Email Marketing - Best Practices · the email marketing process. Subject lines and the “From” field. These fields are where we begin the communication and gain validity with our

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Email Marketing - Best Practices

05/11

Email marketing is a vital tool for the company, essentially a gateway to unlimited potential for Social

Media and Mobile marketing efforts. In order to ensure that the message that we are sending is

consistent and relevant, we have developed the following “Best Practices”. As the medium develops,

these will adapt and adjust. This document will encompass the content and design elements involved in

the email marketing process.

Subject lines and the “From” field. These fields are where we begin the communication and gain validity with our viewers.

Subject Line You never get a second chance to make a first impression. This is where the magic happens, tests are

done, and papers are written about what makes a better subject line.

69% of subscribers choose to opt-out or report an email as SPAM from the Subject Line.1

What we want to create here is a reason for the viewer to open the email. We will be doing tests on

various subject lines and this information will change. The Key is to provide a relevant draw to the

content contained in the email. The problem is crossing a line that diverts your email to the SPAM filters.

To avoid this, try to be as creative and honest as possible. Let’s concentrate on how our message will

add value and benefit our readers. Instead of the typical: The Source Issue May 11, 2011, we need to list

what in the email will benefit the reader: The Source: 10 ways to increased commissions, or Restoring

Financial Legacies – May - The Source. The attention span of most viewers is under 1 second, so keep

the information relevant and under 6 words or 50 characters. If you are providing a specific benefit for

opening, longer Subject lines can still be beneficial. Again, it is important to continue to infuse the brand

with the message, so using the recognizable publication/subscription name is helpful and can keep the

message out of the SPAM Filters.

Using the same subject line, in a recurring newsletter for example, over and over again will significantly

decrease the open rates. Here we would like to include a clear indication of why the email is of interest.

As we stated above, use something like The Source – 10 Tips to Customer Retention instead of The

Source – May 25, 2011. Develop the Subject line throughout the campaign process and think in terms of

a newspaper or magazine article. And Test, Test, Test.

1 Email Sender and Provider Coalition (2007)

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Including the company name in the subject line increases open rates by 32 - 60% on over subject lines

without branding2

Use relevant keywords to increase the likelihood of an open, but avoid spam trigger words like these:

$$$ 100% free Ad Affordable Amazing stuff Apply now Auto email removal Cash bonus Cheap Collect child support Compare rates Compete for your business Credit Credit bureaus Dig up dirt on friends Double your income Earn $ Earn extra cash Eliminate debt Email marketing Explode your business Extra income Fast cash Financial freedom

Financially independent Free Free gift Free grant money Free info Free installation Free investment Free membership Free offer Free preview Guarantee Hello ‘Hidden’ assets Home based Homebased business Income from home Increase sales Increase traffic Increase your sales Incredible deal Info you requested Information you requested Internet market Limited time offer Make $

Mortgage Rates Multi level marketing No investment Obligation Online marketing Opportunity Order Now Prices Promise you Refinance Remove Reverses aging Save $ Search engine listings Serious cash Stock disclaimer statement Stop snoring Unsubscribe Web traffic Weight loss

In addition, DO NOT USE : RE; FW; All Caps, Exclamation points, Special Offer, and promotional phrases

to help avoid the SPAM filters.

As we develop more and more email marketing campaigns, we will continue to test the emails opens

and clicks. The Subject lines and From content provide a frontline to the testing process. We can capture

almost instantaneous data on which subject line produces better results, and implement the results into

the full campaign.

From Field Make sure that the address listed in the “From” field is someone that the recipient will recognize. Best

Practices dictate that we use the name of most relevant contact where possible with an email address

linked to the company, such as [email protected]. For emails with a broader reach

where all recipients may not be as familiar with an individual, we can change to a division or product

line, for example, TransamericaMarketing@Transamericainsuranc e.com or

[email protected].

DO NOT USE the name of an individual unless it will add value and validity to the email.

DO NOT USE a generic or role based email address : [email protected], or

[email protected].

