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Glossary of commonly used terms

A set of standard terms used across SparkLoop documentation. 

Manuel Frigerio avatar
Written by Manuel Frigerio
Updated this week

Here are some of the terms you’ll encounter in our documentation and what they mean.

Advocates: aka Referrer. Someone who promotes a newsletter to their contacts.

Campaign: A referral program set up in SparkLoop that is attached to a specific list in the ESP.

Customer: Someone who is paying to use a product or service.

Double-sided referral program: A referral program in which both the advocate and the new subscriber are incentivized, the advocate for bringing in a referral, and the new subscriber for signing up.

Email subscribers aka Email contact: Someone who has opted in to receive email communication from a content creator/brand.

ESP: Email Service Provider. A company that offers email marketing services.

Media brand: A platform for a community with shared interests, focused on the interests of this community through content aggregation and offered services.

Milestone rewards: Prizes given to subscribers for hitting a certain number of referrals aka milestones.

  • Trigger reward: For subscribers who get between 1 and 3 referrals. Ideally compelling, automated, and free, such as a pdf report or coupon.

  • Momentum builders: For subscribers who get between 2 and 10 referrals. Ideally have 2-3 rewards in this range, giving subscribers an attainable goal, that is, something that will motivate them to share again.

  • Aspirational rewards: For subscribers who get between 11 and 50 referrals. Rewards that subscribers are likely to highly desire. Often physical rewards.

  • Showstoppers: For subscribers who get 50+ referrals. Ideally rewards that’ll get influencers talking and sharing, for instance, golf retreats, signed books, and invitations to exclusive events.

Newsletter: An email broadcast sent out to people who have opted to receive it.

Newsletter publisher: A person or company that sends out regular email broadcasts to subscribers who have opted to receive it.

Paid subscriber: Someone who pays to receive content from a media brand (the NYT’s subscriber base, for instance, would consist of its paying customers).

Partner program: A strategic partnership offered by SparkLoop to help eligible businesses earn revenue by helping their audiences unlock game-changing email growth.

Recurring reward: A reward that is offered repeatedly for achieving various milestones in a referral program. For instance, for every three referrals a subscriber makes, they get a 10% discount on services.

Recommendations Hub: The Recommendations Hub is a recommendation link that shows a hosted page with multiple recommendations, rather than just one. This link can be shared in an email or elsewhere!

Referral giveaways: A type of promotion in which advocates/referrers are entered into a random prize draw for bringing in referrals during a certain period.

  • The Subscribe-to-Win giveaway: Used to incentivize people who are not already part of an email list by offering them the chance to win a prize when they subscribe.

  • The Refer-to-Win giveaway: Similar to a normal referral program, but instead of winning rewards for making referrals, subscribers are entered into a draw to win a prize.

  • The Two-Sided giveaway: A combination of the Subscribe-to-Win and Refer-to-Win giveaways. Both existing subscribers who make referrals and new subscribers who sign up are entered into a giveaway.

Referral giveaway prizes: The reward offered for the winner of the random prize draw.

Referral hub: The area on the SparkLoop website where subscribers can see how many people they’ve referred, what prizes they can win, and get sharing links.

Referral link: A unique link given to each email subscriber of a newsletter that allows them to share the newsletter with their friends/contacts.

Referral points: Points assigned to each new referral a subscriber brings in. Often one, but can be more.

Referral program: A program through which a newsletter publisher incentivizes and rewards existing subscribers for bringing in subscribers.

Referral section: The area of a newsletter where subscribers are given their unique sharing links.

Referral traffic: Web users who visit a website using a unique referral link.

Referrals: Someone who has signed up for a newsletter based on a recommendation from a friend, using that friend’s unique link.

Total referral count: The number of referrals a subscriber has brought in.

User: Someone who uses a product or service, free or paid.

Visual builder: A tool inside SparkLoop that helps newsletter publishers create gorgeous referral sections within seconds.

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