This glossary defines the key terms you'll encounter while using MailBeast.ai. Entries are organized alphabetically for quick reference.
Testing multiple versions of an email to see which performs better. In MailBeast.ai, each email step in a sequence can have multiple variants (A, B, C, etc.) with different subject lines or body content. Traffic is split between variants, and performance is tracked separately so you can identify the winner. May the best email win! 🏆
A certain IP address or domain that have been flagged for sending spam. If sending IP or domain appears on a blacklist, receiving mail servers may block your emails or route them to spam. Maintaining a clean sender reputation through warmup and list hygiene helps you stay off blacklists.
A permanent delivery failure. This means the recipient email address doesn't exist, the domain is invalid, or the receiving server has permanently rejected your message. Hard bounces should be removed from your list immediately — continuing to send to them damages your sender reputation.
A temporary delivery failure. Common causes include the recipient's mailbox being full, the receiving server being temporarily unavailable, or the message exceeding size limits. MailBeast may retry soft bounces automatically. Persistent soft bounces may eventually be treated as hard bounces.
The United States federal law governing commercial email (Controlling the Assault of Non-Solicited Pornography and Marketing Act). It requires that commercial emails include an opt-out mechanism, a valid physical mailing address, and honest subject lines.
When a lead takes your desired action after receiving your outreach — such as booking a meeting, signing up for a demo, or making a purchase. In MailBeast.ai, you can track conversions by updating lead status and optionally assigning a conversion value for revenue tracking. This is the moment it all pays off! 💰
A DNS record that adds a cryptographic signature to your outgoing emails. This signature proves to receiving servers that the email was actually sent by an authorized server for your domain and wasn't tampered with during transit. DKIM is one of three essential DNS records for email deliverability.
A DNS policy that tells receiving mail servers what to do when an email fails SPF and DKIM checks. You can configure DMARC to monitor (report only), quarantine (send to spam), or reject (block entirely) unauthenticated messages. DMARC also generates reports so you can see who is sending email using your domain.
Domain Name System records that configure how your domain handles email. The key email-related DNS records are MX (mail routing), SPF (sender authorization), DKIM (message signing), and DMARC (authentication policy). Properly configured DNS records are foundational to email deliverability. Think of them as your domain's ID card for the email world. 🪪
The practice of sending emails from the same email service provider as the recipient. For example, sending from a Gmail account to a Gmail recipient, or from an Outlook account to an Outlook recipient. ESP matching can improve inbox placement because providers tend to trust emails from within their own ecosystem. MailBeast.ai can leverage multiple connected accounts for this purpose.
The European Union regulation governing the collection, processing, and storage of personal data. For email outreach, GDPR requires a legal basis for contacting individuals (such as legitimate interest for B2B communications), provides individuals the right to erasure of their data, and mandates transparent data handling practices.
A score from 0 to 100 assigned to each email account in MailBeast.ai. The Health Score combines DNS configuration health (SPF, DKIM, DMARC status) and sending performance metrics (bounce rate, spam complaints, inbox placement). A higher score indicates better deliverability potential. Aim for 80+ to keep things running smoothly. 💪
MailBeast.ai's unified inbox feature. InboxHub consolidates all incoming replies from all your connected email accounts into a single view. AI automatically classifies each reply (interested, not interested, out-of-office, etc.), making it easy to prioritize responses and manage conversations without switching between email accounts. Your outreach command center. 🎯
A contact or recipient in your campaign. Each lead has an email address and can include optional data fields such as firstName, lastName, companyName, title, and custom fields. Leads progress through various statuses as they move through your outreach sequence.
The current state of a lead within your campaign lifecycle. Common statuses include: pending (not yet contacted), contacted (email sent), replied (lead responded), interested (positive reply), not interested (negative reply), meeting booked, converted, bounced, and out of office. In our app, lead status can be updated manually or automatically by AI classification.