2 Jupiter Research (2007)

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Testing the Subject line/From Name Since this is the key element to providing opens and clicks to our campaign, we will continually test our

Subject lines. Test elements include:

Branding (Including your company name in the email increases open rates by 32 – 60%)

Key headlines

Communication style (Casual versus Formal)

Personalization

Key Words

Subject line length

Deadlines

The Best email marketing campaigns are continually tested and improved. It is best to verify theories

and findings on a campaign instead of making assumptions and guesses or to simply rely on past

findings, as these will change.

Best practices for testing the email (in general) is to use a 20/80 “A/B split. We will take 20% of the final

list size and split it in half. So, 10% of the overall list will get version “A” of our email and 10% will receive

version “B” of the email. We will look at the results after a couple of hours and re-send the remaining

80% following this analysis. (Winner takes all!)

Design Take time to know the specific make-up of our user base, but as a general user population, the graphic

below describes the makeup of email clients. When we know the specific makeup, we can allot

resources to the specific design elements relevant to a particular ESPs specifications.

http://spaceninja.com/2008/12/whos-afraid-of-html-email/ - MAY 2011

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Layout When designing the layout of the email, the thoughts need to encompass the entire user experience

once they open the email. Factors that we need to consider include: Text, HTML, CSS, Images on versus

Images off, Branding, Image to Text ratio, ESP, Above the fold, Navigation, alt text, Links and

Personalization.

Above the Fold Above the fold refers to the top 300 pixels if an email. This is the amount of space the average preview

pane will allow and therefore the amount of real estate we have to work with to grab our recipients

attention. When designing for optimal penetration, it is important to include your relevant information

(hook) within the top 300 pixels with links and less relevant information below this area. Including

images, links and content. When designing this area, remember, if the recipient has their images turned

off, they are seeing an empty box in the real estate that is so valuable.

Images off “Above the fold”

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Lowest Common Denominator In building emails, you will often hear people refer to the “Lowest Common Denominator” This is an

arbitrary term referring to the reasons for building the email in code as though it was 1999. Many

service providers and recipients have very little support for more modern HTML advances like CSS, flash

and tools that make the process of HTMLl development easier. So, when building emails, we need to

build in HTML with minimal bells and whistles. Limit CSS to minimal inline coding and build the overall

content within tables to help establish and maintain a form.

Navigation/Links For newsletters, the navigation is typically different from links in general informational emails. For the

Newsletters, we can build in navigation that leads throughout the newsletter through anchors and link

to articles and landing pages on the internet and our site in addition to typical article and landing page

links. For informational emails, we will typically only have a landing page, or a specific download link

associated with the email. Providing more click opportunities in the email tends to increase the click-

through, particularly when the links are relevant and meaningful. Emails with more links tend to get

more clicks than those with fewer links. It is advisable to provide links to all relevant materials both

within the body copy and for all images. When using links, differentiate the link with either an underline

or create a different color scheme to help to attract viewers and increase the click through. Emails with

20 or more links typically captured twice as many clicks as those with fewer links. Images are expected

to be links, you can either indicate where the viewer will go within the image or as a description near

the image. When providing an image link, be sure to code in a border=”0” to eliminate a default blue

border surrounding the image.

When linking to external files, make sure that the link is valid and on an internet server. (Not your

desktop, or a server that is behind a firewall). This will ensure that the links are available to all

recipients. Also, make sure that the link is available for recipients for a minimum of 2-3 weeks following

the email send, as some viewers will return to the email as they have time to absorb the content.

All emails should include the option to “View this email online” this is copy that is located at the top of

the email and links to a (non-personalized) version of the email hosted by Exact Target. In addition,

some emails are appropriate for the “Forward to a friend” link, this will also go at the top of the email.

At the bottom of each email, SPAM Compliance and good email etiquette requires that we place an Opt-

Out link at the bottom of the email along with our physical address.

Once the email is complete, make sure to test, test, test, ALL LINKS.

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CSS – Cascading Style Sheets General rule is that there is no support for external style sheets, the best practice is inline coding of style

preferences. For example:

CSS Code:

<p style="background: blue; color: white;">A new background and

font color with inline CSS</p>

Display:

A new background and font color with inline CSS

HTML Basics How-to Guide Use the HTML basic-commands guide below to customize the free email templates for your own use.

