Key Terms

Learning a new platform can be daunting. Get your bearings by better understanding the language of PostUp and email marketing!

 

PostUp Key Terms

Site: A site in PostUp hosts your recipient lists, data, mailings, and saved content such as HTML or images. Each site in PostUp is a unique database. While you can have multiple sites, there is no crossover between them. Multiple sites are only recommended when you have areas of your business that need to be completely separated.

Brand: A brand is a mailing identity. A brand includes message characteristics such as IP's, headers, footers, subject lines, and the domain used in links. A site can have multiple brands. A list of recipients can be on multiple brands. However, a mailing will only have one identity, so each mailing will fall under one brand.

Campaign: A campaign is a folder system for your mailings. Every non-triggered mailing must be in a campaign, and only one campaign. Campaigns can be used as an easy search mechanism, as well as reporting. Campaigns also can be utilized in behavior-based targeting. There is no limit to how many campaigns may be created in your site. The only data stored under a campaign are which mailings are in that folder, and whether recipients have been opening and/or clicking mailings in that folder.

List: A list is a collection of members, typically defined by their email addresses. Lists are static in the sense that once an email address is added to the list, it will remain on the list. However, members can receive several statuses that mark them as unmailable, meaning that while they are still on the list, you would only be able to send emails to the Normal members. A common unmailable status would be Unsubscribed. See the PostUp Recipient Status Descriptions document for examples of other statuses. There is no limit on how many lists you can create in your site, and members can be on multiple lists concurrently.

Segment: A segment is saved criteria that are used to form a collection of members. Segments are dynamic and do not have a static count associated to them. Each time a mailing is sent that targets a segment, it will send to the members who currently match that saved criteria. The criteria can be a combination of data that PostUp tracks automatically, such as Date Joined to List or Date Last Opened, or it can be data that has been loaded into PostUp such as the member’s City or State.

 

Recipient Status Descriptions

PostUp maintains a status for each recipient record in real-time. You may view a subscriber's status via the Recipient tab, by downloading or exporting data, and by previewing a mailing list. A subscriber's status will ultimately determine if he or she receives future mailings.

Please refer to the following list for more information about the recipient statuses presented throughout the PostUp user interface.

  • Normal: Indicates that the subscriber is eligible to receive mailings.
  • Unsub: This status refers to any recipient that unsubscribed at the site level. An Unsub status indicates that the one-time subscriber is no longer eligible to receive future email and/or SMS communications.
    • PostUp provides the option to configure unsubscribes at the list or global level. Please contact your Account Executive for more information.
    • PostUp automatically processes all feedback loop complaints as unsubscribes.
  • Optout: Indicates that the recipient explicitly requested to be removed from all mailing lists.
  • Held: PostUp will set a subscriber to a Held status if his or her email address generates a single hard bounce or multiple soft bounces.

It is important to note the difference between the way PostUp handles both hard and soft bounces:

  • Hard bounce: A hard bounce indicates the subscriber's address is invalid. Hard bounces are defined as a permanent error such as user@domain.com does not exist.
  • Soft bounce: A soft bounce indicates a transient error for a particular address that may be resolved in the future. Examples of soft bounces are user@domain.com exceeded storage allocation or attempting to send to a mail server that is unreachable.
  • Blocked: PostUp will set a subscriber to a Blocked status after his or her email address generates multiple block bounces.
  • Block bounce: A block bounce indicates that the ISP rejected the message because of an issue related to the sender.
  • Marked – Marked 5: The PostUp Professional Services team will set a record to a Marked status when isolating data segments suspected of containing a spam trap address. In addition, users may select to update subscriber records to a Marked status to isolate older data segments identified as having high complaint rates.
  • Temp Seed: PostUp will assign this status to any member who receives a test message or is seeded on a mailing.

 

Deliverability Terms

Above the Fold: The part of an email message that is visible without scrolling. The content in this area is considered more valuable because the reader is likely to see this material first. “Above the fold” was originally a printing term used for the top half of the newspaper — the part above the fold. Unlike a newspaper, email fold locations aren’t predictable. Folds may be affected by the subscriber’s preview pane, monitor-size and resolution, as well as any headers placed by email clients such as Hotmail.

Authentication: Authentication is the process of attempting to verify the digital identity of the sender. In email marketing, there are four main types of authentication: Domain Keys, DKIM, Sender ID and SPF. DMARC was also recently introduced.

