abandoned cart emails – Emails generated after an online shopper reaches the cart stage, but does not complete a transaction.
autoresponder – a program that sends an automatic response to incoming emails.
bounce rate – In email marketing, the percentage of emails in a campaign that are undeliverable.
call to action (CTA) – The part of a marketing message that attempts to persuade a person to perform a desired action.
click-through rate (CTR) – The average number of click-throughs per hundred ad impressions, expressed as a percentage.
conversion rate – The percentage of visitors who take a desired action.
cost per action (CPA) – Online advertising payment model in which payment is based solely on qualifying actions such as sales or registrations.
drip campaign – A strategy of sending a series of pre-planned marketing messages (typically email) based on a fixed schedule or user behavior.
email marketing – The promotion of products or services via email.
email service provider – A service that facilitates the management of email lists and delivery of email campaigns to subscribers.
email spam – Unwanted, unsolicited email.
ezine – An electronic magazine, whether delivered via a Web site or an email newsletter.
hard bounce – A situation where an email is permanently rejected because the intended email address is invalid or doesn’t exist.
HTML email – Email that is formatted using Hypertext Markup Language, as opposed to plain text email.
impression – a single instance of an online advertisement being displayed.
lead magnet – a specific deliverable that is offered to prospects in return for contact information, typically to join an email list.
lead nurturing – The process of engaging with leads to keep them progressing through the buying journey.
list cleaning – Removing email subscribers that are inactive or invalid.
list fatigue – Declining response to email marketing campaigns over time due to too many messages or too little new value.
list hygiene – The health or the practices of maintaining the health of an email marketing list.
marketing automation – The use of software to automate repetitive tasks related to marketing activities and connect different parts of the marketing funnel.
opt-in email – Email that is explicitly requested by the recipient.
opt-out – (1) A type of email marketing program that assumes inclusion unless stated otherwise. (2) to remove oneself from an opt-out email marketing program.
pass-along rate – the percentage of people who pass on a message or file.
permission marketing – marketing centered around obtaining customer consent to receive information from a company.
sig file – a short block of text at the end of a message identifying the sender and providing additional information about them.
soft bounce – A situation where an email reached the recipient’s email server but is temporarily undeliverable.
spam – Inappropriate commercial message of extremely low value.
squeeze page – A type of landing page designed specifically to collect email addresses from visitors.
transactional email – An automated one-to-one email with details of a recent transaction or account activity.
UTM codes – A group of Google Analytics tracking parameters added to the end of URLs to track the effectiveness of marketing campaigns. (UTM = Urchin Tracking Module, from the Urchin analytics software that preceded Google Analytics.)
viral marketing – marketing phenomenon that facilitates and encourages people to pass along a marketing message.
