Email Marketing Terms

An abandoned cart flow is an automated sequence of emails (sometimes SMS) sent to a shopper who added items to their cart but left without buying. It's triggered by inactivity, usu...

AMP for Email is a Google-backed format that lets emails include interactive elements like carousels, forms and live content that updates after the email lands. Recipients can brow...

BIMI stands for Brand Indicators for Message Identification. It's a standard that lets your verified logo appear next to your emails in supported inboxes like Gmail. To qualify, yo...

A blocklist (also called a denylist) is a list of IP addresses or domains that internet service providers (ISPs) and spam filters have flagged as untrustworthy senders. Once you're...

Browse abandonment is when someone visits your website, looks at products or pages, and leaves without adding anything to their cart or making a purchase. Browse abandonment email...

Click rate is the percentage of delivered emails that received at least one click on any link. Calculated as total clicks divided by total emails delivered, expressed as a percenta...

Click-to-open rate (CTOR) measures the percentage of people who clicked a link in your email out of those who opened it. Calculated as unique clicks divided by unique opens, multip...

Complaint rate is the percentage of delivered emails that recipients mark as spam or junk. It's calculated as spam complaints divided by emails delivered, multiplied by 100. Inbox...

Confirmed opt-in, also called single opt-in, is when someone joins your email list by submitting a signup form once, with no follow-up step required. The address is added straight...

Conversational SMS is text messaging that invites and handles replies, rather than sending a one-way broadcast. A customer can text back a question, pick an option, or say no thank...

Dark mode email refers to how an email renders when a subscriber's device or email client switches to a dark colour scheme. Some clients invert your colours automatically, others r...

A dedicated IP is an internet protocol (IP) address used only by your email sends, so your reputation with inbox providers depends solely on your own behaviour. A shared IP is used...

Deliverability is the ability of your emails to reach the intended inbox rather than the spam or junk folder. It depends on your sender reputation, list quality, authentication rec...

DKIM stands for DomainKeys Identified Mail. It's an email authentication method that adds a digital signature to outgoing emails, letting the receiving mail server verify the messa...

DMARC stands for Domain-based Message Authentication, Reporting and Conformance. It is an email authentication protocol that tells receiving mail servers what to do when an email c...

Domain reputation is the trust score inbox providers like Gmail and Outlook assign to your sending domain. It's built from your history of spam complaints, bounces, opens and engag...

Single opt-in adds someone to your email list the moment they submit a signup form. Double opt-in adds a second step, a confirmation email the subscriber must click before they're...

A drip campaign is a series of pre-written emails sent automatically to a contact over a set period or in response to specific actions. The emails are written in advance and delive...

A drip campaign sends a pre-set sequence of emails on a fixed schedule, regardless of what the recipient does. A trigger campaign sends an email in response to a specific action, l...

Content that changes automatically based on who is viewing it. In email, dynamic content shows different images, text or offers based on subscriber attributes. On websites, it pers...

Email authentication is a set of technical standards that verify an email is genuinely from the domain it claims to be from. The three key protocols — SPF, DKIM and DMARC — work to...

Email automation is the practice of sending emails based on triggers rather than manual sends. When someone signs up, abandons a cart, hits a milestone or goes quiet, a pre-built s...

Email bounce rate is the percentage of emails that failed to reach the recipient's inbox. Hard bounces are permanent failures, typically invalid email addresses. Soft bounces are t...

Email deliverability is the measure of how many emails you send actually reach recipients' inboxes rather than bouncing or landing in spam. It is calculated as emails delivered div...

An email list is a collection of email addresses belonging to people who have opted in to receive communications from a business. It is a first-party owned channel, meaning the bus...

Email marketing is the practice of sending commercial messages to a list of subscribers who have opted in to receive them. It covers promotional campaigns, automated sequences and...

Email open rate is the percentage of delivered emails that are recorded as opened. Calculated as emails opened divided by emails delivered, expressed as a percentage. Since Apple's...

A feedback loop (FBL) is a system some mailbox providers offer that tells a sender when a recipient marks their email as spam. It gives the sender the complaining address so they c...

Flows and campaigns are the two ways email marketing sends messages. A flow is an automated sequence triggered by a subscriber's behaviour, such as signing up or abandoning a cart....

Frequency (also called cadence) is how often you send emails to your subscriber list, whether that's daily, weekly or monthly. It's a deliberate choice that balances staying visibl...

The from name is the sender label an email shows in the inbox, sitting above the subject line. It's the first thing a recipient reads before deciding whether to open, delete or rep...

Greylisting is a spam-filtering technique where a receiving mail server temporarily rejects an email from an unfamiliar sender, then accepts it on a retry a few minutes later. Legi...

A honeypot is an email address planted by internet service providers (ISPs) or anti-spam organisations specifically to catch senders with poor list hygiene. Nobody real reads it. I...

Inbox Placement Rate (IPR) is the percentage of sent emails that actually land in the recipient's primary inbox rather than the spam or junk folder. It's different from delivery ra...

IP reputation is the trust score mailbox providers like Gmail and Outlook assign to the server address your emails send from. A good reputation gets your email into the inbox. A po...

IP warming is the process of gradually increasing email volume sent from a new IP address so that Internet Service Providers (ISPs) like Gmail and Outlook can build trust in it. Se...

Lead nurture is the process of building a relationship with potential customers who are not yet ready to buy. It uses a sequence of targeted communications, usually email, to provi...

Lifecycle marketing is the practice of sending different messages to customers depending on where they are in their relationship with your business. A new subscriber gets a welcome...

List growth rate is the percentage change in your email subscriber count over a given period, accounting for both new subscribers and those who unsubscribe. Calculated as new subsc...

