Glossary of terminology used in marketing

  • 10DLC

    10DLC is a registration process for sending SMS marketing traffic.
  • Email compliance

    In the US, the CAN-SPAM Act governs how businesses can act when sending promotional and commercial emails.
  • FOMO (Fear Of Missing Out)

    FOMO (Fear Of Missing Out) is about leveraging fear of losing out on amazing opportunities, experiences and so on.
  • A/B Testing

    The testing of one version against another version of the same thing. For example, testing click rate of two or more email subject lines.
  • Application to Person (A2P)

    Application-to-Person (A2P) is a type of text message sent from an application, e.g. DailyStory, to a person.
  • Age-gated content

    Age-gated content is content that is restricted to ensure that only individuals of a certain age can access the content or services.
  • AI

    Artificial Intelligence (AI) encompasses a broad field of computer science focused on constructing intelligent machines that can execute activities traditionally reserved for human intelligence.
  • AMP Email

    AMP for email is an extension of Google (Accelerated Mobile Pages) AMP, and is a technology to create more engaging and interactive email experiences.
  • Anonymous email address

    An anonymous email address is an email address that does not reveal the identity of the sender.
  • API

    An Application Programming Interface (API) is what allows two applications to talk to each other.
  • ARC

    Authenticated Received Chain (ARC) is an email authentication standard designed to improve and secure the forwarding of emails.
  • Average Page Views

    A metric that tells you how many pages the average visitor views before leaving. It helps you understand how engaged a visitor is.
  • Average Time on Site

    The Average Time on Site of users gives you a general idea how long people are staying on your website reading content or browsing.
  • Backlinks

    Backlinks, also known as "inbound links" or "incoming links," are links from one website to another.
  • Blind Carbon Copy (BCC) Email

    A BCC email, also referred to as a blind carbon copy email, is an email in which the sender includes recipients in the BCC field to hide their identities from one another.
  • BIMI

    A BIMI record, which stands for Brand Indicators for Message Identification, is a DNS (Domain Name System) record that allows organizations to display their brand logos next to their emails in the recipient's email client.
  • Black Friday

    Black Friday is an annual shopping event that takes place the day after the United States' Thanksgiving holiday, which falls on the fourth Thursday of November.
  • Bounced Email

    A bounced email is an email that is rejected by the recipient email server as undelivered.
  • Brand Advocates

    A brand advocate is a person who supports your mission and sticks out his or her virtual neck to vouch for you. Make sure to reward your advocates with offers that stand out above typical discounts.
  • Campaign

    A collection of contacts and marketing assets used for inbound or outbound marketing. For example, a sequence of email or SMS messages.
  • CAN-SPAM

    CAN-SPAM stands for "Controlling the Assault of Non-Solicited Pornography And Marketing Act."
  • Carrier violation

    A carrier violation occurs when carriers (such as Verizon, AT&T and such) receive an outbound SMS and opt to not deliver the message to the destination phone number.
  • Carriers

    Telecommunication carriers are the businesses (phone companies) that provide services for voice calls and SMS traffic; and other services.
  • Cart Abandonment

    Shopping cart abandonment refers to the situation in e-commerce when a potential customer adds products to their online shopping cart but does not complete the purchase.
  • Carbon Copy (CC) Email

    A CC email, where "CC" stands for "carbon copy," is a feature in email communication that allows you to send a copy of an email to additional recipients alongside the primary recipient.
  • CCPA

    The California Consumer Privacy Act (CCPA) applies to certain businesses that collect personal information about California residents.
  • ChatGPT

    ChatGPT, which stands for Chat Generative Pre-trained Transformer, is a large language model–based chatbot developed by OpenAI and launched on November 30, 2022, which enables users to refine and steer a conversation towards a desired length, format, style, level of detail, and language used.
  • CITA

    The CITA a trade association that represents the wireless communications industry in the U.S. This includes carriers, suppliers, manufacturers and more.
  • Click fraud

    Click fraud is a black-hat technique used to inflate the number of clicks on a pay-per-click ad.
  • Click to open rate

    The Email Click-to-Open Rate (CTOR) is a metric used in email marketing to measure the effectiveness of an email campaign.
  • Contact

    A contact is a record for a person. The contact is uniquely identified by an email address or mobile phone number.
  • CRO

