Top 25 E-mail Marketing Terms You Should Know

E-mail blocking: E-mail blocking typically refers to blocking by ISPs or corporate servers. E-mail blocking occurs when the receiving e-mail server (e.g., Yahoo, AOL, Hotmail, etc.) prevents an inbound e-mail from reaching the inbox of the intended recipient. Most of the time the sender of the e-mail receives a “bounce” message notifying the sender that its e-mail has been blocked. ISPs actively block e-mail coming from suspected spammers.

E-mail filters: Filtering is a technique used to block e-mail based on the content in the “from” line, “subject” line, or body copy of an e-mail. Filtering software searches for key words and other indicators that identify the e-mail as potential spam. This type of blocking occurs on a per e-mail basis.

E-mail newsletter ads or sponsorships: Buying ad space in an e-mail newsletter or sponsoring a specific article or series of articles. Advertisers pay to have their ad (text, HTML or both depending on the publication) inserted into the body of the e-mail. E-mail newsletter ads and sponsorships allow advertisers to reach a targeted audience, driving traffic to a Web site, store or office, signups to a newsletter, or sales of a product or service.

E-mail whitelist: A whitelist is the opposite of a blacklist. Instead of listing IP addresses to block, a whitelist includes IP addresses that have been approved to deliver e-mail despite blocking measures. It is common practice for ISPs to maintain both a blacklist and a whitelist. When e-mail service providers say they are “whitelisted,” it means that their IP addresses are on a specific ISP’s whitelist and they are confident that e-mails sent using their service will be delivered.

False positive: A false positive occurs when a legitimate permission-based e-mail is incorrectly filtered or blocked as spam.

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