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Category: Technical

Technical

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Ediware Technical

An overview of B2B prospecting tools: what should you keep?

Finding new customers has never been so complex. Between emails, calls, LinkedIn, databases and automation tools, it’s easy to get lost. Every week, new software appears, with seductive promises: “multiply your appointments”, “automate all your prospecting”, “save time and customers”. The result? We test, we change, we stack… and we end up with a dozen tools that are poorly synchronized, little used, or too expensive.

But prospecting doesn’t have to be a gas factory. What you need is a coherent selection of simple, well-integrated tools, adapted to the way you work.

In this article, I’d like to take a look at what’s what. Let’s take a look at :

  • mistakes to avoid,

  • the real criteria for choice,

  • and above all, a typical technology stack for your company’s size.

Our aim is to help you build a solid, scalable and truly useful ecosystem of tools.

1. The real problem: too many tools, not enough results

Today, there are hundreds of tools available for prospecting. There’s something for everything: finding contacts, sending emails, making appointments, analyzing clicks, tracking calls… Each solution seems indispensable. And when you’re looking for performance, you tend to want to try everything.

But the more tools you add, the more complicated your daily life becomes. You have to create accounts, learn how to use them, connect them… and hope they work together. Very quickly, you find yourself spending more time managing your tools than talking to your prospects.

The real problem isn’t the lack of options. It’s the excess. Too many tools, too many notifications, too many dashboards. The result: a scattered sales team, reduced visibility, and actions that lack impact.

It’s not a question of multiplying software, but of choosing the right ones. The ones that bring value, that integrate well, and that really serve your objective: to get in touch with the right prospects, at the right time, with the right message.

2. The wrong ideas

Faced with this multitude of tools, many companies are looking for the simplest solution. And that’s only natural. But some approaches, even if they seem logical at the outset, turn out to be counter-productive in the long run.

First mistake: choosing solely on the basis of price.
An inexpensive tool may look attractive. But if it doesn’t integrate with your other software or lacks essential functionality, you’ll end up wasting time… and money. Conversely, a tool that’s a little more expensive, but well adapted to your needs, can quickly become profitable.

Second mistake: multiplying ultra-specialized tools.
Some software does one thing very well: finding emails, sending LinkedIn messages, detecting visitors to a site… But if you have to use five different ones to manage a single campaign, you’ll lose clarity. And so will your teams.

Third mistake: changing tools with every new fad.
There will always be a new “revolutionary” tool. But changing too often prevents you from establishing real prospecting routines. And the more you change, the more you have to train your teams, recreate your models, and reorganize your processes.

To sum up: it’s not by piling up tools or chasing after new ones that you’ll get more results. What’s needed is consistency and simplicity.

3. The real solution: a coherent, scalable ecosystem

Efficient prospecting doesn’t mean automating everything or doing everything by hand. It means setting up a fluid organization, where each tool plays a precise role and integrates naturally into your way of working.

The right approach is to build a coherent technological ecosystem. In other words, a set of tools that communicate with each other, match your business methods, and can evolve with you.

For example, there’s no need to choose an ultra-powerful CRM if you’re just one or two prospectors. It’s better to have a simple tool that’s quick to learn, but capable of enriching itself over time. Similarly, if you’re sending out email campaigns, make sure that your database is well linked, that clicks are tracked, and that leads are automatically forwarded to the right person.

A good tool isn’t one that promises the most features. It’s the one that fits into your daily routine, saves you time, and helps you keep better track of your prospects.

Finally, think long term. Your needs today will not be your needs tomorrow. Choose solutions that can grow with you, without calling everything into question at every stage.

4. Theory: the fundamentals of an effective stack

To structure your prospecting, it’s useful to classify tools according to their role. There are generally four main categories. Each one corresponds to a key stage in the sales process.

a) The 4 tool categories

  1. Data tools
    These are used to identify your targets: B2B databases, enrichment tools, scraping or API connectors. This is where it all begins. Successful prospecting depends on data quality.

  2. Engagement tools
    These enable you to get in touch with your prospects: emailing, LinkedIn, SMS, phone calls or automated sequences. The challenge: create a link, with the right message, at the right time.

  3. Follow-up tools
    They help you organize your prospecting: CRM, reminder diaries, scoring, action alerts. Without structured follow-up, opportunities go by the wayside.

  4. Analysis tools
    They measure your results: dashboards, conversion rates, lead attribution, campaign ROI. They enable you to improve what works… and abandon what doesn’t.

b) The right criteria for choosing your tools

To make the right choice, three criteria are essential:

  • Integration: a good tool should be able to connect easily to your CRM or mailing tools. The less you have to copy and paste, the more efficient you’ll be.

  • Scalability: can the tool keep up with your growth? Can it be used by several people? Can you upgrade to a higher version without starting from scratch?

  • Support and familiarization: a tool that looks powerful on paper, but that nobody understands, won’t do you any good. Check that the interface is clear, that you can learn quickly, and that support is responsive.

c) Don’t confuse purchase price with real cost

Finally, it’s important to distinguish between the cost of acquisition and the cost of use. A tool may seem affordable… but if it takes several hours a week to use, or if you have to hire someone to run it, it quickly becomes expensive.

Conversely, software that costs a little more, but saves you time and improves your conversions, can become very profitable. So the real indicator to look at is the cost per qualified lead, not just the monthly subscription.

5. Practical: the right stack for every company size

Not all tools are made for all structures. A freelancer has different needs to an SME or a major corporation. That’s why it’s important to adapt your technology stack to your size… and to your means.

a) Self-employed and very small businesses (VSEs)

When you’re one or two people in charge of prospecting, the priority is simple: to be as efficient as possible. There’s no need to multiply software.

A typical stack for VSEs could be limited to 3 or 4 tools:

  • A reliable B2B database (such as Dataprospects),

  • A simple, high-performance emailing tool,

  • A mini CRM to keep track of exchanges,

  • And possibly an appointment scheduling tool (Calendly, for example).

The aim here is to maximize useful time: less tool management, more time to call or follow-up with the right prospects.

b) SMEs

As soon as several people are involved in prospecting, the question of coordination becomes central. The tools need to be well integrated, and everyone needs to have a clear view of progress.

An effective stack for an SME generally includes :

  • A CRM connected to all acquisition channels,

  • Aprofessional emailing tool with automated reminders,

  • A shared appointment scheduling solution,

  • Connectors to circulate information (Zapier, Make…),

  • And if possible, a dashboard to monitor results.

The key word here is fluidity. Your tools should save you time, not waste it.

c) Large companies

In larger structures, the stakes change: high data volumes, multiple teams, complex processes… So we need to think in terms of centralization and governance.

Key accounts often need :

  • A centralized CRM to manage all customer relations (Salesforce, Microsoft Dynamics…),

  • A marketing automation tool linked to databases (Ediware, for example),

  • A lead scoring and attribution system,

  • Advanced reporting tools,

  • And sometimes even data enrichment orcommercial AI solutions.

The aim here is to structure, automate and analyze on a large scale. But beware: the more complex the stack, the greater the need for training and support. Without it, even the best tools can become ineffective.

6. Extension: technological evolution roadmap

Putting the right tools in place is all well and good. But knowing when and how to upgrade them is even better. Because your needs will change over time: more prospects to handle, a growing team, more complex campaigns… Your stack needs to keep pace.

Step 1: Launch with the essentials

Initially, focus on what saves you time right away:

  • A tool for collecting contacts,

  • Basic CRM,

  • A reliable contact channel (emailing, telephone or LinkedIn).

Keep it simple. The aim is to get started quickly and see results within the first few weeks.

Step 2: Connect and automate

As soon as you have a little volume, remember to circulate the information automatically. This avoids forgetting and wasting time:

  • Synchronization between emailing tool and CRM,

  • Automatic scheduled reminders,

  • Notifications when clicked or answered.

Tools such as Zapier, Make or native platform integrations will save you precious time without technical development.