Comments

There are comments included within the HTML templates that are intended to help you customize the

text with your own content. The comments appear as:

<!-- Comment text -->

Making text bold

To make text appear bold, use <b> and </b> around the text. For example:

Make <b>this bold</b>

will look like:

Make this bold

Making text italic

To make text appear italic, use <i> and </i> around the text. For example:

Make <i>this italic</i>

will look like:

Make this italic

Making text underlined

To make text appear underlined (without being an actual link), use <u> and </u> around the text. For

example:

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Make <u>this underlined</u>

will look like:

Make this underlined

Creating line breaks

There are two basic line breaks in HTML. Use <br> to break to the next line or <p> to skip a line. For

example:

1<br>2<p>3

will look like:

1

2

3

Changing the size of text

To change the size of text, use <font size="+1"> to look bigger, or <font size="-1"> to look

smaller. End with </font>. You can also change the number value if you want to. For example:

Make text <font size="+2">bigger</font> or <font size="-2">smaller</font>

will look like:

Make text bigger or smaller

Changing the type of font

There are a few different fonts you can use, and the most common are:

Times New Roman: (this is the default for all browsers)

Arial or Helvetica: use <font face="arial, helvetica"> and </font>

Verdana: use <font face="verdana"> and </font>

Garamond: use <font face="garamond"> and </font>

For example:

Make <font face="garamond">this font garamond</font>

will look like:

Make this font garamond

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Changing the font color

There are many different Web-safe colors that you can use in your template. View the HTML Color

Codes Chart.

To make text appear in a certain color, use the color codes like this: <font color="#FF0000">. For

example:

Make <font color="#FF0000">this font red</font>

will look like:

Make this font red

To set default font colors for the entire page, use color codes in the <body> command. For example, if

you want:

font = black

link = blue

'visited' link = red

'while being clicked' link = pink

use:

<body text="#000000" link="#FFFF00" vlink="#FF0000" alink="#FF00CC">

Including a graphic

To include a graphic in your HTML template, use <img src="URL">. Be sure to include the entire URL

of the graphic, starting with http://.

Including a link

To include a link in your HTML template, use <a href="URL"> and </a> around the text of the link. Be

sure to include the entire URL, starting with http://. For example:

Make <a href="http://www.youtsite.com">this text link to

http://www.lyris.com</a>

will look like:

Make this text link to http://www.yoursite.com

Including a numbered or bulleted list

To include a list in your HTML template, use <ol> and </ol> at the beginning and end of the list, and

use <li> to create the individual lines. For example:

<ol> <li>This is line one

<li>This is line two

</ol>

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will look like:

1. This is line one

2. This is line two

If you want to use a bulleted list instead of a numbered list, use <ul> and </ul> instead of <ol> and

</ol>.

This is line one

This is line two

Images -

1 in 5 emails is invisible and ineffective due to blocked images 3

Don’t give up on images, just build the campaign knowing that many people will never see them. For

email campaigns the majority of ESPs are happy with jpgs and gifs, most will even allow animated gifs.

Outlook, however, only shows the first frame in the animation, so it is important to include all relevant

data in that first frame, or at least the call-to-action. Do not include Flash or other file types, as they are

not universally supported. In addition, the overall email width, should be no greater than 600 pixels,

limiting any single graphic (or group of graphics spanning the width of the email to 600 pixels, and image

size should be no greater than 200KB. If the image size is greater than 200KB, the load times will be

diminished, so it is better to slice the graphic and place the slices within a table. Web resolution is 72DPI,

so all images should be saved as such. Once the image is completed, it will need to be hosted on an

internet server, typically the Exact Target server. Any links to images that are either on your desktop or

inside of a firewall WILL NOT RENDER for anyone outside of the firewall.

RECAP:

600 pixels width

72 dpi

200KB file size

Jpg or Gif files only

o Animated Gifs maintain call-to-action on the first frame.

Host your images on the Exact Target Server

When designing an email, one of the key triggers for SPAM Filters is the ratio of Images to Text. There

are many emails that I have seen that are exclusively images or very heavy with images. This is not

recommended. We need to design for the likelihood that the viewers will have their images turned off.

