E-Marketing Glossary

A

Above the Fold
The top portion of an email that can be viewed through the preview pane in your inbox. What you most want communicated to readers should always appear above the fold.

Affiliate
A partner who earns commissions by referring a company's product to new customers.

Anchor Text
Clickable text that you can read in a link.

Autoresponder
Sends automatic emails whenever a user performs an action such as subscribing, unsubscribing, or sending an inquiry.

Autosave
The neat little device that saves your newsletter frequently as you work, so you don't have to.

Auto Series
An exclusive MNB feature that allows you to create newsletters in advance and schedule them to be sent at specified intervals.

B

B2B
An acronym meaning business to business, usually referring to a supplier-consumer relationship between two businesses.

B2C
An acronym meaning business to consumer, referring to the sales relationship between a company and its average consumers.

Backlink
Incoming links to a website or webpage. The number of backlinks indicates a page's popularity or importance.

Banner
A graphic image on a webpage that serves as an online advertisement. Affiliates of a company can often participate in a banner exchange program in which two companies place each other's banners on their respective websites in a mutual effort to procure business.

Blacklists
Also known as "blocklist." The practice employed by Internet Service Providers of blocking an IP address or series of IP addresses to prevent the receipt of e-mail messages from a server that is suspected of transmitting SPAM. This is the opposite of a whitelist.

Blog
A word referring to a Web log, a type of website that allows users (bloggers) to enter content and readers to comment on the entries. Blog types range from personal commentary on just about any imaginable topic to news commentary. Blogs are easy to update, they generate repeat traffic, and they create fresh content and lots of search engine-friendly links. The world of blogs and blogging is referred to as the blogosphere.

Bounces
Refers to emails that did not reach their destination due to a soft bounce (the recipient's inbox was full) or a hard bounce (the email address was invalid). MNB helps you manage bounced emails by filtering incorrector duplicate addresses.

C

Call to Action
Refers to the aspects of your message which prompt the reader to take an action towards purchasing your product, signing up for your newsletter, or otherwise taking a step towards becoming your customer.

Click Path
A user's interaction with a website as defined by the pattern of clicks and entry and exit points.

Click-through Rate
The percentage of people who clicked on certain links in an email or webpage. This provides the marketer with valuable insight into what products and services people have the most interest in.

Comma Separated Value (CSV)
A format in which each unique field is separated by a comma. You can use this method to add new people to your email list. For example, Joe,Blow,joeblow@blah.com,male,42.

Content Management System (CMS)
The interface through which users can manage, create, edit, and customize content to be rendered into a website, newsletter, survey, multi-media player, montage, rotating banner, etc.

Conversion Rate
The percentage of website visitors that answer a call to action by making a purchase or subscribing to a newsletter, for example. If 45 out of 100 people subscribed to a newsletter, the conversion rate would be 45%.

Cookies
Small text files stored on a user's computer which allow websites to identify and profile that user.

D

Database
An electronic filing system that contains a large amount of easily selectable organized data.

Directory
Categorized listings of websites and other electronic information portals. Visit byregion.net for one of the most highly trafficked business and community event directories on the Internet.

Double Opt-in
Opt-in is the process by which an individual requests to receive correspondence from a company via email. Double Opt-in is when a company requires subscribers to confirm their initial subscription via a follow up email asking them to validate their email address.

E

Electronic Press Release
A press release that is published online rather than in print and can be indexed by search engines. Electronic or online press releases are usually aimed at broader readerships than those distributed in print. Use MNB software to create professional electronic press releases!

Email Marketing
The most effective tactic of marketing a brand online. It is highly targeted, cost-effective, and the results are easily measured. Most importantly, email marketing puts your brand front and center at every user's Internet pivot point, their inbox.

Email Marketing Software
Internet-based software that allows users to design an e-marketing campaign, send out newsletters to their lists, and track results. Standard features include template customization, email list management, and message scheduling and delivery.

eNewsletter (Email Newsletter)
A news message that's delivered to your inbox rather than your mailbox. Sign up for our Marketing Tips and Tricks eNewsletter to get e-marketing tips and updates on cutting edge eNewsletter features!

F

Frequency
The interval at which electronic mailings are repeated, i.e., weekly, monthly, etc.

G

GIF (Graphics Interchange Format)
An 8-bit-per-pixel bitmap image format using a palette of up to 256 distinct colors. GIF files allow images to be reduced without degrading their quality.

