Emails

Triggered email is an email that is automated to be sent when the subscriber completes an action. For example, if a customer abandons their shopping

Two Factor Authentication (2FA)

Two Factor Authentication (2FA)

Two Factor Authentication, or 2FA, is a method of verification used when signing in to an account to keep it more secure. 2FA is when,

USP

A Unique Selling Proposition, or USP, is the one thing that sets your product or service apart from all the others in your market. In

Unsubscribe

Unsubscribe

Unsubscribing from an email list is when a user requests to have their email address removed from a company’s database. Unsubscribes can happen for a

Upsell

Upselling is a sales technique whereby the seller encourages the buyer to purchase a more expensive product, an upgraded version of a product, or additional

User-Generated Content

User-Generated Content

User generated content- anything created by unpaid consumers or customers- has become increasingly popular, especially among marketing target audiences like millennials. User generated content (UGC)

Welcome Email

Welcome Email

Welcome emails are the first email a user or customer receives after signing up. For many businesses, it is the first interaction between the business

White Hat Sender

White Hat Sender

White hat senders are senders who are known for only sending to email addresses that have given them permission. Being a white hat sender is

Workflows

Workflows

Workflows, also known as automated email sequences, are a series of pre-planned emails that are set to be sent to customers based on certain triggers.

X Copy

X test copy

X test

X test