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Glossary of Digital Marketing Terms

Overview

The following definitions will provide you with clarification in regards to terms applied throughout this resource for email marketing communications. These terms are in general reference to their applications to the Internet of Things (IoT), and more specifically, the functionality of email.

General Terms and Definitions

Automation

A subset of customer relationship management (CRM) that focuses on the definition, segmentation, scheduling, and tracking of marketing campaigns. The use of marketing automation makes processes that would otherwise have been performed manually much more efficient and makes new processes possible.

Blog

A regularly updated website or page, typically one run by an individual or small group, that is written in an informal or conversational style.

Brand

A category of goods identified by a name as being made by a certain company.

Call to Action

An exhortation or stimulus to do something in order to achieve an aim or deal with a problem.

In Marketing: A piece of content intended to induce a viewer, reader, or listener to perform a specific act, typically taking the form of an instruction or directive (e.g. buy now or click here).

Campaign (Journey)

A series of customized experiences, emails and social, centered around a specific initiative (i.e., a fundraising campaign), a series of events (i.e., guest lecturers for a specific school), or a larger event (i.e., graduation).

Copy

Written material, in contrast to photographs or other elements of layout, in a large number of contexts, including magazines, advertising, and books.

Customer Relationship Management (CRM)

A technology for managing all your company's relationships and interactions with customers and potential customers. The goal is simple: Improve business relationships. 

A CRM solution helps you focus on your organization's relationships with individual people — including customers, service users, colleagues, or suppliers — throughout your lifecycle with them, including finding new customers, winning their business, and providing support and additional services throughout the relationship.

Dynamic Content

Smart content is a term for the aspects of a website, ad, or email body that change based on the interests or past behavior of the viewer. It creates an experience that's customized specifically for the visitor or reader at that moment.

Email

A single message distributed by electronic means from one computer user to one or more recipients via a network.

Email Management System (EMS), or Email Service Provider (ESP)

The tool used to centralize the management of a company's information digital marketing assets, specifically related to email marketing communications.

SalesForce Marketing Cloud: Pepperdine University's primary tool providing the ability to personalize experiences across email, mobile, social, paid ads & the web. This system allows predictive intelligence, one-to-one customer journies, personalized content, and abilities to leverage CRM data.

Imagery

visually descriptive or figurative language, especially in a literary work. Visual images collectively, or visual symbolism.

Interactive Content

Content that requires the participants' active engagement — more than simply reading or watching. In return for that engagement, participants receive real-time, hyper-relevant results they care about.

Personalization

Means adding unique information for each recipient. (i.e., the First and Last Name of the recipient appears in the email message.) Including personalization has been recorded to increase and build customer trust, specifically the sharing of personal information related to Name, Age, and Shopping Preferences, nearly 10%.

Sender Reputation

Is tied to the domain you are sending your emails from and will follow you wherever you send with that domain (i.e., ...@pepperdine.edu, etc.).

Sender Profile

Who the message is delivered from, typically referenced as the 'From' address (i.e., 'Public Relations' <public.relations@pepperdine.edu>, etc.).

Social Media

Websites and applications that enable users to create and share content or to participate in social networking.

SPAM

Irrelevant or inappropriate messages, or content, sent to a large number of recipients.

Subscription Management

A process which tracks the behavior and record of Opt-in and Unsubscribes actions.

Affirmative Consent: The term "affirmative consent", when used with respect to a commercial electronic mail message, means that—

(A) the recipient expressly consented to receive the message, either in response to a clear and conspicuous request for such consent or at the recipient's own initiative; and

(B) if the message is from a party other than the party to which the recipient communicated such consent, the recipient was given clear and conspicuous notice at the time the consent was communicated that the recipient's electronic mail address could be transferred to such other party for the purpose of initiating commercial electronic mail messages.

Opt-In: An explicit decision made by an individual, to do something or be involved in something.

Unsubscribe (Opt-Out): To cancel a subscription to an electronic mailing list or online service.

Template

A pre-formatted and/or pre-written email that you can use to replace with your own content so that you can quickly and easily write and create emails.

Website

A location connected to the Internet that maintains one or more pages on the World Wide Web.

Widget (Zone)

An element of a graphical user interface (GUI) that displays information or provides a specific way for a user to interact with the operating system or an application. ... Using Microsoft's Visual Basic, a widget can be implemented as or part of an ActiveX control.