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BtoB Marketing Glossary and Terms - Terms

Full Listing of BtoB Marketing Terminology

A

Above the Fold: Marketing term for the portion of a message visible on a computer screen without scrolling down the page.

Accreditation: Third party program can certify a sender's email at accepted email receivers. It’s a third party stamp of approval at participating ISPs. Several trusted sender programs include SenderScore by Return Path - formerly Bonded Sender, Goodmail and Habeas. A business must pay for accreditation with these programs and they reject about 80% of applicants.

Advocate: Customer providing unpaid promotion for your organization, product or service.

Application Programming Interface (API): Interface a computer system, library or application provides in order to allow requests for services to be made of it by other computer programs. It allows data to be exchanged between services.

Approved Sender: Email recipients authorize the email sender is legitimate by approving the sender in their spam filters and/or email clients.

Authentication: Technology standard established to pinpoint the true identity of an email sender. Authentication verifies a computer server, IP address and/or sender is authorized to send email from a specific domain. There are two levels of authentication: IP-level at the domain level and Cryptographic at the message level.

Automated Campaign: Series of communications for which each entry cycle, step and lead route is automatically executed by pre-defined triggers.

Automated Feedback Loops: Technology used between large ISPs and ESPs to send user SPAM complaints to the sender of the email for removal/unsubscribing.

B

Behavior-based Segmentation: Dividing and targeting lists and triggering communications based on contact behaviors and history in addition dividing and targeting groups by firmagraphic and demographic information stored in a central marketing database.

Blacklist: Group of addresses, domains and IP addresses prevented from passing through spam filters established at ISPs. Users with bad sending habits or SPAM behaviors can end up on a blacklist.

Blog: Website containing an online personal journal with reflections, comments and often hyperlinks provided by writer.

C

Campaign: Overall structure for organizing related resources and sending out a series of communications to a group of contacts meeting predetermined entry criteria.

Campaign Resources: All emails, surveys, microsites and direct mail pieces associated with a campaign, which are grouped together for the purpose of organization and analysis.

CAN-SPAM Act of 2003: (Controlling the Assault of Non-Solicited Pornography and Marketing Act) establishes requirements for those who send commercial email, spells out penalties for spammers and companies whose products are advertised in spam if they violate the law, and gives consumers the right to ask emailers to stop spamming them.

Conditional Content: Content within a resource (email) that a contact receives if they match a designated set of criteria. When creating a single email you have the ability to determine if a portion of your email content will or will not be included depending on if that contact meets criterion that you define. Conditional content is best understood as a simple either / or relationship. Blocks of information are received if the contact meets a specified condition, and are not received if the contact does not meet the condition. If the contact does not match the condition, there is no default content.

Confirmed Opt-in: Stringent and best practice method of obtaining permission to send email campaigns. You not only receive permission, but you also follow up with an email message that confirms the person has opted in. Confirmed opt-in allows you to get explicit permission from a recipient and immediately test your new relationship, creating a good brand impression. Confirmed opt-ins also allow you to verify that the email address you have is valid before it can damage your deliverability.

CRM: Customer Relationship Management, software used primarily by sales to manage and maintain prospect and customer data.

Cryptographic Authentication: Method using the Domain Key technology where key pairs are generated by email senders (1 pair in DNS and 1 pair in message header). Mailbox providers query DNS to ensure the key signature in the header matches the key in the DNS.

Customer: Business or individual that has on one or more occasions purchased from your organization.

D

Dedicated IP Address: Internet address used solely by one company to send email.

Demand Generation:

Domain: A particular organization's registered name on the Internet. For example vtrenz.com.

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

Domain Name System (DNS): System that stores and associates many types of information with domain names and translates domain names (computer hostnames) to IP addresses. It also lists mail exchange servers accepting email for each domain.

Double Opt-in: A double opt-in takes the confirmed opt-in one step further by making the recipient confirm and then reaffirm that they did indeed want to receive emails from you. Only after they take this action is the double opt-in considered complete and only then will a recipient begin to receive information. (Germany requires double opt-in for email marketing.)