    Conversion Rate Optimization (CRO), as it relates to digital marketing, is the application of a system and processes to convert a higher percentage of visitors into customers
  • Cost-per-click

    What is Cost per Click (CPC)? Cost-per-click (CPC) is a form of digital advertising bidding where the advertiser pays an agreed-upon price every time a user clicks on the ad. Versus cost-per-impression in which the bidder pays by the...
  • Cross-Channel Analytics

    Cross-channel analytics track the behavior of your prospects across multiple channels, such as your website, in social media, and on your blog.
  • CSV file

    A file is a delimited text file that uses a comma to separate values. Each line of the file is a data record separated by commas.
  • Cyber Monday

    Cyber Monday is an online shopping event that occurs on the Monday following the Thanksgiving holiday in the United States.
  • Data-driven marketing

    Data-driven marketing is a strategy that analyzes data to gain insights into customer behavior, preferences, and interactions.
  • Digital Marketing

    Digital Marketing is any form of marketing that uses digital technologies and channels to deliver information about a product or brand.
  • Disposable Email Address

    A disposable email address is a temporary and often anonymous email address created for a short-term purpose.
  • DKIM

    A DKIM record, which stands for DomainKeys Identified Mail, is a type of DNS (Domain Name System) record that is used to help verify the authenticity and integrity of an email message.
  • DMARC

    DMARC, which stands for Domain-based Message Authentication, Reporting, and Conformance, is a policy framework that works alongside SPF (Sender Policy Framework) and DKIM (DomainKeys Identified Mail) to provide enhanced email authentication and protection against email spoofing and phishing attacks.
  • DNS

    The Domain Name System (DNS) turns domain names into IP addresses, which browsers use to load internet pages.
  • Domain alignment

    Domain alignment is ensuring all the domains associated with a given email use the same root domain: sender, clicks, replies and so on.
  • Domain Authority

    Domain Authority (DA) is a search engine ranking score developed by Moz that predicts how likely a website is to rank in search engine result pages (SERPs).
  • Domain Name

    A domain name is a human-readable address for any web server available on the Internet.
  • Email Attachment

    An email attachment is a file that is sent along with an email message. The recipient can download and open the file on their own device.
  • Email Blacklist

    An email blacklist is a list of email addresses, domains, or IP addresses that are identified as sources of spam or malicious activity.
  • Email blast

    An email blast refers to the practice of sending a single email message to a large group of recipients simultaneously.
  • Email Block List

    An email blocklist (also known as a blacklist) is a list of email addresses, domains, or IP addresses that are identified as sources of spam or malicious content.
  • Email Client

    An email client, also known as a mail client or email reader, is a computer program or application that is used to access and manage email messages on a user's device.
  • Email Etiquette

    Email etiquette refers to the set of rules and conventions governing the proper and polite use of email communication. It involves guidelines for composing, sending, and responding to emails in a professional and considerate manner.
  • Email Forwarding

    Email forwarding is a feature that allows users to automatically redirect incoming emails from one email address to another.
  • Email Headers

    An email header, also known as the message header, is a section at the beginning of an email that contains detailed technical information about the message.
  • Email Junk Folder

    The spam or junk folder is the storage space in your email account for unwanted emails or for emails that fail to reach your inbox and are flagged as spam by email service providers.
  • Email list

    An email list is a collection of email addresses gathered from individuals who have opted to receive communications from a particular person, business, or organization.
  • Email Marketing

    Email marketing is the use of email to promote your business in some way, and it’s a cornerstone of digital marketing strategy.
  • Email Preview Text

    The email preview text, also known as the email preheader, is the text displayed by an email client to preview the contents of an email.
  • Reply All Email

    A "Reply All" email is when you respond to an email, and your response is sent not only to the original sender but also to all the other recipients of the initial email.
  • SMS gateway

    An email address provided by the mobile phone carriers to send an email to and the carrier will deliver the content as an SMS to the customer's device.
  • Email SPAM filter

    Email services use inbound and outbound email filters to prevent spam. These spam filters have some metrics and algorithms that assign a numerical score after the filtering process that reflects the probability of the email being spam.
  • SPAM Trap

    Spam traps serve as fraud management tools utilized by major inbox providers and blacklists to identify and block emails from spammers.
  • Email Spoofing

