Office of Marketing and Communications

Email Terms and Definitions

In email marketing there are a lot of terms mentioned. To provide a foundation of understand a list of terms and their definitions have been provided below.
  1. A/B Testing: The email process of sending two different versions of an email to compare metrics and determine a winner
  2. Accessibility: The practice of making information usable by as many people as possible; guidelines for accessibility set by the Americans with Disabilities Act
  3. Adhoc: Sending an email 1 time; created or done for a particular purpose as necessary
  4. Alt Tag: A text description added to an image that becomes available if a user cannot view the image; the text within an alt tag is used by screen readers as part of accessibility
  5. Americans with Disabilities Act (ADA): A law that protects people with disabilities in many areas of public life; www.ada.gov
  6. AMPscript: Salesforce Marketing Cloud’s proprietary scripting language for advanced dynamic content within emails
  7. Automation: A setup technique that aligns updated data (list records) and schedules actions based on timing or recipient activity
  8. Brand: The articulation of consistent themes that outline what makes Ohio State distinct (ex: fonts, colors, logos, language, imagery, etc)
  9. Business Unit: Hierarchal structure within Salesforce Marketing Cloud that controls the access to and sharing of information
  10. Call to Action (CTA): An instruction to an email recipient that encourages a specific, measurable action in the form of a button or visual prompt
  11. CAN-SPAM Act: Controlling the Assault of Non-Solicited Pornography and Marketing (CAN-SPAM Act) of 2003 is a law that established the United States'  first national standards for the sending of commercial email
  12. Clicks: An email marketing metric that tracks the number of times a link was interacted with (clicked) by the email recipient
  13. Commercial (marketing) Emails: The “primary purpose” of its message advertises or promotes a product/service
  14. Component: The smallest building blocks, the absolute fundamentals of our system; components include images, headers, paragraphs, buttons, etc
  15. Data Extension: A data extension is a table that contains data, known as lists. Utilized to segment and filter data created from outside or inside SFMC. Data extensions share data with reports or campaigns.
  16. Deliverability: The ability for email to arrive in the recipient's inbox
  17. Dynamic Content: Email content that changes for each unique subscriber in accordance with a set of predetermined rules or variables
  18. Email Service Provider (ESP): Marketing platform that sends emails on behalf of its clients; example: Salesforce Marketing Cloud
  19. Engagement: Measures and describes subscriber activity with an email
  20. Footer: A required block of required content at the bottom of an email
  21. Frequency: The number of times an email recipient is likely to be exposed and email 
  22. Header: A required block of required content at the top of an email
  23. Hero Image: A singular large image used to visually convey a message; commonly used at the top of an email
  24. HTML: Hypertext markup language is a computer language consisting of tags enclosed in angle brackets within web and email content
  25. Inbox: An electronic folder in which emails received by an individual are held
  26. Junk (spam) Folder: A folder that allows subscribers to view email that was not delivered to the inbox and decide if the email should be received
  27. Key Performance Indicator (KPI): A quantifiable measure of performance over time for a specific objective (ex: clicks, opt-outs, conversions)
  28. Listserv: A mailing list (sometimes called a listserv) is a system designed to simplify the process of sending the same message to a group of people via e-mail. Listserv Mailing List
  29. Module: When two or more components are combined, they become a module; modules include the header, footer, stores, list items, event details
  30. Opens: The number of recipients who enabled an email to be displayed (opened)
  31. Opt-out(s): The number of recipients who unsubscribed from receiving email; another term for unsubscribe
  32. Personalization: A targeting method in which an email appears to have been created for a single unique subscriber
  33. Preference Center: Tool that allows email recipients to change and personalize their subscription details
  34. Preheader: String of text that follows the subject line when an email is previewed in the inbox; supports the subject line to increase opens
  35. Proof: An email test sent to yourself and/or team for approval prior to sending to the entire audience
  36. Role Email Address: Email address was created to message a function like sales@, support@, or postmaster@. While many Role Addresses are Valid, they typically underperform compared to addresses that message individuals. Many email service providers (SFMC) will automatically remove role email addresses from the lists before sending. Salesforce Marketing Cloud help article
  37. Salesforce Contact ID: The unique identification assigned to a subscriber within Salesforce data sources
  38. Salesforce Customer Relationship Manager (CRM): Salesforce’s platform for managing business relationships with prospects
  39. Salesforce Marketing Cloud (SFMC): Salesforce’s platform for marketers to interact and engage with large groups of customers via push notifications (email, SMS)
  40. Scripting: Utilizes a list of computer commands in emails to automate the implementation of dynamic content within the email content
  41. Seedlist: A list of specific email addresses created to confirm deployments and collect deliverability data; assists in monitoring how your email is being placed by mailbox providers
  42. Segmentation: Market segmentation is a process that consists of sectioning the target market into smaller groups that share similar characteristics
  43. Sender Profile: The “from” email address and name; The name is visible to the recipient in the inbox and should be a reputable source
  44. Sender Reputation: The email sender reputation is a score assigned by inbox providers to entities that send email; the measure of trustworthiness as a sender of email
  45. Subject Line: A short line of text that recipients see when they preview your email; the key function of a subject line is to gain opens
  46. TAS ID: A unique identification assigned to a subscriber within The Advancement System (TAS) database
  47. Template: A ready-made email layout that can be easily edited
  48. Testing: The process of performing quality control checks of an email content prior to sending to an audience
  49. Transactional (servicing): Emails with content facilitating or confirming a transaction that the recipient already has agreed to
  50. WYSIWYG: Acronym for “What You See Is What You Get”; a user interface with the ability to make edits to the content and displays the final output on screen