E-mail Glossary

100 Million Plus email's are in this database We plan to use these - For marketing - Economic ekistics, World Data dialogues and more.

Calculation check with Microsoft word processor, on these txt files could get you to the 33,000 page limit built into the software.

Coherst Lives e-mail Database:

Email Glossary

binary file attachment

File attached to a message that is encoded into alphanumeric characters by the sender and decoded back into binary format by the receiver

BinHex

A type of encoding that allows the transportation of binary files (such as word processing, spreadsheet, etc.) from one e-mail service to another.

client/server

Paradigm that exists when clients (personal computers, workstations, etc.) run software locally that operates by accessing applications running on a server.

directory service

In the context of e-mail, a directory service provides a list of information about users on a computer network such as names, e-mail addresses, phone numbers, and office locations.

disconnected mail access

A mail access paradigm in which a mail client connects to the mail server, makes a "cache" copy of selected messages, and then disconnects from the server, later to reconnect and resynchronize with the server.

distribution list

A group of email addresses that can be used to send a

message to all members of the group. Whenever a message is addressed to

the name of list, the message is routed to all of the members.

file transfer protocol (FTP)

The transferring of files from one computer to another. For example the transfer of a file from a server to a personal computer.

Internet Message Access Protocol (IMAP)

A method of accessing electronic mail messages that are kept on a server. It permits a "client" e-mail application to access remote message stores as if they were local. This is the best solution for a user who needs to access mail from different computers.

Lightweight Directory Access Protocol (LDAP)

A directory service backed by Netscape and other vendors, designed to identify all network resources to clients using a subset of the X.500 directory standard. LDAP is used to query and receive information from standards based directories.

Multipurpose Internet Mail Extensions (MIME)

A type of encoding used to transport non-ASCII files (such as spreadsheets, executable files, video, audio, etc.).

nickname (or alias)

An easily remembered substitute for a standard e-mail address or group of addresses (see distribution list). It is usually a plain-English word or phrase that calls up a longer address (for example, "John" for jdoe@site.com).

Post Office Protocol (POP)

A protocol used to retrieve e-mail messages that are kept on a server. It works best when the user is accessing mail from only one personal computer.

offline mail access

A mail access paradigm in which messages are delivered to a shared server, and a workstation or a PC user periodically connects to the server and downloads all the pending message to the client machine.

online mail access

A mail access paradigm in which messages are left on the mail server and manipulated remotely by the mail client programs.

uuencode

An encoding algorithm that allows files to pass from one e-mail service to another. The sender's PC converts files to ASCII text, which the recipent can decode, reconstructing the original data.

X.500

An International Standards Organization (ISO) standard for listing names in an electronic directory e.g. electronic white pages for e-mail addresses. This standard enables the directory to be accessed by computer networks.

1st-Party Cookie: A piece of code placed on the user‘s browser by the website they are currently visiting that is used to track visitor behavior.

3rd-Party Cookie: A piece of code used to track user behavior, placed on the user‘s browser by someone other than the website they‘re currently visiting. Third-party cookies are used in web analytics and ad serving, among other areas.

4PC: In print advertising, the abbreviation for four-page, full-color — a standard unit on most print media price lists.

A/B Split: Refers to a test situation in which two randomized groups of users are sent different content to test performance of specific campaign elements. The A/B split method can only be used to test one variable at a time.

Abandonment: As in call or site abandonment, when people leave a site, telephone call, etc. The abandonment rate measures the efficiency of the marketing tool. The abandonment rate is the number of users who abandon divided by the total number of unique visitors for a given period.

Above the Fold: The part of an email message or web page that is visible without scrolling. Material in this area is considered more valuable because the reader sees it first. It refers to a printing term for the top half of a newspaper above the fold. Unlike a newspaper, however, email and web page fold locations aren‘t predictable. Your fold may be affected by the user‘s preview pane, monitor size, monitor resolution and any headers placed by email programs, such as Hotmail, etc.

Acquisition Cost: In email marketing, the cost to generate one lead, newsletter subscriber or customer in an individual email campaign; typically, the total campaign expense divided by the number of leads, subscribers or customers it produced.

Acquisition List: A rented list of prospects to which email can be sent. Prospects on a legitimate acquisition list are supposed to have opted in to the list and possess a certain set of characteristics. Example: dog owners who shop online.

Ad Swap: An exchange between two publishers who agree to run each other‘s comparably valued ad at no charge. Value is determined by rate card, placement, size of list, quality of list, name brand fame, etc.

Address Book Whitelisting: When a consumer adds a company‘s email address or domain name to their email address book. This prevents inadvertent false positive‖ filtering out of content that the consumer wants to receive.

Affiliate: A marketing partner that promotes your products or services under a payment for results agreement. The affiliate relationship ranges from simply carrying a button on a web page to full-blown email campaigns by the affiliate.

Affirmative Consent: An active request by a reader or subscriber to receive advertising or promotional information, newsletters, etc. Generally, affirmative consent does not include the following failing to uncheck a pre-checked box on a web form, entering a business relationship with an organization without being asked for separate permission to be sent specific types of email or opt out.

Agent Name Delivery: The attempt to direct web page visitors to one page, while sending search engine spiders to another, optimized page. This tactic has fallen out of use as search engine spiders generally appear to be standard browsers.

Alert: Email message that notifies subscribers of an event or special price.

