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35 essential email marketing terms to know [glossary]

Reading Time: 8 minutes

There are several email marketing terms every marketer should know in order to comprehend and understand email marketing fully. 

Why?

Because email marketing terminology includes dozens of definitions and terms you may encounter daily. You may also be required to report and present the performance of the campaigns, which requires a thorough understanding of the correct terms.

However, learning them all can be overwhelming for someone who has just started with this strategy. So, we’ve compiled this glossary of the most important terms used in email marketing.

This comprehensive email marketing glossary aims to help you familiarize yourself with and understand these essential terms. This knowledge will help you more effectively interpret and utilize campaign results, making them more successful.

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35 email marketing terms you should know

Here’s a list of 35 common email marketing terms that every marketer needs to know to effectively run and manage campaigns:

1. A/B testing

A/B testing, or split testing, involves creating two versions of an email. Different variants of an element are tested to see which performs better. Each email is sent to half of the audience, and the version that gets more opens, clicks, and engagement is used for further campaigns.

The elements commonly tested include subject lines, images, and CTAs. 

2. AI-powered email marketing

This involves the use of artificial intelligence in email marketing to create emails, run automated email campaigns, and more. AI-powered email marketing can be more efficient, quicker, and cost-effective than traditional email marketing.

3. Autoresponder

An autoresponder refers to an email automation workflow where emails are sent to people based on their interactions with a brand. For example, a welcome email will be triggered when someone signs up for a newsletter. 

4. Bounce rate

In email marketing terminology, bounce rate refers to the percentage of emails that aren’t delivered versus those that were. 

Hard bounces happen when a permanent issue, such as an incorrect email address, causes the email not to be delivered. Meanwhile, soft bounces are caused by temporary problems, such as a server outage. 

5. CAN-SPAM

CAN-SPAM is a US law that provides guidelines for sending commercial emails. One such rule, for instance, is that marketers should provide recipients with the option to opt out of receiving their emails.

This acronym stands for “Controlling the Assault of Non-Solicited Pornography and Marketing Act of 2003.

6. Call to action (CTA)

This email marketing term consists of a button or text that marketers implement in the email to encourage their audiences to take a desired action. This could be anything from clicking on a link to making a purchase.

Typically, an email CTA entails persuasive copy and a link that directs people to a specific page.

7. Conversion rate

The conversion rate is the percentage of your target audience who completed a desired action. This could be making a purchase or booking an appointment.

The conversion rate for emails depends on your campaign goals. For example, if an email is intended to drive sales, then the conversion rate would measure the percentage of email recipients who made a purchase after reading the email.

Learn average conversions of campaigns by email type:
Email, SMS, and push marketing statistics for ecommerce in 2023

8. Click-through rate (CTR)

This is an email marketing metric that tracks the effectiveness of links within emails. It’s the share of individuals who clicked on a link in your email out of the total number of recipients.

A high CTR shows that your email and CTAs were engaging enough to get people to click.

9. Deliverability rate

The deliverability rate is the percentage of emails that were successfully delivered compared to the total sent. It’s sometimes called the acceptance rate.

A low deliverability rate could indicate a variety of issues, such as recipients marking you as spam or having incorrect email addresses. 

10. Drip campaign

The most common email marketing terms used for sequential email campaigns that are pre-scheduled or triggered by specific user actions. The idea is to send several emails to engage recipients and get them to take the desired action.

Drip campaigns are targeted campaigns with a specific purpose. Welcome emails, abandoned cart emails, and lead nurturing emails are some examples.

11. Dynamic content

Dynamic content allows you to personalize emails based on recipients’ demographics, preferences, and history with your brand.

For example, you can use it to show different images or offers to different audience segments.

12. Email automation

Popular among marketers is email automation. As the name suggests, it involves sending emails automatically, based on specific triggers, without manual effort.

Automated emails save time and effort, and ensure that you reach out to leads and prospects at the right time with the right messages.

13. Email Service Provider (ESP)

Next on this email marketing glossary is the Email Service Provider, or ESP. This is the platform you use to send marketing emails, such as Omnisend or Mailchimp.

While platforms like Gmail and Outlook are also used for sending emails, they’re more for personal use. In the marketing context, only email marketing platforms that allow you to send bulk emails are included in this category.

14. Email blast

A bulk email sent to multiple recipients simultaneously is called an email blast in email marketing terminologies. Email blasts are used for marketing purposes, such as making an announcement, offering a deal, and more.

These help brands communicate with a mass audience without investing too much time and effort.

15. Email deliverability

Not to be confused with email delivery, email deliverability is all about whether the emails you send actually reach the recipients’ inboxes or not.

A low email deliverability is bad for your email marketing efforts and could indicate issues like poor sender reputation. A 95% or higher delivery rate is generally considered good for a mass email service provider.