Bacn: Email that a subscriber opted in to receive, but is often not read by the recipient for a long period of time, if at all. The industry describes Bacn as “email you want but not right now." Bacn differs from spam in that the recipient opted in to receive the email. The name “Bacn” conveys the idea that such email is better than spam, but not as good as personal email.

Blacklist: A list of IP addresses that have been reported and listed as known sources of spam. There are public and private blacklists.

Block: A refusal by an ISP or a mail server to accept and deliver an email message. Many ISPs block email from IP addresses or domains that have been reported to send spam, viruses or violate content policies and spam filters.

Bulk Mail: Mail that the ISP automatically filters to the subscriber’s bulk folder. This folder is also referred to as the Junk or Spam folders in some email clients.

CAN-SPAM Act: Abbreviated name for the U.S. law regulating commercial email. The actual name for the law is “Controlling the Assault of Non-Solicited Pornography and Marketing Act of 2003.”

Click-Through Rate: PostUp calculates the click-through rate as the ratio of total click-throughs on a link or links within an email to the total number of opens. This is expressed as a percentage. The click-through rate does not take into account people who later go to the website in response to an email marketing campaign; therefore clients should only use this percentage to measure direct response only.

Click-to-Open Rate: The ratio of unique click-throughs on a link or links within an email to the total number of unique opens of the email, typically expressed as a percentage.

Cloudmark: A spam-filter company that uses a network of users as a feedback mechanism to identify and block spam. Their Global Threat Network is fed by various means, but most notably through (1) their desktop spam filter and (2) “This is Spam" buttons that ISPs contribute through their Cloudmark Authority product.

Complaint Rate: The ratio of unique complaints from an email campaign to the total number of delivered emails, expressed as a percentage. Recipients of an email can complain using the "This is Junk/Spam" button in their selected email client.

Content Filters: Software filters that block email based on text, words, phrases or header information within the email itself. The goal of these filters is to identify spam and filter these messages to the bulk folder, although this may result in false-positives.

Deliverability: Refers to the subject area of getting emails delivered to the right place.

Delivered: Refers to the number of emails that the receiving email client accepted. Delivered does not represent the number of emails that reached subscriber inboxes. Delivered reflects the Total Number of Emails minus Bounced Emails.

DKIM: Domain Keys Identified Mail (DKIM) lets an organization take responsibility for a message during transit. The organization is a handler of the message, either as its originator or as an intermediary. Their reputation is the basis for evaluating whether to trust the message for delivery. Technically, DKIM provides a method for validating a domain name that is associated with a message through cryptographic authentication.

Domain: An organization's registered name on the Internet. For example, PostUp.com is a domain.

Domain Name System (DNS): How computer networks locate Internet domain names and translate them into IP addresses. The domain name is the actual name for an IP address or range of IP addresses.

Domain Keys: Domain Keys is an email authentication system designed to verify the DNS of an email sender and the message integrity.

Email Change of Address (ECOA): A service that tracks email address changes and updates.

Email Client: A program used to read and send email messages. As opposed to the email server, which transports mail, an email client is the interface the subscriber interacts with to read and send email. Email clients can be a software application like Outlook or webmail services like the ones provided by Yahoo, Hotmail and Gmail.

Email Service Provider (ESP): Another name for an email broadcast service provider, an ESP is a company that sends bulk (volume) email on behalf of their clients. PostUp is an email service provider.

Feedback Loop: A feedback loop is offered by several ISPs to senders that wish to remove subscribers that complain about the email they receive via the “This is Spam” button.

From Line: Indicates the sender of the email. The From Line is typically comprised of a Friendly From Address and a Friendly From Name, which is usually the sender’s company name.

Greylisting: A technique used by several ISPs and email receivers to thwart spammers. A receiving mail server that uses greylisting will temporarily reject any email from a sender it does not recognize. The receiver presumes that if the sender is legitimate, the originating server will most likely try to send the message again at which time the receiver will accept the communication. Greylisting presumes that if the sender is a spammer, they will not retry sending the message. Greylisting has disadvantages and is somewhat controversial.

Hard Bounce: Messages sent to an invalid, closed or nonexistent email account. Hard-bounced emails can be identified with a 500 series SMTP reply code.

HTML Message: Email message which contains Hyper Text Markup Language syntax and encoding. HTML Messages must be properly encoded and the receiving email clients must be capable of rendering HTML. Senders often utilize HTML in email messages to take advantage of text formatting, images and design layout beyond what is possible with plain text messages and encoding.