Algorithm: A set of mathematical rules that describe or determine a circumstance or action. In the case of search engines, unique algorithms determine the ranking of websites returned within search queries. Although some of the qualities used to determine ranking (number of referring sites, metatags, etc.) are known, the precise functioning of search engine algorithms is a closely kept secret to prevent the manipulation of the system

Applet: Small programs (usually written in Java) or another web-friendly language that runs within a web browser. Some applets may be negatively viewed by search engine spiders, affecting indexing and page rank

Application Program Interface (API): How a program (application) accesses another to transmit data. A client may have an API connection to load database information to an email vendor automatically and receive data back from the email.

Application Service Provider (ASP): Company that provides a web-based service. Clients don‘t have to install software on their own computers; all tasks are performed (hosted) on the ASP‘s servers.

Attachment: A text, video, graphic, PDF or sound file that accompanies an email message but is not included in the message itself. Attachments are not a good way to send email newsletters because many ISPs, email clients and individual email recipients do not allow attachments since hackers use them to deliver viruses and other malicious code.

Authentication: An automated process that verifies an email sender‘s identity.

Auto responder: Automated email message-sending capability, such as a welcome message sent to all new subscribers the minute they join a list. They can be triggered by users joining, unsubscribing or by email arriving at a particular mailbox. Auto responders may be used for more than a single message and can be a series of date or event-triggered

emails.

Awareness: The first phase of the product marketing cycle, during which prospects gain awareness of the product/service.

Bait-and-Switch: The attempt to feed search engine spiders different content from what is delivered to ―human‖ website visitors in an attempt to optimize for page ranking. Also Agent Name Delivery or IP Delivery.

BANT: An abbreviation for the basic pieces of lead development information: Budget … Authority … Need … Timeframe.

Bayesian Filter: An anti-spam program that evaluates header and content of incoming email messages to determine the probability that it is spam. Bayesian filters assign point values to items that appear frequently in spam, such as the words money-back guarantee or free. A message that accumulated too many points is either rejected as probable spam or delivered to a junk mail folder. Also Content-Based Filter.

Blacklist: A list developed by anyone receiving email or processing email on its way to the recipient, or interested third parties that includes domains or IP addresses of any emailers suspected of sending spam. Many companies use blacklists to filter inbound email, either at the server level or before it reaches the recipient‘s inbox. Also Blocklist and Blackhole List.

Blast: In postal mail or email, and also referred to as solo blasts, a reference to promotional campaigns done on a one-time basis. Distinct from ongoing communications, such as email newsletters.

Block: A refusal by an ISP or mail server to forward your email message to the recipient. Many ISPs block email from IP addresses or domains that have been reported to send spam or viruses or have content that violates email policy or spam filters.

Bonded Sender: A private email-registration service, owned by email vendor IronPort, that allows bulk emailers who agree to follow stringent email practices and to post a monetary bond to bypass email filters of Bonded Sender clients. The program debits the bond for spam or other complaints from recipients.

Bounce: A message that isn‘t delivered promptly is said to have bounced. Emails can bounce for dozens of reasons; among them: the email address is incorrect or has been closed; the recipient‘s mailbox is full, the mail server is down, or the system detects spam or offensive content. See Hard Bounce and Soft Bounce.

Bounce Handling: The process of dealing with the email that has bounced. Bounce handling is important for list maintenance, list integrity and delivery. Given the lack of consistency in bounce messaging formats, it is an inexact science at best.

Bounce Message: Message that is sent back to an email sender reporting the message

could not be delivered and why. Note: Not all bounced emails result in messages being sent back to the sender. Not all bounce messages are clear or accurate about the reason the email bounced.

Bounce Rate (also Return Rate): Number of hard/soft bounces divided by the number of emails sent. This is an inexact number because some systems do not report back to the sender clearly or accurately.

Broadcast: The process of sending the same email message to multiple recipients. B2B: Business-to-business: Also B-2-B and B-to-B.

B2C: Business-to-consumer: Also B-2-C and B-to-C.

Bulk Folder: Where many email clients send messages that appear to be from spammers or contain spam or are from any sender who is not in the recipient‘s address book or contact list. Some clients allow the recipient to override the system‘s settings and direct that mail from a suspect sender be sent directly to the inbox, e.g., Yahoo! Mail gives recipients a button marked ―Not spam on every message in the bulk folder. Also Junk Folder.

Call to Action: In a marketing message, web ad, email, etc., the link or body copy that tells the recipient what action to take.

CAN-SPAM: Popular name for the U.S. law regulating commercial email. Full name:

Controlling the Assault of Non-Solicited Pornography and Marketing Act of 2003.

Catch-All: An email server function that forwards all questionable email to a single mailbox. The catch-all should be monitored regularly to find misdirected questions, unsubscribes or other genuine live email.

Cell: A segment of your list that receives different treatment specifically to see how it responds vs. the control (normal treatment). Also Test Cell or Version.

CGI: Abbreviation for Common Gateway Interface. It is a specification for transferring information between the web and a web server, such as processing email subscription or contact forms.

Challenge-Response System: An anti-spam program that requires a human being on the

sender‘s end to respond to an emailed challenge message before their messages can be

delivered to recipients. Senders who answer the challenge successfully are added to an

authorization list. Bulk mailers can work with challenge-response if they designate an

employee to watch the sending address‘s mailbox and to reply to each challenge by hand.

