Plain-English definitions of the terms you will encounter when building, sending, and growing a newsletter. No jargon, no fluff.
Sending two versions of a newsletter element (usually the subject line) to a small portion of your list, then sending the winning version to the rest. Also called split testing.
Example: You send subject line A to 10% of subscribers and subject line B to another 10%. Whichever gets more opens is sent to the remaining 80%.
Pre-configured email sequences that trigger based on subscriber actions or schedules. Automations run without manual intervention once set up.
Example: A welcome sequence that sends three emails over a week when someone subscribes to your newsletter.
A newsletter publishing platform built for creator-first newsletters. It handles subscriber management, email delivery, monetisation, and audience growth tools.
Example: A newsletter creator uses Beehiiv for its referral programme and built-in ad network to monetise their weekly tech roundup.
The percentage of sent emails that could not be delivered to the recipient's inbox. Hard bounces are permanent failures (invalid address). Soft bounces are temporary (full inbox, server down).
Example: If you send 1,000 emails and 30 bounce, your bounce rate is 3%. Anything above 2% is worth investigating.
The percentage of email recipients who clicked on at least one link in your newsletter. Calculated as clicks divided by delivered emails, multiplied by 100.
Example: Your newsletter was delivered to 5,000 subscribers and 250 clicked a link. Your CTR is 5%.
The process of finding, filtering, and presenting the most relevant content from external sources for a specific audience. The curator adds context, commentary, or analysis rather than creating content from scratch.
Example: A fintech newsletter curator reads 40 articles per week, selects the 6 most relevant, summarises each one, and adds their perspective.
An AI-powered newsletter content creation tool. It scrapes industry sources, scores articles by relevance, and generates newsletter drafts written in your voice. It handles the content production side of newsletter creation, not the email delivery.
Example: A recruitment agency uses ContentCrab to monitor 15 industry news sites, automatically score articles by relevance, and generate a weekly newsletter draft for their client base.
An email marketing platform (rebranded to Kit in 2024) designed for online creators. It focuses on email automations, landing pages, and selling digital products like courses and ebooks.
Example: A course creator uses ConvertKit to build an email funnel that nurtures subscribers toward purchasing their online workshop.
The ability of your emails to reach subscribers' inboxes rather than being filtered into spam, promotions tabs, or rejected entirely. Deliverability depends on sender reputation, authentication, content quality, and list hygiene.
Example: After setting up SPF, DKIM, and DMARC records, a newsletter saw its inbox placement rate improve from 78% to 95%.
DomainKeys Identified Mail. An email authentication method that adds a cryptographic signature to outgoing emails, allowing the receiving server to verify the message was sent by the domain it claims to be from and was not altered in transit.
Example: When you set up DKIM for your domain, your ESP adds a digital signature to every email header. Gmail checks this signature to confirm the email is legitimate.
Domain-based Message Authentication, Reporting and Conformance. A policy that tells receiving email servers what to do with messages that fail SPF or DKIM checks. It also provides reporting on authentication failures.
Example: A DMARC policy set to 'reject' tells receiving servers to block any email from your domain that fails authentication, protecting your subscribers from spoofed emails.
The collection of email addresses belonging to people who have opted in to receive your newsletter or marketing emails. Also called a subscriber list or mailing list.
Example: A B2B consultant has an email list of 3,200 subscribers who signed up through their website and LinkedIn content.
A platform that handles sending bulk emails on your behalf. ESPs manage delivery infrastructure, subscriber lists, templates, analytics, and compliance. Examples include Mailchimp, ConvertKit, Beehiiv, and SendGrid.
Example: Rather than sending newsletters from a personal email account, you use an ESP that manages delivery, tracks opens, and handles unsubscribes automatically.
An email marketing platform that handles subscriber list management, email design, campaign delivery, automations, and analytics. One of the oldest and most widely used ESPs, originally focused on small businesses.
Example: A small business uses Mailchimp to manage their 8,000-subscriber list, send a monthly product newsletter, and track which links get the most clicks.
The percentage of delivered emails that were opened by recipients. Calculated as unique opens divided by delivered emails, multiplied by 100. Open rate tracking relies on pixel tracking and is less reliable since Apple's Mail Privacy Protection launched in 2021.
Example: Your newsletter was delivered to 4,000 subscribers and 1,200 opened it. Your open rate is 30%. Industry averages vary, but 20-40% is typical for engaged lists.
Really Simple Syndication. A standardised format that websites use to publish updates in a machine-readable way. Newsletter tools and content aggregators use RSS feeds to automatically monitor when new articles are published.
Example: ContentCrab detects the RSS feed on a news site and uses it to automatically fetch new articles as they are published, without needing to scrape the full webpage each time.
Dividing your subscriber list into smaller groups based on shared characteristics like interests, behaviour, location, or engagement level. Segmentation allows you to send more relevant content to each group.
Example: A property newsletter segments subscribers by region so London-based readers receive different market updates than those in Manchester.
Sender Policy Framework. An email authentication record published in your domain's DNS that specifies which mail servers are authorised to send email on behalf of your domain. It helps receiving servers identify spoofed emails.
Example: Your SPF record lists your ESP's mail servers as authorised senders, so when Gmail receives your newsletter, it can confirm it came from a legitimate source.
A newsletter platform that combines publishing, delivery, and built-in monetisation through paid subscriptions. Substack is popular with independent writers and journalists who want a direct relationship with paying readers.
Example: A journalist leaves a traditional publication and starts a Substack where 2,000 readers pay a monthly subscription for exclusive analysis.
A person who has opted in to receive your newsletter. Subscribers have given explicit consent to be on your email list, typically through a sign-up form. Maintaining a clean, engaged subscriber base is more valuable than chasing high numbers.
Example: After adding an email capture form to their blog, a consultant gained 150 new subscribers in a month, all of whom actively opted in.
The percentage of recipients who opt out of your email list after receiving a particular edition. Calculated as unsubscribes divided by delivered emails, multiplied by 100. A consistently high unsubscribe rate signals a content or frequency problem.
Example: If 10 out of 2,000 recipients unsubscribe after an edition, your unsubscribe rate is 0.5%. Anything consistently above 1% per send is worth reviewing.
A documented description of a writer's tone, style, vocabulary, and rules that AI tools use to generate content that sounds like that specific person. Voice profiles include preferences, banned phrases, structural habits, and examples.
Example: A voice profile might specify: no exclamation marks, no corporate jargon, short sentences, always sign off with 'Cheers'. ContentCrab uses this to generate drafts that match the writer's natural style.
ContentCrab handles the scraping, scoring, and writing so you can focus on your audience.
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