Have you ever sat in a meeting and wondered, “what on earth are they talking about?”
You’re not the only one.
It can be hard to keep up with all the new phrases and terminology that gets thrown around.
To give you a quick boost, and bring you up to speed with your email marketing knowledge, here are the definitions of what we believe are the Top 5 key email marketing terms to be aware of (or at least the Top 5 most handy!).
1. Dynamic Content
Dynamic content is content that is unique to a user’s interests, which are also often based on their data and subscription preferences.
As an email marketer, segmenting and targeting your user data is an integral part of your marketing strategy. Dynamic content is a key tactic when it comes to executing your strategy, and if planned and implemented well, can be very effective.
Industry leaders say that it is not enough to simply display the same content to a mass audience, content needs to be personalised in order to see an increase in engagement and sales.
‘One size fits all’… not anymore.
2. Transactional email
A transactional email is a term used by marketers to reference an email that has been ‘triggered’. What we mean by the term triggered is that the user has had some form of engagement with a web link prior to the intial email being sent.
For example; a user has purchased a ticket for an upcoming event online, the user is then sent a receipt and in some cases a thank you email- these are transactional emails.
Here are some examples of other transactional emails:
- Email address confirmations
- Password resets
- Purchase receipts
- Ticket invoices
- Subscription confirmations
- “thank you” pages
- Weekly manifests
- Auto-responders
- Email address confirmations
- Subscription confirmations
- Support requests
3. Click-through rate
Click-through rate (CTR) is a common term that has been around for a little while now, but still remains very relevant.
Click-through rate (CTR) is a performance metric that is calculated as a percentage. The percentage is the amount of times somebody clicks through when they receive an email versus the amount of times it has been viewed.
Yes, some math involved here, but not to worry, most good software providers will calculate this for you.
Phew!
The terminology is also used outside of email marketing, particularly for paid search, and display search.
CTR does vary per campaign, and specific elements in your email campaign can affect it including; subject line, written copy and even time of day when the email was sent.
A good benchmark to aim for your CTR is between 20-30% – this is considered a positive CTR in the industry.
If your CTR is falling below this, don’t fret, it may just mean that you need to change and test certain elements of your email.
This may involve switching up your content, testing subject lines, changing your send times, as well as giving your template a fresh look!
4. ESP
ESP stands for ‘Email Service Provider’. This is an important acronym that will often get thrown around in an email marketing environment. An ESP is a software provider that can offer you email marketing and automation services. It is essentially the email delivery engine and the drive behind the email campaigns we see today.
Here are some basic functions of an ESP:
- Emails can be published manually or set to auto send
- Detailed Reporting and Analytics on email metrics
- Send test emails before publishing
- Create, build and maintain email subscriber lists
- Inclusion of dynamic content and personalisation
- Customisable email templates
5. Email Deliverability
Exactly as it says on the tin. Email deliverability is in simple terms, the rate in which the email provider is capable of delivering an email to the recipients inbox.
There are a number of elements that can affect your email deliverability, which can come from your ESP or from the marketer themselves. Yes, human error can affect your email deliverability – but fear not, as long as you produce good quality content and keep your data lists clean, you should have a good rate of deliverability with your campaigns.
From a non human perspective, anything such as ISPs, throttling, bounces, bulking, and spam issues can all have an effect on your email deliverability.
Things that can hurt email deliverability include:
- Sending from a free domain (yahoo, gmail or hotmail, etc.)
- Non mobile responsive
- Making unsubscribing difficult so people mark you as SPAM rather than unsubscribing
- Using URL shorteners
- Writing subject lines that could be seen as spam (e.g. WIN!! FREE MONEY!)
- Emails that are image heavy
- If you use single opt-ins as opposed to double opt-ins
The Preferred Email, Events and SMS Automation Software For All Australian Government Departments
Swift Digital’s templates help you effortlessly create stunning emails and events communications using our drag-and-drop email and event builder.
You can raise engagement with embedded images, videos, polls, article feedback, and emojis and schedule messages to send at the right time.
Government departments’ unique marketing requirements are covered with Swift Digital, and full compliance with all anti-spam and privacy laws is guaranteed. Swift Digital is also ISO 27001 certified.
Swift Digital is Australia’s leader in marketing automation software and event management working with organisations like the NSW Government, ATO, and companies like Westpac Bank and Qantas.
Find out why we’re the Australian government department’s number one choice for their professional communications and events.
To find out how your business can get the best out of Swift Digital’s platform, contact our team today.
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