Inactives: Also referred to as “non-responders,” Inactives make-up the portion of your email recipient list that has not taken any action on your emails (opens or clicks) over a certain time period.

Inbox Placement Rate (IPR): Calculated as the Number of Emails Delivered to the Inbox divided by Total Number of Emails Sent, the IPR is the rate at which emails are delivered to the inbox versus the junk folder.

Infrastructure: Refers to the actual hardware used to deploy emails. The hardware is commonly referred to as your Mailing Transport Agent (MTA).

Internet Service Provider (ISP): A company in the business of providing access to consumers and businesses to the internet.

IP Address: A unique number assigned to each device connected to the Internet. An IP address can be dynamic, meaning the address changes each time an email campaign deploys. An IP address can also be static, meaning the address does not change. Static IP addresses are best because dynamic IP addresses often trigger spam filters.

Junk Mail Reporting (JMR): Microsoft’s feedback loop program.

List Fatigue: A condition producing diminishing returns from a mailing list whose subscribers are sent too many offers in a short period of time.

List Hygiene: Maintaining a list so that hard bounces and unsubscribed names are actively removed from the list.

List-Unsubscribe: The List-Unsubscribe header is text included in the header portion of your messages that creates an unsubscribe button that recipients may click to stop receiving future messages. Gmail, Windows Live and Cloudmark all currently use List-Unsubscribe.

MTA (Mail Transfer Agent): A Mail Transfer Agent is a server application that accepts email messages for relay or delivery to local recipients. MTAs are programs on mail servers that are responsible for routing and sometimes delivering mail.

MUA (Mail User Agent): A Mail User Agent is a client application that allows users to send and retrieve email from their computers. Common MUAs include Microsoft Outlook, Eudora and Netscape Messenger. MUA's are the component within the SMTP system that is responsible for creating email messages for transfer to an MTA. MUAs are also referred to as “email clients.”

MX Record (Mail Exchange Record): An MX Record is a type of resource record in the Domain Name System (DNS) that specifies how e-mail should be routed using the Simple Mail Transfer Protocol (SMTP).

Open Rate: The number of HTML messages opened by your recipients, expressed as a percentage of the total number of emails sent. The open rate is considered a key metric for judging an email campaign’s success, but it has several problems. Opens can’t be calculated for text- based emails, as opens are dependent on image downloads. Also, some email clients allow users to scan message content without actually opening the message, which can be falsely calculated as an open.

Opt-in: Opt-in email marketing means sending marketing messages only to people who explicitly requested them. If a customer asks for a specific type of newsletter, you have the permission to send that newsletter and nothing more.

Opt-out: Email marketing that assumes a general permission to send marketing messages to a population that did not explicitly state that they did not want to receive such information. Spammers operate on this highly problematic premise. Opt-in email marketing, where messages are only sent to those who request them, is much more effective.

Phishing: A form of identity theft in which a scammer uses an authentic-looking email to trick recipients into giving out sensitive personal information, such as credit-card or bank account numbers, Social Security numbers and other data.

POP (Post Office Protocol): A protocol that defines an email server and a way to retrieve mail from that server. Incoming messages are stored at a POP server until the user logs in and downloads the messages to their computer. While SMTP is used to transfer email messages from server to server, POP is used to collect mail with an email client from a server.

Postmaster: The person who manages mail servers at an organization. The Postmaster is the point of contact at a particular server or site to get help, information or to log complaints.

Preview Pane: A setting that desktop and webmail email clients offer that allow users to preview content without actually clicking on the message.

Pristine Spam Traps: Email addresses created solely to capture spammers (sometimes referred to as honey pots). These email addresses were never owned by a real person, do not subscribe to email programs and of course will not make purchases. Many spam trap operators will post (seed) pristine traps across the internet on various participating websites. They are usually hidden in the background code of web pages and are acquired by a spambot scraping email addresses. If you're hitting pristine traps this typically indicates you have a bad data partner.

Read Rate: The percentage of email recipients who marked your email as “Read” in their email client. Read rate is typically more accurate than open rate since read rate does not depend on image downloads.

Receiver: A generic term used to describe an Internet Service Provider or network that accepts and delivers large amounts of email.