Step 3: Analyze and optimize

Once your machine is up and running, you can start measuring in detail what works:

  • Which channels generate the best leads?

  • Which campaigns generate the most responses?

  • Which salespeople convert best?

This data will enable you to readjust your strategy and invest where the return is greatest.

Step 4: Large-scale customization

When you have reached a good level of maturity, you can integrate more advanced tools :

  • Behavioral scoring,

  • Personalized content based on prospect profile,

  • Multichannel sequences,

  • AI for qualification or prediction.

But beware: these steps are only useful if the fundamentals are solid. There’s no point customizing if your data is poorly qualified, or analyzing if your teams don’t use the tools on a daily basis.

In short, the best prospecting stack is one that evolves with you, seamlessly, without excessive complexity, and always at the service of your business objectives.

To conclude

Prospecting doesn’t have to be complicated. It just needs to be structured.

In a market saturated with tools, those who succeed are not those who have “the best software of the moment”. It’s those who have built a coherent, easy-to-use environment, perfectly aligned with their way of working.

Instead of looking for the miracle tool, ask yourself the right questions:

  • Is my data reliable?

  • Do my messages arrive safely?

  • Can I keep track of my actions… and my results?

If the answer is no, start there. Then evolve your stack, step by step. Incorporate what saves you time. Remove the clutter. And never forget that tools are no substitute for a clear strategy. They only make it more effective.

It’s not about having lots of tools. It’s about using the ones that are really useful to you.
And Ediware comes out on top in this respect: a platform that’s simple to use, yet comprehensive enough to adapt to all company profiles – whether you’re self-employed, an SME or a large corporation.

Categories
Miscellaneous Technical

How can you combine email and SMS to effectively relaunch your prospects?

Problem: emails drowned in the mass, inert prospects

Every day, your prospects receive dozens of emails: newsletters, promotions, commercial solicitations… Their inboxes are overflowing, and your own messages are going unnoticed. B2B open rates average around 20% – a large proportion of your target audience no longer even reads your mailings. As a result, prospects go numb: they no longer interact with your campaigns, and your emails remain dead letters. Attempting to remedy this situation by sending ever more emails risksexacerbating the saturation. Your recipients end up losing interest, even labeling you as “just another spammer”. It becomes urgent to find a different approach to wake up these inactive contacts and rekindle their interest.

False solutions: what we’ve all tried before (in vain)

Faced with prospects’ inertia, the temptation is strong to increase the pace or change details, hoping for a miracle. Among the false good ideas often tested:

  • Multiplying email blasts: bombarding the inbox in the hope of “forcing” attention. In reality, this worsens saturation and accelerates disengagement.

  • Constantly changing the subject or design of your messages: looking for the magic formula that’s guaranteed to get people to open. These adjustments have a limited impact as long as the over-solicitation is not resolved.

  • Relaunching via the same channel, without personalization: repeating the same message to non-respondents. This blind repetition tires more than it convinces.

These attempts rarely result in significant gains. Why? Because they remain confined to a single channel and don’t fundamentally change the approach. By continuing in this way, you hope for a different result without changing your strategy – in vain. Admittedly, the problem lies not in the form of your e-mails, but in the single-channel approach itself.

The real way forward: synchronizing email and SMS channels

To breathe new life into your campaigns and re-engage your prospects, the solution lies in multi-channel. More precisely, coupling SMS and email in a coherent sequence. Rather than relying entirely on email, or carrying out isolated actions, we orchestrate coordinated mailings between these two channels.

Why this SMS/Email duo? Because it combines the best of each channel. Email lets you share rich, detailed content – it’s the ideal medium for in-depth information. SMS offers instant reach: it’s read within minutes on the mobile. Synchronizing the two ensures that your key message is both seen and understood by the prospect.

In concrete terms, you need to define a contact scenario in which each message has a precise role and optimized timing. For example, after an informative email, schedule a targeted SMS reminder a few days later for those who haven’t opened it. Intelligently alternating channels in this way helps to wake prospects up from their torpor and guide them step by step through your conversion tunnel. Used sparingly, this duo will pleasantly surprise prospects and set you apart from the competition – without inundating them with messages.

Two channels with complementary strengths

  • Email excels at informing and convincing on substance. It can detail a value proposition, integrate visuals and links, and personalize content to suit the target audience. Its downside: it can easily be ignored or relegated to the background in a cluttered inbox.

  • SMS shines for its immediate impact. 90% of text messages are read within minutes of receipt. An SMS is short, to the point and captures attention in the moment – ideal for alerting, reminding of a deadline or creating a sense of urgency. On the other hand, the message needs to be brief and not go into too much detail.

By combining the two, you combine impact and precision. SMS delivers the key information instantly, while email provides the context and details to convince. One gives the alert, the other deploys the argument. Together, they create a more effective harmony than each channel on its own.

5 practical strategies for combining SMS and email

  1. Remind non-openers by SMS (D+3) – A few days after an unopened emailing, send a reminder SMS (rather than resending the same email). For example: “Just a reminder: you might be interested in our special offer. Check your emails or contact us to find out more”. This express reminder will encourage the prospect to finally take a look at your message.

  2. Accompany an important email with an SMS alert – For an important email (sales proposal, VIP invitation…), add an SMS alert so it doesn’t go unnoticed. Keep the message brief: “[Company]: you have received an important email concerning [subject]. Please check it as soon as possible”. This text message signals that a valuable message is waiting in the prospect’s mailbox.

  3. Use SMS as an event reminder – The day before or the morning of an event (webinar, online demo…), an SMS reminder ensures that your registrants don’t forget the appointment. For example: “Reminder: the webinar “[Title]” starts at 10am. The login link is in your email”. This reminder increases participation rates by reminding you of key information at the right time.

  4. SMS confirmation of an action carried out via email – After an email registration or download, a confirmation SMS can be used to thank the prospect and immediately validate their action. For example: “Thank you for registering! All the details are waiting for you in your mailbox”. The contact is reassured immediately, even if he hasn’t yet seen the confirmation email.

  5. Manage urgent communication: Simultaneous SMS + email – In an emergency, combine an immediate SMS alert with a detailed email sent almost simultaneously. For example: “[Urgent] [Company]: please read the important email we have just sent you concerning [subject]”. The SMS ensures that the critical information is seen right away, the email provides the full context.

These five strategies show how SMS and email work in tandem to dramatically improve the effectiveness of your campaigns. Each one corresponds to a frequent use case in B2B prospecting, from reviving dormant contacts to increasing event attendance. The key is to add value to each message, avoid redundancy, and choose the right timing for each channel.

Going further: integrating other channels

The SMS/Email duo is an excellent start to energize your sequences. But you can go even further by integrating other channels. For example, a phone call to a highly committed prospect (identified using Ediware scoring ) will provide the decisive human touch to close the deal. Similarly, a personalized postal letter sent to a VIP target will leave a lasting impression – precisely because this gesture has become rare today. These more expensive channels should remain the exception, but used at the right time, they further strengthen the relationship forged by email and SMS. The important thing is to maintain overall coherence: each point of contact forms part of the same narrative and reinforces each other, without ever overwhelming the prospect.

By orchestrating all these levers on a single platform like Ediware, you can ensure consistency and seamless coordination. Email, SMS, call, mail – each channel has its place in guiding the prospect from first contact through to appointment or purchase.

To conclude, test SMS/Email coupling with Ediware

In B2B, getting your prospects out of their inertia requires aninnovative approach. The SMS/email coupling strategies we’ve just seen show how a well thought-out multi-channel approach can make all the difference. By combining theimmediacy of SMS with the richness of email, then adding other channels if necessary, you multiply your points of contact and maximize your chances of conversion.

Of course, orchestrating such scenarios manually would be complex. That’s where a specialized platform like Ediware comes into its own. Ediware centralizes your communications and automates these multi-channel scenarios, with functions for automatic reminders, multi-channel campaigns and scoring to prioritize your actions. In just a few clicks, you can define your personalized paths – for example, “if email not opened after 3 days, then SMS reminder”. You stay in control of your strategy, and the platform executes the right actions at the right time.