Dynamic Content: Section of content within your resource (email) that changes if your contact matches a designated set of criteria. Dynamic content contains several conditions within it. Dynamic content satisfies an if / else if / else if relationship. The first block of content is received if the contact meets the first condition; the second if the second condition is met; the third if the third condition is met and so on. Thus, the recipient will receive the content for the first criteria they fulfill and only that content. If they do not fit any of the criteria, they will receive default content.

E

Email Spoofing: Term used to describe fraudulent email activity in which the sender address and other parts of the email header are altered to appear as though the email originated from a different source. Email spoofing is a technique commonly used for spam email and phishing to hide the origin of message. By changing certain properties of the email header, malicious users can make the email appear to be from someone other than the actual sender.

Enterprise Marketing Management: Software solutions designed to enable more effective and efficient marketing through the automation of marketing activities including data management and analytics, creative development and file sharing and operational execution.

ESP (Email Service Provider): A company providing email service for a fee.

F

False Positive: A spam filtering technique occurring when a legitimate email message is wrongly classified as spam and doesn’t get reach the inbox.

Filter (Includes ISP, Corporate and Client Filters): Email technology that catches unsolicited or SPAM email.

Frameset: Code used to display different HTML documents within the same browser window. Multiple frames allow web page designers a way to keep certain information visible while users navigate and scroll through the separate frames. If you have multiple framesets on one web page an iMarketing Automation microsite can display in one frame, while other unrelated content can display in the remaining frames.

G

Grow: Marketing term used to define the process of building more profitable, long-term relationships by encouraging repeat purchases of active customers.

H

Hard Bounce: Mail server could not send an email. The most common example of a hard bounce is when the user doesn’t exist on that domain or the email has been blocked.

I

iFrame (Inline Frame): Code used to embed a resource within a web page. Known as ‘floating frames,’ they can be positioned anywhere within a web page with text wrapping around it.

Integration API: Interface allowing vendors and applications to extend and integrate with each other. Data is mapped and transferred between application systems.

Internet Protocol (IP) Address: Number devices use to identify and communicate with each other on a computer network utilizing the Internet Protocol (IP) standard. Participating network devices include routers, computers, time-servers, printers, internet fax machines, and some telephones.

IP-Level Authentication: Technology allowing an email recipient to verify the received email was from an IP address authorized to send for that specific domain. It prevents someone from sending an email claiming to be someone else.

ISP (Internet Service Provider): A company providing internet access for a fee.

L

Landing Page: Web page containing specific targeted content in correspondence to a marketing campaign (also known as a microsite).

Lead Generation:

Lead Management: A term used in general business practice to describe methodologies, systems, and practices designed to generate new potential business clientele, generally operated through a variety of marketing techniques.

Lead Nurture: Marketing term used to define the process of identifying potential customers, initiating the exchange of information and moving consumers or businesses through the buying cycle toward a purchase.

Lead Scoring: Ranking the qualification of leads according to their buying interest

Lead to Sale Process: The entire marketing and sales funnel from inquiry generation to closed deal. Most commonly including inquiry > impressions > marketing qualified > sales accepted > sales qualified > closed deal.

M

Marketing Automation: Automating the entire marketing process from campaign planning to execution to anlaysis. Most often technology is used to optimize the process.

Marketing Qualified: A term referring to the pre-defined set of criteria agreed on by both sales and marketing a prospect must obtain prior to being passed to sales for follow-up.

Message Transfer Agent (MTA): Technology responsible for delivering email messages. Upon receiving a message from a Mail User Agent or another MTA, it stores it locally, temporarily analyzes the recipients and either delivers it or routes it to another MTA. In either case it may edit or add to the message headers. Servers responsible for high volume email delivery – it’s a critical component of deliverability and should have features to support AAR (authentication, accreditation and reputation). The MTA manages an appropriate sending speed, “throttling” to each domain/ISP based on real-time feedback. It also handles bounce processing.

Microsite: Web page containing specific targeted content in correspondence to a marketing campaign (also known as a landing page).

N

Nurture: Marketing term used to define the process of identifying potential customers, initiating the exchange of information and moving consumers or businesses through the buying cycle toward a purchase.

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O

Opt-out: Marketing term describing the method of requiring a targeted individual to explicitly respond to a solicitation in order to keep from receiving a communication, product or service. The individual chooses not to participate in something.

