Email Marketing 101

I serve on a few boards and committees for non-profits and this past week.

At a meeting Wednesday, someone asked why we should use an email service instead of doing it ourselves.

MarketingProfs.com has some answers to introduce you to email marketing:

Mastering the Language of Email Marketing

"Every industry has its own language," writes DJ Waldow in an article at MarketingProfs. "The email marketing community, too, has its own jargon that sets it apart. And if you are unfamiliar with it, navigating the world of email marketing can be confusing." Whether you're just starting out, or you've been doing email campaigns for a while, it never hurts to have a concise email-marketing glossary on hand.

Waldow put one together for MarketingProfs, and it includes terms like these:

• Blacklist. A blacklist contains a set of Internet Protocol (IP) addresses that are suspected of sending out unsolicited email (spam). "If your sending IP has a high complaint rate, high hard-bounce rate, or a bunch of spamtrap addresses … you are more likely to be blacklisted," Waldow notes.
  
• Hard bounce. A hard bounce is an email that does not reach the intended recipient because of a permanent error. Hard bounces can occur when an alias (username) or domain does not exist.
• Spamtrap/honeypot. These are old/inactive/unused email addresses that are intentionally set up to catch spammers. If you have spamtrap/honeypot email addresses on your list, it may be time to review your process for growing your email list, Waldow advises.
  
• Whitelist. A whitelist is a list of "approved" IP addresses and senders. If an Internet service provider (ISP) has whitelisted an IP address, it is more likely to accept incoming email from that address.
  
• CAN-SPAM Act of 2003. Signed into law in December 2003 by President Bush, and updated in 2008, CAN-SPAM establishes the standards for sending commercial email in the United States.

The Po!nt: Don't forget the basics. Email marketing rewards those who know what they're doing, and punishes those who do not. The first step to success is remembering what all the lingo means—and why it matters.

Source: MarketingProfs.

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