Churn: How many subscribers leave a mailing list (or how many email addresses go bad) over a certain length of time, usually expressed as a percentage of the whole list.

Circulation: Total distribution of individual copies of a publication. Distinct from the total readership, which refers to the total copies printed times the average number of pass-along readers, which is different for each pub.

Clickthrough: The process of clicking on a link in a search engine output page to visit an indexed site.

Clickthrough Rate (CTR): Total number of clicks on email link(s), search ads, etc. divided by the number of emails sent, page views, etc…

Clickthrough Tracking: When a hotlink is included in an email, search ad or online ad, a clickthrough occurs when a recipient clicks on the link. Clickthrough tracking refers to the data collected about each clickthrough link, such as how many people clicked it or how many clicks resulted in desired actions such as sales, forwards or subscriptions.

Click-to-Open Ratio: An email metric that looks at the quality of content by comparing

the number of people who opened the email with those that clicked. Several factors can

have a dramatic impact on CTO ratio, including filtering of images that suppresses open

rate and newsletters that include only snippets of content in an email, elevating click

numbers.

Client: Commonly, the user‘s computer, browser or application that requests information from another online application. Most client applications request information from a server-side application.

Collaborative Filtering: Using the experience of previous searchers to return more relevant results. Also Social Filtering.

Commercial Email: Email whose purpose, as a whole or in part, is to sell or advertise a product or service, or to persuade users to perform an act, such as to purchase a product or click to a website whose contents are designed to sell, advertise or promote.

Conditional Content: Use of a database to allow or block content based on user behavior. This is done with if and then statements.

Confirmation: An acknowledgment of a subscription or information request. Confirmation can be either a company statement that the email address was successfully placed on a list or a subscriber‘s agreement that the subscribe request was genuine and not faked or automatically generated by a third party.

Confirmed Opt-in: Inexact term that may refer to double opt-in subscription processes or may refer to email addresses that do not hard bounce. Ask anyone using this term to define it more clearly.

Consideration or Consideration Phase: The second phase of the buying cycle, when consumers familiarize themselves with products, features and benefits. Consideration is the phase during which relationship marketing using email, telemarketing, etc…, is commonly used to warm the lead, or move the lead from consideration to the sales funnel.

Content-Based Filters: A type of filtration that sorts messages based on strings or key words located within the message. Filtering can take place based upon a score assigned to some words or phrases, or based on binary if/then statements. Example: Block if free in subject field.

Conversion: When a recipient of a marketing message performs a desired action based on a mailing you have sent. A conversion could be a monetary transaction, such as a purchase made after clicking a link. It could also include a voluntary act such as registering at a website, downloading a white paper, signing up for a web seminar or opting in to an email newsletter.

Conversion Rate: The percentage of visitors/users who convert on the action of a web page or campaign. For example, actions may be purchasing, submitting a form, downloading content, calling a telephone number or making an extended site visit.

Co-registration: Arrangement in which companies collecting registration information from users (email sign-up forms, shopping checkout process, etc.) include a separate box for users to check if they would also like to be added to a specific third party list.

Cost per Lead: Where the advertiser pays a set amount for each lead generated by a marketing campaign. Also CPL.

CPM (Cost per Thousand): An ad-buying model more common in web publishing than search where the advertiser pays for a set number of page impressions, paying by the thousand.

CPA (Cost Per Action or Cost Per Acquisition): A method of paying for advertising in which payment is based on the number of times users complete a given action, such as purchasing a product or signing up for a newsletter that takes place as a result of the marketing effort.

CPC (Cost Per Click): A method of paying for advertising. Different from CPA because all you pay for is the click, regardless of what that click does when it gets to your site or landing page.

Creative: An email message‘s copy and any graphics.

CRM (Customer Relationship Management): The software and processes of tracking the information that defines a prospect or customer relationship. CRM systems typically store contact and interaction data, such as number and dates of touches, products considered.

Cross-Campaign Profiling: A method used to understand how email respondents behave over multiple campaigns.

Cross-Post: To send the same email message to at least two different mailing lists or discussion groups.

CTR (Clickthrough Rate): Slightly inexact because some clicks get lost between the click and your server. Be sure to ask if the CTR is unique, meaning that each individual user is only counted once no matter how many times they click on a link.

CLV (Customer Lifetime Value): A measure of the total amount the customer is going to spend with a merchant during their tenure. Usually calculated by their spending per year multiplied by the average number of years they are likely to be a customer.

Daypart/Weekpart: Division of the month and day into sections for the purposes of targeting marketing. For example, a radio buyer might target drive time while a restaurant might target weekends vs. weekdays.

Dedupe: Identifying and consolidating duplicate names, usually done in a merge/purge operation.

Dedicated Server: An email server used by only one sender. A dedicated server often costs more to use because the expense isn‘t spread among multiple users, but it performs better than a shared server. Email usually goes out faster; the server is more secure; and it eliminates the possibility that another sender could get the server blacklisted for spamming.

Delivered Email: Number of emails sent minus the number of bounces and filtered messages. A highly inexact number because not all receiving ISPs report accurately on which email didn‘t go through and why.

Deduplication (also Deduping): The process of removing identical entries from two or more data sets such as mailing lists. Also Merge/Purge.

Deep Linking: Links that direct the person clicking on the link to a page beneath the home page of a website. Sometimes used to mean linking to a deep page on someone else‘s website, which has different legal issues than simply directing someone to a home page.

