A cold email is an unsolicited e-mail that is sent to a receiver without prior contact. It could also be defined as the email equivalent of

cold calling Cold calling is the solicitation of business from potential customers who have had no prior contact with the salesperson conducting the call. It is an attempt to convince potential customers to purchase the salesperson's product or service. Gene ...

. Cold emailing is a subset of

email marketing Email marketing is the act of sending a commercial message, typically to a group of people, using email. In its broadest sense, every email sent to a potential or current customer could be considered email marketing. It involves using email to s ...

and differs from transactional and warm emailing. Cold email is a personalized, one-to-one message targeted at a specific individual. Its aim is to enter into a business conversation with that individual, rather than to promote a product or a service to the masses. Cold email, according to its proponents, is not

spam Spam most often refers to: * Spam (food), a consumer brand product of canned processed pork of the Hormel Foods Corporation * Spamming, unsolicited or undesired electronic messages ** Email spam, unsolicited, undesired, or illegal email messages ...

. Cold emailing is distinct from spam in that it aims to initiate a genuine conversation rather than deceive the recipient. However, if certain steps are not followed, it may be treated as spam by spam filters or reported by the recipients.

Email deliverability

Email deliverability is the percentage of emails that got successfully delivered to the primary

inbox Electronic mail (usually shortened to email; alternatively hyphenated e-mail) is a method of transmitting and receiving digital messages using electronic devices over a computer network. It was conceived in the late–20th century as the ...

, instead of getting blocked or classified as spam. Email deliverability is not the same as email delivery. Email delivery is the percentage of emails that got successfully delivered to the recipient's email address, regardless of whether it is the main inbox or any other folder, including spam. Email deliverability is especially important for cold email senders because their goal is to have their email delivered to the recipients' main inbox.

References

{{Reflist Email Direct marketing Selling techniques