5 Email Marketing Terms You Need to Know

Starting a new marketing campaign can be a little daunting, especially if there is a lot of technical jargon that makes the process even more complicated. To help you get off to the best possible start, we’re looking at the email marketing terms you need to know.

photo/ Gerd Altmann

Marketing Automation

Marketing automation is the use of software that sends email campaigns to select subscribers based on a set of pre-defined triggers. For instance, you could send an automatic email providing a special discount once a client spends more than $200 on your online products or services. The automation tactics can include everything from a birthday, anniversary or a welcome email, so you can provide a tailored campaign to match the customer journey.

Open Rate

Want to know how many people have opened your email? Marketing automation tools allow marketers to assess their open rates to see how many people have clicked on an email. If a subscriber isn’t opening an email, you may need to review your subject lines or content strategy.

Click-through Rate

Click-through rate (CTR) is a simple metric that allows marketers to measure how many subscribers clicked on a hyperlink, image or call-to-action within an email. It will allow you to gain an insight into how popular an email was with a subscriber and offer an indication of how well a marketing tactic is performing. A successful click-through rate usually ranges between 20-30%. If your company is missing the mark, it might be wise to alter your strategy.

Personalization

Personalization proves to a customer that you have taken the time to learn more about them, which can build confidence and trust in your brand. To personalize your emails, you will need to gather as much information on a subscriber as possible, such as their name, age, gender, interests and geo-location. Use this information to produce relevant, customized content to complement their needs. Aim to incorporate their name into a subject line to boost your open rate by a whopping 20%.

Hard and Soft Bounce

A hard bounce occurs when an email returns to a sender due to an invalid email address, this means you might have sent a message to a fake email address, incorrect domain name or an unknown recipient. As soon as you spot a hard bounce, remove the email address from your mailing list as it can affect your email deliverability rate. If you do not this could trigger spam filters, and an email provider may put a red flag on your email. A soft bounce is caused by a temporary problem; a subscriber’s inbox maybe too full or a file could be too big.

Conclusion

It may take time to understand the many different terms that define an email marketing campaign. The best way to learn the ins and outs of the platform is through trial and error, as well as a marketing research. Don’t be deterred by complicated language; it won’t be so complicated once you start developing your own strategies.

Author: Carol Trehearn