Don’t let your emails go to waste. Innovate by combining SMS and email, test these concrete strategies and adapt them to your context. Your prospects will notice this multi-channel attention, and your results will be all the better for it. It’s time to take action: why not try orchestrating these sequences with Ediware right now? You’ll gain in responsiveness and sales performance.

Categories
Technical

Customer lifecycle: reducing churn effectively

Cycle de vie client réduire le churn efficacement

How can you turn your customers into loyal partners? 💡 Understanding the customer lifecycle and limiting churn is essential to any B-to-B marketing strategy. These two elements enable you to maximize the value of each relationship while reducing customer losses.

Let’s explore the different stages of the customer lifecycle, identify critical moments to present you with concrete strategies to build loyalty and limit attrition. 🚀 Get ready to discover tools and techniques to improve your results today.

The customer lifecycle: understanding the basics

Before you can act, you need to understand. The customer lifecycle is divided into several distinct phases:

  1. Acquisition: attract new prospects with targeted campaigns. 🎯
  2. Activation: quickly engage new customers to adopt your services. ⚡
  3. Retention: make sure they stay active and satisfied. 🔄
  4. Loyalty: strengthen their long-term commitment. 💙
  5. Recommendation: convert them into ambassadors for your brand. 🌟

👉 Why are these stages important? Each phase offers you a unique opportunity to interact with your customers. By mastering these moments, you build a lasting, profitable relationship. 💼

Identify critical moments in the customer journey

Have you ever noticed that some customers pick up without warning? 🤔 These departures are not always unpredictable. Friction points in the customer journey are often at the root of the problem.

How to detect them?

  • 🔍 Analyze buying behavior: when do customers stop buying?
  • 📝 Get direct feedback: use surveys to understand their frustrations.
  • 🗺️ Map the customer journey: identify the stages at which they hesitate or give up.

A practical tool: the customer journey map. It allows you to visualize all interactions with your company and spot any loopholes. 📊

Dissatisfied customers: an opportunity to seize

Dissatisfied customers are often perceived as a threat. But did you know that they can become your greatest allies? 💡 If you address their concerns, you can not only win back their trust, but also strengthen their loyalty.

How do you deal with an unhappy customer?

  1. 👂 Listen actively: show that their opinion counts.
  2. 🤝 Of fer a personalized solution: a sales gesture, a phone call.
  3. ✅ Follow after resolution: check that the problem has been solved.

💡 A case in point: We set up an automatic email to collect feedback from dissatisfied customers. Result: 30% of them came back after a personalized response to their complaints. 📈

Reduce churn: adopt winning strategies

What are the signs of imminent departure? 🚨 Prolonged inactivity, recurring support requests or declining interactions. These indicators are calls to action.

Strategies to limit churn:

  • 💌 Automate follow-ups: a follow-up email or special offer can rekindle interest.
  • 🌟 Offer added value: share exclusive guides, case studies or webinars.
  • ✉️ Personalize your communications: address your customers’ specific needs directly.

CRM tools can help you centralize this data and automate your actions. 📊

Loyalty: your best ally against churn

Did you know that a loyal customer costs 5 to 7 times less to keep than a new customer to acquire? 💸 What’s more, they often generate higher sales thanks to their repeat purchases.

How to build loyalty effectively?

  • 🎁 S et up tailored programs: exclusive discounts, privileged access to resources.
  • 🤗 Create a bond: send thank-you emails, celebrate their successes or anniversaries.
  • 🕹️ Gamify the experience: use loyalty points or VIP levels.

Email marketing remains a powerful tool for maintaining relationships. By sending relevant, well-targeted messages, you build trust and engagement. 💌

A customer-oriented strategy: the key to success

To succeed, your company needs to align its objectives with real customer needs. 🎯 This means:

  1. 🤝 Collaborate across teams (sales, marketing, customer service).
  2. 📊 Leverage customer data to personalize every interaction.
  3. 🤖 Automate repetitive tasks to devote more time to analysis.

Tip: use tools like HubSpot or Salesforce to centralize data and coordinate your actions. ⚙️

Continuous measurement and adjustment

How do you know if your efforts are bearing fruit? By monitoring key performance indicators (KPIs). 📊

  • 📉 C hurn rate: how many customers do you lose each month?
  • 💰 Lifetime Value (LTV): what is the total value generated by a customer?
  • 🌟 Net Promoter Score (NPS ): do your customers recommend you?

By regularly analyzing these metrics, you’ll identify areas for improvement. ✅ Adopt an iterative approach to testing, adjusting and optimizing your campaigns.

Conclusion: take action now

Customer lifecycle and churn are not just concepts, but powerful levers for your marketing strategy. 🚀 By understanding each stage, detecting moments of friction and building customer loyalty, you’ll lay the foundations for sustainable growth.

So, ready to transform your customer relationships? 🎯 Start today by applying these strategies and see the long-term results. 🌟

Categories
B2B email-marketing Design Ediware Miscellaneous Technical

Attract and convert new customers with the right emailing software

Finding new customers is a constant challenge for B-to-B entrepreneurs, and email-marketing is emerging as an effective lever for achieving this. 🎯 This easy-to-implement and accessible tool enables you to communicate directly with prospects, establish initial contact and, ultimately, turn them into customers.

To harness the full potential of email marketing, it’s essential to use well thought-out techniques tailored to your audience. Good email marketing software will help you automate, personalize and analyze your campaigns for measurable results. 🎯

In this article, we present three strategies to help you attract and convert new customers: prospecting, referrals and strategic partnerships. Whether you’re just starting out or looking to improve your existing processes, these techniques will give your customer acquisition a real boost.

1. Why email marketing is essential for acquiring new customers

1.1 Figures that speak for themselves

Email marketing remains a powerful tool, widely used by B-to-B companies. Here are a few statistics to illustrate its impact:

Statistics Source
📈 Average open rate for commercial emails: 21.33%. Campaign Monitor (2022)
💰 Average ROI: 42:1 DMA (2022)
🌍 4.3 billion email users in 2023 Statista (2023)

Unlike social networks or SEO, where algorithms can sometimes limit your reach, emails reach your recipients directly. 💌 With the right emailing software, you can segment your audiences, personalize each message and maximize the effectiveness of your campaigns.

1.2 A flexible, measurable channel

What makes email marketing so effective is its flexibility. You can :

  • 💡 Send out regular newsletters to keep in touch with your prospects and customers.
  • 🛍️ Launch one-off promotional campaigns to boost sales.
  • 🤖 Set up automated sequences to guide your prospects through the buying journey.

Another important advantage is that everything can be measured. The tools integrated into emailing software enable you to monitor the performance of your campaigns in real time. So you know what’s working, what needs to be improved and how to adjust your next actions. 📊

2. Email prospecting: how to build trust

2.1 Segment your lists to maximize impact

A well-executed prospecting campaign starts with precise segmentation of your lists. 🎯 It’s important to classify your prospects according to criteria such as their sector of activity, position or level of commitment.

With the right email marketing software, this step is simplified thanks to automatic segmentation options. You can, for example, send specific messages to decision-makers or operational managers, depending on your objectives.

2.2 Write engaging emails

An effective prospecting email should capture attention right from the subject line. 📨 Take the time to work on your wording so that it’s clear and captivating.

For example:

  • ❌ Bad: “Discover our services.”
  • ✅ Bon: “How to save 20% on your budget with these solutions.”

Content should also reflect real added value. Present a solution to a concrete problem or benefit, then invite your recipient to take action via a precise and attractive CTA (call to action).

2.3 Analyze results for improvement

It’s essential to evaluate the performance of your emails to improve your campaigns. 📈 Emailing software enables you to track key indicators such as open rate, click rate or conversion rate.