A recent survey found that only 33% had images turned on by default4, which means all images will

show up as a blank box with the “red X” in the top left corner. The more images you have, the more

blank space. In addition to minimizing the overall percentage of images when images are used, they

3 Email Experience Council (Jan 2007)

4 MarketingSherpa (2010)

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should be used to accent the overall design and as a secondary thought. If you do use images, use a

background color that will capture the feeling of the design if the images are not available. When using

images, the maximum size that should be used is 100KB. If your image is larger than this, slice it to keep

within this guideline.

Video/Flash Neither video nor Flash formats is currently supported by ANY service provider. If you want your viewers

to see video, use a static image that links to an online hosted version of the video. While Flash is not

supported, you can add minimal animation through the use of animated gifs. Keep in mind that

animation will grow the size of the email quickly. It is advisable to keep the size of images within an

email to 200KB or less by either slicing or minimizing the animation. When linking recipients to online

video, provide alternate sources where appropriate. For example, some firewalls will limit the users

access to sites like YouTube, or it may be cumbersome to download the latest “Flash Player” so

providing more than one option for the viewer will increase the likelihood that they will be able to view

your content.

Coding for:

Outlook

As the majority of our emails are B2B campaigns, most users will rely on Outlook for their email viewing.

Outlook 2007 (currently the most popular) has the most rendering quirks.

Graphics

Jpgs and Gifs are fine, but images are turned off by default. So, make sure to include a design that is

friendly to the images off setting. Animated Gifs are not supported, so we need to design animations so

that the important information is included in the opening frame, as this is the only one that will be seen.

Avoid Overlaps

Since Outlook 2007 won’t display background images, you cannot display HTML text over an image —

even a simple one like a gradient. You’ll either need to adjust your design to keep a solid color behind all

HTML text, or set it up so that if the background disappears, the design still looks appropriate.

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Gmail

http://spaceninja.com/2008/12/whos-afraid-of-html-email/ - MAY 2011

This is a very recent change and, for my money, one of the most annoying problems facing email

designers. Regardless of whether you use CSS, or the old-school attributes for the table itself, Gmail

zeroes it all out.

As a result, you have to retool all your tables to not use any PADDING or CELLSPACING. Instead, bust

out your spacer gifs and add empty table cells everywhere you need white space. This won’t impact the

way your emails are designed, but it means a dramatic increase in code bloat.

For Images Off

Many services default to images only, or allow the option for viewers to set this option as their default.

There is some variation between clients, but most have images blocked by default, unless the user is in

the address book. Older versions of Gmail actually blocked images at all times, though this seems to

have been fixed recently.

As a result, Campaign Monitor recommends that you “become a known sender” by adding a note to

your sign-up form, and any subsequent emails you send, asking users to add you to their address book.

Needless to say, this requires that you send your emails from the same address each time.

Additionally, they recommend that you plan for images being disabled. Since ALT text is unreliable

(more on that in a moment), you should begin your email with HTML or plain-text headlines. This means

users can tell what your email is about, even without seeing your images. Also, consider putting plain-

text captions under important images.

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This shows which ESPs have Images Off by Default:

http://spaceninja.com/2008/12/whos-afraid-of-html-email/ - MAY 2011

ALT Text is Unreliable

The Alt tag is an HTML tag that provides alternative text when the graphics are not visible. This is an

opportunity to let recipients know what they are missing by not seeing the graphics and might prompt

them to the ”View this email online” link. The fact that images are disabled by default wouldn’t be so

bad except that most clients also have difficulty displaying ALT attributes. As usual, Gmail and Outlook

are the worst offenders.

Gmail does show ALT text, but only if the image dimensions are large enough to display the entire string

of text. As a result, small images, or images with lengthy ALT attributes, show nothing at all.

Outlook (both 2007 and previous versions) do show the ALT text, but they preface it with a lengthy

error message, which effectively hides the text from view in most cases. In this case, the one positive

note is that since every image in every email will display this security message, most users will be used

to it, and to clicking the button that enables images in the email.

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Older versions of Hotmail do not show alt tags at all.

http://spaceninja.com/2008/12/whos-afraid-of-html-email/ - MAY 2011

Adventures in Email Marketing (June 2011)

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For Text Only

ALWAYS include a text version of the email. Many users check their emails through their cell-phones,

have forwards to SMS, or other features that require a version of the email in a text layout. Best practice

it to include a text version in addition to the HTML version.

