Basic Email Terms

Before we go into more depth on managing permission and discussing the different types of email, the following terms will help answer any questions that arise.

Bounce

A bounce occurs when a message is undeliverable because the receiving server does not exist or sends back an error. This happens if an email address is no longer valid or if something in the text sets off a spam filter alarm.

Open

An open occurs when the recipient clicks on your message, and the email programme opens a window displaying it. If you take the number of opens and divide that figure by the number of messages sent, you have your open rate. Your open rate can be a rough measure of your email brand value because recipients look at the "from" line when deciding to open a message -- it means they recognise and trust your brand.

It is important to distinguish opens from unique opens because opens are misleading. If you send out two messages and one recipient opens your message three times but the other opens it only once, you get four opens; however, you only have two unique opens. When looking at your campaign metrics, note the difference between opens and unique opens to avoid misinterpretation.

Viral

Viral messages can account for a large share of your brand development via email. People usually pass on messages for reasons of relevance or humor, and most people value recommendations from family and friends. However, viral messages can be classified as spam because they are unsolicited, especially when recipients are urged to pass along the message to x-number of friends to get a reward. The issue of viral messages being classified as spam is yet to be resolved by the FTC (Federal Trade Commission) in light of CAN-SPAM legislation.

Click-Through

A click-through is classified as a response. Click-throughs are a good measure of message relevancy, but conversions are the most vital measure. A conversion occurs when the recipient takes the desired action.

Rich Media

You can add pizzazz to your message with rich media (video, animation and audio). While research shows that response rates for rich media messages are significantly higher than to HTML messages, rich media has its challenges. Many email clients have changed security settings so users cannot view video, audio and Flash animations because of the proliferation of spam and email viruses. However, with good email technology, marketers can add a "click to view" option at the top of the message, immediately opening a browser window that enables recipients to see the message in rich media.

Dynamic Content

Dynamic content uses a message template to deliver unique content to each recipient based on her/his profile. Dynamic content goes beyond simple personalisation by varying entire blocks of content (e.g., photos, links, sections of text) from message to message. Each content block is selected from a library created for the campaign. The selection can be based on simple business rules such as "display content block A for men" and "display content block B for women." Organisations using dynamic content report results that are 4 to 8 times better than the results of static campaigns (Jupiter Research 2003).

Behavioural targeting is an advanced technique that analyses the course of your customers' actions on previous campaigns to help you target them on future campaigns. For instance, if you know that a customer segment clicked through on a jewelry promotion, you can up sell or cross sell with a future campaign featuring a diamond or birthstone sale. Alternatively, you can send follow-up messages to customers who did not respond.

Life Cycle Automation

Life cycle automation is an emerging email marketing technique that uses a series of external triggers and internal rules. The system automatically finds and sends the appropriate response to a given situation. The simplest form of life cycle marketing is called triggered or event-triggered messages (also known as auto responders). Triggered messages are sent one at a time in response to a single action. For instance, if a customer opts-in to your newsletter, your system would generate and send a welcome message.

Next: Marketing Fundamentals and Following the Path of a Single Message