Seed emails |
| Email addresses placed on a list (sometimes secretly) to determine what messages are sent to the list and/or to track delivery rate and/or visible appearance of delivered messages. Seeds may also be placed on Web sites and elsewhere on the Internet to track spammers' harvesting activities. |
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Segmentation |
| Dividing or separating your email list based on categories, purchasing behavior, demographics and more for the purpose of targeting email marketing campaigns to the audience most likely to respond. |
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Select |
| A segment of a list determined by any number of attributes, such as source of name, job title, purchasing history, etc. CPM list renters pay an additional fee per thousand names for each select on top of the base list price. |
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Selective Unsubscribe |
| An unsubscribe mechanism that allows a consumer to selectively determine which email newsletters they wish to continue receiving while stopping the sending of others. |
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Sender ID |
| The informal name for a new anti-spam program combining two existing protocols |
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Sender Policy Framework (also SPF) |
| 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. |
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Sent emails |
| Number of email names transmitted in a single broadcast. Does not reflect how many were delivered or viewed by recipients. |
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Server |
| A program or computer system that stores and distributes email from one mailbox to another, or relays email from one server to another in a network. |
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Shared server |
| An email server used by more than one company or sender. Shared servers are less expensive to use because the broadcast vendor can spread the cost over more users. However, senders sharing a server risk having emails blocked by major ISPs if one of the other users does something to get the server's IP address blacklisted. See dedicated server. |
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Signature |
| A line or two of information found in the closing of an email, usually followed the sender's name. Signatures can include advertising information, such as a company name, product, brand message or marketing call to action (subscribe to a company newsletter with the email subscribe address or Web registration form, or visit a Web site with the URL listed). |
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Single Opt-in |
| Once the most widely accepted and routinely used method of obtaining email addresses and permission. A single opt-in list is created by inviting visitors and customers to subscribe to your mail list. When you use a sign-up form on your website, a message immediately goes out to the subscriber acknowledging the subscription (a good example of an auto-responder). This message should reiterate what the subscriber has signed up for and provide an immediate way for the subscriber to edit his/her interests or opt-out. Industry best practice now dictates a double opt-in. |
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SMTP |
| Simple Mail Transfer Protocol, the most common protocol for sending email messages between email servers. |
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Snail mail |
| postal mail. |
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Soft bounce |
| Email sent to an active (live) email address but which is turned away before being delivered. Often, the problem is temporary -- the server is down or the recipient's mailbox is over quota. The email might be held at the recipient's server and delivered later, or the sender's email program may attempt to deliver it again. Soft-bounce reports are not always accurate because they don't report all soft bounces or the actual reason for the bounce. |
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Solo mailing |
| A one-time broadcast to an email list, separate from regular newsletters or promotions, and often including a message from an outside advertiser or a special promotion from the list owner. |
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Spam |
| The popular name for unsolicited commercial email. However, some email recipients define spam as any email they no longer want to receive, even if it comes from a mailing list they joined voluntarily. |
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Spamcop |
| A blacklist and IP-address database, formerly privately owned but now part of the email vendor Ironport. Many ISPs check the IP addresses of incoming email against Spamcop's records to determine whether the address has been blacklisted due to spam complaints. |
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Sponsorship swap |
| An agreement between email list owners, publishers or advertisers to sponsor each other's mailings or newsletters for free. See ad swap. |
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Spoofing |
| The practice of changing the sender's name in an email message so that it looks as if it came from another address. |
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Subject line |
| Copy that identifies what an email message is about, often designed to entice the recipient into opening the message. The subject line appears first in the recipient's inbox, often next to the sender's name or email address. It is repeated in the email message's header information inside the message. |
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Subscribe |
| The process of joining a mailing list, either through an email command, by filling out a Web form, or offline by filling out a form or requesting to be added verbally. (If you accept verbal subscriptions, you should safeguard yourself by recording it and storing recordings along with time and date, in a retrievable format.) |
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Subscriber |
| The person who has specifically requested to join a mailing list. A list has both subscribers, who receive the message from the sender, and pass-alongs. |
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Suppression list or Block list |
| A list of email addresses you have removed from your regular mailing lists, either because they have opted out of your lists or because they have notified other mailers that they do not want to receive mailings from your company. Required by CAN-SPAM. AKA Do-Not-Email list. |
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