As your html email is being built, Exact Target builds a text version from what you have created. Keep in

mind the following list to encourage recipients of the Text version to read further. It is crucial to review

your text version and update it as necessary to be sure that the same message is being delivered in

HTML and Text. Many mobile users view the emails as text, and some users have their preferences set

to text, so this extra step is certainly worth the effort.

Write less. People don’t “read” emails–they scan them. Use bullets to present main ideas rather

than paragraphs of text.

Use a table of contents. List the important topics covered in the email and how quickly they can

be found.

Take out extra dashes and/or spaces. The email tool inserts these to denote section changes or

sometimes they are brought over when using tables in your html email. Often in a text email,

these create the need for extra scrolling, making it difficult to find the important features. So if

you see them, delete them.

Explain/delete images. Text emails have no pictures. If an image is critical to your email, make

sure the descriptions you enter when building the html cover not only the contents of the

picture but also what the picture is communicating. If an image isn’t critical, take it out.

Feature useful URLS. Links are put in emails to provide additional information. Make sure the

ones featured offer value to your subscribers and their purpose is easily understood.

Warning: If you edit the URL too much, you may lose the ability to track click-through rates or the

link may not work at all.

Send a test. As always send a test of the text version to yourself and experience the email

firsthand, just as your audience will.

5 Reasons You Should Still Create Plain-Text Emails

1. Some people just prefer plain-text emails. 2. Spam filters don't like it when you send HTML only. They want to see HTML along with a plain-

text alternative, because only a "lazy spammer" would skip the plain-text step. Also, the plain-text email should be roughly the same content as the HTML email (not just a vehicle for "visit this URL to see our HTML email in your browser!").

3. In certain situations, plain-text emails can be better than HTML emails. If you send daily alerts, news feeds, and things that are sent very frequently and need to be quickly scanned, plain-text works great. You don't want to send huge, image-heavy emails every day. People will burn out fast.

4. Mobile devices. More and more people are checking email on Blackberries and cell phones. Not all of them display HTML properly. Some of them only display the text portion of HTML (removing your images, or stacking them vertically). Some of them only display plain-text.

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5. When we send HTML emails with open-trackers and click trackers, modern email programs warn their users about "potential privacy threats" or "this could be a phishing attempt." You don't want to jeopardize your reputation this way. Plain-text emails (at least for all your transactional messages) are often safer than HTML emails.

Play it safe and make your plain-text back up message for every campaign.

What are you going to notice?

If you edit your text emails correctly, you will see increased attention to your message and a measured

increase in people using the links inside of your email. Remember, successful email marketing is about

getting your audience to read and interact with your communications.

Mobile

The percentage of permission based emails that user view on mobile devices is trending upward. When

designing for mobile devices, the preference is no tables and CSS based coding. This topic is much more

in-depth and requires an addition subsequent best practices article.

Personalization Email is a social medium, so it is a good practice to personalize communications within this medium. The

tools that we have make it possible to use any field in our data set to personalize the communication.

For example, we can send out an email to me on my birthday with communication about a product

relevant to my age and marital/family status, this could refer to current products that I have and be a

template that populates this information for thousands of recipients. The only problem is it the data is

bad, the template will not work. So, for personalization, it is critical that we review the data and ensure

that any template works equally well with or without the data field.

Message The message should certainly be relevant to the subscriber, and provide them with information that is

valuable and compelling. If our messages are not filling a need for the recipient, they will quickly stop

opening our emails. Through testing and feedback, we will strive to send our recipients the right

message, according to their preferences. We will send offers and content that is appropriate and entices

them towards the right action and the messages will be sent at the right time, through automation

where relevant and throughout their lifecycle.

Tell us versus Sell us

The messages should be customer centric, more about what the subscriber can use than what we want

to say. This is another point throughout email and social communications that there is a standardized

rule. 80% tell, 20% sell. If our subscribers are being sold at every turn, they will quickly turn us off. If we

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are providing a resource, on the other hand, that fulfills a need; we will become endeared to our

readers.