List hygiene is the practice of regularly removing invalid, inactive or unengaged email addresses from your subscriber database. It covers bounced addresses, spam trap hits, unsubs...

List segmentation is dividing an email list into smaller groups so you can send each one more relevant messages, instead of blasting everyone the same email. Segments can be built...

Marketing automation is the use of software to send triggered communications to contacts based on their behaviour and attributes, without manual intervention. When someone abandons...

MMS stands for Multimedia Messaging Service. It's the mobile messaging format that lets you send images, GIFs and short video alongside text, unlike plain SMS which is text-only. M...

A regularly published email sent to subscribers with curated content, updates or insights. Newsletters build audience relationships, maintain brand presence and drive repeat visits...

Open rate is the percentage of delivered emails that are opened, calculated as unique opens divided by emails delivered, expressed as a percentage. Since Apple Mail Privacy Protect...

The action a user takes to explicitly consent to receiving email communications. Australian law requires opt-in consent for commercial emails. Double opt-in adds a confirmation ste...

An opt-out is when a person withdraws their permission to be contacted, most commonly by unsubscribing from marketing email or SMS. It is the counterpart to opt-in. Under spam law...

A permission pass is the check a sending platform or marketer runs to confirm a contact has given valid, current consent to receive email before a campaign goes out. It confirms op...

Delivering individually relevant content, offers and experiences to large numbers of customers simultaneously using data, automation and conditional logic. Moves beyond segmented b...

Personalisation tokens are placeholders inside an email template that automatically pull in a subscriber's data, such as their first name, last product viewed or location, when the...

Plain-text email is a message with no design, images or formatting, resembling a personal note. HTML email uses code to add layout, colour, images and buttons. The choice affects h...

A post-purchase flow is a sequence of automated emails or messages triggered after someone buys. It typically covers order confirmation, shipping updates, delivery follow-up and ea...

Postmaster Tools is a free Google dashboard that shows how Gmail sees your email sending domain. It reports spam complaint rate, domain and IP reputation, authentication pass rates...

A preference centre is a page subscribers reach from an email that lets them choose what they receive instead of unsubscribing entirely. They might turn off promotional emails but...

A preheader is the short line of text that appears next to or beneath the subject line in an inbox preview, before the email is opened. If you don't set one deliberately, most inbo...

A push notification is a short message sent directly to a user's phone, browser or app, even when they aren't actively using it. It appears on the lock screen or notification tray...

A re-engagement campaign is a set of emails sent to subscribers who have stopped opening, clicking or buying. The goal is either to win back their attention or to confirm they shou...

A replenishment flow is an automated email or SMS sequence that reminds customers to reorder a product right before it's likely to run out. It's built around the estimated usage cy...

Revenue Per Email is the average dollar amount a single email generates, calculated as total campaign revenue divided by the number of emails delivered. It turns vague engagement m...

Revenue Per Recipient (RPR) is the average revenue generated by each email sent in a campaign. It's calculated by dividing total campaign revenue by the number of recipients, givin...

RFM stands for Recency, Frequency and Monetary value. It's a customer segmentation method that scores each customer on how recently they bought, how often they buy and how much the...

Segmentation is the practice of dividing your audience into smaller groups based on shared characteristics, so you can send more relevant messages to each group. Segments can be bu...

Send-time optimisation (STO) is a feature in email platforms that delivers a campaign to each subscriber at the time they personally tend to open email, rather than sending the who...

Sender reputation is the trust score mailbox providers like Gmail and Outlook assign to your sending infrastructure. It determines whether your emails reach the inbox, land in spam...

Sender Score is a reputation rating from 0 to 100 that estimates how trustworthy your sending IP address or domain looks to inbox providers. It's calculated by Validity using real...

SMS marketing is sending promotional or transactional text messages directly to a customer's phone. It covers everything from abandoned cart reminders to flash sale alerts to shipp...

A hard bounce is a permanent delivery failure, usually because the email address doesn't exist. A soft bounce is a temporary failure, usually because the inbox is full or the recei...

The percentage of recipients who mark your email as spam. High spam rates damage sender reputation and push future emails into junk folders.

A spam trap is an email address that doesn't belong to a real person, planted by internet service providers or blacklist operators to catch senders with poor list hygiene. Emailing...

Sender Policy Framework (SPF) is a DNS record that lists which mail servers are allowed to send email on behalf of your domain. Receiving mail servers check the SPF record to confi...

The subject line is the first line of text recipients see in their inbox. It determines whether the email gets opened. Everything else in the email is irrelevant if the subject lin...

Subject line testing is sending two or more versions of an email subject line to small segments of a list, then sending the better-performing version to everyone else. It's a form...

A sunset policy is a set of rules that removes or suppresses email subscribers who stop opening or clicking over a defined period. It protects sender reputation by keeping engageme...

Transactional emails are automated messages triggered by a specific customer action — order confirmation, password reset, shipping notification. They have the highest open rates of...

Transactional email is triggered automatically by something a user does, like a receipt or a password reset. Marketing email is sent deliberately to promote something, like a newsl...

The percentage of email recipients who click 'unsubscribe' after receiving a specific email. Calculated as unsubscribes divided by emails delivered, expressed as a percentage.

Web push is a notification that appears on a subscriber's device straight from their browser, without needing an app or an email inbox. A visitor opts in once on a website, then th...

A welcome series is a set of automated emails sent to someone right after they subscribe, sign up or make their first purchase. It introduces the brand, sets expectations and moves...

A win-back flow is an automated email sequence sent to customers or subscribers who have gone quiet, usually after a set period of no purchases or no opens. It aims to re-engage th...

A series of automated actions triggered by a contact's behaviour or data, running without manual input each time.