Google
The world's most popular search engine, Google, offers access to billions of webpages in over 30 languages to searchers all over the world. Googling, or using Google as a search tool, has become a part of the everyday lives of almost all Internet users.

H

Hard Bounce
The failed delivery of an email due to an irreversible reason, like an invalid or non-existent email address.

HTML
Refers to HyperText Markup Language, which is read by web browsers. Certain HTML "tags" are used to structure the content within a webpage. See our article, A Crash Course in HTML, for basic tags you may find useful when creating newsletters.

Hyperlink
Refers to a link in an electronic document that takes you to a relevant webpage. Dispersing plenty of hyperlinks and otherwise clickable material throughout your newsletter allows your readers lots of opportunities to answer calls to action, driving traffic to your website and increasing sales. Using the strategic placement of hyperlinks, you can create a click path for your readers leading them to take desired actions.

I

Impression
A single view of an ad or webpage by a single user. These are often mistaken for hits, which are actually the requests made by a user's browser to view a page or image. Impressions are used in calculating advertising rates.

Index
The searchable catalog of documents and pages created by a search engine, like Google. Web spiders scan or "crawl" a website's content structure, thereby indexing it with the search engines.

Instant Import
An MNB exclusive feature that allows one member to import a newsletter from another member's account, such as a company's corporate office. Imported newsletters can be customized to reflect the needs of a satellite branch and then sent to that branch's email lists.

IP Address
Refers to the Internet Protocol address, an exclusive number given to every computer in a network.

ISP
Refers to your Internet Service Provider, or the company that provides you with Internet access (AOL, Yahoo!, your local cable company, etc).

K

Keywords
Refers to the search terms that are entered as queries into search engines. SEO (search engine optimization) is the act of optimizing a website for appearance in the list of results brought up by relevant keywords.

L

Landing Page
The page a user reaches when clicking on an organic or paid search listing. The pages that have the most success are those that are most relevant to the user's search query.

Link
A URL that is embedded on a webpage so that when you click it you are taken to that page.

M

Marketing Mix
The end result of a combination of four elements: Product, Price, Place and Promotion. The distribution of focus placed on any given element depends on what your marketing strategy is geared to accomplish.

Montage
A series of rotating images set to music which is designed to simulate animation. Add a montage to your MNB newsletter today!

N

Natural Search
These are the listings generally found on the left hand side of a search engine result page and are not influenced by paid advertisements. Natural search listings are results based on factors such as keyword relevancy within a webpage. Search engine optimization (SEO) can maximize a webpage's success by boosting its position to the top of relevant search results.

O

Open Rate
Also called the read rate, this is the number of emails that are opened in an email marketing campaign as a proportion of the total emails sent.

Opt-in
Also referred to as subscribing, opting in is a request to receive information from a company via e-mail. Responsible email marketers only email those who have opted to receive their communications. If you haven't opted in, it's SPAM!

Opt-out
The act of "unsubscribing" from an email list so that communication from a company or organization is no longer received via email.

Organic Search
Generally found on the left-hand side of search engine result pages, these listings are not influenced by paid advertisements, but are based on factors such as keyword relevancy. See also Natural Search.

P

Page Rank (PR)
A rank or score given to every webpage on the Internet that is based on the number and quality of each page's backlinks. This score is a number from 1 to 10 with 10 being the highest.

Paid Search
Paid ads for products or services which appear at the top and on the right-hand side of search engine result pages, as well as on content sites across the Internet. These ads are typically brief blurbs of text linked to merchandise pages. See also Pay-per-Click.

Pay-per-Click (PPC)
Sponsored ads on search engine results pages (SERPs) and other content pages across the Internet. Ad owners only pay for ads on a performance basis, typically as often as they are clicked. See also Paid Search.

Preview
In MNB-speak, preview refers to that all-important feature which must be used (probably multiple times) to check a newsletter's content rendering before sending it out to subscribers.

Publish to the Web
An exclusive MNB feature that allows any newsletter to be made into a webpage, giving it a unique URL that's visible to Google. Newsletters can also be published to enewstandonline newsletter directory, another source for potential subscribers.

Q

Quality Score
The basis for measuring the quality of keywords and determining minimum pay-per-click (PPC) bids. This score is calculated by measuring a keyword's click-through-rate, ad text relevancy, and past performance, as well as the quality of the landing page.

R

Return on Investment (ROI)
This is what you hope will be the treasure at the end of your marketing rainbow. Technically, your ROI is your net profit after your investment of money, time, and resources into a marketing campaign.