Lifecycle messaging

Lifecycle messaging that understands the lifecycle of the subscribers generates 9x better results overall

versus messages that understand the subscribers and their journey through our relationship. To develop

a meaningful triggered lifecycle communication plan, we need to determine the lifecycle of our

subscribers. This involves mapping the key milestones in the relationship and developing

communications surrounding these milestones. Also, we need to look at the fallout points and

determine if there is a communication that may re-energize the subscribers and/or answer questions

that may eliminate departure. This will start with the welcome experience. We have developed our

initial communications allowing the recipient to self filter for content. From here, we manage the

content that they will receive based on their specified preferences. Are there other points that we

should regularly reach out to our subscribers? On their anniversary with the company? On their

Birthday? What is the fallout? Is there anything we can do to curb it?

Landing Pages The landing page is a tool that will help us track traffic patterns and direct users to our site, rather than a

static PDF, The Landing page should be specific to each campaign. The landing page should be

minimalistic and include just enough information to complete the task at hand. These can include a

survey form, additional information from email links, Call to Action, navigation to other points, and

video. It is important to maintain branding; this landing page should have attributes that tie it to the

campaign and to the company.

Experience

When users arrive at the page, they should know that they are at the right place. Images similar to the

link provide this reassurance.

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http://www.smartinsights.com/blog/web-design/perfect-landing-page/ (June 2011)

There is no question as to what you are suppose to do on this landing page, nor who it is from. As with

everything else, Test, Test, Test.

Analysis Email marketing is unique in that it offers real-time statistics from the moment you send it. Building your

communication effectiveness hinges on proper analysis of the data you retrieve from each email. We

will be looking in general at the opens and clicks as immediate factors of success, but once we start tying

our campaigns into landing pages, and opening up other research tools, we can dial in on specific factors

that will help us to design pieces that are better suited for our lists.

We can also test (as mentioned above) for the subject line, but also, design elements, greetings,

personalization and variable data, time of send, day of send, landing page attributes, and more. All in an

effort to bump up the interest and help us better serve our recipients.

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Deployment times Most of our emails have a default set of restrictions on how and when to send one set of recipients a

version of the email versus another, For example, our best practice (in most cases) is to send an internal

email 1 hour prior to sending it live. People are more receptive to email at the beginning and end of

their days. The first hour (between 9 and 10am) and again 4 – 6pm both show higher open, click and

read rates than other times throughout the day. Remember to take into account the various time zones

that our database is comprised of. For Example, we may want to alter our send times to accommodate

our subscribers outside of the US, or we may want to determine if the time of day affects the more local

subscribers within the US. Likewise: Wednesday, Monday and Thursday regularly rate higher in open,

click and read rates among the days of the week based on research from Pure360. 2009.

Misc.

Some interesting statistics:

21% of email recipients report email as Spam, even if they know it isn’t

43% of email recipients click the Spam button based on the email “from” name or email address

69% of email recipients report email as Spam based solely on the subject line

35% of email recipients open email based on the subject line alone

IP addresses appearing on just one of the 12 major blacklists had email deliverability 25 points below those not listed on any blacklists

Email lists with 10% or more unknown users get only 44% of their email delivered by ISPs

17% of Americans create a new email address every 6 months

30% of subscribers change email addresses annually

If marketers optimized their emails for image blocking (images off), ROI would increase 9+%

84% of people 18-34 use an email preview pane

People who buy products marketed through email spend 138% more than people that do not receive email offers

44% of email recipients made at least one purchase last year based on a promotional email

Subscribers below age 25 prefer SMS to email

35% of business professionals check email on a mobile device

Checklist 1. Does the From address and Subject line seem compelling and tell who the email came from in a

way that is recognizable to the recipient?

2. Is there a link to “View this email online”? Is there a “forward to a friend” link?

3. Is the content more than 20% images?

4. Is the email bigger than 600px wide?

5. Are all images stored on the webserver at Exact Target?

6. Does the email still make sense with images turned off?

a. Do the alt tags create the message sufficiently?

7. Is vital information in HTML or images?

8. Do the images contain a call-to-action or vital offer details?

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9. Does the design lend itself to the preview pane? (is the compelling information “above the fold”

(300 pixel line)?)

