Top 25 E-mail Marketing Terms You Should Know

House list (or retention list): A permission-based list that you built yourself. Use it to market, cross sell and up-sell, and to establish a relationship with customers over time. It is one of your most valuable assets because it is seven times less expensive to market to an existing customer than it is to acquire a new one. Use every opportunity to add to it and use it.

HTML e-mail: Sending HTML e-mail makes it possible to include unique fonts, graphics and background colors. HTML makes an e-mail more interesting and when used properly can generate response rates up to 35 percent higher than plain text.

Open rate: The percentage of e-mails opened in any given e-mail marketing campaign, or the percentage opened of the total number of e-mails sent.

Opt-in (or subscribe): To opt-in or subscribe to an e-mail list is to choose to receive e-mail communications by supplying your e-mail address to a particular company, Web site or individual, thereby giving them permission to e-mail you. The subscriber can often indicate areas of personal interest (e.g., mountain biking) and/or indicate what types of e-mails she wishes to receive from the sender (e.g., newsletters).

Single opt-in (with a subscriber acknowledgement e-mail): The most widely accepted and routinely used method of obtaining e-mail addresses and permission. A single opt-in list is created by inviting visitors and customers to subscribe to your e-mail list. When you use a sign-up tag on your Web site, a message immediately goes out to the subscriber acknowledging the subscription. This message should reiterate what the subscriber has signed up for and provide an immediate way for the subscriber to edit her interests or opt-out.

Confirmed opt-in (or double opt-in): A more stringent method of obtaining permission to send e-mail campaigns. Confirmed opt-in adds an additional step to the opt-in process. It requires the subscriber to respond to a confirmation e-mail, either by clicking on a confirmation link or by replying to the e-mail to confirm their subscription. Only those subscribers who take this additional step are added to your list.