25 Begriffe
Cold Email Glossary
25 essential terms from the world of B2B cold email outreach — from SPF and DKIM to AI personalization. Everything you need to know when diving into cold email.
- A/B Test
- The comparison of two variants of an email component (e.g., subject line A vs. subject line B) to determine which performs better. In cold email, subject lines, opening sentences, or CTAs are frequently tested against each other. A/B testing is the most important tool for continuous optimization.
- AI Personalization
- AI-powered automatic generation of personalized email copy based on data about the recipient (e.g., LinkedIn profile, website, job postings). anicampaign.io uses Claude (Anthropic) for AI personalization via BYOK, so you bring your own API key and costs are billed directly by Anthropic.
- B2B Outreach
- The systematic, proactive outreach to businesses as the target audience — as opposed to B2C (business to consumer). B2B outreach targets decision-makers within companies and uses channels such as cold email, LinkedIn, or cold calling. Cold email is often the most scalable channel.→ Read article
- Blacklist
- A list of IP addresses or domains identified as spam sources by anti-spam organizations or email providers. Emails from blacklisted senders are often automatically blocked or routed to spam. Well-known blacklists include Spamhaus, SORBS, and Barracuda.→ Read article
- Bounce Rate
- The percentage of emails in a campaign that could not be delivered. Hard bounces are permanently undeliverable (e.g., invalid address), while soft bounces are temporarily undeliverable (e.g., full mailbox). A high bounce rate significantly damages sender reputation.
- BYOK (Bring Your Own Key)
- A model where users bring their own API key for AI services (e.g., Claude or OpenAI) into a SaaS tool, rather than the tool using a shared key. BYOK enables pay-as-you-go billing directly with Anthropic/OpenAI, better cost control, and — depending on the provider — stronger data privacy guarantees.
- Click-Through Rate (CTR)
- The proportion of recipients who clicked on a link within an email. In cold email context, CTR is less critical than open rate or reply rate, since most cold emails do not target a click as the primary goal. CTR becomes relevant when cold emails include a direct CTA link (e.g., a calendar booking link).
- Cold Email
- An unsolicited email sent to a potential customer with whom no prior contact has existed. In B2B, cold email is one of the most effective methods for acquiring new clients — provided the message is relevant, personalized, and complies with applicable laws such as GDPR.
- Deliverability
- The ability of sent emails to reach the recipient's inbox rather than landing in the spam folder. Deliverability is influenced by sender reputation, technical setup (SPF, DKIM, DMARC), bounce rate, spam trap contacts, and recipient engagement.→ Read article
- DKIM (DomainKeys Identified Mail)
- An email authentication method that attaches a cryptographic signature to every outgoing email. The receiving mail server uses the public key published in DNS to verify that the email genuinely originated from the stated domain and was not altered in transit.→ Read article
- DMARC
- Domain-based Message Authentication, Reporting & Conformance. A DNS policy that combines SPF and DKIM and defines what should happen to emails that fail authentication checks (e.g., quarantine or reject). DMARC also enables receiving reports about failed delivery attempts.→ Read article
- Domain Reputation
- The score email providers (Gmail, Outlook, etc.) assign to a sender domain based on historical sending behavior. High domain reputation leads to inbox placement; low reputation results in spam delivery or complete blocking.→ Read article
- Follow-up
- An automated follow-up message sent when a recipient has not replied to the initial email. Studies show that 50–70% of replies come not from the first email but from follow-ups. Typically 2–4 follow-ups per sequence are recommended.
- ICP (Ideal Customer Profile)
- The definition of the ideal target customer at the company level. The ICP describes which companies benefit most from your solution — based on criteria such as industry, company size, region, technology stack, or growth stage. A clearly defined ICP is the foundation of targeted cold email outreach.→ Read article
- Lead Enrichment
- The process of augmenting contact data with additional information from external sources. Typical enrichment data includes: job title, LinkedIn URL, company size, technology stack, revenue, or current job openings. Enriched leads enable significantly more precise personalization and segmentation.
- MX Record
- Mail Exchange Record. A DNS entry that specifies which mail server is responsible for receiving emails for a particular domain. MX records are queried when sending emails to determine where to deliver the message. Without correct MX records, a domain cannot receive emails.
- Open Rate
- The percentage of recipients who opened an email in a campaign. Open rates are measured via tracking pixels. It is a key indicator of subject line and sender name effectiveness. In cold email, an open rate of 40–60% is considered good.
- Personalization
- The individual customization of subject line and email body for each recipient. True personalization goes beyond inserting a first name: it references recent company events, LinkedIn posts, job changes, or other relevant contextual information.
- Sequence
- A multi-step email chain with defined time intervals between individual emails. A typical cold email sequence consists of the initial email plus 2–4 follow-ups over a period of 2–4 weeks. Sequences are automated and stop as soon as a recipient replies.
- Spam Trap
- Special email addresses deployed by email providers or anti-spam organizations to identify illegitimate senders. Spam traps are not actively used and therefore do not appear in legitimate contact lists. Emailing a spam trap is a strong negative signal for sender reputation.
- SPF (Sender Policy Framework)
- A DNS record that specifies which servers are authorized to send emails on behalf of a domain. Receiving servers check the SPF record to verify that an incoming email comes from an authorized server. Without an SPF record, emails are more likely to land in spam.→ Read article
- Suppression List
- A list of email addresses excluded from future campaigns — e.g., because the contact has unsubscribed, a bounce occurred, or an explicit 'do not contact' request was made. Maintaining a suppression list is a key component of GDPR compliance and reputation management.
- Unsubscribe Rate
- The rate of recipients who opted out of further messages after receiving an email. A high unsubscribe rate indicates that the email was not relevant to the audience or the sending frequency was too high. GDPR and CAN-SPAM require that unsubscribes are processed immediately.
- Warmup (Mailbox Warmup)
- The gradual process of building sender reputation for a new email address. New mailboxes are seen as risky by email providers. By automatically sending and interacting with real emails over several weeks, a positive sender reputation is established before the mailbox is used for real campaigns.→ Read article
Ready for your first cold email campaign?
Start free with anicampaign.io — 1 mailbox, 1 campaign, 50 prospects. No credit card required.
Start for free