(Hypertext Markup Language) The document format used on the Web. Web pages are built with HTML tags (codes) embedded in the text. HTML defines the page layout, fonts and graphic elements as well as the hypertext links to other documents on the Web.

IA (Information Architecture):

The design of a computer system. Used to describe the design of a web site and the user experience in navigating.

Image ALT :

(ALTernate text) On a Web page, a text description that can be added to the HTML tag that displays an image. The ALT text is displayed by the browser when the cursor is moved over the picture. If pictures are turned off in the browser, the ALT text is automatically displayed instead.

Keywords :

A word used in a text search. A word in a text document that is used in an index to best describes the contents of the document.

Link text :

A word or short phrase on a Web page that provides the visual hypertext link to another page or to somewhere else on that same page. Link text is typically underlined.

Live Chat :

The ability to communicate with users on the website in real-time. It is used to give assistance to the end user.

META tags :

Code that identifies the contents of a Web page for the search engines. Meta tags contain a general description of the page, keywords and copyright information.

MSN :

The Microsoft Network of owned and operated sites and web mail providers, includes hotmail, MSN.com, msnbc.com, etc…

ROI (Return on Investment):

ROI A ratio of the amount of money spent on a campaign in relation to the amount of money generated.

SEO (Search Engine Optimization) also SE Optimization:

The process of increasing the code and design of a web page to make it appear more often and featured higher in Internet search engines.

Search Engine Rankings :

The ‘ranking' you receive from the search engines, usually indicating the popularity of the website.

Site Map :

A hierarchical diagram of the pages on a Web site, starting with the home page at the top. A site map helps visitors navigate large, complicated sites by showing its entire structure. It is also used as a master diagram of the Web site for Web designers.

Spamming :

Unsolicited e-mail, often of a commercial nature, sent indiscriminately to multiple mailing lists, individuals, or newsgroups; junk e-mail.

Text Ads :

Advertisement using text-based hyperlinks.

Traffic :

Data transmitted over a network. Traffic is a very general term and typically refers to overall network usage at a given moment.

URL :

An Internet address (for example, http://www.hmco.com/trade/), usually consisting of the access protocol (http), the domain name (www.hmco.com), and optionally the path to a file or resource residing on that server (trade).

Vehicle :

The means by which a message is delivered. Website, Banner, Pops, text links etc.

Viral Marketing :

A marketing approach that spreads like wildfire, ‘infecting' other users.

Web Design :

The Selection and coordination of available components to create the visual layout as well as the structure of a web page. Web directory : Organized, categorized listings of Web sites.

Automatic replies sent by the e-mail software of the recipient after receipt of an e-mail.

Bounce messages :

E-mail sent back to the server that originally sent the e-mail.

Bounce rate :

Ratio of bounced e-mails to total e-mails sent.

Bulk, bulking :

Terms used by spammers to refer to their line of work. Mostly synonymous with spam or UCE.

Call to action :

Words in the e-mail that entice recipients to do something.

Click-through :

The action of clicking on a link.

Click-through rate (CTR) Ratio of click-throughs to total e-mails sent.

Commercial e-mail :

Any e-mail sent for commercial purpose; for instance, an advertisement to buy a product or service, an order confirmation from an online store, or a paid subscription periodical delivered by e-mail. Commercial e-mail is not synonymous with spam; see unsolicited commercial e-mail below.

Demographic :

Characteristic of a group of e-mail recipients.

Double opt-in

A term coined by spammers to refer to the normal operation of secure electronic mailing list software. A new subscriber first gives his/her address to the list software (for instance, on a Web page) and then confirms subscription after receiving an e-mail asking if it was really him/her. This ensures that no person can subscribe someone else out of malice or error. The intention of the term "double opt-in" is to make it appear that the confirmation is a duplication of effort; and thus, to justify not confirming subscriptions. Mail system administrators and non-spam mailing list operators refer to confirmed subscription or closed-loop opt-in .

Double opt-out :

Same as Opt-In, but the recipient unsubscribes instead of subscribes. Borderline spam operations frequently make it difficult to unsubscribe from lists, in order to keep their lists large. Hard-core spam operations make it impossible -- they treat opt-out requests as confirmations that the address works and is read.

E-mail Blast :

An e-mail sent to multiple recipients, intended to inform them of announcements, events or changes. A variety of methods can be used to send the same e-mail to multiple recipients: for example: using options within an e-mail program, using the mail merge option within a word processing program, or using a commercial e-mail list programs.

Express consent :

A recipient agrees actively to subscribe by checking a box on a web form, paper form or by telephone. A recipient not unchecking a box is not express consent.

False positives :

E-mail that is not spam but is labeled spam by a spam filter of the recipient. Note that e-mail marketers may have different opinions of what is "spam" than e-mail recipients.

Format :

E-mails can be sent in plain text, HTML, or Microsoft's rich text format.

Hard bounce :

Bounced e-mail that could never get through because the e-mail address doesn't exist or the domain doesn't exist.