Deferred Conversions: Sales that take place following a website session that may result from it. With many online marketing tactics, it‘s not always possible to discern whether a sale took place as the result of some past interaction. Also Latent Conversions.

Deliverability: The degree to which emails are successfully delivered, or not. Also refers to the general issues surrounding this question.

Delivery Tracking: The process of measuring delivery rates by format, ISP or other factors and delivery failures (bounces, invalid address, server and other errors).

Deploy: To send a marketing campaign into the field.

Digest: A shortened version of an email newsletter which replaces full-length articles with clickable links to the full article at a website, often with a brief summary of the contents

Discussion Group: An email service in which individual members post messages for all group members to read (many to many). In contrast, a newsletter is a one-to-many broadcast, where comments by members or subscribers go only to the message sender. Also known by the trademarked name Listserv.

Domain Name System: How computer networks locate Internet domain names and translate them into IP addresses. The domain name is the actual name for an IP address or range of IP addresses, e.g., v12groupinc.com. See Reverse DNS.

DomainKeys: An anti-spam software application developed by Yahoo! using a combination of public and private keys to authenticate the sender‘s domain and reduce the chance that a spammer or hacker will fake the domain sending address.

Double Opt In: A process that requires new list joiners to take an action (such as clicking on an emailed link to a personal confirmation page) to confirm that they do want to be on the list. Sometimes interpreted incorrectly by some email broadcast vendors to mean a new subscriber who does not opt-out of or bounce a welcome message. Also Verified Opt In.

Dynamic Content: Email newsletter content that changes from one recipient to the next according to a set of predetermined rules or variables, usually according to preferences the user sets when opting in to messages from a sender. Dynamic content can reflect past purchases, current interests or where the recipient lives.

Early Adopters: The first to experiment and benefit from new technologies. They are often beta testers and tech companies themselves.

ECOA (Email Change of Address): A service that tracks email address changes and updates.

Effective Rate: Metric that measures how many of those who opened an email message clicked on a link, usually measured as unique responders divided by unique opens.

Email Address: The combination of a unique user name and a sender domain (JohnDoe@anywhere.com). The email address requires both the user name and the domain name.

Email Append: Service that matches email addresses to a database of personal names and postal addresses. Appending may require an OK to add my name‖ reply from the subscriber before you can add the name to the list.

Email Client: The software recipients use to read email, such as Outlook Express or Lotus Notes.

Email Domain: The portion of the email address to the right of the @ sign. Useful as an email address hygiene tool, e.g., identify all records where the consumer entered name@aol‖ as their email address and correct it toname@aol.com.

Email Filter: A software tool that categorizes sorts or blocks incoming email, based either on the sender, the email header or message content. Filters may be applied at the recipient‘s level, at the email client, the ISP or in combination.

Email Friendly Name: The portion of the email address that is displayed in most, though not all, email readers in place of, or in addition to, the email address. Also Display Name or From Name.

Email Harvesting: An automated process in which a robot program searches web pages or other Internet destinations for email addresses. The program collects the address into a database, which frequently gets resold to spammers or unethical bulk mailers. Many U.S. state laws forbid harvesting. CAN-SPAM does not outlaw it by name but allows triple damages against violators who compiled their mailing lists with harvested names.

Email Newsletter: Content distributed to subscribers by email on a regular schedule. Content is seen as valued editorial in and of itself rather than primarily a commercial message with a sales offer. See Ezine.

Email Prefix: The portion of the email address to the left of the @ sign.

Email Vendor: Another name for an email broadcast service provider, a company that sends bulk (volume) email on behalf of its clients. Also Email Service Provider (ESP).

Enhanced Whitelist: A super whitelist maintained by AOL for bulk emailers who meet strict delivery standards, including fewer than one spam complaint for every 1,000 email messages. Emailers on the enhanced whitelist can bypass AOL 9.0‘s automatic suppression of images and links.

ESP (Email service provider): Broadly defined as a company providing email services, an ESP offers email marketing or bulk email services. Neither of these terms is intended to be synonymous with spam or the sending of unwanted or unsolicited bulk email of a marketing or otherwise offensive nature.

Event-Triggered Email: Pre-programmed messages sent automatically based on an event such as a date or anniversary.

Eyetracking: A type of web page testing that follows the eye movements of participants to gauge how they interact with the page.

Ezine: Another name for email newsletter, adapted from electronic ‘zine’ or electronic magazine.

False Positive: A legitimate message mistakenly rejected or filtered as spam, either by an ISP or a recipient‘s anti-spam program. The more stringent an anti-spam program, the higher the false-positive rate.

FAQ: Stands for frequently asked questions

Fast Followers: These people keep themselves informed about new technologies as they appear and move to integrate them as soon as they have proven effective. The sale process can be a long one with fast followers because they want information long before they‘re ready to buy.

Filter: See Email Filter.

Footer: An area at the end of an email message or newsletter that contains information that doesn‘t change from one edition to the next, such as contact information, the company‘s postal address or the email address the recipient used to subscribe to mailings. Some software programs can be set to place this information automatically.

Forward (also Forward to a Friend): The process in which email recipients send an email to people they know, either because they think their friends will be interested in the message or because of incentives to forward messages. Also Viral Marketing.

Frequency: The number of times someone is exposed to an advertisement or marketing message.

