Glossary of commonly used terms

A set of standard terms used across SparkLoop documentation. 

Manuel Frigerio avatar
Written by Manuel Frigerio
Updated over a week ago

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.

Magic link: Links created in SparkLoop that can be added in any partner newsletter to let their readers opt-in to an email list with just one click.

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.

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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