The outbound glossary

Cold email deliverability is the share of your outbound cold emails that actually reach the recipient's inbox (not spam, not blocked). It depends on domain authentication (SPF, DKIM, DMARC), sender reputation, mailbox warmup, list hygiene and content — not just whether the email was 'sent'.

DMARC (Domain-based Message Authentication, Reporting & Conformance) is an email standard that tells receiving mail servers what to do with messages that fail SPF or DKIM checks — and sends you reports. It prevents spoofing of your domain and is now effectively required by Gmail and Yahoo for bulk senders.

Mailbox warmup is the practice of gradually increasing a new email account's sending volume while generating positive engagement (opens, replies, moving mail out of spam) so mailbox providers build trust in the sender before real campaigns ramp up.

Generative Engine Optimization (GEO), also called Answer Engine Optimization (AEO), is the practice of structuring content so AI answer engines (ChatGPT, Claude, Perplexity, Google AI Overviews) can extract, cite and recommend it. It complements SEO: SEO wins the click, GEO wins the citation.

Multichannel sequencing is automating a coordinated outreach cadence across more than one channel — for example email, then a LinkedIn touch, then a call, then a WhatsApp follow-up — from a single sequence, with per-channel timing and safety rules.

Caller-ID rotation is the practice of placing outbound sales calls from a pool of phone numbers (often country- or area-matched to the prospect) rather than a single number, to improve answer rates and avoid a single number being flagged as spam.