| API |
a programmatic interface to EmailOctopus that requires developer knowledge. It allows other services to interact with your account. |
| Amazon Simple Email Service (SES) |
an email platform provided by Amazon as part of AWS. It's used to send your emails on EmailOctopus Connect accounts. |
| Amazon Web Services (AWS) |
Amazon's cloud platform. It includes hundreds of various services. |
| API Key |
a unique code used to identify your account when using the API. |
| Automation |
a feature that allows you to send automated emails to a list. A set of automated emails is called an automation. |
| Bounce |
when an email can't be delivered to a recipient, it is recorded as a bounce. Bounces belong in one of two categories – soft (temporary delivery issues) and hard (permanent delivery failures). |
| Campaign |
a marketing email sent to a list of contacts. You can define their subject, preview text, whom they are sent from (name and email address), who they are sending to and their content. It’s possible to preview a campaign and sent it as a test message. |
| Contact |
a record of a subscriber on your mailing list. Excluding any custom fields, a contact has a first name, last name and an email address. They can have one of three statuses: subscribed, unsubscribed or pending (waiting for a subscription confirmation, also called double opt-in). |
| Customisation |
dynamic content within your emails. It allows you to personalise emails for each subscriber based on the data in their custom fields. It can be a merge tag for a name in the greeting at the top of the email, a custom field value with a unique promo code, or a conditional statement that changes the content based on the subscriber's location from the address field. |
| Deliverability |
the ability to deliver emails to subscribers' mailboxes. That means whether the email makes it there at all and won't get blocked by mailbox filters. |
| DKIM (Domain Keys Identified Mail) |
an email authentication method. It allows the recipient to check that the email was sent by the owner of the domain, thanks to a digital signature. |
| DMARC (Domain-based Message Authentication, Reporting, and Conformance) |
validation system used to protect your email domain from being used in spoofing, phishing, and other malicious activities. It effectively prevents people from claiming that they are you when they're sending emails – they would need authentication to do that. |
| Domain verification |
process of adding records to your mailing domain DNS to use it with your EmailOctopus account. It improves deliverability and allows you to send emails from any email address under your domain. |
| Double opt-in |
it’s a list option requiring contacts to confirm their subscription after filling in a sign-up form. They'll receive a confirmation message where they need to press a button to be added to a list. Until confirmed, they have Pending status. |
| Email verification |
process of adding a new email address to your EmailOctopus account so that you can use it to send campaigns or automated emails. |
| EmailOctopus |
our main product, where emails are sent through our infrastructure. |
| EmailOctopus Connect |
our second product, where emails are sent through Amazon SES. |
| Fields |
they allow you to collect and store additional data about your contacts. There are three default fields: email address, first name and last name. You can also create additional fields (custom fields) to collect more information. |
| Forms |
allow contacts to sign up to your lists. We offer inline forms, hello bar forms, slide-in forms, pop-up forms and landing pages. It’s also possible to integrate third-party forms using the API. |
| Inbox placement |
the specific location where delivered email lands – it can be the main inbox, content-specific tabs (promotions, social) and junk/spam folder. |
| Integrations |
they allow you to connect your EmailOctopus account with other services. Some integrations are made by us, like our WordPress plugin. Others are made by third parties. It’s also possible to use an integration hub such as Zapier or Make (formerly Integromat) to connect services that do not have direct integration. |
| Landing page |
a standalone, single-page website with an embedded sign-up form where people can subscribe to your list. |
| List |
it’s used to store and manage contacts and opt-in settings. You can also use lists to search your contacts and manage contacts' details. |
| Merge tags |
they’re used to insert dynamic content (such as values of your contacts' custom fields) into your campaigns and automated emails. |
| Otto |
that’s the name of our cute mascot – a purple octopus. :) |
| Pop-up form |
a sign-up form that is not embedded directly on a page but instead "pops up" above it in a separate window when triggered. |
| Pro plan |
the name of our paid plan. |
| Production access |
permission to send emails using Amazon SES. Required to send campaigns and automated emails with EmailOctopus Connect. |
| Report |
it details the overall performance of an email and its activity. Activity refers to sends, opens/unopens, clicks/lack of clicks, unsubscribes, bounces and complaints. Reports can take a moment to generate, showing as pending immediately after sending the campaign. On the free plan, reports are available for 30 days. Paid accounts do not have that limitation. When a free plan is upgraded, expired reports become available again. |
| Rewards link |
it's used in our referral program, and it's required to be included in every email when using our free Starter plan. |
| Segment |
a sub-group of contacts on a mailing list that meet specific criteria set by segment conditions. They can relate to subscribers data (such as custom fields) and activities (actions like clicks and opens). |
| Sender Info |
the physical address associated with your account that must be included in all campaigns and automated emails. It shouldn't be added manually, but through a dedicated merge tag – {{SenderInfo}} or {{SenderInfoLine}}. |
| Spam |
unsolicited emails sent in bulk. |
| SPF (Sender Policy Framework) |
email authentication technique used to prevent spammers from sending emails on behalf of your domain. SPF record informs who should be allowed to send emails on your behalf. |
| Starter plan |
the name of our free plan for up to 2,500 subscribers. |
| Subscription tier |
it’s based on the number of contacts you have in your account. It determines your monthly costs. |
| Tag |
a text-based value that you can assign to your contacts and use for segmentation. |
| Template |
HTML layout that can be used as a starting point of any campaign or automated email. We provide a selection of premade, customisable templates. You can also save your work within the editors as your own templates for later use. |
| Unsubscribe link |
a link used to unsubscribe from the mailing list. It's required in all campaigns and automated emails. |