From: Whatever appears in the email recipient‘s inbox as the visible From name. It is chosen by the sender and may be a personal name, a brand name, an email address, a blank space or alphanumeric gobbledygook. Note: This is not the actual From contained in the header (see below) and may be different than the email reply address. Also Email Friendly Name.

Full-Service Provider: An email vendor that also provides strategic consulting and creative support, in addition to sending messages.

Gateway Page: A page submitted to a search engine that is designed to give the spider what it‘s looking for (fitting the algorithm for that particular search engine) and increasing the relevance of the site. This practice is both banned by the search engines, and actively. Most, if not all, search engines seek to discover and eliminate the use of these pages, because it is another form of gaming, or trying to fool, the algorithms.

Gmail: A free email service from Google that gives users 7+GB of storage space, email search, instant messaging and conversation threading. Gmail also uses technology that adds advertisements next to messages containing keywords that match those advertisers in its AdWords program.

Goodbye Message: An email message sent automatically to a list member who unsubscribes, acknowledging the request.

Hard Bounce: Message sent to an invalid, closed or nonexistent email account.

Header: Routing and program data at the start of an email message, including the sender‘s name and email address, originating email server IP address, recipient IP address and any transfers in the process.

Heatmap: An image of a web page that displays where test subjects directed their attention.

Hero Shot: A shot of a product or brand from its best position to make it look as good as possible.

Heuristic Filters: Heuristic filters attempt to identify UCE using reiterative guesswork and past experience, to establish filtering rules. The longer a heuristic filter system is in place and its experience grows, the more accurate it becomes.

Honeypotting: Occurs when planted email addresses find their way into permission email marketers‘ lists. ISPs and spam-fighters place these addresses on the web waiting for them to be harvested by a spammer or unreputable list creator. If an emailer sends to a list containing a honeypot, all mail going to the ISP using the honeypot is blocked, even if some or most list recipients did opt in.

House List: List of email addresses an organization develops on its own.

HTML: The most common of the programming languages used to create web pages.

HTML Message: Email message that contains any type of formatting other than text. This may be as simple as programming that sets the text in a specific font (bold, italics, Courier 10 point, etc.). It also includes any graphic images, logos and colors.

HTML Sniffer: Technology embedded in email software that determines if users‘ email clients can receive HTML content.

HTTP (HyperText Transfer Protocol): The (main) protocol used to communicate between web servers and web browsers (clients).

Hygiene: The process of cleaning a database to correct incorrect or outdated values. See also List Hygiene.

IM (Instant Message): A real-time exchange of communication between two people through a service.

IMAP (Internet Message Access Protocol): A standard protocol for accessing email from a server.

Impression: A single view of one page by a single user, used in calculating advertising rates.

Inactivity: When a list member or registered user has been inactive for some period of time. There are no industry standards, as inactivity depends on the nature of the relationship and frequency of communication. For example, a list member who is mailed quarterly wouldn‘t be considered inactive as quickly as one who is mailed weekly.

Index: Provides a comparison against the average. 100 = the average in an index.

Influencer: Someone who contributes his or her input to the buying process but doesn‘t make the final decision.

IP Address: A unique number assigned to each device connected to the Internet. An IP address can be dynamic, meaning it changes each time an email message or campaign goes out, or it can be static, meaning it does not change. Static IP addresses are best because dynamic IP addresses often trigger spam filters.

ISP (Internet Service Provider): Examples: AOL, EarthLink, MSN, RoadRunner, etc.

Joe Job: A spam-industry term for a forged email, in which a spammer or hacker fakes a genuine email address to hide his identity.

Laggards: They make up a small portion of the respondents to this survey, but we know anecdotally that often the largest buyers of technology in the Fortune 1000 and government are laggards. They depend on tried-and-true technology and are more concerned with stability and security than the slight edge new tech might grant them.

LAN (Local Area Networks): Technologies and industries that create and maintain data communications networks that are geographically small and allow interconnection of terminals, microprocessors and computers within nearby buildings.

Landing Page: The destination web page for people who respond to an advertisement designed specifically for that campaign and audience. The campaign might be in any medium, but is typically email, search or online ad driven. The key difference between a home page and landing page is that the former must be all things to all visitors, while the landing page should be very narrowly designed for the campaign and, perhaps, for a segment of the audience responding to it.

Latency: In regards to marketing and conversion, the likelihood of a conversion to take place after an initial contact or site visit.

Lead Development: The process of moving a qualified lead toward becoming a prospect (someone in the sales funnel).

Lifestage: In marketing, the division of life into stages based on age and family status, from young singles to empty nesters.

List: The list of email addresses to which you send your message. Can be either your house list or a third-party list that sends your message on your behalf.

List Fatigue: A condition producing diminishing returns from a mailing list whose members are sent too many offers, or too many of the same offers, in too short a period of

time.

List Host: See Email Vendors.

List Hygiene: The act of maintaining a list so that hard bounces and unsubscribed names are removed from mailings. Some list owners also use an email change-of-address service to update old or abandoned email addresses (hopefully with a permission step baked in) as part of this process.

List Management: How a mailing list is set up, administered and maintained. The list manager has daily responsibility over list operations, including processing subscribes and unsubscribes, bounce management, list hygiene, etc. The list manager can be the same as the database manager but is not always the same person as the list owner. See List Owner.

List Owner: The organization or individual who has gathered a list of email addresses. Ownership does not necessarily imply with permission.

