Email and Direct Marketing Glossary

A/B Split
When a list is divided into two equal segments, each of which can be tested with different variables as part an effort to determine which is more effective

Above the fold
When you launch your internet browser or while viewing your email in your email reader, the bottom of the window is commonly referred to as the “fold”. The viewable areas before one has to start scrolling are “above the fold”.

API (or Application Programming Interface)
An application programming interface (API) allows a software’s functionality to be extended to ‘the outside world’. Examples of APIs include Google’s Gmaps pedometer, where users can map out their running routes.

ASP (or Application Service Provider)
An application service provider (ASP) is a company that provides access to software applications via the Internet that otherwise would have to be installed on a user’s personal computer. Current buzzterm for this is Software-as-a-Service (SaaS).See also: SasS (Software as a Service)

Auto Reply
When an email recipient is “Out of the Office” or “Away on Vacation” they often set up an automated reply message alerting the sender to this fact.

B2B
B2B (business-to-business) companies that primarily sell products or provide services to other businesses.See also: Dedupe

B2C
B2C (business-to-consumer) companies are those firms that sell products or provide services primarily to end-user consumers.

Bandwidth
The amount of information that can be transmitted over a network such as the Internet in a specific amount of time.

Blacklists
Blacklists are made up of lists of IP addresses belonging to organizations that have been identified as senders of SPAM (unsolicited commercial email). Blacklists are often used by ISPs and corporations as part of the filtering process that determines which IP addresses they prohibit from sending mail to their members.

Blocking
When emails are prevented from reaching their intended destination, typically due to action taken on the part of the Internet Service Provider (ISP).

Blog
A user-generated website where entries are made in an informal journal style and displayed in date order with the most recent entries first. Readers may or may not be able to comment on specific posts within the blog.

Bonded Sender Program
Sponsored by IronPort Systems, the Bonded Sender program identifies legitimate email traffic. Originators of legitimate email can now post a financial bond to ensure the integrity of their email campaign. Receivers who feel they have received an unsolicited email from a Bonded Sender can complain to their ISP, enterprise, or IronPort and a financial charge is debited from the bond. This market-based mechanism allows email senders to ensure their message gets to the end user, and provides corporate IT managers and ISPs with an objective way to ensure only unwanted messages get blocked.

Bounce
A “Bounced” email indicates that an attempt to deliver an email to a particular address has failed. This may occur if the email address is no longer valid or the intended recipient's ISP and/or email servers were not functioning over a period of 3 consecutive days. See the following for more information on specific types of “bounces”: See also: Bounce - Hard, Bounce - Soft

Bounce - Hard
An email address that is rejected for a permanent reason that cannot be resolved, such as: “the address does not exist”.See also: Bounce

Bounce - Soft
An email address that is rejected for what is most likely a temporary reason, such as an overfilled inbox.See also: Bounce

Call-to-Action
Phrasing that encourages a reader to take action. For example, "Click here to register for the VerticalResponse newsletter." or "Get started with your free trial of VerticalResponse today!"

CAN-SPAM Act
The CAN-SPAM Act of 2003 (Controlling the Assault of Non-Solicited Pornography and Marketing Act) is a federal law that establishes requirements for those who send commercial email. It spells out penalties for spammers and companies whose products are advertised in spam if they violate the law, and gives consumers the right to ask emailers to stop spamming them.

Among other measures, the law:

Bans false or misleading header information. Your email's "From," "To," and routing information – including the originating domain name and email address – must be accurate and identify the person who initiated the email.

Prohibits deceptive subject lines. The subject line cannot mislead the recipient about the contents or subject matter of the message.

Requires that your email give recipients an opt-out method. You must provide a return email address or another Internet-based response mechanism that allows a recipient to ask you not to send future email messages to that email address, and you must honor the requests. Any opt-out mechanism you offer must be able to process opt-out requests for at least 30 days after you send your commercial email.

It requires that commercial email be identified as an advertisement and include the sender's valid physical postal address. Your message must contain clear and conspicuous notice that the message is an advertisement or solicitation and that the recipient can opt out of receiving more commercial email from you. It also must include your valid physical postal address.

The CAN-SPAM Act also provides for penalties for a number of other offenses, which can be reviewed here: http://www.ftc.gov/bcp/conline/pubs/buspubs/canspam.htm

CAPTCHA
A Completely Automated Public Turing test to tell Computers and Humans Apart is used to determine whether or not the user is human. Users are asked to type in a series of distorted images to prove that they are not a machine.

Challenge Response
A challenge-response system is a program that replies to an email message from an unknown sender by subjecting the sender to a test designed to differentiate humans from automated senders, also known as “bots”.

Click-through Rate (CTR), Click Rate
An indicator of response to a given email message, as measured by the percentage of recipients that click on a link enclosed in the email. To determine the click-through rate, divide the number of responses by the number of emails sent (multiply this number by 100 to express the result as a percentage).

Co-registration or Co-Reg
Co-registration is the process of using other websites to generate opt-in email leads that you can add to your mailing list for marketing purposes. When you reach a co-registration agreement with a site or a network of sites, they will ask new registrants if they would like to receive information from your company as well. If the registrants opt-in (choose to receive mailings), they will be added to your mailing list so you can market to them directly.

