Every industry has its own lingo. The email marketing industry is no different. Without a little help, it can almost sound like email marketers are speaking a totally different language! However, do not fear – this blog post will enrich you with 29 email marketing terms that will equip you for stellar team discussions and marketing presentations in no time.

1.   A/B Split Test: To test two different versions of a single email creative to see which performs better.

2.   Above the fold: The part of an email message that is visible without scrolling. Material in this area is considered more valuable because the viewer sees it first.

3.   Blacklist: A list that marks a sender as a spammer, making it difficult for the sender to get future emails into an inbox. Blacklists are used by most ESPs, which means that it can affect your delivery rates for your entire email list.

4.   Bounce Rate: The rate at which you emails are not delivered. This can be because of many reasons, such as invalid email, full inbox, etc. (See more in “Hard Bounce” and “Soft Bounce”)

5.   Broadcast: When you send out the same email message to everyone on your email list all at once.

6.   Call-to-Action (CTA): The CTA states what action the recipient should take next within an email message.

7.   CAN-SPAM Act (Controlling the Assault of Non-Solicited Pornography And Marketing Act of 2003: The CAN-SPAM Act establishes requirements for commercial messages, gives email recipients the right to have you stop emailing them, and spells out penalties for violations.

8.   Click-through Rate: Total number of clicks on links in your email message divided by the total number of emails sent.

9.   Conversion Rate: The percentage of recipients who respond to your call-to-action in a campaign either by filling out a form with their information, downloading content, purchasing from you, etc.

10.   Deliverability: The ability to get an email into the intended inbox.

11.   Double Opt-In: In order for a person to be added to an email list, they must confirm their subscription a second time in a follow-up email after initially signing up/opting in to the email list.

12.   Email Client: The software that a subscriber views their email messages in, such as Outlook or Gmail.

13.   Email List: The list of email addresses from the people who are receiving your campaigns.

14.   ESP (Email Service Provider): An ESP is a company that provides software and/or hardware to manage your list, send campaigns, and track your results.

15.   Hard Bounce: A permanent failure to deliver an email to the recipient due to a non-existent, invalid, or blocked email address. Email addresses that result in hard bounces can negatively impact deliverability and sender score, and should be removed from your email list.

16.   Honeypot: An email address designed to catch spammers.

17.   HTML Email: Sending HTML emails makes it possible to enhance your email with design elements such as unique fonts, images, and color.

18.   IP Address: A unique number assigned to each device connected to the internet. IP addresses are used to identify email senders.

19.   List Company: A company that provides email lists to businesses and marketers for email campaigns.

20.   Open Rate: The percentage of emails opened in an email campaign.

21.   Opt-in: When a person gives permission for a specific company to send them emails.

22.   Opt-out: When a person requests to unsubscribe from an email list.

23.   Plain Text: An Email that includes no formatting, like HTML. These are used to ensure that recipients can see the content of your email in case their email client cannot read HTML.

24.   Sender Score: A rating system of 0-100 for every outgoing mail server IP. Mail servers can check your Sender Scorebefore deciding if it is spam or not. A score over 90 is good.

25.   Single Opt-In: An email list sign-up process where the users don’t need to confirm their subscription request a second time.

26.   Soft Bounce: The failed delivery of an email due to a temporary issue, like a full mailbox or an unavailable server. These are acceptable once or twice, but if you receive a soft bounce several times, it should be removed from your email list.

27.   Spam: Email sent to someone who has not opted-in or given permission to the sender. Characteristically, spam is unwanted, unexpected email from a sender unknown to the recipient.

28.   Subscribers: People who have voluntarily subscribed to receive your emails.

29.   Whitelist: Whitelists approve certain senders to deliver emails to your inbox. This is usually done on an individual basis.

Email marketing isn’t going away any time soon. According to an article on Pardot.com, 73% of marketers claim that email marketing is core to their business. So, review these terms to become more familiar with the industry and to run successful email marketing campaigns.