Key KPI Target to reach
📬 Opening rate > 20 %
📲 Click-through rate > 3 %
💳 Conversion rate > 1 %

This data will enable you to understand what captures your prospects’ interest and test different approaches to maximize your results.

3. Use sponsorship to turn your customers into ambassadors

3.1 The power of digital word-of-mouth

A referral program can be a real growth driver for your business. 👥 Thanks to satisfied customers who become ambassadors for your brand, you benefit from digital word-of-mouth that boosts your credibility with new prospects.

Example of a sponsorship offer:

  • 🏆 The sponsor receives a reward, such as a discount or voucher.
  • 🎉 The referral benefits from an exclusive opportunity to discover your products or services.
3.2 Automate sponsorship with emailing software

With email marketing software, you can automate the management of your program. This includes:

  • 🔔 Sending invitations to customers to participate in the program.
  • 📬 Reminders to inactive sponsors to boost their commitment.
  • 📊 Real-time performance monitoring, such as the number of recommendations made.
3.3 Inspiring case studies

Example: Dropbox
Dropbox has used a simple but effective referral program to boost its growth. The result? A significant increase in their subscriptions, simply by offering a clear benefit: more free storage for every referral.

Dropbox program Result
💾 Sponsor reward 500 MB free storage space
📈 Growth generated +60% registered users

4. Strategic partnerships: a solution for expanding your audience

4.1 Identifying the right partners

A successful partnership is based on brand compatibility. 🤝 The idea is to collaborate with a company that shares similar values, but doesn’t compete directly with your business.

4.2 Co-create high-impact campaigns

Joint campaigns enable us to pool our strengths and reach new audiences. Here are a few examples:

  • 🎯 A special offer exclusive to customers of both companies.
  • 📧 A series of emails highlighting your complementary services.
4.3 Track and optimize your efforts

As with all your campaigns, emailing software helps you track the performance of your partnerships. You can measure the number of leads generated, click-through rates and, of course, conversions.

5. Measure and continuously improve your performance

5.1 Monitor key indicators

Metrics like open, click and conversion rates are valuable indicators for fine-tuning your campaigns. 📊

Indicator Recommended target Importance
📬 Opening rate > 20 % Measures the interest generated by your email subject.
📲 Click-through rate > 3 % Evaluates engagement with your content.
💳 Conversion rate > 1 % Indicates whether your call to action is effective.
5.2 Test and adjust your emails

Thanks to A/B testing, you can experiment with different approaches: email objects, formats, calls to action. 💡 This approach ensures that each campaign is better optimized than the last.

Email marketing is a powerful solution for attracting and converting new B-to-B customers. 🎯 Thanks to well-thought-out strategies such as prospecting, sponsorship and partnerships, you can accelerate your customer acquisition in a sustainable and measurable way.

By combining these techniques with the right email marketing software, you can save time and improve your results. Now all you have to do is put these tips into practice to turn your prospects into loyal, satisfied customers. 🚀

Categories
Technical

650 emoji for your email campaigns

The use of emojis in the subject line or message of an email campaign can be a strategic asset for engaging your recipients. Emojis have become a universal language for capturing attention and conveying emotions simply and immediately. By judiciously integrating emojis into your email subject lines, you can attract recipients’ attention and encourage them to open your messages, while offering them a more fun and personalized experience. Emojis can also be used to highlight key elements of your message, making the content easier to understand. But use them sparingly, taking into account your target audience and business sector, to avoid damaging your brand’s professional image or making your message too informal.

Here’s a list of the main emoji and their descriptions. Paste them directly into the subject or message of your email campaigns. Or use the HTML code provided.

Smiley faces and people

HTML Emoji Hexadecimal code French description
😄 😄 Smiling face with smiling eyes
😊 😊 Smiling face with smiling eyes and slightly smiling mouth
🙂 🙂 Smiling face with smiling eyes and neutral mouth
🙃 🙃 Upside-down face
😉 😉 Winks
😜 😜 Face with tongue out and blinking eye
😝 😝 Face with tongue out and eyes closed
😛 😛 Face with tongue out
🤪 🤪 Face with bulging eyes and hanging tongue
😎 😎 Smiling face with sunglasses
🤓 🤓 Smiling face with glasses and book
🧐 🧐 Face with monocle and slightly smiling mouth
😕 😕 Confused face
😟 😟 Concerned face
🙁 🙁 Sad face with slightly frowning mouth
☹️ ☹️ Sad face
😮 😮 Astonished face
😯 😯 Expressionless face with wide eyes
😲 😲 Face with open mouth and wide eyes
😳 😳 Blushing face with wide eyes
😦 😦 Angry face with open mouth
😧 😧 Anxious face with open mouth
😨 😨 Frightened face with open mouth and wide eyes
😰 😰 Anxious face with cold sweat
😥 😥 Disappointed face with a drop of sweat
😢 😢 Sad face with a tear
😭 😭 Crying face
😱 😱 Face screaming in fear
😞 😞 Disappointed face
😤 😤 Angry face with horns
😠 😠 Angry face
😡 😡 Very angry face
😈 😈 Smiling face with horns
👿 👿 Angry face with horns and red eyes
💀 💀 Skull and crossbones
☠️ ☠️ Skull and crossbones
💩 💩 Smiling poop
🤡 🤡 Clown face
👹 👹 Japanese Ogre
👺 👺 Japanese monster
👻 👻 Ghost
👽 👽 Extraterrestrial
👾 👾 Video game monster
🤖 🤖 Robot face
😺 😺 Smiling cat face
😸 😸 Cat face with smiling eyes
😹 😹 Cat face with tears of joy
😻 😻 Cat face with heart-shaped eyes
😼 😼 Sneaky cat face with a smile
😽 😽 Cat face with closed eyes and folded lips
🙀 🙀 Frightened cat face
😿 😿 Sad cat face with a tear
😾 😾 Angry cat face
🙈 🙈 Monkey covering his eyes
🙉 🙉 Monkey covering his ears
🙊 🙊 Monkey with mouth
💡 💡 Bulb on

The panels

HTML Emoji HTML hexadecimal code French description
⚠️ ⚠️ Danger
🚦 🚦 Signal light
🚧 🚧 Works sign
⛔ ⛔ Prohibition sign
🛑 🛑 Stop sign
🚸 🚸 Crosswalk
🚳 🚳 Bicycle ban
🚯 🚯 No littering
🚱 🚱 Not for drinking
🚷 🚷 Pedestrian ban
📵 📵 Ban on using a cell phone

Dialogue bubbles

HTML Emoji Hexadecimal code French description
💤 💤 Sleeping thought bubble
💭 💭 Bubble thinking
💬 💬 Dialog bubble
🗨️ 🗨️ Left dialog box
🗯️ 🕳 Dialogue bubble with dots
🕳️ 🗯️ Hole

Weather conditions

HTML Emoji Hexadecimal code French description
☀️ ☀️ Sun
⛅ ⛅️ Cloud and sun
☁️ ☁️ Cloud
🌥️ 🌥️ Cloud with sun
🌦️ 🌦️ Cloud with rain and sun
🌧️ 🌧️ Cloud with rain
⛈️ ⛈️ Cloud with rain and thunderstorm
🌩️ 🌩️ Cloud with rain and lightning
🌨️ 🌨️ Cloud with snow
❄️ ❄️ Snowflake
☃️ ☃️ Snowman
🌪️ 🌪️ Tornado
🌫️ 🌫️ Fog
🌊 🌊 Wave
🌬️ 🌬️ Face blowing in the wind
💨 💨 Strong wind symbol

