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79 Terms

Email Glossary

Your comprehensive guide to email marketing, deliverability, and verification terminology.

AuthenticationComplianceDNSDeliverabilityEmail MarketingGeneralInfrastructureMetricsSecurityVerification

S

Sender Policy Framework

See SPF. An email authentication protocol that specifies which servers can send email for a domain.

Authentication

Sender Reputation

A score reflecting the trustworthiness of an email sender based on sending practices and engagement.

Deliverability

Sender Score

A reputation rating from 0-100 assigned to sending IP addresses, provided by Validity (formerly Return Path).

Deliverability

Shared IP

An IP address used by multiple senders, where reputation is influenced by all users' behavior.

Infrastructure

Single Opt-In

A subscription process where users are added to a list immediately after submitting their email, without confirmation.

Compliance

SMTP

Simple Mail Transfer Protocol. The standard protocol for sending emails between servers.

Infrastructure

Soft Bounce

A temporary delivery failure, often due to a full mailbox, server issues, or message size limits.

Deliverability

Spam

Unsolicited bulk email, typically commercial in nature, sent without recipient consent.

General

Spam Filter

Software that analyzes emails to identify and block spam from reaching the inbox.

Deliverability

Spam Trap

An email address used to identify spammers. Includes pristine traps, recycled traps, and typo traps.

Deliverability

SPF

Sender Policy Framework. A DNS-based email authentication method listing authorized sending servers for a domain.

Authentication

Spoofing

Forging email headers to make a message appear to come from a different sender than the actual source.

Security

Sunsetting

The practice of removing unengaged subscribers from email lists to maintain list quality and sender reputation.

Email Marketing

Syntax Validation

Checking if an email address follows the correct format (e.g., user@domain.com) according to RFC standards.

Verification

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