Email and Ezine Terms for Freelancers, Bloggers, and Content Writers

Award-winning writer Kathy Widenhouse has helped hundreds of nonprofits and writers produce successful content and has gained 600K+ views for her writing tutorials. She is the author of 9 books. See more of Kathy’s content here.

These days, email and ezine terms are sprinkled throughout most of what you read about communications. 

This simple glossary, arranged alphabetically, helps you get up to speed with the jargon associated with using email as part of your marketing mix, including sending email campaigns and ezines.

If you know of additional terms not recorded here, post them in the “Comments” section below. We’ll help define them for you. Thanks!

Autoresponder
A pre-written reply, delivered by an email manager, server, or other e-mail utility, sent automatically in response to an opt-in submission, purchase, gift, or inquiry – hence, auto responder.
 
Bounce
The process in which an email is sent but never arrives in the recipient's inbox. Bounced emails are sent back (“bounced back”) to the sender with an error message explaining that the e-mail was never successfully transmitted.

Campaign
An email message sent in bulk to a group of people.

Click-through
The process of a visitor clicking on a hyperlink in your ezine or email campaign and being redirected to the linked page. A click-through rate (CTR or  “click rate”) measures the number of times a linked is clicked versus the amount of times it is simply viewed in a percentage.

Email list manager
A service provider which helps you manage and maintain your email list, opt-ins, opt-outs, campaigns, bounces, and click-throughs. Many email list managers also provide templates and editing tools in which you can create campaigns.

Ezine
An electronic magazine or an online newsletter, published at a regular interval (such as monthly, bi-weekly, or weekly) and delivered by email to your readers and subscribers. 

Keywords
Phrases or expressions that are fundamental in a message or campaign. A keyword or phrase is used by visitors searching the internet to find information on that particular topic. Website publishers place keywords strategically on web pages to allow search engines find them easily and return their pages as high as possible in search results.

Open rate
The number of how many people on an email list open (or view) a specific email campaign, expressed in percentage. An email campaign’s open rate is calculated by dividing the number of emails opened by the number of emails sent in the campaign (minus bounces.)
Emails opened / Emails sent (- bounces) = Open rate

Opt-in
Short for “opting in,” an opt-in is a reader’s permission to receive emails from a specific organization. The opt-in process initiates when the reader signs up for a series of emails, (such as an ezine) and submits his email address to the organization, thereby “taking the option” to be added to that organization’s email mailing list.  In a “confirmed opt-in,” the reader receives a confirmation email to verify the opt-in was from him and to authenticate his correct email address. 

Opt-out
The reader’s request to no longer receive bulk emails from a specific organization.

Spam
Unsolicited bulk email

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