Glossary
Cold email terms,in plain words.
SPF, DKIM, DMARC, warm-up, catch-all, bounce rate and more: what each term means and how it affects your sending.
In every entry
- What it meansWithout jargon
- Why it mattersFor your cold email
- A free tool to check itWhere there is one
A
B
- BDR (business development representative)A salesperson focused on outbound: finding new companies and starting conversations with them.
- BIMI (Brand Indicators for Message Identification)A DNS record that lets inboxes show your logo next to your emails, once DMARC is enforced.
- Bounce rateThe share of emails that couldn't be delivered, and why cold emailers keep it under 2%.
- Buyer personaA profile of the person who buys: their role, problems and what makes them reply.
C
- Call to action (CTA)The one thing you ask the reader to do, and why a small ask works best in cold email.
- CAN-SPAM ActThe US law for commercial email, including cold B2B email: honest headers, an address and an easy opt-out.
- CASL (Canada's Anti-Spam Legislation)Canada's email law, which needs consent before commercial email, with limited room for cold B2B email.
- Catch-all email addressAn address at a domain whose mail server accepts email for any address, so it can't be confirmed.
- Click trackingRewriting the links in an email so each click is recorded before the reader reaches the page.
- Click-through rate (CTR)The share of recipients who clicked a link in an email, and when it's worth measuring in cold email.
- Cold emailA personal email to someone you haven't spoken to before, about something relevant to their work.
- Cold outreachContacting people who don't know you yet, by email, LinkedIn or phone, to start a business conversation.
- Custom tracking domainYour own domain for open and click tracking links, instead of one shared with every other sender.
D
- Data decayHow contact data goes out of date as people change jobs, and why lists need re-verifying.
- Dedicated IPA sending IP address used by only one sender, so its reputation is entirely that sender's.
- Disposable email addressA temporary address from a throwaway service, which never belongs on a cold email list.
- DKIM (DomainKeys Identified Mail)A digital signature on every email, checked against a public key in the domain's DNS.
- DMARCA DNS policy telling receivers what to do with email that fails SPF and DKIM, and where to send reports.
- DMARC alignmentThe DMARC rule that the domain in From must match the domain SPF or DKIM checked.
- DMARC policyWhat a DMARC record tells receivers to do with email that fails: none, quarantine or reject.
- Domain ageHow long ago a domain was registered, and why brand-new domains struggle to reach the inbox.
- Domain reputationHow inbox providers rate a sending domain, and why it follows you across mailboxes and IPs.
E
- Email authenticationSPF, DKIM and DMARC together: how a domain proves its email is really from it.
- Email blacklist (blocklist)A list of IP addresses or domains that send spam, which mail servers check before accepting email.
- Email deliverabilityWhether your emails reach the inbox, and the setup, reputation and habits that decide it.
- Email finderA tool that finds a person's work email from their name and company.
- Email headerThe hidden part of an email that records its route and its SPF, DKIM and DMARC results.
- Email list hygieneKeeping a list clean: verified, deduplicated, free of bounces and of people who opted out.
- Email personalizationMaking each cold email about the person reading it, from their name to why you're writing.
- Email sequenceA first email and its follow-ups, sent automatically on a schedule until someone replies.
- Email service provider (ESP)A service for sending email at volume, and why cold email uses mailboxes instead.
- Email throttlingWhen a receiving server deliberately slows how much email it accepts from you.
- Email verificationChecking that an email address exists and can receive mail, before you send to it.
- Email warm-upBuilding a new mailbox's sending reputation gradually, before it sends campaigns.
- Envelope sender (Return-Path)The behind-the-scenes sender address that bounces go to and SPF checks.
F
- Feedback loop (FBL)A service in which an inbox provider tells senders when recipients mark their email as spam.
- FirmographicsFacts about a company, such as industry, size and location, used to build target lists.
- Follow-up emailA short email sent when someone hasn't replied, where most cold email replies actually come from.
G
H
I
- Ideal customer profile (ICP)A description of the companies most likely to buy from you, used to decide who to email.
- IMAPThe protocol apps use to read a mailbox, including the replies to your campaigns.
- Inbox placementWhere delivered email actually lands: the inbox, a promotions tab or spam.
- Inbox rotationSpreading a campaign across many mailboxes so each sends only a small, safe number a day.
- Intent dataSignals that a company is researching or ready to buy something like what you sell.
- IP reputationThe trust attached to the IP address an email is sent from, and when it's in your hands.
L
- Lead enrichmentAdding missing details to a lead, such as email, job title, company size or LinkedIn profile.
- Lead listThe list of people a cold email campaign goes to, with the details needed to personalise it.
- Legitimate interestThe GDPR basis most B2B cold email relies on, and the balancing test that comes with it.
- Lookalike domainA domain that resembles another one: fine for your own cold email, abuse when it imitates someone else.
M
O
P
R
S
- Sales cadenceThe planned order, timing and channels of every touch with a prospect.
- SDR (sales development representative)The salesperson who finds and contacts new prospects and books meetings for closers.
- Secondary domainA separate domain used only for cold email, so your main domain's reputation stays safe.
- Secure email gateway (SEG)A filtering service in front of a company's mailboxes that is much stricter with cold email.
- Sender reputationThe trust inbox providers place in a sender, built from how recipients react to its email.
- Shared IPA sending IP address used by many senders, whose reputation the provider looks after.
- SMTP (Simple Mail Transfer Protocol)The protocol email is sent with, from your app to your provider and between mail servers.
- SMTP relayA server that passes your email on to recipients, often used to send at volume from an app.
- Soft bounceA temporary delivery failure, such as a full mailbox or a busy server, worth retrying.
- Spam complaint rateThe share of recipients who mark your email as spam, and Gmail's 0.1% and 0.3% lines.
- Spam filterThe system that decides whether an email goes to the inbox, a tab or spam, and what it looks at.
- Spam scoreA number estimating how likely an email is to be treated as spam, and how far to trust it.
- Spam trapAn email address that exists only to catch senders who email people who never asked.
- Spam trigger wordsWords and phrases that make an email look like spam, and why they matter less than people think.
- SPF (Sender Policy Framework)A DNS record listing the servers allowed to send email for a domain.
- SpintaxA syntax like {Hi|Hello|Hey} that picks a different wording for each email.
- Suppression listA do-not-contact list every campaign checks, so nobody who opted out is emailed again.
T
U
V
Everything for cold email, in one place.
Start free for 14 days. No card needed.