10. Have you tested across a variety of platforms? Outlook, Yahoo, Hotmail, Gmail…

11. Are all of the links working? Is the Landing page set up and working?

12. How can we test this email to make it better next time?

Glossary Terms A/B split – Refers to a test situation in which a list is split into two pieces, with every other recipient being sent one

of two specific emails, to determine which email is more desirable

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

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

Authentication – Technical standards through which ISPs and other mail gateway administrators can establish the

true identity of an email sender.

Examples of proposed authentication standards include: SPF (PO Box, AOL) Sender-ID (Microsoft), Domain Keys

(Yahoo), and DKIM (Cisco and Yahoo)

Attachment – A file that is sent in addition to the text or html in an email message

BANT – The acronym for Budget, Authority, Need, Timeline—fundamental ways to determine the sales readiness

of a lead

Blacklist – A list of IP addresses believed to send spam

Bounce – A message that is returned to the sender because it was not deliverable

CAN-SPAM – Federal legislation governing unsolicited commercial email that went into effect on January 1, 2004.

This law does not prohibit unsolicited commercial email, but it does regulate how it must be sent

Cascading Style Sheet (CSS) – Controls the design and format of a document written in HTML

Dynamic Content – Email content that changes from one recipient to the next according to a set of predetermined

rules or variables, either by preferences the user sets when opting in to messages or based on behavior or

demographics of the recipient

Email Campaign Management – The process of creating, executing and measuring email marketing programs

directed at specific audience segments

De-duplication – The process of finding and consolidating and/or updating duplicate sets of contact information

Deliverability – The ability of an email message or campaign to reach the intended recipient’s inbox, which is

affected by spam filters, client-side filters and junk folders

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Delivery Status Notification (DSN) – Also known as “bounce message”, a system that informs the sender of a

delivery problem

DNS Records – The database records stored in the domain name system

Domain Keys Identified Mail (DKIM) – A method for email authentication that allows an organization to take

responsibility for a message in a way that can be validated by a recipient

Domain Name System – A naming system for computers connected to the Internet or private network

Email Marketing – The use of email communication to increase awareness, generate leads and build relationships

with prospective and existing customers

Email Service Provider (ESP) – A company that provides email services, including batch email and email marketing

Internet Protocol Address (IP Address) – A number assigned to each computer or network in order to distinguish

each network interface and networked device

Internet Service Provider (ISP) – Sometimes referred to as Internet access provider (IAP), gives customers access

to the Internet

ISP Feedback – When the ISP forwards complaints of recipients to the organization that sent the email

List Hygiene – Process of cleaning and de-duplicating email files to ensure all addresses are accurate, unique,

current, opted-in and deliverable

Lead Nurturing – The process of building relationships with qualified prospects regardless of their timing to buy,

with the goal of earning their business when they are ready

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

Marketing Asset – A piece of marketing content (e.g. whitepapers, videos, newsletters, webinars, etc.) used to

educate and generate interest for a company’s products or services

Opt-in – The agreement to receive email from a business source. Confirmed or Double opt-in refers to a double-

check procedure in which a decision to be included on a mailing list is confirmed

Personalization – A targeting method in which an email message appears to have been created only for a single

recipient. Personalization may include any known demographic or behavioral information including recipient

name, company name, website page visited and more

Phishing – Sending email that claims to be from a legitimate organization to trick recipients into providing personal

information

Plain text – Text in an email message that includes no formatting code

Role Accounts – An email account that is associated with a department, office, position or task

Seed Email Accounts – Accounts created by a monitoring service with each of the ISPs

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

name source

Sender Policy Framework (SPF) – An email validation system that is used to prevent spam

Sender Score – An indication of the trustworthiness of an email source

Spam Traps – Old inboxes that ISPs reactivate specifically to trap spammers. Because these addresses have never

been registered to receive email, any mail that lands in the trap inbox is labeled as spam

Spoofing – A fraudulent email activity in which the sender address and email header are changed to look as though

the email originated from a different source

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 you do not wish to email them (competitors, etc.)

Rigger – An event based on a change or update in status, demographic information or user behavior that causes a

lead to proceed along a specific workflow branch or new path

Unsubscribe – To remove oneself from an email list, either via an emailed command to the list server or by filling

out a web form

Workflow – A pre-determined path of interactions for individuals to experience based on their profile,

demographic, and/or behavioral data with the goal of nurturing and building relationships