    Email spoofing is a technique used by malicious actors to deceive recipients by sending emails that appear to come from a legitimate source when, in fact, they originate from a different, often malicious, sender.
  • Email Thread

    An email thread, also known as an email chain or conversation, refers to a series of related email messages that are grouped together based on the same subject or topic.
  • Embedded link

    In SMS marketing an embedded link is a URL that is included within the body of a text message.
  • Embedded Phone

    In SMS marketing an embedded phone number is a phone number included within the body of a text message. This number is typically not the same number as the sending number.
  • Email Service Provider (ESP)

    An email service provider (ESP) is a service used to send email marketing content and campaigns to subscribers.
  • Free email address

    A free email address providers that offer basic email services without charging a fee. Common examples include Gmail, Yahoo and Hotmail.
  • Funnel

    A conversion funnel is a marketing term that represents the journey a potential customer takes from being aware of a product or service to ultimately making a purchase or completing a desired action.
  • GDPR

    The European Union General Data Protection Regulation (GDPR) is a privacy law that unifies the various email laws of 28 EU member states.
  • Google Maps Local 3-Pack

    The Google 3-Pack is used by Google to show the most relevant three results for a near me search. It shows the top 3 results in Google Maps.
  • Green Wednesday

    Green Wednesday refers to the Wednesday before Thanksgiving and has gained popularity as a cannabis-related term.
  • Hard bounce

    An email hard bounce occurs is when the delivery issue is permanent, such as an invalid email address.
  • HARO

    HARO is a website that stands for Help A Reporter Out. It’s a service that connects journalists with a variety of sources but also gives you the opportunity to get useful media coverage for your business.
  • ICANN

    ICANN helps ensure that domain names are assigned and resolved correctly, IP addresses are distributed efficiently, and internet-related policies are developed through a collaborative and inclusive process.
  • Inbound marketing

    Inbound marketing is an approach that focuses on attracting potential customers through relevant and valuable content.
  • Email open rate

    Email open rate is the number of unique opens divided by the total number of delivered emails.
  • Email click rate

    Email click rate is the number of unique clicks divided by the total number of delivered emails.
  • IP Address

    An IP address is the number listed in the domain name system that is used to send email messages on behalf of your domain name. Businesses can use dedicated or shared IP addresses.
  • Block list

    Key word blocklists contains specific words you are trying to avoid your content being associated with.
  • Landmark Emails

    Landmark emails are the messages that celebrate customer landmarks like birthdays, major milestones, or anniversaries as a customer.
  • Outbound link

    An outbound link in a webpage is a hyperlink that directs users to another website or web page external to the current website.
  • Merge Field

    An email merge field, often referred to as a mail merge field, is a placeholder or variable in an email template that gets replaced with specific personalized information when the email is sent.
  • Message Segment

    SMS Marketing, unlike email marketing which is relatively inexpensive, telecommunication carriers charge per-text message (160 characters).
  • MVT

    The testing of multiple variations of many different elements in various combinations to determine the best performing elements and combinations.
  • MX

    An MX record, also known as a Mail Exchange record, is a type of DNS (Domain Name System) record that is used to specify the mail servers responsible for receiving and handling email messages on behalf of a domain.
  • No-reply email

    A noreply email address, such as noreply@example.com, is commonly used as a reply-to address for marketing emails.
  • Number Pooling

    Number pooling is a system used to efficiently manage and allocate telephone numbers used for SMS marketing.
  • Opt-in

    You are actively agreeing or giving your consent to join or participate in something, such as receiving email marketing or SMS marketing.
  • Opt-out

    You are choosing to not participate or to withdraw from something, such as email marketing or SMS marketing.
  • Outbound marketing

    Outbound marketing refers to traditional marketing methods where businesses initiate contact with potential customers.
  • PBN

    A Private Blog Network (PBN) is a network of websites that are privately owned and operated by an individual or an organization.
  • Permission-Based Marketing

    This type of marketing asks for permission from its audience and seeks to be educational. Permission can come in the form of opting in to receive a newsletter, subscribing to a blog, or following a company in social media.
  • Phishing

    Phishing is a type of cyberattack in which attackers use deceptive tactics to trick individuals into divulging sensitive and confidential information, such as login credentials, financial information, or personal details.
  • PII