List Rental: The process in which a publisher or advertiser pays a list owner to send its messages to that list. Usually involves the list owner sending the messages on the advertiser‘s behalf. (If someone hands over their list to you, beware).

List Sale: The actual purchase of a mailing list along with the rights to mail it directly. Permission can only be sold if the subsequent mailings continue to match the frequency, brand name, content and from of the past owner‘s mailings and even then this is a somewhat shaky procedure on the spam front. You are in effect buying a publication and not just a list.

Live Chat: A website alternative to customer service using real-time chat. Typically much cheaper than toll-free numbers, but not as widely used or accepted.

Loyalty Program: A program initiated by a company to create or maintain customer loyalty by offering benefits for continued use of the brand.

Mail Bomb: An orchestrated attempt to shut down a mail server by sending more messages than it can handle in a short period of time. See DOS.

Mail Loop: A communication error between two email servers, usually happening when a badly configured email triggers an automated response from the recipient server.

Mailing List: A list of email addresses that receive mailings or discussion group messages.

Mailto: A code to make an email address in either a text or HTML email immediately clickable (mailto:JohnDoe@anywhere.com). When the link is clicked, it usually opens the user‘s email client and inserts the email address in the To: link of a blank message.

Mentions: Number of times your brand is mentioned in any publicly communicated capacity. Mentions consist of press release pickups, news article coverage and financial message board postings. This is used as a barometer of PR share of voice.

Modality: Generally used as a synonym for category, such as direct mail is among the oldest modalities of offline marketing.

MSP: Marketing Service Provider or Mail Service Provider, such as Hotmail.

MTA (Mail Transfer Agent): A computer that forwards email from senders to recipients (or to relay sites) and stores incoming email.

MUA: Mail User Agent. See Email Client.

Multichannel: A differentiator of merchants that employ multiple sales channels, as opposed to being strictly one (brick and mortar) or the other (web only or pureplay).

Multichannel Marketing: Marketing efforts that use multiple media to target unique prospects. For example, sending direct postal mail and email with complimentary messaging and offers to the same people with coordinated timing.

Multi-Part MIME: Also known (confusingly) as an email sniffer. Message format that includes both an HTML and a text-only version in the same message. Most, but not all, email clients receiving messages in this format will automatically display the version the user‘s system is set to show. Systems that can‘t show HTML should show the text version, but this doesn‘t always work in particular for many Lotus Notes users.

Multivariate Testing: Using a statistical model to allow the simultaneous testing of multiple variables. Contrast with A/B testing, which examines only one variable at a time. Also known as the Taguchi Method.

Nth Name: The act of segmenting a list for a test in which names are pulled from the main list for the test cell by number, such as every 5th name on the list. See also A/B Split.

Offline Conversion: Sales or other conversion events that take place in the real world, typically in a brick-and-mortar store.

Open Rate: The number of HTML message recipients who opened your email, usually as a percentage of the total number of emails sent. The open rate is considered a key metric for judging an email campaign‘s success, but it has several problems. The rate indicates only the number of emails opened from the total number sent, not just those that were actually delivered. Opens also can‘t be calculated on text emails. Also, some email clients allow users to scan message content without actually opening the message, which is falsely calculated as an open. See Preview Pane.

Open Relay: An SMTP email server that allows outsiders to relay email messages that are neither for nor from local users. Often exploited by spammers and hackers.

Opt In: A specific, pro-active request by an individual email recipient to have their own email address placed on a specific mailing list. Many list renters and buyers now require list owners to provide proof of opt in, including the email or IP address date and time the request was received.

Opt Out: A specific request to remove an email address from a specific list or from all lists operated by a single owner. Also, the process of adding an email addresses to lists without the name‘s pre-approval, forcing names who don‘t want to be on your list to actively unsubscribe.

Pass-Along: An email recipient who received a marketing message that was forwarded from a subscriber. Some emails offer forward to a friend‖ in the creative, but the vast majority of pass-alongs happen using email clients. Pass-alongs can affect the formatting of the email, often stripping off HTML. Also Viral.

Passed Parameters: The act of including known subscriber information in a redirect URL. This allows you to provide web applications that can pre-populate form values requiring the subscriber to do less typing.

Permission: The explicit approval given when a person actively requests to have their email address added to a list.

Persona-Based Design: Personas are virtual customers; useful templates based on common customer types that can guide site design, offer testing, etc.

Personalization: A targeting method in which an email message appears to have been created for a single recipient. Personalization techniques include adding the recipient‘s name in the subject line or message body, or the message offer reflects a purchasing, link clicking or transaction history.

PGP (Pretty Good Privacy): Software used to encrypt and protect email as it moves from one computer to another. Can be used to verify a sender‘s identity.

Phishing: A form of identity theft in which a scammer uses an authentic looking email to trick recipients into giving out sensitive personal information, such as credit card or bank account numbers, Social Security numbers and other data.

Plain Text: Text in an email message that includes no formatting code. See HTML.

POP (Post Office Protocol): Used by email clients to send to or receive messages from an email server. Not to be confused with Point of Presence, an access point for the Internet.

Postmaster: The person to contact at a website, ISP or other site to request information, get help with delivery or register complaints.

Preference Center: In email or website registration, the practice of asking the registrant questions that tell the marketer more about them. Typical preference centers will ask about interests and preferences for HTML vs. text emails. They can, however, be more sophisticated and guide frequency and segmentation.

