Email marketing glossary
25 terms that come up when you send email, explained without jargon — and with the part that actually matters in practice.
A
- Above the fold The part of an email visible before the reader scrolls.
- Alt text The words shown in place of an image that has not loaded — or read aloud instead of it.
- AMP for email A format that lets an email behave like a small web page — forms, carousels, live content.
C
- Click-through rate The share of recipients who clicked something in the email.
D
- Dark mode email How an email looks when the reader’s client inverts or recolours it.
- Deliverability Whether your email reaches the inbox rather than spam — or nothing at all.
- DKIM A cryptographic signature proving an email really came from your domain and was not altered.
- DMARC A policy telling receiving servers what to do when SPF and DKIM checks fail.
- Double opt-in Sign-up that is only complete once the subscriber confirms it from their own inbox.
- Dynamic content Parts of an email that change per recipient — blocks shown, hidden or filled differently.
E
- Email-safe fonts Typefaces that render in mail clients without being downloaded.
- ESP (email service provider) The service that stores your contact list and actually sends your campaigns.
H
- Hard bounce A permanent delivery failure — the address does not exist or refuses mail for good.
I
- Interactive email An email you can act inside — open a menu, pick a size, answer a poll.
L
- List hygiene Keeping the mailing list free of dead, mistyped and disengaged addresses.
M
- Merge tag A placeholder in the email that is replaced with the recipient’s own data on send.
O
- Open rate The share of delivered emails recorded as opened — a weaker number than it used to be.
P
- Plain text part The text-only version carried alongside the HTML one inside the same message.
- Preheader The line of text an inbox shows next to the subject line, before the email is opened.
R
- Responsive email An email whose layout adapts to the screen it is opened on.
S
- Soft bounce A temporary delivery failure — the address exists but the message could not be handed over.
- SPF A DNS record listing which servers are allowed to send email for your domain.
- Subject line The headline of the email — the main thing an inbox shows before it is opened.
T
- Transactional email A message triggered by one person’s action — a receipt, a password reset, a shipping notice.
U
- Unsubscribe link The way out of your list — required by law and by every mailbox provider.