E-mail marketing terms

Auto-responders : Automatic replies sent by the e-mail software of the recipient after receipt of an e-mail.

Bounce messages :    e-mail sent back to the server that originally sent the e-mail.

Bounce rate :  Ratio of bounced e-mails to total e-mails sent.

Bulk, bulking : Terms used by spammers to refer to their line of work. Mostly synonymous with spam or UCE.

Call to action : Words in the e-mail that entice recipients to do something.

Click-through : The action of clicking on a link.

Click-through rate (CTR) : Ratio of click-throughs to total e-mails sent.

Commercial e-mail : Any e-mail sent for commercial purpose; for instance, an advertisement to buy a product or service, an order confirmation from an online store, or a paid subscription periodical delivered by e-mail. Commercial e-mail is not synonymous with spam; see unsolicited commercial e-mail below.

Demographic : Characteristic of a group of e-mail recipients.

Double opt-in :A term coined by spammers to refer to the normal operation of secure electronic mailing list software. A new subscriber first gives his/her address to the list software (for instance, on a Web page) and then confirms subscription after receiving an e-mail asking if it was really him/her. This ensures that no person can subscribe someone else out of malice or error. The intention of the term "double opt-in" is to make it appear that the confirmation is a duplication of effort; and thus, to justify not confirming subscriptions. Mail system administrators and non-spam mailing list operators refer to confirmed subscription or closed-loop opt-in.

Double opt-out : Same as Opt-In, but the recipient unsubscribes instead of subscribes. Borderline spam operations frequently make it difficult to unsubscribe from lists, in order to keep their lists large.

Hard-core spam operations make it impossible -- they treat opt-out requests as confirmations that the address works and is read.

E-mail Blast : An e-mail sent to multiple recipients, intended to inform them of announcements, events or changes. A variety of methods can be used to send the same e-mail to multiple recipients: for example: using options within an e-mail program, using the mail merge option within a word processing program, or using a commercial e-mail list programs.

Express consent: A recipient agrees actively to subscribe by checking a box on a web form, paper form or by telephone. A recipient not unchecking a box is not express consent.

False positives: E-mail that is not spam but is labeled spam by a spam filter of the recipient. Note that e-mail marketers may have different opinions of what is "spam" than e-mail recipients.

Format : E-mails can be sent in plain text, HTML, or Microsoft's rich text format.

Hard bounce: Bounced e-mail that could never get through because the e-mail address doesn't exist or the domain doesn't exist.

List broker: Reseller of lists of e-mail addresses.

List building: Process of generating a list of e-mail addresses for use in e-mail campaigns.

List host: Web service that provides tools to manage large e-mail address databases and to distribute large quantities of e-mails.

List manager: Owner or operator of opt-in e-mail newsletters or databases. Also software used to maintain a mailing list.

Look and feel: Appearance, layout, design, functions & anything not directly related to the actual message on an e-mail.

Open rate: E-mail open rate measures the ratio of e-mails "opened" to the number sent or "delivered." The ratio is calculated in various ways, the most popular is: e-mails delivered (sent - hard bounces) /unique opens.