Placeholders in your email templates that get replaced with each lead's actual data when the email is sent. Written as {{variableName}} — for example, {{firstName}} becomes "Sarah" and {{companyName}} becomes "Acme Corp" for each individual recipient. Variables help with personalization at scale.
A DNS record that specifies which mail servers are responsible for receiving email on behalf of your domain. While MX records are primarily about incoming mail, they're part of your overall email infrastructure and contribute to domain legitimacy signals.
The percentage of delivered emails that were opened by recipients. Tracked via a small, invisible tracking pixel embedded in the email. Open rate is a directional metric — it can be affected by image blocking, privacy features, and bots — but remains a useful indicator of subject line effectiveness.
An automatic reply indicating a person is away from their desk or on leave. MailBeast.ai's AI classification system detects OOO replies automatically and can pause follow-up emails for that lead until the person returns, preventing wasted sequence steps. No point emailing someone on a beach! 🏖️
The percentage of delivered emails that received a reply from the recipient. Reply rate is generally considered the most important metric in cold outreach because replies indicate engagement and are the precursor to conversations and conversions. This is the number to watch. 👀
A series of email steps sent to leads over a defined timeline. For example: Step 1 (initial outreach) followed by a 3-day wait, then Step 2 (first follow-up) followed by a 5-day wait, then Step 3 (final follow-up). Leads who reply are typically removed from the remaining sequence steps.
A DNS record that lists which servers are authorized to send email on behalf of your domain. When a receiving server gets an email claiming to be from your domain, it checks your SPF record to verify the sending server is permitted. SPF is one of three essential DNS records for email deliverability.
A syntax for creating text variations within a single template. Written with curly braces and pipe separators: {Hello|Hi|Hey} randomly selects one of the three greetings for each recipient. Spintax makes each email slightly unique, which helps avoid spam filters that detect identical bulk messages.
One individual email within a sequence. A campaign might have 3 steps: an initial outreach email, a follow-up after 3 days, and a final check-in after 5 more days. Each step can have its own subject line, body content, and A/B test variants.
A list of email addresses or domains that should never receive your campaigns. This includes people who have unsubscribed, filed spam complaints, requested removal, or been manually blocked. MailBeast.ai automatically checks against suppression lists before sending to prevent outreach to suppressed contacts.
A custom domain (such as track.yourdomain.com) used for open and click tracking instead of MailBeast.ai's default shared tracking domain. Using a tracking domain on your own domain improves deliverability because links in your emails point to your own infrastructure rather than a shared third-party domain. Definitely worth setting up if you have links or any other measurable tracking in your emails! 👍
When a recipient opts out of receiving further emails from your campaigns. MailBeast.ai supports the RFC-compliant List-Unsubscribe header, which allows email clients to show a native unsubscribe button. Unsubscribed contacts are automatically added to your suppression list.
One version of an A/B test. When you create multiple variants for a sequence step, each variant can have a different subject line and/or email body. MailBeast.ai splits traffic between variants and tracks performance separately so you can identify which version resonates best with your audience.
The process of gradually building sender reputation for a new or dormant email account. MailBeast.ai's warmup system sends an increasing volume of emails to seed accounts over 14+ days. These seed accounts engage positively with the warmup emails (opening, replying, marking as important), training email providers to trust your account and deliver your messages to the inbox.
The current stage of the warmup lifecycle for an email account:
Warming Up (approximately days 1–14) — Sending volume increases daily from a small number up to the configured limit. This is the critical reputation-building period.
Maintaining (after day 14) — Sending volume stabilizes at a steady level to preserve the reputation that was built during warmup.
Active with Campaigns (maintaining + campaign activity) — The account is both maintaining its warmup schedule and actively sending campaign emails. Warmup volume adjusts to complement campaign sending.
An HTTP callback that sends real-time notifications to an external server when specific events occur in MailBeast.ai. Events that can trigger webhooks include: email sent, email opened, link clicked, reply received, bounce detected, and lead status changed. Webhooks enable integration with CRMs, analytics platforms, and custom applications.