Confirmed Opt-in
“Confirmed opt-in”, also known as “double opt-in” or “closed loop” in some circles, provides an additional layer of security by requiring that an email account be both subscribed and then verified by a confirmation email before it is added to the list. As a result, only those people with access to the account can respond to the confirmation message, greatly reducing the chance of abuse. For this reason, confirmed opt-in is regarded as the gold standard for secure email marketing.

Content
The copy, graphics and images that comprise your email, website or marketing materials.

Conversion Rate
A metric which measures the percentage of people converted into subscribers or buyers out of the total population exposed to a particular campaign.

Copy
The text of the campaign, distinct from the graphics.

CPA (or Cost per acquisition)
A payment model in which payment is based solely on qualifying actions such as sales or registrations.

CPM (or Cost per thousand)
In marketing, CPM commonly refers to the cost per 1,000 names on a given list or impressions served. For example, a list using VerticalResponse priced at $10 CPM would mean that the list owner charges $.01 per email address.

CRM (or Customer relationship management)
Customer relationship management (CRM) is a broad term that refers to concepts businesses use to maintain and improve relationships with customers. CRM involves collecting, storing and analyzing customer information. CRM enables businesses to provide personalized services to meet their customers’ needs and retain their business.

Database
A database is a collection of information stored in a computer in a systematic way, such that a computer program can consult it to answer questions. For email marketing purposes, a database is the software that stores your records or lists. Your database may be in the following forms: ACT!, Filemaker, GoldMine, MS Excel, Access, Netscape, Outlook, Outlook Express, Oracle, Salesforce, Saleslogix, Sybase or many other forms.

Dedupe
Deduplication refers to a data cleansing technique where duplicate data is removed from a set.See also: B2B

Deliverability
The ability of the email sender to consistently deliver an email to a recipient’s inbox with HTML and text intact. Marketers operating permission-based email schemes need to carefully consider deliverability due to aggressive SPAM filters.

Domain
Generally refers to internet addresses, the memorable form of a website’s numerical IP address. VerticalResponse’s domain name is verticalresponse.com.

DomainKeys or DKIM: Domain Keys Identified Mail
An anti-spam software application that uses a combination of public and private keys to authenticate the sender's domain (A name by which a computer connected to the Internet is identified) and reduce the chance that a spammer or hacker will fake the domain sending address.

Double Opt-in
“Double opt-in”, also known as “confirmed opt-in” or “closed-loop” in some circles, provides an additional layer of security by requiring that email accounts be both subscribed and then verified by a confirmation email before they are added to the list. As a result, only those people with access to the account can respond to the confirmation message, greatly reducing the chance of abuse. For this reason, double opt-in is regarded as the gold standard for secure email marketing.

Email Campaign
When you build an email and send it to your recipients using VerticalResponse this is an example of an email campaign. Your campaign may be a newsletter or may consist of offers. Some marketers may define a campaign as a series of email messages using a common theme, but in the VerticalResponse system, any email sent – even one at a time as opposed to a series of emails - is classified as a campaign.

Email Client
An application used to send, receive, store and view email like Outlook, Mac Mail, Yahoo! Mail, Gmail, etc.

ESP (or Email Service Provider)
Email Service Providers (ESPs) are companies like VerticalResponse that provide a service of enabling a user to send permission-based email campaigns to designated users. They are usually Software-as-a-Service Providers (SaaS) who offer their services in an online fashion. There are also software ESPs.

ESPC
The Email Sender & Provider Coalition (ESPC) was formed to fight spam while protecting the delivery of legitimate email. The ESPC members have recognized the need for strong spam solutions that ensure the delivery of legitimate email and have been very active in the war against spam. VerticalResponse is an active member of this organization. For more information on the ESPC, visit www.espc.org.

Font
A specific size and style of type within a type family.

Footer
Some emails include a “footer”. This is the area at the bottom of an email where you might find unsubscribe information.

Frequency
The intervals at which email marketing efforts are repeated: weekly, bi-weekly, monthly, bi-monthly, etc.

From Line
The information that appears in the “From” line at the top of the email and typically indicates the identity of the sender.

Hard Bounced Email
A hard bounce is an e-mail message that has been returned to the sender because the recipient's address is not valid. A hard bounce might occur because the domain name doesn't exist or because the recipient is unknown.

Harvesting
The illegal process of obtaining lists of email addresses to send bulk emails, or spam. Harvesting can include list purchase and spam ‘bots’ scanning web pages for email addresses.

Header
The header in an email is the part of the email that is not transparent to the recipient unless they have their “View Headers” turned on. This tells the recipient what servers the email is coming from and what programs are being used to generate this email. Headers contain information on the email itself and the route it's taken across the Internet. Recipients can normally see the "to" (identity of recipient), "from" (identity of sender) and "subject" (information in the subject line) headers in their inbox. You can modify these to influence their decision to open or delete an email.

Headline
The announcement recipients see when they open an email. Ideally, the headline expresses the company’s value proposition and encourages the recipient to read further.

House List
A permission-based list that you build yourself. Use it to market, cross sell and up-sell, and to establish a relationship with customers over time. Your house list is one of your most valuable assets.

HTML (or Hypertext Markup Language)
A “markup” language designed for the creation of web pages and other information viewable in a Web browser.

HTML Email
HTML email is