Email marketing is relatively new to the marketing field. Keep this useful glossary to hand and your email campaigns will go with ease! 

Above-the-fold
The part of an email or web page that is visible without scrolling down.  Typically represented by the Preview Pane.

Bounce – Hard/Soft Bounce
A hard bounce is the failed delivery of an email due to a permanent reason like a non-existent address. A soft bounce is the failed delivery of an email due to a temporary issue, like a full mailbox or an unavailable server.

CPA (or Cost Per Acquisition)
A payment model in which payment is based solely on sales or registrations.

CPC (Cost per Click)
Rather than paying a cost per 1000 emails delivered, or a cost per response, some suppliers charge a sum for all the recipients that click through the email.

CPM (or Cost Per Thousand)
CPM commonly refers to the cost per 1,000 emails for distribution.

CPR (or Cost Per Response)
This term is used to track responses, where the desired result is not purchase, click-through or cost per number of emails for the campaign).

Click Through Rate (CTR)
The number of people per 100 (expressed in percentage terms) who click through to a URL in an email, banner ad, text or graphic, to view a specific web page.

Conversion Rate
This reflects the percentage of people converted into buyers (or whatever action is desired) out of the total population exposed to the conversion effort i.e. email.

Distribution (Gross)
The total number of emails sent as part of a single campaign/distribution to all (SMTP) addresses on the distribution list.

Distribution (Net)
The total number of emails sent and successfully delivered as part of a single campaign/distribution to all (SMTP) addresses on the distribution list.

HTML Email
An HTML email is perhaps the standard form for email marketing. They are rich with colour and images and contain embedded links, banner ads etc. Marketers have to keep in mind that some recipients do not want to receive their emails in HTML. However, HTML messages often pull a higher response than plain text messages.

Landing Page
The page on a website where the visitor arrives. With an email campaign, it can be the page to which the email directs user via a link.

Links
Text links, hyperlinks, graphics or images which, when clicked direct the user to another online location.

Open Rate
The percentage of emails opened in an email marketing campaign.
Opt-in (or Subscribe)
Where an individual has positively indicated that he or she wants to receive email marketing from your company.
Opt-Out (or Unsubscribe)
Where an individual requests not to be included on an email list i.e. unsubscribe.

Personalisation
The practice of writing the email to make the recipient feel that it is more personal and was sent with him or her in mind. This includes using the recipient’s name in the salutation or subject line, referring to previous purchases or offering recommendations based on previous buying patterns (like Amazon).
Preview Pane
Here you can see a snapshot of your message without fully opening the it.  It is important that you are aware of this and do not include images within the first 5-7 lines.

Privacy Policy
A clear description of a website or Data User’s policy on the use of information collected from visitors and including what they intent to do with the data.

Segmentation
This is where you separate your email list so that recipients get different content/offers based on their demographics, buying patterns etc.

Soft Opt-in
Where an individual is considered to have opted-in, on the basis that they have provided their email address during a sale or during the negotiation of a sale and other conditions are met, including that the individual was informed of how the information they provided would be used and were provided with an opportunity to opt out.

Solicited email or UCE (Unsolicited Commercial Email)
Where an individual has actively invited the Data User to send the individual commercial email.

Spam
Spam is random, untargeted bulk email where recipients did not request communications from that company.

Split Testing
When the list is divided into a number of discrete cells to allow for a robust test across multiple variables such as subject line or email design. To determine optimum response, response rates are measured for each cell.

Targeting
Selecting a target audience or group of individuals likely to be interested in a certain product or service. Targeted campaigns tend to yield greater responses and fewer unsubscribers.

Tracking
Collecting and evaluating the statistics allowing you to measure the effectiveness of an email or an email campaign.
URL
A Uniform Resource Locator (URL i.e. web address) is a sequence of characters conforming to a standardized format, used for referring to resources by their location, shown in the address bar of a browser.
Viral Marketing
A type of marketing that is carried out voluntarily by a company’s customers i.e. word-of-mouth advertising. Tools such as send this page, article or website to a friend encourage people to refer or recommend your newsletter, company, product, or specific offer to others