Recycled Spam Traps: Email addresses that were once used by a real person. These email addresses are abandoned email accounts that are recycled by ISPs as spam traps. Before turning an abandoned email address into a spam trap, ISPs will return unknown user error codes for a year. Once ISPs reactivate (recycle) the abandoned email address, mail is once again allowed to be received by the email address. If you're hitting recycled spam traps this typically indicates your data hygiene process is not working.

Re-engagement Campaign: An email campaign sent to inactives — or non-responders — in an attempt to win them back and have them re-engage with your emails again in the form of opens, clicks and conversions. A re-engagement campaign can be sent to inactives as a standalone mailing, or as a series of waterfall mailings.

Reply-to Address: The email address that receives messages sent from subscribers who click “reply” in their email clients. This address can differ from the From address which can be an automated or unmonitored email address to send messages to a distribution list. The Reply-to address should always be a monitored address.

Responsive Design: Using a CSS3 coding technique called media queries, Responsive Design allows your email to automatically re-format and re-size its design to optimize for whatever screen size your recipient is using to read your email.

Reverse DNS (rDNS): The process in which an IP address is matched to a domain name, instead of matching the domain to an IP address. Reverse DNS is a popular method for catching spammers who use invalid IP addresses. If a spam filter or program can't match the IP address to the domain name, it can reject the email.

Segment: The ability to slice a list into specific pieces determined by various attributes, such as open history or opt-in source.

Sender ID: The informal name for an anti-spam program that combines two existing protocols: Sender Policy Framework and CallerID. Sender ID authenticates email senders and blocks email forgeries and fake addresses.

Sender: This is a generic term that refers to any company sending email to a large number of subscribers.

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.

Simple Mail Transfer Protocol (SMTP): A server-to-server mail transfer protocol. Examples include Sendmail, Postfix and Qmail.

Smart Network Data Services (SNDS): Offered by Windows Live Hotmail, SNDS provides data to senders based on actual mail sent to Hotmail subscribers. Metrics reported on include complaints, SmartScreen filter results and spam trap hits.

Soft Bounce: Email sent to an active email address, but temporarily rejected by the server for one of several reasons. For example, an email will soft bounce if 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 the message again. Typically, soft bounced emails can be identified with a 400 series of SMTP reply code.

Spam: Spam is unsolicited email. Not all unsolicited email is spam, however. Most spam is sent in bulk to a large number of email addresses and advertises some product.

Spam Filter: A mechanism used to identify spam email and keep the message from the recipient’s inbox.

SpamCop: A blacklist database that ISPs check the IP addresses of incoming email against to determine whether the address has been blacklisted due to spam complaints.

Sender Policy Framework (SPF): A protocol used to eliminate email forgeries. A line of code called an SPF record is placed in a sender's DNS information. The incoming mail server can verify a sender by reading the SPF record before allowing a message through.

Spoofing: The practice of changing a sender’s name so that an email message looks as though the email came from another address; this is a practice leveraged by scammers.

Sender Reputation Data (SRD): Used by Microsoft Live Hotmail and MSN Hotmail, SRD is a collection of non-biased responses from feedback loop participants over time. Along with other sources of reputation data such as the Junk Email Reporting Program (JMRP), the Windows Live Sender Reputation Data helps to train and improve the way Microsoft's SmartScreen technology properly classifies messages based on email content and sender reputation.

Subscribe: The process of voluntarily joining a mailing list, either through an email command, by filling out a web form or offline by filling out a form.

Subscriber: The person who has specifically requested to join a mailing list.

Suppression File: A list of email addresses removed from your regular mailing lists, either because these addresses opted out of your mailing lists or they notified other mailers they do not want to receive your communications. Suppression files are often used when working with partners and advertisers.

Throttling: The practice of regulating how many email messages a sender deploys to one ISP or mail server at a time. Some ISPs bounce email if it receives too many messages from one sending address at a time. AKA “Rate Limiting”.

Transactional Mail: Transactional messages are defined under CAN-SPAM as any email "facilitating, completing or confirming a previously agreed upon transaction." Unlike commercial messages, transactional messages aren't required to have a U.S. Postal Service address or an unsubscribe link.

Unknown User: Bounce error code generated by an ISP when an email address is not registered in its system.

Whitelist: A list of contacts that a user deems acceptable to receive email from, and should not be filtered or sent to the trash or spam folder.

X-header: A user defined header element that is injected into the header portion of an email message. Used as a mechanism that enables senders to monitor the behavior of each subscriber and collect the data.