Glossary

A type of test that compares two versions of an email, subject line, offer, etc. to see which performs better. The limited scope allows for testing very specific things. The winner is usually sent to a holdout group.

Acronym for Brand Indicators for Marketing Identification. A newish protocol that helps authenticate trusted senders. Primary advantage is allowing marketers to dictate what logo is displayed in the inbox when supported.

List of IP addresses and domains that are being used by or belong to senders that have been identified as sending spam. Blacklists are individuals, businesses and mail service providers to block incoming mail.

An email campaign is one email, or a series of email over a period of time, which a marketer sends out to a list of contacts. Email campaigns are designed to achieve a specific goal for a brand or business. The goal could be to generate sales, drive conversions, inform audiences about a new product or service or simply reach out to individual customers.

Email deliverability is a metric that indicates the number of emails that reached the inbox. Many factors influence whether an email reaches the inbox or if they get rejected or filtered into the junk folder.

An alternate email address that feeds into a single inbox. Often used by consumers to filter messages from different senders or for different purposes. Many email services allow users to create an alias with a “+” sign e.g. [email protected] is an alias for [email protected]

When an email is sent from one recipient to another. Usually signals good engagement. Can be done manually on the subscriber’s part or automated via a link in the email or an online tool. Usually breaks the formatting of the email.

An important piece of legislation designed to protect EU citizens. Stands for General Data Protection Regulation and has a big impact on data collection and consent requirements for email marketers. Responsible for all those annoying banners on websites.

Went into effect in 2018.

An email address intentionally used to identify spammers. Typically added to high volume lists that are rented or sold to help prevent abuse. Stay away from them.

Email integrations are the process of connecting apps together to enable seamless email marketing processes. They are enable marketers to leverage data stored in CRM, Ecommerce or other systems in order to create more personalised, relevant and effective messages.

JPEG is a digital image file format. It is a compressed file format, which means that when creating a JPG image from another uncompressed and/or lossless format, the JPG image file will exhibit minor (or severe) loss of overall quality, depending on the compression applied. The format itself includes the following file extensions… .JPEG, JPG, .JFIF, and .JPE. It is the most common format for storing and transmitting photographic images on the internet, and the most common file format captured by modern digital cameras.

A Key Performance Indicator, or KPI, is a quantifiable measure used to evaluate success in meeting objectives. In email marketing, the most common KPIs are open rate, click-through rate, click-to-open rate, bounce rate, delivery rate, complaint rate, opt-out rate, conversion rate and return on investment.

List Unsubscribe Header is an essential feature in email marketing that allows recipients to opt out of newsletters and automated emails easily. As per The Privacy and Electronic Communications Regulations 2003 (PECR), businesses should include this feature in all their emails to ensure compliance with consumer protection regulations.

Email marketing automation is sending relevant emails to subscribers based on events and triggers. This strategy allows marketers to send personalised messages to prospects and customers on a schedule or when specific conditions are met.

The act of grooming prospects into customers or users into more engaged users.

An approach to marketing that attempts to create a seamless, engaging experience across different marketing channels like email, SMS, social, TV, etc. Email marketers are increasingly being called on to better integrate email with other channels.

The process of making emails more relevant for subscribers by customising the content, design, or offer based on past subscriber behaviour or preferences.

Acronym for Quality Assurance. The process by which emails are tested and deemed ready to send to subscribers. Typical checks include copy, links, accessibility, rendering, audience segmentation, and timing of email sends.

A campaign specifically sent to reactivate inactive subscribers, typically after long periods of disinterest or no email messages going out. Important for helping to keep your lists clean.

Email segmentation is the division of email marketing subscribers into smaller groups based on specific criteria. Email segments divide audiences into groups depending based on data such age, location etc. Segmenting marketing lists enables the sending of targeting and relevant content to your subscribers.

A term used to mean a lot of different things, but generally speaking, a boilerplate example of an email that can be duplicated and updated for a new campaign.

ESPs often use the term to mean different things, from previously sent, saved campaigns, to HTML components that can be used to build new emails.

A metric that tracks the number of clicks on a link by individual users, not repeat clicks. Can be useful in seeing how valuable your content is or compelling your CTAs are.

A term that could mean either the version of an email involved in a Split or Multivariate Test, or the version of an email currently being worked on during the production process, usually tracked via a source control tool like GitHub.

A whitelist of IP addresses and / or email addresses that a mail service has set to always accept mail from. Being on a whitelist means emails will allows reach the inbox and will never be rejected, filtered into the junk folder or blacklisted.

Instiller is 100% white-label meaning there’s no mention of us and you can style the interface so that it’s inline with the brand identify of your agency. Your clients will never know, but if they do then you can still be confident that we’ll stick by our brand promise of only working with agencies.

X-headers are types of headers which are added in addition to other headers in the email, such as the to, from or subject.

An email service launched in 1997, which as of 2017 had 225 million monthly users.

Zapier is an automation tool that lets your apps talk to each other.