The animals

HTML Emoji Hexadecimal code French description
🐶 🐶 Dog head
🐱 🐱 Cat head
🐭 🐭 Mouse head
🐹 🐹 Hamster head
🐰 🐰 Rabbit head
🦊 🦊 Fox head
🐻 🐻 Bear head
🐼 🐼 Panda head
🐨 🐨 Koala head
🐯 🐯 Tiger head
🦁 🦁 Lion head
🐮 🐮 Cow head
🐷 🐷 Pig’s head
🐸 🐸 Frog head
🐵 🐵 Monkey head
🐔 🐔 Chicken head
🐧 🐧 Penguin head
🐦 🐦 Bird’s head
🐤 🐤 Chick
🦆 🦆 Duck head
🦉 🦉 Owl head
🦇 🦇 Bat head
🦋 🦋 Butterfly
🐌 🐌 Snail
🐛 🐛 Caterpillar
🦟 🦟 Mosquito
🐜 🐜 Ant
🐝 🐝 Bee
🐞 🐞 Beetle
🕷️ 🕷 Spider
🦂 🦂 Scorpio
🦞 🦞 Lobster
🦀 🦀 Crab
🐍 🐍 Snake
🦕 🦕 Dinosaur
🦖 🦖 Tyrannosaurus head

The food

HTML Emoji Hexadecimal code French description
🍇 🍇 Grapes
🍈 🍈 Melon
🍉 🍉 Watermelon
🍊 🍊 Orange
🍋 🍋 Lemon
🍌 🍌 Banana
🍍 🍍 Pineapple
🥭 🥭 Mango
🍎 🍎 Apple
🍏 🍏 Green apple
🍐 🍐 Pear
🍑 🍑 Fishing
🍒 🍒 Cherry
🍓 🍓 Milling cutter
🥝 🥝 Kiwi
🍅 🍅 Tomato
🥑 🥑 Lawyer
🥔 🥔 Potato
🥕 🥕 Carrot
🌽 🌽 Corn cob
🌶️ 🌶 Chili pepper
🥒 🥒 Cucumber
🥬 🥬 Cabbage
🥦 🥦 Broccoli
🍄 🍄 Mushroom
🥜 🥜 Peanuts
🌰 🌰 Brown
🍞 🍞 Bread
🥐 🥐 Crescent
🥖 🥖 Bread stick
🥨 🥨 Pretzel
🥞 🥞 Pancakes
🧀 🧀 Cheese
🍖 🍖 Meat on the bone
🍗 🍗 Chicken drumsticks
🥩 🥩 Steak
🥓 🥓 Bacon
🍔 🍔 Hamburger
🍟 🍟 French fries
🍕 🍕 Pizza

Gestures

👏 👏 Clapping hands
🙌 🙌 Hands raised in the air
👋 👋 Hand that says hello
👍 👍 Thumbs up
👎 👎 Thumb down
👊 👊 Clenched fist
✊ ✊ Raised fist
🤛 🤛 Left punching fist
🤜 🤜 Right fist
🤞 🤞 Crossed fingers
✌️ ✌ Victory sign
🤘 🤘 Rock sign
🤟 🤟 Sign “I love you” in sign language
🤙 🤙 Telephone hand sign
🖖 🖖 Hi Vulcan
🤏 🤏 Thumb and index finger touching
✍️ ✍ Hand writing
💅 💅 Painted nails
🤳 🤳 Selfie
💪 💪 Strong biceps
👫 👫 Torque
👭 👭 Two women holding hands
👬 👬 Two men holding hands
🙏 🙏 Hands in prayer

Means of transport

HTML Emoji Hexadecimal code French description
🚗 🚗 Car
🚕 🚕 Cab
🚙 🚙 4×4
🚌 🚌 Bus
🚎 🚎 City bus
🏎️ 🏎 Formula 1
🚓 🚓 Police car
🚑 🚑 Ambulance
🚒 🚒 Fire truck
🚚 🚚 Truck
🚛 🚴 Transport truck
🚜 🚜 Tractor
🛴 🛴 Scooter
🚲 🚲 Bike
🛵 🛵 Scooter
🏍️ 🏍 Motorcycle
🛺 🛺 Tuk-tuk
🛸 🛸 UFO
🚁 🚁 Helicopter
🚤 🚤 Motorboat
⛵ ⛵ Sailboat
🛥️ 🛥 Boat
🚀 🚀 Rocket
🛩️ 🛩 Airplane

Professions

HTML Emoji Hexadecimal code French description
👨‍🏫 👨‍🏫 Male teacher
👩‍🏫 👩‍🏫 Female teacher
👨‍⚕️ 👨‍⚕️ Doctor man
👩‍⚕️ 👩‍⚕️ Female doctor
👨‍🍳 👨‍🍳 Male chef
👩‍🍳 👩‍🍳 Female chef
👮‍♂️ 👮‍♂️ Male police officer
👮‍♀️ 👮‍♀️ Policewoman
👷‍♂️ 👷‍♂️ Male worker
👷‍♀️ 👷‍♀️ Female worker
💂‍♂️ 💂‍♂️ Male guard
💂‍♀️ 💂‍♀️ Woman guard
👩‍🌾 👩‍🌾 Farmer
👨‍🌾 👨‍🌾 Farmer
👩‍🔧 👩‍🔧 Mechanic
👨‍🔧 👨‍🔧 Mechanic
👩‍🏭 👩‍🏭 Factory worker
👨‍🍳 👨‍🍳 Chef
👩‍🍳 👩‍🍳 Head cook
👨‍🌾 👨‍🌾 Farmer
👩‍🌾 👩‍🌾 Farmer
👨‍🍼 👨‍🍼 Nurse
👩‍🍼 👩‍🍼 Nurse
👨‍🎓 👨‍🎓 Student
👩‍🎓 👩‍🎓 Student
👨‍🏫 👨‍🏫 Teacher
👩‍🏫 👩‍🏫 Teacher
👨‍⚕️ 👨‍⚕ Doctor
👩‍⚕️ 👩‍⚕ Doctor
👨‍🌾 👨‍🌾 Farmer
👩‍🌾 👩‍🌾 Farmer
👨‍🍳 👨‍🍳 Chef
👩‍🍳 👩‍🍳 Head cook
👨‍🔧 👨‍🔧 Mechanic
👩‍🔧 👩‍🔧 Mechanic
👨‍🏭 👨‍🏭 Factory worker
👩‍🏭 👩‍🏭 Factory worker
👨‍💼 👨‍💼 Businessman
👩‍💼 👩‍💼 Business woman
👩‍🔬 👩‍🔬 Woman scientist
👨‍🔬 👨‍🔬 Scientific man
🧑‍🔬 🧑‍🔬 Scientific person
👩‍💻 👩‍💻 Female technologist
👨‍💻 👨‍💻 Male technologist
🧑‍💻 🧑‍💻 Technologist
👩‍🎤 👩‍🎤 Female singer
👨‍🎤 👨‍🎤 Male singer
🧑‍🎤 🧑‍🎤 Singer
👩‍🎨 👩‍🎨 Woman artist
👨‍🎨 👨‍🎨 Artist man
🧑‍🎨 🧑‍🎨 Artist person

Original characters

Emoji HTML code Description
🤡 🤡 Clown
🤠 🤠 Cowboy raising his hand in greeting
👽 👽 Extraterrestrial
👺 👺 Goblin
👻 👻 Ghost
💩 💩 Smiling turd
🤖 🤖 Robot
🧟 🧟 Zombie
🧞 🧞 Engineering
🧜 🧜 Siren or Triton
🧚 🧚 Fairy

