Common Email Marketing Terminology

Email marketing terms in plain English.

Ever confused by all the techno babble used to describe email marketing and design? Here is a short list of commonly used technical terms explained in plain English.

Background Image: Term used in HTML to describe layering an image behind text or other images for more depth and design control. This is frequently used in designing websites, but should be avoided in emails as many email clients ignore images or don’t recognize the background-image style tag.

Blacklist: A list of servers that are denied access. If you are sending SPAM or a user complains about receiving email from you, you may be added to a blacklist, where the service provider blocks any emails coming from your server. For example, if you are sending emails and AOL receives complaints about you, they may block all AOL customers from receiving email from your servers – even legitimate outgoing email. This is meant to help block SPAM, however, occasionally it happens to companies that are using opt-in lists, but still getting complaints. Not all service providers use the same guidelines to blacklist servers. To get off a blacklist, you usually have to call the provider.

Bounces: Email addresses that could not be delivered to during a campaign.

Call to Action: Words and links in an email or website that direct the user to take specific action, such as “View Product,” “Request Quote” or “View More.”

Click-Through Rate: The rate at which links within email campaigns were clicked on. Rates can be measured for the email as a whole, based on the number of opened emails or for specific links.

Email Client: Computer software used to read and manage emails. The software can be on located on your computer or hosted somewhere else as a web-based tool.

HTML Email: Many email clients include the ability to read HTML within email messages. This makes URLs into clickable links and it means that graphic images, formatting, and even color-coded text can also be included in email messages.

HTML Styles or Style Sheets: Set of instructions to determine how an HTML page is presented in a browser. For example, it helps determine font sizes or colors, spacing or placement on a page, link colors, etc. Different browsers interpret certain styles differently or ignore them completely. The interpretation of styles by email clients is even more varied than browsers.

Link Tracking: The process of imbedding tracking code into email links to help the identify open rates, click-through rates (who clicked on a link) and bounce rates (which emails could not be delivered. These are vital statistics in measuring the success of an email campaign.

Open Rate: The percentage of email recipients that opened an email from a campaign. It is equal to the number of opened emails divided by the total number of emails sent.

Opt-In: Users that provide their email to be included on an email list and agree to receive specific email content such as newsletters or promotions.

Opt-Out: Giving list participants the ability to remove themselves from the email. As of June this year, the CAN-SPAM law requires companies to give users single action email opt-out by either responding to the email or clicking on an Unsubscribe link to a single web page. For more on these laws, visit the FTC website at http://www.ftc.gov

Plain Text Email: Text with no formatting. It is easier to read and accessible to all email clients.

Website Stickiness: If a website has stickiness, that means that the readers attention has been captured - they are more willing to click on a Call to Action.

W3C Compliance: Complying with the standards and guidelines as set forth by the World Wide Web Consortium (W3C). W3C has been integral in creating web standards and guidelines since 1994. Many web developers and email designers use their website to validate HTML code.