Deliverability terms

Blocklist – These are lists that ISPs use to mark you as a sender of unsolicited email. Getting on one of these lists can make it very difficult to get your emails delivered, and getting removed from them can be very tricky. Sometimes referred to as a blocklist.

Block – When mailbox providers such as Gmail or Hotmail reject mail from a sender and don’t deliver mail to recipients, often based on the reputation of the sender.

Dedicated IP address – a single IP address that mail is sent from. This allows the sender to be in complete control of their sender reputation as ISPs can easily identify them and reward them for following best practice guidelines.

DKIM –  DomainKeys Identified Mail is a common method of sender verification that many ISPs use to determine that the sender of an email is authenticated by the it claims to send from.

DMARC – Domain-based Message Authentication, Reporting & Conformance is another common method of email authentication that ensures senders are correctly following DKIM and SPF standards.

Domain – A senders registered online base web url, eg Pure360.com

Double opt-in – A double opt-in email is automatically sent when a recipient signs up to your emails. It provides a link for the recipient to click to confirm their address and complete the signup process. This ensures that sign ups are using authentic email addresses, as well as confirming they have been entered correctly.

Email Provider - The name of the brand/product which supplies & hosts email inboxes, eg: Gmail, Outlook.com, Yahoo and AOL. Also referred to as provider, mail provider, mailbox provider;

Email Service Provider (ESP) – a company such as Pure360 who provide email services, including batch email and email marketing.

Feedback loop – Some mailboxes such as Yahoo and Outlook.com allow email senders such as Pure360 to subscribe to feedback loops. When someone clicks on the ‘Spam’ button, they send a message to Pure360 and we make sure we opt that recipient out of any future sends.

Hard bounce – This refers to when Pure360 tries to deliver an email to an address, but the receiving mail server tells us that the email address does not exist. It may have been closed down for instance. Hard bounces are suppressed from future send..

IP Address – A unique address that identifies a device on the Internet or a local network. It allows a system to be recognised by other systems connected via the Internet. In email marketing, the Ip is the address of the 'mailsever' which sent the email; it also carries part of your sender reputation that helps ISPs determine whether they should deliver your emails or not.

ISP – Internet Service Provider, most of these also supply email addresses, eg: Sky, BT, Virgin Media, AOL, Comcast; Additionally ISP is often used to refer to mailbox providers even though they do supply internet connectivity, eg: Gmail, Hotmail etc.;

Open rate – This refers to the percentage of recipients that have opened your emails, taken from the total number you originally sent.

Phishing - The illegal practice of trying to get people to click to a website and supply login credentials to important sites, usually by pretending to be that site, like a bank for instance.

Sender Score – Sender Score is a free tool created by Return Path which allows you to monitor the reputation of your IP address. It’s a useful guide to determine any issues.

Soft bounce – When Pure360 tries to deliver an email to an address, but the receiving mail server tells us that the email address can’t be delivered to on this occasion, but is still valid. A full inbox is a good example of this.

Spam trap – These are commonly old email addresses that have been turned into ‘traps’. They are monitored by Providers and blocklists to see if they receive emails and when they do, the sender is usually blocked or put onto a blocklist.

SPF – Sender Policy Framework (SPF) is an older authentication tool - older than DKIM and unlike DKIM it is checked against the sending server's domain and not the visible from address.

Spoofing – This is when an email's sender details are made to look like a brand but does not have authentication from the brand. It is a common practice for phishing and virus emails.

Reputation - short for sender reputation; this refers to the measurement or score type reputation which is held and managed by email providers or 3rd party sender reputation firms, which decides if or how many and how fast your emails will be accepted to providers.

Temporary email addresses – These are non-permanent email addresses that people can sign up to for a short period of time, usually to avoid using their own email address. If you’re seeing a lot of these in your data, it usually means that people don’t trust you enough to submit their real email address.