Office items

HTML Emoji Hexadecimal code French description
📎 📎 Trombone
📌 📌 Pin
📍 📍 Bedbug
📏 📏 Rule
📐 📐 Square
✂️ ✂ Scissors
🖋️ 🖋 Fountain pen
🖊️ 🖊 Ballpoint pen
🖍️ 🖍 Felt
📝 📝 Notepad
📓 📓 Notebook
📔 📔 Notebook
📒 📒 Binder
📚 📚 Books
📖 📖 Open book
📜 📜 Parchment roll
📰 📰 Journal
🗞️ 🗞 Rolled newspaper
📑 📑 Bookmark
🔖 🔖 Price label
💼 💼 Attaché case
📁 📁 File
📂 📂 File cabinet
🗂️ 🗂 Open binder
📅 📅 Calendar
📆 📆 Spiral calendar
🗓️ 🗓 Desktop calendar
📇 📇 Business card
📈 📈 Rising chart
📉 📉 Declining chart
📊 📊 Bar graph
📋 📋 List
📌 📌 Pin
📍 📍 Bedbug
📎 📎 Trombone
🖇️ 🖇 Metal clip
📏 📏 Rule
📐 📐 Square
🗒️ 🗒 Spiral notepad
🗃️ 🗃 File box
🗄️ 🗄 File box
🗃️ 🗃 Archive box
🗂️ 🗂 Hanging file cabinet
📁 📁 File folder
📂 📂 Open files folder
🗞️ 🗞 Newspaper with ad
📰 📰 Newspaper
📓 📓 Notebook
📔 📔 Exercise book
📒 📒 Notebook
📕 📕 Closed book
📗 📗 Green Book
📘 📘 Blue Book
📙 📙 Orange Book
📚 📚 Stack of books
📖 📖 Open book
🔖 🔖 Bookmark
📎 📎 Trombone
🖇️ 🖇 Clothespin
📐 📐 Square
📏 📏 Rule
📌 📌 Desk pin
📍 📍 Bedbug
✂️ ✂ Scissors
🖊️ 🖊 Fountain pen
🖋️ 🖋 Writing nib
🖌️ 🖌 Brush
🖍️ 🖍 Colored pencil
📝 📝 Notepad
✒️ ✒ Signature
📎 📎 Trombone
🖇️ 🖇 Clothespin
🔗 🔗 Link
📌 📌 Desk pin
🧷 🧷 Safety pin

IT

Emoji HTML code French description
💻 💻 Laptop computer
🖥️ 🖥 Desktop computer
🖨️ 🖨 Printer
🖱️ 🖱 Mouse
🖲️ 🖲 Trackball
🕹️ 🕹 Joystick
🗜️ 🗜 Vice
💾 💾 Disk
💿 💿 CD
📀 📀 DVD
🗑️ 🗑 Basket
🔒 🔒 Lock
🔓 🔓 Open lock
🔏 🔏 Lock with feather
🔐 🔐 Lock with key
🔑 🔑 Key

Cell phones and telephony

Emoji Hexadecimal code French description
📱 📱 Cell phone
📲 📲 Cell phone with arrow
☎️ ☎ Phone
📞 📞 Telephone receiver
📟 📟 Beeper
📠 📠 Fax
🔋 🔋 Battery

Medals

Emoji HTML code Description
🎖️ 🎖 Military medal
🏅 🏅 Sports medal
🥇 🥇 Gold medal
🥈 🥈 Silver medal
🥉 🥉 Bronze medal
🎗️ 🎗 Yellow ribbon
🎫 🎫 Admission ticket
🏆 🏆 Trophy cup
🏵️ 🏵 Competition rosette
🎖️ 🎖 Military medal
🏅 🏅 Sports medal
🥇 🥇 Gold medal
🥈 🥈 Silver medal
🥉 🥉 Bronze medal
🎗️ 🎗 Yellow ribbon
🎫 🎫 Admission ticket
🏆 🏆 Trophy cup
🏵️ 🏵 Competition rosette

The trees

Emoji HTML code Description
🌲 🌲 Christmas tree
🌳 🌳 Deciduous tree
🍂 🍂 Dead leaf
🍁 🍁 Maple leaf
🌴 🌴 Palm tree
🎄 🎄 Christmas tree
🌿 🌿 Green grass
🌱 🌱 Plant shoot
🍃 🍃 Leaf in the wind

The plants

Emoji HTML code French description
🌱 🌱 Green shoot
🌿 🌿 Leafy plant
🍃 🍃 Fallen leaves
🍀 🍀 Four-leaf clover
🌺 🌺 Hibiscus flower
🌻 🌻 Sunflower
🌼 🌼 White flower
🌸 🌸 Pink flower
🌹 🌹 Pink
🥀 🥀 Rose withered
🌷 🌷 Tulip
🍁 🍁 Maple leaf
🍂 🍂 Autumn leaves
🍄 🍄 Mushroom
🌰 🌰 Brown
🌵 🌵 Cactus
🎋 🎋 Bamboo leaves

Travel and places

Emoji HTML code Description
🌍 🌍 Globe showing Europe and Africa
🌎 🌎 Globe showing the Americas
🌏 🌏 Globe showing Asia and Australia
🌐 🌐 Globe with meridians and parallels
🗺️ 🗺 World map
🗾 🗾 Map of Japan
🧭 🧭 Compass
🏔️ 🏔 Snowy mountain
⛰️ ⛰ Mountain
🌋 🌋 Volcano
🗻 🗻 Mount Fuji
🏕️ 🏕 Camping
🏖️ 🏖 Beach with umbrella
🏜️ 🏜 Desert
🏝️ 🏝 Desert island
🏞️ 🏞 National park
🏟️ 🏟 Stadium

The buildings

Emoji HTML code Description
🏢 🏢 Building
🏣 🏣 Post office building
🏤 🏤 Post office building with rounded shape
🏥 🏥 Hospital
🏦 🏦 Bank
🏨 🏨 Hotel
🏩 🏩 Love hotel
🏪 🏪 Supermarket
🏫 🏫 School
🏬 🏬 Department store
🏭 🏭 Factory
🏯 🏯 Japanese castle
🏰 🏰 European castle
🏠 🏠 House
🏡 🏡 House with garden
🏘️ 🏘 Houses in a village
🏚️ 🏚 Abandoned house

The weather

Emoji HTML code Description
⏰ ⏰ Clock
⏱️ ⏱ Stopwatch
⏲️ ⏲ Timer
🕰️ 🕰 Desk clock
🕛 🕛 One-hour clock
🕧 🕧 Half-hour clock
🕐 🕐 Two hours clock
🕜 🕜 Two thirty clock
🕑 🕑 Three-hour clock
🕝 🕝 Three-thirty clock
🕒 🕒 Four-hour clock
🕞 🕞 Four-thirty clock
🕓 🕓 Five o’clock clock
🕟 🕟 Five-thirty clock
🕔 🕔 Six o’clock clock
🕠 🕠 Six-thirty clock
🕕 🕕 Seven o’clock clock
🕡 🕡 Seven-thirty clock
🕖 🕖 Eight o’clock clock
🕢 🕢 Eight-thirty clock
🕗 🕗 Nine o’clock clock
🕣 🕣 Nine-thirty clock
🕘 🕘 Ten o’clock clock
🕤 🕤 Ten-thirty clock
🕙 🕙 Eleven o’clock clock
🕥 🕥 Eleven-thirty clock
🕚 🕚 Twelve-hour clock
🕦 🕦 Twelve-thirty clock
⏲️ ⏲ Timer
⏳ ⏳ Hourglass running out
⏰ ⏰ Clock
🕰️ 🕰 Desk clock

Celebrations

Emoji HTML code Description
🎉 🎉 Party
🎊 🎊 Confetti
🎁 🎁 Gift
🎂 🎂 Birthday cake
🎈 🎈 Party balloon
🎆 🎆 Fireworks
🎇 🎇 Brilliant fireworks
🥳 🥳 Party face with party hat
🎊 🎊 Confetti

The tools

HTML Emoji Hexadecimal code Description
🔨 🔨 Hammer
🛠️ 🛠 Hammer and wrench
🔧 🔧 Wrench
🔩 🔩 Bolt and nut
🪛 🪛 Screws
🪚 🪚 Pliers
🪝 🪝 Hook
🔫 🔫 Glue gun
🪜 🪜 Scale
🧰 🧰 Toolbox
🔗 🔗 Chain links
🔭 🔭 Telescope
📏 📏 Rule
🪜 🪜 Scale

