Cold email glossary
Every term you’ll meet setting up and running cold email: what it means, how it affects your results, and what Inboxed does about it.
B
- BIMIBrand Indicators for Message IdentificationBIMI (Brand Indicators for Message Identification) is a DNS record that lets participating mailbox providers show your logo next to your emails, once your domain is protected by DMARC at enforcement.
- Blocklist (blacklist)BlacklistA blocklist is a published list of domains or IP addresses associated with spam, which mail servers and filters look up when deciding what to accept. Older material calls them blacklists.
- Bounce (hard and soft)Hard bounceA bounce is an email that couldn’t be delivered. A hard bounce is permanent (the address or domain doesn’t exist); a soft bounce is temporary (a full mailbox, a busy server, a message too large).
- Bounce rateBounce rate is the share of sent emails that bounced. For reputation, the hard bounce rate is the one to watch.
C
- Catch-all domainAccept-allA catch-all (accept-all) domain’s mail server accepts email for any address at that domain, whether or not a mailbox with that name exists.
- Click trackingLink trackingClick tracking replaces each link in an email with a redirect through the sender’s tracking server, which records the click before sending the reader on.
- Custom tracking domainBranded tracking domainA custom tracking domain is a subdomain of your own (for example `links.yourdomain.com`) that tracked links and open images use, instead of the sending tool’s shared domain.
D
- DKIMDomainKeys Identified MailDKIM (DomainKeys Identified Mail) adds a cryptographic signature to each email, with the public key published in your DNS, proving the message wasn’t altered and that your domain took responsibility for it.
- DMARCDomain-based Message Authentication, Reporting and ConformanceDMARC links SPF and DKIM to the From: address people see. A message passes when SPF or DKIM passes for a domain that matches the From: domain, and your DMARC record tells receivers what to do with mail that fails.
- Domain reputationDomain reputation is the part of sender reputation tied to your domain name: the From: domain and the domains that sign and authenticate your mail.
E
- Email verificationEmail validationEmail verification checks whether an address can receive email before you send to it: that it is well formed, that its domain has a mail server, and ideally that the mailbox exists.
- Email warmupWarm-upEmail warmup gradually builds a sending history for a new or quiet mailbox by exchanging ordinary emails with other mailboxes that open, reply and rescue them from spam.
F
I
- Inbox placementDeliverabilityInbox placement is where a delivered email ends up: the inbox, a tab such as Promotions, or the spam folder. Delivery only means the server accepted it.
- Inbox rotationMailbox rotationInbox rotation spreads a campaign’s emails across several sending mailboxes, so each one sends a modest, natural number a day instead of one mailbox sending everything.
- IP reputationIP reputation is the part of sender reputation tied to the IP address of the server that delivers your email.
M
O
- One-click unsubscribeList-UnsubscribeOne-click unsubscribe is a pair of email headers that let the mail app show its own Unsubscribe button, which unsubscribes the person with a single click and no web page.
- Open tracking (and Apple MPP)Tracking pixelOpen tracking adds a tiny invisible image to an email; when the image loads, the sender records an “open”.
P
S
- Sender reputationSender reputation is a mailbox provider’s judgement of whether your email is wanted, built from how recipients have treated mail from your domain, IP addresses and mailbox.
- Sequence (cadence)CadenceA sequence (or cadence) is the planned series of emails a lead receives in a campaign, with a delay before each follow-up and rules for when to stop.
- Spam complaint rateSpam rateThe spam complaint rate is the share of your delivered emails that recipients marked as spam.
- Spam trapsSpamtrapSpam traps are email addresses run by mailbox providers and blocklist operators to find senders who don’t collect addresses properly. Nobody signs up with them, so any mail they receive is unsolicited.
- SPFSender Policy FrameworkSPF (Sender Policy Framework) is a DNS TXT record that lists the servers allowed to send email for your domain, so receivers can spot mail from anywhere else.
- SpintaxSpin syntaxSpintax is a notation for writing alternatives inside an email, such as `{Hi|Hello|Hey}`, so each recipient gets one of the versions.
Want the bigger picture? Read the complete cold email guide or the deliverability guide.
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