Preferences: Options a user can set to determine how they want to receive your messages, how they want to be addressed, to which email address messages should go and which messages they want to receive from you.

Preview Pane: The window in an email client that allows the user to scan message content without actually clicking on the message. See Open Rate.

Privacy Policy: A clear description of how your company uses the email addresses and other information it gathers via opt-in requests for newsletters, company information or third-party offers or other functions. If you rent, sell or exchange your list to anyone outside your company, or if you add email addresses to opt-out messages, you should state so in the privacy policy. State laws may also compel you to explain your privacy policy, where to put the policy statement so people will see it, and even in the form the policy should be displayed.

Qualified Lead: While the definition varies from marketer to marketer, a qualified lead is generally the next step up from inquiry the lead fits some criteria to warrant lead development. It may be as simple as anyone who searched for this term is qualified‖ to they only corresponded to three of five criteria from our registration form, they‘re not qualified.

Queue: Where an email message goes after you send it but before the list owner approves it or before the list server gets around to sending it. Some list software allows you to queue a message and then set a time to send it automatically, either during a quiet period on the server or at a time when human approval isn‘t available.

Ranking: A web page‘s position in search engine results for a particular keyword/search phrase. Higher rankings typically indicate better SEO, more traffic and higher quality traffic.

Read Email: There is no real measure of read email, although the term is sometimes used as a synonym for opened email. Only opens and clicks are measurable. You can never know if a recipient read your message.

Readability: The degree to which an email client correctly renders an HTML email.

Readership: Circulation multiplied by average readers per copy. Equals the total reach of a publication.

Recency: A measure of how recently information was produced. Usually refers to the age of contacts on a rented or third-party list.

Record: A file in a marketer‘s database. It may contain anything from an anonymous code with preferred site characteristics to an extensive profile of a customer or prospect.

Referrer: The address of the web page from which a visitor arrived. Also Referring URL.

Registration: The process where someone not only opts in to your email program, website membership program, etc., but provides some additional information, such as name, address, demographic data or other relevant information, usually by using a web form.

Relationship Email: An email message that refers to a commercial action a purchase, complaint or customer-support request based on a business relationship between the sender and recipient. Generally are not covered by CAN-SPAM requirements.

Reply-To: The email address that receives messages sent from users who click reply in their email clients. Can differ from the From address, which can be an automated or unmonitored email address used only to send messages to a distribution list. Reply-to‖ should always be a monitored address.

Research Phase: Initial stage of the buying process, when consumers are beginning to understand a product and its role in the market.

Return Rate: The percentage of total sales (by item, category or all sales) that is ultimately returned by customers.

Reverse DNS: The process in which an IP address is matched correctly to a domain name, instead of a domain name being matched to an IP address. Reverse DNS is a popular method for catching spammers who use invalid IP addresses. If a spam filter or program can‘t match the IP address to the domain name, it can reject the email.

ROI (Return on Investment): Either mathematical or anecdotal analysis of payback for a project.

RSS (Really Simple Syndication): XML-based content distribution method that powers many blogs and other types of content websites. RSS gathers feeds of information from user-designated sources. The feeds include clickable headlines and blurbs about full pieces of content. RSS is seen as an alternative to some types of email communication, but has yet to become an established marketing medium.

Sales Cycle: The time between first direct contact (may simply be a registration on a website) and ultimate sale. Sales cycle is a measure of efficiency of the sales organization.

Seed Emails or Seed Addresses: Email addresses placed on a list (sometimes secretly) to determine what messages are sent to the list and/or to track delivery rate and/or visible appearance of delivered messages. Seeds may also be placed on websites and elsewhere on the Internet to track spammers‘ harvesting activities.

Segment: The ability to slice a list into specific pieces determined by various attributes, such as open history or name source.

Select: A segment of a list determined by any number of attributes, such as source of name, job title, purchasing history, etc. CPM list renters pay an additional fee per thousand names for each select on top of the base list price.

Selections: Information about people, households, companies, etc. that is used to target direct marketing. Demographic selectors may include age, income, gender, hobbies, holding a credit card, etc. B2B selectors include role, title, purchasing history, etc.

Selective Unsubscribe: An unsubscribe mechanism that allows a consumer to determine which email newsletters they wish to continue receiving while stopping the sending of others.

Sender ID: The informal name for a new anti-spam program combining two existing protocols: Sender Policy Framework and Caller ID. Sender ID authenticates email senders and blocks email forgeries and faked addresses.

SPF (Sender Policy Framework): A protocol used to eliminate email forgeries. A line of code called an SPF record is placed in a sender‘s Domain Name Server information. The incoming server can verify a sender by SPF record before allowing a message through.

Sent Emails: Number of email names transmitted in a single broadcast. Does not reflect how many were delivered or viewed by recipients.

Server: A program or computer system that stores and distributes email from one mailbox to another, or relays email from one server to another in a network.

Share of Wallet: A measure of how much business in a given category is owned by a merchant. Of everything that someone might be expected to spend on product X this year, how much are they spending with merchant Y?

SMTP (Simple Mail Transfer Protocol): The most common protocol for sending email messages between email servers.

Social Sharing: Tools and tactics that enable email recipients to share email content on popular social networks and other social media sites.