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P

Pay-Per-Click: Advertising technique used on websites, advertising networks and search engines. With search engines, pay-per-click advertisements are usually text ads placed near search results; when a site visitor clicks on the advertisement, the advertiser is charged a small amount. Variants include pay-for-placement and pay-for-ranking.

Permission-Based Marketing: Marketing practice requiring an opt-in policy where the audience self-selects the communications they wish to subscribe to. The policy explains how any information the audience provides will be used.

Phishing: Online criminal activity using social engineering techniques. "Phishers" attempt to fraudulently acquire sensitive information such as passwords and credit card details by masquerading as a trustworthy person or business in an electronic communication. Phishing is typically carried out using email or an instant message.

Podcasting: Method of distributing multimedia files (audio or video programs) over the Internet using syndication feeds for playback on mobile devices and personal computers. The term, coined in 2004, combines "iPod", a popular portable audio device, and "broadcasting."

Prospect: Qualified business or individual with intention to purchase from or donate to your organization.

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R

Really Simple Syndication (RSS): Family of web feed formats. Content providers publish a feed link on their web sites which end users can register with an aggregator program running on their own machines. When instructed, the aggregator asks all the servers in its feed list if they have new content. If so, the aggregator either makes a note of the new content or downloads it. Aggregators can be scheduled to check for new content periodically.

Relationship Marketing: Marketing method in which businesses consistently maintain two-way communication with their prospective, current and inactive customers in order to gain a deeper understanding of their needs while delivering personal and compelling marketing throughout their lifecycle.

Reputation: Online behavior-based method of verifying the amount and quality of email message sent from a particular IP address and domain over a period of time is acceptable. It shows a company is a legitimate sender and is controlled by the company itself – it can’t be purchased. Reputation is based on the sender identity, ISP, recipient and third party feedback and list hygiene. Having a good reputation can improve email deliverability.

Retain: Process of identifying and winning back inactive and quit customers by reengaging them with product and service offerings.

Rules Based Marketing: Process allowing marketers to deliver timely, relevant and consistent communications to prospects or customers via email, direct mail, telemarketing, or other communication channels. Rules guide marketing campaigns and govern which information is sent when, which messages go to whom, which prospects or customers fall into which categories and so on. Rules based marketing is an automated marketing strategy involving pre-defined if-then rules, resulting in communications that are more timely, relevant and consistent across multiple communication channels.

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S

Sales Accepted: A term referring to the disposition of a prospect once a sales rep has agreed to spend time working the deal.

Sales Qualified: A term referring to the disposition of a prospect once a sales has created an opportunity and entered the contact into the sales pipeline.

Search Engine Marketing (SEM): Marketing methods designed to increase the visibility of a website in search engine results pages.

Seed List: Group of people in your company who need to see a campaign or email when it goes "live" to the target audience.

Sender Policy Framework (SPF)/Sender ID: Form of authentication to force registration of approved sending IP addresses.

Shared IP Address: Multiple email communications sent from a single IP address for more than one company.

Single Opt-in: Interested parties must check a box or click on a link to sign up to receive emails. As the most basic level of permission-based email, the single opt-in is also the most popular. Nearly 40% of BtoC email marketers use the single opt-in option and 20% of BtoB marketers, according to MarketingSherpa.

Soft Bounce: Recipient’s mail server is temporarily unable to accept your email. This typically happens when the recipient’s mailbox is full or the mail server is unable to be reached and is not responding.

Spam: Unsolicited commercial email sent to a large number of addresses. In the CAN-SPAM act, spam stands for non-solicited pornography and marketing.

Standard Opt-in: Process requiring an active choice on the part of the subscriber to receive email communications.

Suspect: Business or individual having direct or indirect contact with an organization’s products or services or might have purchased from or donated to your organization.

W

Web Service: Standardized way of integrating web-based applications using the XML, SOAP, WSDL and UDDI open standards over an Internet protocol backbone.

Web Tracking: Allows you to track visits to your website and target communications to contacts based on the web pages they have viewed.

White List: Group of accredited, trusted addresses, domains and IPs approved to pass through spam filters established at ISPs and corporate filters. White lists are used to reduce the incidence of false positives, often based on the assumption that most legitimate mail will be from a relatively small and fixed set of senders.

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