Hearts

HTML Emoji Hexadecimal code French description
❤️ ❤️ Red heart
🧡 🧡 Orange heart
💛 💛 Yellow heart
💚 💚 Green heart
💙 💙 Blue heart
💜 💜 Purple heart
🤎 🤎 Brown heart
🖤 🖤 Black heart
🤍 🤍 White heart
💔 💔 Broken heart
❣️ ❣️ Heart in the shape of an exclamation mark
💕 💕 Pink hearts
💞 💞 Spinning heart
💓 💓 Heartbeat
💗 💗 Pink heart
💖 💖 Sparkling heart
💘 💘 Heart with arrow
💝 💝 Heart-shaped gift
💌 💌 Love letter
💟 💟 Decorative heart
❥ ❥ Twisted heart

Statistics

Emoji HTML code French description
📊 📊 Bar graph
📈 📈 Rising chart
📉 📉 Declining chart
📊 📊 Bar graph

Landscapes

Emoji HTML hexadecimal code Description
🌄 🌄 sunrise on a mountain
🌅 🌅 sunrise
🌆 🌆 city at sunrise
🌇 🌇 city at dusk
🌉 🌉 night bridge
🌊 🌊 wave
🌋 🌋 volcano
🌌 🌌 milky way

Medical

Emoji HTML code Description
🩺 🧑 Laboratory coat
💉 💉 Syringe
🩸 🧠 Blood drop
🌡️ 🌡 Thermometer
📋 📝 Medical form
🆘 🔫 SOS button
🏥 🏥 Hospital
🚑 🚑 Ambulance
🧪 🧠 Test tube
🩹 🧡 Bandage

The Moon

Emoji HTML hexadecimal code Description
🌑 🌑 new moon
🌒 🌒 first quarter moon
🌓 🌓 first quarter crescent moon
🌔 🌔 waxing gibbous moon
🌕 🌕 full moon
🌖 🌖 waning gibbous moon
🌗 🌗 last quarter moon crescent
🌘 🌘 last quarter moon
🌙 🌙 crescent moon
🌚 🌚 black moon with face
🌛 🌛 first moon phase with face
🌜 🌜 last moon phase with face

 

Categories
Technical

The problem of animated gifs with Outlook

Sending an animated GIF in an e-mail campaign is a good idea for making a message more attractive. It’s also possible to create a very light animation to make the message more dynamic, without disturbing the reader’s attention with too-fast animations. On this subject, see our article on cinemagraphs.

Outlook doesn’t display animated GIFs

Unfortunately, not all versions of Outlook after 2007 display animated gifs by default. The versions concerned are: Microsoft 365 Outlook 2021 Outlook 2019 Outlook 2016 and Outlook 2013. Windows only. Outlook on Mac, IOS and Android display them correctly. The same applies to the webmail version on Outlook.com, regardless of the operating system used to access it.

On Windows, it is possible to change an option in Outlook to display animations correctly (the solution is here https://support.microsoft.com/fr-fr/office/le-graphique-animé-dans-mon-message-électronique-ne-fonctionne-pas-a5e8a2a3-9d86-4203-8920-c88cb8739e34). But most of your recipients won’t be aware of this possibility, and will see a static image instead of your animated Gif when they receive your email campaign.

How do you integrate an animated GIF into an email campaign?

However, it’s not necessary to completely dispense with the use of animated GIFs for your emailing. Outlook will display a static image created from the first frame of your animated GIF (i.e. the first image of the animation). This is very annoying, as many animated GIFs start with an almost empty image, or even a completely blank one. There are several possible solutions for dealing with this Outlook flaw:

Use the first frame of your animated Gif

To see the best possible display on all environments, simply add the final image of your animation to the first frame of your animated GIF. The last frame of your animated GIF is likely to be the most telling, or the one containing the CTA (call to action).

This frame will only be displayed for a fraction of a second on e-mail programs that handle animations correctly. This will cause a slight jump in the animation, which is not necessarily very annoying. And on Outlook, the static image displayed will remain consistent.

Using conditions in HTML code

Another solution is to provide a different display depending on the capabilities of the e-mail client used by the user. The animated GIF will be displayed for software that displays animation correctly, and a static image will be provided for e-mail clients like Outlook that don’t display animation.

Here’s an example of conditional code that works:

<!--[if !mso]><!-->
<img src="image_version_gif_anime.gif">
<!--<![endif]-->
<!--[if gte mso 9]>
<img src="image_version_statique.jpg">
<![endif]-->

The use of a condition in your HTML code ensures optimal display whatever the recipient’s environment. Oulook users will see an image that doesn’t move, and others will see the animation correctly, without the little jump at the beginning of the animation that the previous solution causes.

example of animated gif for an emailing with a dog

Categories
Technical

The definition of deliverability in email marketing

Délivrabilité emailing

Deliverability is the art of getting emails into recipients’ inboxes. It’s a measure of how well emails reach their intended recipients, depending on the messaging services they use.

😈 Obstacles to deliverability

Certain factors can penalize deliverability. For example:

  • Shipments without proper configuration ❌
  • Sending from a free email domain (such as Yahoo or Gmail)
  • A lack of engagement (few openings or clicks) 🚫
  • Using URL shorteners
  • The difficulty for Internet users to unsubscribe 🔄

📈 The Ediware emailing platform accurately measures the rate of successful mails, i.e. the proportion of rejected mails (bounces) in relation to the total number of mailings.

🚫 What is an email bounce?

Mails can be rejected for two reasons.

Hard bounce: The permanent error

The address is invalid or incorrect.

An e-mail address is made up of a user and a domain name. In the address test@example.com

  • there’s the user: test
  • and the domain name: example.com

For a mail server, the first step when sending an e-mail is to identify the domain name of the recipient’s address; to see if it exists and to retrieve the mail server managing this domain name by querying its DNS. If one of these steps fails, sending stops and the e-mail is rejected directly by the sending server, which cannot contact the remote mail server. This is a hard bounce 🚧.

If all has gone well, the second step is to send the e-mail to the recipient’s mail server. For this, an SMTP transaction is established. If the user doesn’t exist (what’s in front of the @), the remote mail server will reject the e-mail. Either immediately during the SMTP transaction, or subsequently, by sending an error e-mail to the sender’s e-mail address. This is also known as a hard bounce.

Soft bounce: The temporary error

We’ve reached the second stage: the domain name of the recipient’s address exists, and there’s a remote mail server up and running. However, the recipient’s mail server refuses the message during the SMTP transaction, indicating that the user certainly exists, but that it cannot accept the message. There may be several reasons for this:

  1. The remote server is too busy 🔄
  2. The message is rejected as “spam related” 🚫
  3. The message does not respect the conditions imposed by the recipient’s mail server (“policy-related”). This can happen, for example, if the remote server imposes a limit on the number of messages a sender can send.
  4. The recipient’s mailbox is full 📬

📈 How to assess the deliverability of an email campaign?

t’s impossible to know exactly what proportion of successful e-mails reaches the inbox and what proportion ends up in the spam folder.

Nevertheless, it is possible to detect a drop in deliverability by comparing the engagement rate (opens and clicks) of a campaign with previous ones.📉

Other factors may indicate a drop or risk of a drop in deliverability rates: an increase in unsubscribes, an increase in the rate of rejected e-mails, and an increase in the number of spam complaints.🚩

Here’s an example 📝: Your email campaign has an open rate of 14%, whereas the previous one had an open rate of 20%. This drop can have two causes:

  1. A drop in deliverability: a larger proportion of your messages went into the recipients’ spam boxes, so fewer of them opened the message 📤
  2. Your content was less relevant. The recipients who received the message in their inboxes were not as numerous as in the previous campaign, but they didn’t find the subject interesting enough to open it 👀

A slight variation such as this does not provide a definitive answer. It’s worth checking whether the bounce rate has increased, which could support the suspicion that deliverability is down. 🔍

If the opening rate had been halved, a deliverability problem is very likely. 🚨

🎖The importance of a campaign sender’s reputation

An email campaign is sent by a mail server and is identified by two characteristics:

  1. The sender’s email address (including the domain name indicated after the @ in this address) 📧
  2. The sending IP(s) used by the mail server to send messages 🌐

These two components, sending domain and sending IP, have a certain reputation with recipients’ mail servers. A sender generating few complaints and good engagement (clicks or opens) will have a better reputation than one regularly provoking a large number of spam reports and little engagement.

