Short definitions of the words you meet in Hive Mail, with a link to the page that covers each in full.
People and consent #
| Word | Meaning |
|---|---|
| Contact | One person you can email, identified by a unique email address. See Contacts. |
| Status | A contact's permission to be emailed: Pending, Subscribed, Unsubscribed, Transactional, Bounced or Complained. See Contact statuses. |
| Transactional | A person who gets service emails only, such as order receipts, and never campaigns. |
| Consent | A person's agreement to get your email. Hive Mail records when and how it was given. It is the site owner's responsibility. See Consent and the law. |
| Double opt-in | After signing up, the person gets an email with a button. They are subscribed only when they press it. See Double opt-in. |
| Unsubscribe | A person leaving your marketing emails. Every marketing email has an unsubscribe link. See Unsubscribe and preference pages. |
| Do-not-email memory | When someone who unsubscribed or bounced is deleted for good, Hive Mail keeps a one-way fingerprint of the address so imports and forms cannot add them back by mistake. |
Organising your audience #
| Word | Meaning |
|---|---|
| List | A named group you email together, like "Newsletter". A person can be on many lists. See Lists. |
| Public list | A list people can see and choose on the email preferences page. |
| Tag | A coloured label on a contact, such as "VIP". See Tags. |
| Custom field | An extra detail kept on every contact, such as "Plan". Each becomes a merge tag. See Custom fields. |
| Segment | A saved filter that finds everyone matching your rules right now. Unlike a list, it updates itself. See Segments. |
| Trash | Where deleted contacts wait 30 days before they are removed for good. |
| Signup form / connected form | A form built in Hive Mail, or a form from another plugin whose submissions become contacts. See Signup forms. |
Writing and sending #
| Word | Meaning |
|---|---|
| Campaign | One email you write and send, now or later, to a chosen audience. See Create a campaign. |
| Template | A saved email design you can reuse. See Templates. |
| Merge tag | A placeholder such as {{first_name}} replaced with each person's details. A fallback after a bar, as in `{{first_name |
| Preview text | The short line many mail apps show after the subject. |
| A/B test | Two subject lines sent to small groups to see which does better. See A/B subject tests. |
| Brand kit | Your logo, colours and font that new emails start from. See The brand kit. |
| Marketing and service email | Marketing email promotes something and needs consent. A service email is about something the person did, such as an order. |
Delivery #
| Word | Meaning |
|---|---|
| Delivery method | What carries your emails out: WordPress mail (your SMTP plugin or host), Mailgun or SendGrid. See How Hive Mail sends email. |
| Queue | The waiting line of emails, sent at the speed you set. |
| Bounce | An email that could not be delivered. Hard means the mailbox does not exist; soft means a temporary problem such as a full mailbox. |
| Complaint | A person marking your email as spam. |
| Suppression list | Addresses Hive Mail never emails: bounces, complaints, ones you blocked and people who asked to stop. See Bounces and suppressions. |
| Webhook | A web address one service calls to tell another that something happened. See Webhooks and API keys. |
| SPF, DKIM, DMARC | Records in your domain settings that prove an email comes from you. See Is my site ready to send email?. |
| Cron and WP-Cron | The timer that sends queued email. Cron runs on a server; WP-Cron is WordPress's own and only wakes up when someone visits. See Scheduled sending and cron. |
Automation, shops and visitors #
| Word | Meaning |
|---|---|
| Flow | Steps that run by themselves for each person. See Automation basics. |
| Trigger, step | The trigger starts a flow, for example "a person joins a list". A step is one action or decision in it. See Triggers and Steps. |
| Recipe | A ready-made flow you can switch on and change. See Automation recipes. |
| Run | One person's trip through one flow. See Runs & Logs. |
| Abandoned cart | A shopper who put things in a cart and left. See Abandoned cart recovery. |
| Attributed revenue | Orders credited to an email the buyer clicked. See Reports and revenue. |
| Visitor tracking | An optional script that records visits to your site. See Turn on visitor tracking. |
| Engagement score | A number on each contact that rises when they open, click or visit. See The contact profile. |
