Essential email marketing terminology for beginners
Understanding the key terminology is the first step to creating better emails, growing your list, and building stronger relationships with your audience.
In this video, you’ll learn essential email marketing terms like
opt-in,
nurture sequence,
deliverability,
segmentation, and more—all explained in a simple, easy-to-understand way.
Whether you’re just getting started or want a quick refresher, this guide will help you feel more confident whenever you send an email.
Here’s a list of the key terms covered, along with their definitions:
Opt-in: When someone gives explicit permission to receive emails from you. It means they are willing to hear from you and have agreed to join your email list.
Subscriber: A person who has opted into your email list, giving you permission to email them.
Signup Form/Opt-in Form: A form where people enter their name and email address to subscribe to your list. It can be embedded on a website, shared on social media, or linked from a landing page.
Landing Page: A standalone page designed to capture signups, often used to offer something specific (like a free download or a webinar registration).
Lead Magnet/Freebie: A free download or incentive offered in exchange for someone’s email address, such as a discount code, guide, checklist, or template.
Double Opt-in: A process where, after someone signs up, they receive a confirmation email asking them to verify their subscription. It helps prevent fake or mistyped email addresses.
List/Audience: The full group of subscribers you have collected through your opt-in process.
Segmentation: The practice of dividing your audience into smaller groups based on shared characteristics (e.g., interests, behaviors, location) to send more targeted and relevant emails.
Segment: A specific group or label assigned to subscribers based on characteristics or behaviors. It can be called a tag or group depending on the email tool you’re using.
Nurture Sequence: A series of automated emails sent to new subscribers designed to build trust, introduce the brand, and guide them to take the next step with you.
Workflow: An automated email sequence triggered by a subscriber’s action, like signing up for a form or joining a segment.
Call to Action (CTA): A prompt in an email asking the reader to take a specific action, like clicking a button, making a purchase, or replying to the email.
Personalization: Customizing an email with subscriber-specific details (e.g., first name or content based on their past behavior) to make it feel more personal.
The Fold: The visible portion of an email that appears without scrolling. Key information and CTAs should be placed here to grab attention quickly.
Deliverability: The ability of your emails to reach subscribers’ inboxes instead of getting lost in spam folders.
Sender Reputation: A measure of trustworthiness of your email account, affecting your email deliverability. It’s like an email credit score.
Authentication: Technical setups (like SPF, DKIM, and DMARC records) that verify the legitimacy of your emails, ensuring they come from you and are not spoofed.
Cold Subscriber: A subscriber who has stopped engaging with your emails over time, usually by not opening or interacting with them.
List Cleaning: The process of removing cold subscribers from your list to maintain a healthy and engaged audience and improve deliverability.
Open Rate: The percentage of people who opened your email compared to how many were sent. For example, a 90% open rate means 90 out of 100 recipients opened the email.
Click-Through Rate (CTR): The percentage of people who clicked a link inside your email compared to how many were sent.
Bounce Rate: The percentage of emails that couldn’t be delivered. A soft bounce is a temporary issue, like a full inbox, while a hard bounce means the email address is invalid.
Spam Complaint: Occurs when a subscriber marks your email as spam. Too many complaints can hurt your sender reputation and deliverability.
Unsubscribe Rate: The percentage of people who choose to leave your email list after receiving an email. A certain level of unsubscribes is normal and part of healthy list management.
These terms are essential for anyone working with email marketing, helping you build stronger relationships with your audience and optimize your campaigns.