Soft Bounce: Email sent to an active (live) email address but which is turned away before being delivered. Often, the problem is temporary the server is down or the recipient‘s mailbox is over quota. The email might be held at the recipient‘s server and delivered later, or the sender‘s email program may attempt to deliver it again. Soft-bounce reports are not always accurate because they don‘t report all soft bounces or the actual reason for the bounce.

Solo Mailing: A one-time broadcast to an email list, separate from regular newsletters or promotions, and often including a message from an outside advertiser or a special promotion from the list owner.

Spam: The popular name for unsolicited commercial email. However, some email recipients define spam as any email they no longer want to receive, even if it comes from a mailing list they joined voluntarily.

Spamcop: A blacklist and IP-address database, formerly privately owned but now part of the email vendor IronPort. Many ISPs check the IP addresses of incoming email against spamcop‘s records to determine whether the address has been blacklisted because of spam complaints.

Spamdexing: Any technique designed to fool search engine spiders, and increase or artificially change a search ranking or result.

Specifier: Someone, whose role in the technical purchase process is to identify specific needs, features, etc., needed from a product.

Spider: A small program that surfs the web to index information for a search engine. Also Bot or Crawler.

Spidering: The process of surfing the web, storing URLs and indexing keywords, links and text. Because there is far too much information available to index it all, every search engine has unique (and highly proprietary) ways in which it saves time and space.

Spoofing: The practice of changing the sender‘s name in an email message so it looks as if it came from another address.

Subject Line: Copy that identifies what an email message is about, often designed to entice the recipient into opening the message. The subject line appears first in the recipient‘s inbox, often next to the sender‘s name or email address. It is repeated in the email message‘s header information inside the message.

Subscribe: The process of joining a mailing list, either through an email command, by filling out a web form, or offline by filling out a form or requesting to be added verbally. (If you accept verbal subscriptions, you should safeguard yourself by recording it and storing recordings along with time and date, in a retrievable format).

Subscriber: The person who has specifically requested to join a mailing list.

Suppression File: A list of email addresses you have removed from your regular mailing lists, either because they have opted out of your lists or because they have notified other mailers that they do not want to receive mailings from your company. Required by CAN-SPAM.

Test: A necessary step before sending an email campaign or newsletter. Many email Clients permit you to send a test email before sending a regular email newsletter or solo mailing, in which you would send one copy of the message to an in-house email address and then review it for formatting or copy errors or improperly formatted links. Email marketers should also send a test campaign to a list of email addresses not in the deployment database to determine likely response rates and how well different elements in the message perform.

Text Newsletter: Plain newsletter with words only no colors, graphics, fonts or pictures. Can be received by anyone who has email.

Thank-You Page: Web page that appears after user has submitted an order or a form online.

Throttling: The practice of regulating how many email messages a broadcaster sends to one ISP or mail server at a time. Some ISPs bounce email if it receives too many messages from one sending address at a time.

Top 2 or Top 3: Scoring method in which only the top 2 responses are used in calculation. Top 2 responses are usually expressing favorability toward the selection and usually include very and somewhat as the two responses.

Transactional Email: An email that is part of a transaction, usually a receipt. Also has been used to refer to rich-media emails with transactional capability embedded in the email itself. However, this term has largely fallen out of use as filtering of email has limited the utilization of rich media elements. Also Transactive Email.

UCE (Unsolicited Commercial Email): Also called spam or junk mail.

Unique Reference Number: A unique number assigned to a list member, usually by the email broadcast software, and used to track member behavior (clicks, subscribes, unsubscribes) or to identify the member to track email delivery.

Universe: The total membership of a defined group. The universe of influencers on technology purchases, for example, includes technical staff, IT management, Line of Business managers and executives at the VP and C-level.

Unsubscribe: To remove oneself from an email list, either via an emailed command to the list server or by filling in a web form.

Usability: The study of how people interact with their environment. In online marketing, a specialized form that focuses on web page design.

Vendor: Any company that provides a service. See Email Vendor

Verification: A program that determines an email came from the sender listed in the return path or Internet headers; designed to stop email from forged senders.

Video Email: An email message that includes a video file, either inserted into the message body, accessible through a hotlink to a website or accompanying it in an attachment (least desirable because many ISPs block executable attachments to avoid viruses).

Web Bug: A 1-pixel by 1-pixel image tag added to an HTML message and used to track open rates by email addresses. Opening the message, either in the preview pane, or by clicking on it, activates the bug and sends a signal to the website, where special software tracks and records the signal as an open. Also Web Beacon.

Webmail: Any of several web-based email clients where clients have to go to a website to access or download email instead of using a desktop application. Some examples are Gmail, Yahoo! Mail and Hotmail.

Welcome Message: Message sent automatically to new list members as soon as their email addresses are added successfully.

Whitelist: Advance-authorized list of email addresses, held by an ISP, subscriber or other email service provider, which allows email messages to be delivered regardless of spam filters. See also Enhanced Whitelist.

Wish Lists: A merchandising technique that allows registered website users to store a list of products they would like. Like a digital version of a wedding registry.

Word of Mouth (WOM): An emerging area in marketing that attempts to measure and/or harness the power of personal recommendations. With the explosion of blog readership, WOM has become a hot topic in virtually every industry.

XML Feeds: A method of feeding page information to search engines using XML. Some feeds are paid on a CPC or subscription basis.

XML: Extensible Markup Language, a new language that promises more efficient data delivery over the web. XML does nothing itself. It must be implemented using parser software or XSL.

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