16. Email list cleaning

The process of removing fake, duplicate, or incorrect email addresses from your list is called email list cleaning. It involves regularly updating your email list to ensure the accuracy of your contact information. This process contributes to the success of your campaigns by better guaranteeing that your emails reach the right people. 

17. Sender reputation

As someone who regularly sends marketing emails, you should maintain a good reputation. This is what sender reputation is all about. It’s a score that email service providers assign to various senders after assessing how recipients interact with their emails.

For instance, if lots of people mark your emails as spam or don’t open them, your sender reputation would be considered bad.

18. Email editor

This is the tool that allows you to create emails within an email marketing platform. Most good editors allow you to drag-and-drop elements and content blocks to create engaging emails that suit your needs.

19. Email domain warm-up

When you first buy a domain and use the connected business email address to send your first set of emails, it’s called a warm-up. The idea is to start with a small volume and gradually increase the number of emails you send. You should also send compelling emails that engage the recipients and help establish a positive sender reputation.

This is a precursor to launching large-scale email marketing campaigns.

20. Email personalization

This is the process of tailoring emails to each recipient, based on factors such as their demographics, behaviors, and preferences. Personalized emails are well-received by recipients and make them more likely to take a specific action.

21. Email marketing funnel

This involves engaging prospective customers at various stages of their buying journey via emails. Send a series of emails to guide them through the funnel, from when they first interact with your brand to when they make a purchase.

22. Filtering

Email filtering is how your email service provider categorizes the emails you receive and sends them to inboxes, whether primary, social, or others. It’ll send spam or suspicious emails to the “spam” folder.

23. GDPR

The General Data Protection Regulation (GDPR) is a data protection and privacy regulation followed in the European Union. Any business that uses the data of EU citizens, even if it’s not physically located within the region, must follow this law.

24. HTML email

Emails can be created in different formats. The two most common ones are HTML and plain text. HTML emails simply allow more formatting options and the addition of images, links, and other visually appealing elements other than plain text. 

25. Lead nurturing

After someone shares their contact information, they become a lead. You now need to send emails to engage with them, build a relationship, and nudge them toward taking desired actions, such as making a purchase. This process is called email lead nurturing.

26. Lifecycle email marketing

The customer lifecycle includes all the stages of a customer’s buying journey, from when they first hear about your brand to when they become a loyal customer. The process of sending targeted emails to them, depending on the stage they’re at, is called lifecycle email marketing.

27. Omnichannel marketing

Reaching out to prospective customers via multiple marketing channels, such as email, SMS, and social media, is called multichannel marketing. When you provide a consistent and seamless customer experience across channels, it’s then called omnichannel marketing.

28. Open rate

This email marketing metric measures the performance of email campaigns. It depicts the percentage of total recipients who opened your emails. If your open rate is high, it shows that people find your emails relevant enough to open them.

29. Opt-in

To adhere to ethical email marketing practices is to seek people’s consent on whether they want to receive your emails. This process of asking permission for email marketing is commonly known as opt-in.

30. Opt-out

This is the opposite of opt-in and refers to the process of allowing subscribers to stop receiving your emails. As per CAN-SPAM and other regulations, providing an opt-out option to your email subscribers is mandatory.

31. Preheader text

Apart from subject lines, a short text is visible when people look at emails in their inboxes. This is called preheader text and is used to give a preview of the main email content. It can be an influential factor as to whether a recipient opens the email or not.

32. Responsive design

An email has a responsive design when it is displayed as intended on different devices, irrespective of the screen size. This is important because people check emails using different devices and should be able to read your emails properly on each.

33. Spam traps

These are email addresses used by Internet Service Providers (ISPs) and anti-spam organizations to identify and catch spammers. They can be created using old email addresses, fake profiles, or typos in the email id.

34. Trigger email

This term refers to automated emails triggered by certain user actions, such as subscribing to a newsletter or making a purchase. The most common examples of trigger emails include birthday, cart abandonment, and order placement emails.

35. Welcome series

These are a series of automated emails sent to welcome new subscribers or customers. You can use them to provide essential information about your brand, establish a positive foundation, and detail next steps subscribers can take as a way to encourage early engagement.

Summary

In this article, we’ve run you through the 35 most important email marketing terms that every marketer should know. 

Understanding these terms is important if you want to run successful campaigns. However, beyond cramming the email marketing glossary, you also need a strong email marketing tool.

That’s where Omnisend comes into the picture. This platform helps you launch various kinds of email marketing campaigns and automate them — giving you back time to focus on other email marketing duties.

Set up complex automated workflows and run integrated marketing campaigns with Omnisend
Richard White
Article by

Richard is a Content Marketing Manager at Omnisend. An avid writer, he's said to have been born holding a pencil. Fascinated by all things handmade, if he's not reading or writing he can often be found practicing leathercraft.