    Personally identifiable information (PII) is information that, when used alone or with other relevant data, can identify an individual.
  • Plain text email

    A plain text email is a type of email that contains only simple, unformatted text without any special formatting or styling. It lacks any visual enhancements such as fonts, colors, images, or hyperlinks that you might find in HTML-formatted emails.
  • Qualified Lead

    A qualified lead is a contact who opted in to receive communication from your company, became educated about your product or service, and is interested in learning more.
  • Repeat Purchase

    When customers are happy with a product or service, they engage in repeat purchases. Marketers should stay top of mind for their existing customer base and seek to establish long-term relationships.
  • Reply-To Header

    The reply-to header is used when the sender of an email message wants replies to go to that particular email address rather than the one in the from: address. This usually shows up as a separate field in the email client.
  • Revenue Performance Management (RPM)

    RPM is a system that improves your interactions with prospects along the sales cycle, measures results, and seeks to maximize revenue.
  • Seed List

    A seed list is a list of email addresses (or mobile numbers for SMS marketing) used to test campaigns before sending to your subscribers.
  • SEO

    SEO is a set of practices and strategies aimed at improving a website's visibility in search engine results pages (SERPs).
  • Sequence

    A sequence, or drip sequence, refers to a series of planned and connected messages or actions designed to achieve a specific goal.
  • SERP

    A Search Engine Results Page (SERP) is the web page that displays a list of search results when a user enters a query into a search engine, such as Google, Bing, or Yahoo.
  • SHAFT

    What is SHAFT (Sex Hate Alcohol Firearms Tobacco)? Per the Cellular Telecommunications and Internet Association (CTIA), there is a major rule commonly referred to as SHAFT. It means that content related to sex, hate, alcohol, firearms and/or tobacco in...
  • Short Code

    A short code is a 5-6 digit phone number used exclusively for SMS marketing.
  • SMiShing

    SMiShing is phishing through text messages. Fraudsters use this and other scams to get your personal info and more.
  • SMS Bombing

    SMS bombing is sending a large number of text messages to a phone number with the intent of overwhelming the recipient's device.
  • Snowshoeing

    Snowshoeing is the process of acquiring multiple long codes for SMS marketing to distribute the messages across many sending numbers.
  • Soft bounce

    An email soft bounce is a temporary issue that prevents your email from delivering.
  • SPAM

    What is SPAM? Email spam, commonly referred to as “spam,” is unsolicited and often irrelevant or inappropriate email sent in bulk to a large number of recipients. The primary characteristics of email spam include: Unsolicited – recipients typically do...
  • SPAM complaints

    What is a SPAM complaint? Spam complaints are reports made by email recipients against emails they don’t want in their inbox (SPAM). It’s important to understand how spam complaints work, and how to do your best to avoid them....
  • SPF

    An SPF record, which stands for Sender Policy Framework, is a type of DNS (Domain Name System) record that is used to authenticate and verify the legitimacy of email senders.
  • Spintax

    Spintax, also known as Spintext, is a type of personalization that randomizes the selection of text used.
  • Stealth Marketing

    Stealth marketing is a form of marketing in which a product, service, or brand is promoted to consumers in a way that they are not consciously aware of being marketed to
  • Subdomain

    A subdomain is a part of a larger domain and is used to organize content within the main domain. It is a hierarchical way of structuring websites on the internet. Subdomains are created by adding a prefix to the main domain name, separated by a dot (period).
  • TCPA

    The TCPA is a U.S. federal law to regulate a variety of telecommunication services such as text messages (SMS).
  • Text Message Campaign

    A text messaging campaign allows you to interact with your customers through text messages.
  • Transactional email

    A transactional email is an automated email sent to an individual that contains information required by the recipient.
  • URL

    A URL, or Uniform Resource Locator, is a string of characters that provides a web address used to identify and locate resources on the internet.
  • UX

    User Experience (UX) refers to the overall experience that a person has when interacting with a product, service, or system, especially in terms of how easy or pleasing it is to use.
  • VMC

    A Verified Mark Certificate (VMC) is a digital certificate issued by a certificate authority that verifies logo ownership.
  • Affiliate marketing

    Affiliate marketing is specifically the process where an affiliate (you and/or your small business) earns a commission for marketing another’s products.

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