In the world of email, Internet, and e-everything there seems to be a bounty of acronyms that may or may not mean what you think. In the following glossary, you'll be able to find some of the most common terms and acronyms used in email marketing today.
Email marketing terminology
EMT (Email Marketing Terms): An acronym is a word formed from the initial letters, or groups of letters, of words or phrases and they’re often used to shorten phrases or terminology, making it easier to reference. It’s a mistake to assume everyone knows all the buzzwords for an industry because there are just SO many out there!
CAPTCHA (Completely Automated Public Turing Test to Tell Computers and Humans Apart): This can be found on online forms, used to verify that a human not a computer is behind the form submission.
CAN-SPAM Act of 2003 (Controlling the Assault of Non-Solicited Pornography And Marketing Act of 2003): The United States' first national standard for the sending of commercial e-mail and requires the Federal Trade Commission to enforce its provisions. A law that sets the rules for commercial email, establishes requirements for commercial messages, gives recipients the right to have you stop emailing them, and spells out tough penalties for violations.
SMPT (Simple Mail Transfer Protocol): The protocol used for sending email over the internet, a set of commands that authenticates and directs the transfer of mail.
UCE/UBE (Unsolicited Commercial Email/Unsolicited Bulk Email): Another name for spam.
URL (Uniform Resource Locater): The domain name you see in the address bar of your browser. It represents an encoded form of your website’s IP address. For example, www.keap.com
SPF (Sender Policy Framework): A protocol used to eliminate email forgeries. A line of code called an SPF record is placed in a sender's domain name server information. The incoming mail server can verify a sender by reading the SPF record before allowing a message through.
ISP (Internet Service Provider): A company that provides individuals and other companies access to the Internet and other related services, such as web site building and virtual hosting.
BTF (Below the fold): The “fold” is the bottom of the page once it first loads. Anything underneath this line in the page is considered “below the fold.” The most important information on your page should, ideally, be located "Above The Fold" (ATF).
COI (Confirmed opt-in): A situation where someone fills out a web form, requesting information, then confirms their request to be on your list by clicking on a unique link emailed to their address. If they don't click on that link, sign-up is not completed, and they’ll receive nothing further from you.
DNS (Domain Name System): An internet service that translates domain names into IP addresses. Without DNS, we would have to remember the IP address of every site we wanted to visit, instead of just the domain name.
A final entry: Keap
Email is an effective channel for small businesses to generate revenue, nurture leads, close business or keep your customers in the know. Keap can help you take your email to the next level.
Sarah Connolly works on the Email Systems Team focusing on email deliverability, reputation, and compliance for Keap. She is passionate about small businesses, live music, and dachshunds.