Landing Pages:

In online marketing, a landing page is a specific web page that a visitor ultimately reaches after clicking a link or advertisement. Often, this page showcases content that is an extension of the link or ad, or the page is optimized for a specific keyword term or phrase to attract search engines.
A landing page will often be customized in PPC campaigns, as a way to both monitor the effectiveness of paid ads as well as a way to supply copy, images, or other content that is specifically targeted to the advertisement. By adding parameters to the linking URL, marketers can compare ad effectiveness based on relative click-through rates.
There are two types of landing pages: reference and transactional. A Reference landing page seeks to communicate information that is relevant to the visitor. These pages can include reference texts as well as dynamic compilations of relevant links or other online elements. A Transactional landing page seeks to persuade a visitor to complete a transactional activity. These activities include sale of a product, service, or content, submission of information through a form or other interface, interaction with advertisements on the landing page, or any other form of measurable action desirable to the advertiser.
Reference landing pages are considered effective to the degree that they fulfill the objectives of the publisher, which may include content engagement in the case of associations, organizations or public service entities. For many reference-landing pages, their effectiveness can be measured by the revenue value of advertising that is displayed on them.
The desired action in a Transactional landing page is often referred to as a "conversion". The efficiency or quality of the landing page can be measured by the conversion rate (CR) of visitors into actions. Since the economics of many online marketing programs are completely determined by the CR, it is critical to continually test alternatives and improvements to landing pages.

List broker :

Reseller of lists of e-mail addresses.

List building :

Process of generating a list of e-mail addresses for use in e-mail campaigns.

List host :

Web service that provides tools to manage large e-mail address databases and to distribute large quantities of e-mails.

List manager :

Owner or operator of opt-in e-mail newsletters or databases. Also software used to maintain a mailing list.

Look and feel :

Appearance, layout, design, functions & anything not directly related to the actual message on an e-mail.

Open rate :

E-mail open rate measures the ratio of e-mails "opened" to the number sent or "delivered." The ratio is calculated in various ways, the most popular is: e-mails delivered (sent - hard bounces) /unique opens.

Opt-in :

The action of agreeing to receive e-mails from a particular company, group of companies or associated companies, by subscribing to an e-mail list.

Opt-out :

A mailing list which transmits e-mails to people who have not subscribed and lets them "opt-out" from the list. The subscribers' e-mail addresses may be harvested from the web, USENET, or other mailing lists. ISP policies and some regions' laws consider this equivalent to spamming.

Personalization :

The use of technology and customer information to tailor e-mails between a business and each individual customer. Using information previously obtained about the customer, the e-mail is altered to fit that customer's stated needs as well as needs perceived by the business based on the available customer information, for the purpose of better serving the customer by anticipating needs, making the interaction efficient and satisfying for both parties and building a relationship that encourages the customer to return for subsequent purchases.

Privacy :

The Privacy Act of 1974, Public Law 93-579, safeguards privacy through creating four procedural rights in personal data. It requires government agencies to show an individual any records kept on him/her; also requires agencies to follow "fair information practices" when gathering and handling personal data. It places restrictions on how agencies can share an individual's data with other people and agencies and also lets individuals sue the government for violating its provisions.

Rental list :

A mailing list that can only be used once or for a limited time. The user of the list pays the owner of the list less money than if he/she would have bought the list outright. Note that this term is usually used for lists generated by address harvesting or other means; the investment made by the list creator does not correlate with the permission of the e-mail recipients. Many firms who "rent" or "buy" a list face spam complaints afterward from persons who never subscribed.

Segmentation (or Targeting) :

The use of previously gathered information to send e-mails of a particular offer to a subset of the list.

Soft bounce :

A soft bounce is an e-mail that gets as far as the recipient's mail server but is bounced back undelivered before it gets to the intended recipient. it might occur because the recipient's inbox is full. A soft bounce message may be deliverable at another time or may be forwarded manually by the network administrator in charge of redirecting mail on the recipient's domain. On the other hand, a hard bounce is an e-mail message that has been returned to the sender because the recipient's address is invalid.

Spam or UBE (Unsolicited Bulk e-mail) :

From the sender's point-of-view, spam is a form of bulk mail, often sent to a list obtained by companies that specialize in creating e-mail distribution lists. To the receiver, it usually seems like junk e-mail. Spam is equivalent to unsolicited telemarketing calls except that the user pays for part of the message since everyone shares the cost of maintaining the Internet. Spammers typically send a piece of e-mail to a distribution list in the millions, expecting that only a tiny number of readers will respond to their offer. The term spam is said to derive from a famous Monty Python sketch ("Well, we have Spam, tomato & Spam, egg & Spam, Egg, bacon & Spam...") that was current when spam first began arriving on the Internet. SPAM is a trademarked Hormel meat product that was well-known in the U.S. Armed Forces during World War II.

Spam filter :

Software that is usually installed in the users e-mail client, with the purpose of avoiding spam e-mail to get into the client's inbox or at least to be flagged as such.

Subject line :

It is one of the most important issues in e-mail marketing. The better the subject line of an e-mail, the better probability of being opened by the recipient.

Targeting (or segmentation) :

Sending e-mails to a subset of a mailing list based on a specific filter, trying to improve CTR and/or open ratios.

Tracking :

The act of reporting CTR, open ratios, bounces, etc.

Trigger based messaging :

Triggering a message based on an event or interaction with a previous message. Popular for customers who request more information.

Unique click :

During a particular period, a visitor to a website could click several times on a particular link, but during that period it is counted only as one and considered a unique visitor.

Unsolicited commercial e-mail (UCE) :

The subset of e-mail spam that is also commercial, usually of an advertising nature, sent at the expense of the recipient without his or her permission. Sending UCE is an offense against all major ISPs' terms of service, and is a crime in some jurisdictions.