RSS Feeds
Really Simple Syndication feeds are short, digestible versions of specific online content. They wade through the oceans of information on the Internet so you don't have to, bringing you only what you want. RSS feeds provide a way for you to receive updated information without having to constantly open new pages in your browser.

RSS Reader
The device through which you can view and read your RSS feeds. Also referred to as desktop aggregators or news readers, these are available through MNB to your newsletter subscribers who want easy access to all of your updated content.

S

Search Engine Algorithm
Search engines like Google, Yahoo! and MSN rank webpages based on different sets of criteria, and while they may attribute different values of importance to the criteria, they generally tend to consider the same factors. The program search engines use to judge these factors and rank webpages is called their ranking algorithm. Algorithms are regularly updated to minimize black hat (corrupt) optimization tactics and spamming. As the algorithms fluctuate and put more or less importance on certain criteria, optimizers change their techniques. Google's change in algorithm is termed the "Google Dance," or depending on how it has affected your page rank, the "Google Slap."

Search Engine Copywriting
The practice of writing content that's sprinkled with certain keywords and phrases. This enhances spiderability and results in higher search engine rankings.

Search Engine Marketing (SEM)
The process of getting a website to achieve top rankings for its selected search engine key phrases. See also Natural Search, Organic Search, and Search Engine Optimization.

Search Engine Optimization (SEO)
The process of tweaking of a website over time to increase its traffic by employing practices which generally boost a site's rankings in search engine results.

Search Engine Results Pages (SERPs)
The pages of results that appear after entering a query into a search engine. The goal of search engine optimization is to make a website number one on the first page.

Site Analytics
The all important details of how visitors are interacting with your website. Essential to any website's success, site analytics provide you with information on what actions visitors are taking on your site as well as how successful your e-marketing campaign has been in maximizing its performance. Data for the analysis is gathered with specialized software.

Site Architecture
The technical, aesthetic and functional elements that combine to create a website.

Social Networking
Participation in an online community where individual members become part of a broader virtual space where common interests are shared. Users often display personal information about themselves in a profile and reveal themselves through their interactions with other members. Check out JukeboxAlive, where you can make new friends, listen to new music and create your own music playlists!

Soft Bounce
The failed delivery of an email due to a reversible reason like a full inbox or a server delivery failure.

SPAM
The dark side of e-marketing (yes, there is one). SPAM is email sent to recipients who have NOT requested it. DO NOT SPAM--it will get you nowhere! Only send emails to people who have opted in for your communications.

Spiders
A program that browses the Internet in order to create a copy of all visited pages for search engine indexing. This is the data brought up by search engines when you enter a search term or phrase. The more often the spiders crawl your site, the better your site's chances of frequently appearing at or near the top of search results.

Subject Line
The portion of an email message that is viewed through the preview pane of your inbox. As it is the first thing the recipient reads, it must be attention grabbing without resembling SPAM. The effectiveness of the subject line will determine whether the person actually opens the email. That said, you can probably surmise that subject lines dramatically affect open rates.

T

Target Marketing
Selecting a target group of individuals likely to be interested in specific content or a certain product or service. Sending content that's relevant to the communication requested by your target audience yields higher response rates and results in fewer uninterested recipients, and thus fewer unsubscribes.

Tracking
The process of gathering the results of your e-marketing campaign in order to analyze its overall success. At MNB, statistics are gathered and displayed in an easy-to-read report.

U

Unsubscribe
The act, usually performed by clicking an "unsubscribe link," of eliminating oneself from an email list or changing personal data/preferences.

URL - Universal Resource Locator
Another name for a domain or web address (www.mynewsletterbuilder.com). At MNB, any newsletter can be published to the Web and given its own URL, making it visible to Google.

V

Verification
A program that determines whether an email came from the actual listed sender or from a forged sender.

Video Newsletter
An email newsletter that contains a video file within the body of the message, as a link, or as an attachment (least desirable as these attachments can be viewed as viruses and thus blocked). As an MNB user, you have the capability to install audio and video right into your newsletter template.

Viral Marketing
Marketing that is carried out voluntarily by a company's customers and often referred to as word-of-mouth advertising. Email has made viral marketing very prevalent. Tools such as "send this page, article or website to a friend" encourage people to recommend your company to others.

W

What's In It for Me? (WIIFM)
The question all of your newsletter recipients ask themselves when determining whether to open, read, or otherwise ACT on your email.

Whitelist
A list of email senders, domains, or hosts that are always automatically allowed to send mail to the filtered address, regardless of the message content. This is the opposite of a blacklist.