{"id":20840,"date":"2021-07-25T21:43:33","date_gmt":"2021-07-25T21:43:33","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.arimetrics.com\/glosario-digital\/mailing"},"modified":"2026-09-27T07:37:17","modified_gmt":"2026-09-27T07:37:17","slug":"mailing","status":"publish","type":"encyclopedia","link":"https:\/\/www.arimetrics.com\/en\/digital-glossary\/mailing","title":{"rendered":"Mailing"},"content":{"rendered":"<p><strong>Definition:<\/strong><\/p>\n<p><img decoding=\"async\" class=\"boxpad alignright wp-image-80691 size-full\" src=\"https:\/\/www.arimetrics.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/09\/mailing-glosario-600.jpg\" alt=\"Mailing\" width=\"300\" height=\"300\" srcset=\"https:\/\/www.arimetrics.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/09\/mailing-glosario-600.jpg 600w, https:\/\/www.arimetrics.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/09\/mailing-glosario-600-300x300.jpg 300w, https:\/\/www.arimetrics.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/09\/mailing-glosario-600-150x150.jpg 150w, https:\/\/www.arimetrics.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/09\/mailing-glosario-600-360x360.jpg 360w\" sizes=\"(max-width: 300px) 100vw, 300px\" \/><strong>A mailing<\/strong> is the distribution of a communication to a selected group of recipients, usually for an informational, commercial, or loyalty objective. In digital marketing, the term commonly refers to an email sent to an organization&apos;s own segmented contact database.<\/p>\n\n<h2>What a mailing includes<\/h2>\n<p>A mailing is not only the message received by the user. It is an action made up of <strong>an audience, content, delivery settings, and a measurable result<\/strong>. It may announce a product, communicate an offer, recover carts, confirm an activity, or maintain contact with customers.<\/p>\n<p>Its usual elements include the following:<\/p>\n<ul>\n<li><strong>Sender:<\/strong> clearly identifies the organization responsible for the message.<\/li>\n<li><strong>Recipient list:<\/strong> brings together contacts that meet the campaign criteria and have a legitimate basis for receiving it.<\/li>\n<li><strong>Subject line and preheader:<\/strong> preview the content and help recipients decide whether to open the email.<\/li>\n<li><strong>Content:<\/strong> combines copy, design, and a proposition consistent with the expectation created.<\/li>\n<li><strong>Call to action:<\/strong> directs the reader to the next step, such as visiting a page, downloading a resource, or completing a purchase.<\/li>\n<li><strong>Unsubscribe link:<\/strong> allows recipients to stop receiving communications when applicable and should be easy to find.<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<p>The delivery may be one-off or part of a sequence. With a <a href=\"https:\/\/www.arimetrics.com\/en\/digital-glossary\/marketing-automation\">marketing automation<\/a> platform, certain messages are triggered by a date, an interaction, or a contact condition. <strong>Automation does not remove the need to monitor<\/strong> segmentation, content, and frequency.<\/p>\n<h2>How to plan a mailing<\/h2>\n<p>Planning begins by <strong>setting a verifiable objective<\/strong>. Informing customers of a service change is different from generating registrations or sales. The objective determines the audience, offer, landing page, and metrics that should be reviewed.<\/p>\n<p>A basic process can be organized into these stages:<\/p>\n<ol>\n<li><strong>Select the audience:<\/strong> use relevant criteria such as relationship with the brand, interests, location, or previous behavior.<\/li>\n<li><strong>Prepare the message:<\/strong> write a subject line that matches the content, explain the benefit, and highlight one primary action.<\/li>\n<li><strong>Review delivery:<\/strong> check the sender, domain authentication, links, mobile version, accessibility, and landing page.<\/li>\n<li><strong>Schedule the send:<\/strong> choose timing and frequency without overwhelming recipients.<\/li>\n<li><strong>Measure and learn:<\/strong> analyze the response, compare segments, and document changes for future mailings.<\/li>\n<\/ol>\n<p>A\/B tests can compare one specific variable, such as the subject line or call to action. To interpret the result, teams should <strong>keep the other elements stable<\/strong> and use a sufficiently large sample. Changing several parts at once makes it impossible to identify what caused the difference.<\/p>\n<h2>Differences from email marketing and newsletters<\/h2>\n<p>In everyday usage, mailing and <a href=\"https:\/\/www.arimetrics.com\/en\/digital-glossary\/email-marketing\">email marketing<\/a> are sometimes treated as synonyms. However, <strong>email marketing describes the strategy and channel<\/strong>, whereas a mailing is usually a specific send or campaign within that strategy.<\/p>\n<p>A <a href=\"https:\/\/www.arimetrics.com\/en\/digital-glossary\/newsletter\">newsletter<\/a> is a type of recurring communication, normally editorial or informational. A mailing can be recurring, but it may also be transactional or promotional and does not have to use a newsletter format. <strong>The distinction concerns function and recurrence<\/strong>, not only the email&apos;s design.<\/p>\n<p>Outside digital marketing, mailing can also mean sending letters, catalogs, or parcels by post. Therefore, <strong>the context should clarify whether the delivery is electronic or postal<\/strong>. Both distribute material to a list, but their medium, cost, measurement, and applicable rules differ.<\/p>\n<h2>Metrics and good practices<\/h2>\n<p>Performance should not be assessed only by opens. Privacy restrictions and automatic image preloading can distort that metric. It is better to relate <strong>clicks, conversions, and unsubscribes to the campaign objective<\/strong> while also monitoring bounces and complaints.<\/p>\n<ul>\n<li><strong>Delivery rate:<\/strong> indicates the proportion of messages accepted by destination servers.<\/li>\n<li><strong>Click-through rate:<\/strong> measures interaction with links in the message.<\/li>\n<li><strong>Conversion rate:<\/strong> shows how many recipients completed the defined action.<\/li>\n<li><strong>Unsubscribe rate:<\/strong> reports the proportion of contacts who opted out.<\/li>\n<li><strong>Complaints and bounces:<\/strong> help reveal consent, reputation, or list-quality problems.<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<p>Buying contact databases, hiding the sender, or making opt-out difficult can turn the activity into <a href=\"https:\/\/www.arimetrics.com\/en\/digital-glossary\/spam\">spam<\/a> and damage sender reputation. Responsible mailing uses <strong>legitimately obtained contacts, clear expectations, and frequency controls<\/strong> while complying with the applicable rules on privacy and commercial communications.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>A mailing distributes a communication to a selected list. Learn its elements, how to plan it, key distinctions, metrics, and responsible practices.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":21,"featured_media":80693,"template":"","encyclopedia-tag":[361],"class_list":["post-20840","encyclopedia","type-encyclopedia","status-publish","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","encyclopedia-tag-email-marketing-en"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.arimetrics.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/encyclopedia\/20840","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.arimetrics.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/encyclopedia"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.arimetrics.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/encyclopedia"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.arimetrics.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/21"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.arimetrics.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/80693"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.arimetrics.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=20840"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"encyclopedia-tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.arimetrics.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/encyclopedia-tag?post=20840"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}