Glossary
Cold email
Cold email is a first message to someone you have no existing relationship with, sent because their work looks relevant to what you offer.
Why it matters when you send from your own Gmail
It is legal in many places for business recipients and restricted in others, and the rules depend on the recipient's country and on whether they are a company or a person. In the US, for example, the regulator states that the law makes no exception for business-to-business email, so the same rules apply.[1] What separates good cold email from spam is a reason to write, a true observation, a clear sender and an honest opt-out. Sending from your own Gmail makes this stricter, not looser, because your own name is on every message.
Example
An email to a dentist that mentions the whitening service on their own site, says who you are in one sentence, and offers to send a short outline is cold email. A blast to a purchased list is not.
What to do
Before sending, ask whether you would be comfortable explaining to the recipient why you wrote to them. If you could not, rewrite the email or leave them off the list.
Related terms
All terms are on the glossary.