Deliverability and recipient engagement therefore directly determine the reputation of an email campaign’ s sender. These two factors do not depend on the emailing platform used. Certain technical parameters must of course be managed correctly by your emailing service provider; but as long as you have your own dedicated IPs, it’s your emailing campaigns that largely determine the reputation of your sending parameters.

🚀 How to get a good reputation for your emailing sender?

There are a few general principles to follow in order to maintain or improve your reputation:

  • Good list hygiene 🧼
  • Use correct shipping parameters: especially IP authentication and sender domain 🎯
  • Simplify the unsubscribe process. Making the unsubscribe action difficult for the recipient of a campaign is not only unethical, it’s counter-productive for the deliverability of an email campaign. There’s a good chance that a web surfer who can’t unsubscribe will report the message as undesirable. 🔄
  • Avoid using public services to shorten URLs (such as BitLy) ⛔️
  • Send interesting messages. This is one of the most important factors. Sending quality content with high added value for the recipients of an email campaign naturally increases engagement rates and minimizes reports as spam. 📚
  • The subject line, the sender’s name and, incidentally, the pre-header are the only elements on which recipients base their decision as to whether or not to open an e-mail. An effort on this point can yield good results in terms of open rates, and therefore engagement. ✍️
  • Beware of sending volume: a sudden increase in sending volume is a bad signal for e-mail services. If, for example, you’re sending mailings to 5,000 recipients a week, increasing your volume to 50,000 could have a negative impact on your deliverability. The best thing is to gradually increase your sending volume so that it seems natural. 📈
Categories
Technical

The Backscatterer blacklist: the easy way out

spam rbl

Have you blacklisted your IP address and found it listed on the Backscatterer list? Don’t panic, we’ll explain everything.

The RBL Backscatterer (RBL for Realtime Blackhole List) penalizes domain names associated with mail servers that send error messages to external addresses without checking that the error corresponds to mail actually sent from these addresses.

Here’s a concrete example: a spammer sends an e-mail to the address fausseadresse@societeA.com, using as the sender address an address that does not belong to him: expediteur@societeB.com. The mail server of the societeA.com domain doesn’t check that the e-mail sent is legitimate and has really been sent from the mail server of the societeB.com domain. It sends an error message with a copy of the original e-mail to expediteur@societeB.com. The person behind the expediteur@societeB.com mail therefore receives an error message even though he never sent anything. The IP of the mail server for the societe1.com domain is then eligible to be added to the Backscatterer blacklist.

Delisting the RBL Backscatterer

You can’t delist yourself. There is no delisting procedure. The only solution is to adjust your mail server. The IP is then removed as soon as this type of spam is not detected. You can test your IP address by following this link: http: //www.backscatterer.org/index.php?target=test

How to avoid the RBL Backscatterer?

You should avoid sending an error e-mail when an e-mail is received at a non-existent address. The best thing to do is to refuse the e-mail immediately during the SMTP transaction.

Under Postfix, in the main.cf file change: smtpd_error_sleep_time = 0

Deliverability glossary

Blacklist: this is an online database of IP addresses and domain names that have been reported as transmitting spam or phishing. These blacklists can be used by mail servers for anti-spam processing.

IP address: in Internet Protocol, an IP is a unique address that designates a server on the Internet or a local network. To find out more about IP addresses: https: //fr.wikipedia.org/wiki/Adresse_IP

Categories
Technical

Emailing statistics: Can telephone calls be counted?

Emailing is now the biggest prospecting channel in direct marketing, i.e. in outbound marketing. It’s clear that more and more people are being solicited by email, and that average performance is dropping accordingly, but emailing remains the only inexpensive outbound channel. So much so that most companies are planning to increase their email marketing budgets (according to a sherpa marketing study downloadable by following this link).

🎯 Stand out from the crowd: The key to attracting attention 🌟

The challenge is to stand out from the crowd and attract the attention of Internet users whose inboxes are overflowing. To achieve this, you need to take great care with every element of your e-mail:

  • Objet 📃
  • Expéditeur 🙋‍♂️
  • Appels à l’action 📞, etc…

It’s also a good idea to consider implementing marketing automation tools to optimize conversions as much as possible.

📊 Performance Measurement: An Indispensable Tool for Successful Communication 🎖️

Measuring the performance of email campaigns is an essential part of successful communication. 📈

However, inbound phone calls generated by email marketing campaigns are often not counted in the measurements. 📞🚫

Yet it’s very simple to set up such a follow-up. 👣

Marketing automation tools can communicate behavioral information to a CRM, such as :

  • Cliquer sur un lien 🔗
  • Ouvrir un message , etc…

A well-configured CRM, or an emailing platform with a scoring module, can :

  • Détecter les prospects chauds 🔥
  • Identifier les campagnes rentables 💰
  • Optimiser le retour sur investissement 📈

But if phone calls aren’t counted, there’s a huge loss of information. 📞🚫📉

📞 Telephone call tracking: a major asset 🎯

Not all prospects are created equal. 👥

  • Un internaute qui télécharge un livre blanc est certainement moins qualifié que quelqu’un qui assiste à un webinar. 
  • Mais aucun prospect ne sera plus intéressant que celui qui décroche son téléphone pour appeler l’annonceur. 📱
  • C’est d’autant plus intéressant que de plus en plus de gens consultent leurs emails sur leur téléphone portable, donc ce comportement sera de moins en moins anecdotique. 📧

The method for tracking phone calls is relatively straightforward. 👣

  • Cela consiste à créer un numéro de téléphone unique pour chacune de ses opérations de marketing. 📞
  • Un outil approprié permettra d’associer l’appel avec la campagne correspondante puis de suivre le prospect jusqu’à la conversion éventuelle. 🤝
  • Il faut en profiter pour collecter les données associées :
    • Le numéro de l’appelant (ce qui donnera une information sur la localisation géographique du prospect) 🌍
    • Le jour et l’heure d’appel pour faire des statistiques et trouver les bons moments pour envoyer ses campagnes ⏰
    • Le conseiller téléphonique qui a traité l’appel pour mesurer et comparer les taux de conversion des différents opérateurs. 📊

📲 Don’t neglect your incoming calls! 📞

If your marketing campaigns generate inbound calls and you don’t measure them, contact us📧. Ediware’s emailing platform will soon include a partner tool for tracking inbound calls.

Categories
Technical

How does content-filtering anti-spam software work?

Many criteria come into play when choosing an antispam tool to classify a message as inbox or spam. These criteria fall into two categories: the sender’s behavior (aka “reputation”) and the content of the message.When we talk about sender behavior, we’re often talking about technical principles, such as the way in which tracking is carried out, the sending history of IP addresses, SPF records, DNS reverses, the stability over time of sending volume and bad address rates, compliance with best practices during the SMTP transaction, the reputation of the sender and tracking domains… However, sometimes all this can be perfectly managed and the e-mail goes to spam. In this case, it’s the content of the message itself that needs to be taken into account.

Indeed, there are so many criteria involved in content analysis, and some of them are quite complex. So if you’re sending messages that recipients want to receive, you’re sure that the technical aspects are correct and you have a decent reputation, a content analysis may be necessary to optimize deliverability.

The aim is for your e-mails to look “respectable”, to be sent correctly and to stand out from spam, viruses, phishing mails, etc… And not just to please the anti-spam filter, but also to inspire trust, honesty and competence in the recipients.

In a nutshell, content-based antispam can tell the difference between spam and legitimate mail by the way the message is turned. Some spammers try to hide their identity and sometimes even their content (have you ever received mail with blanks between each letter? For example, “v i a g r a”).

The quality of the message source code is also important. A commonly accepted shortcut among anti-spam solution manufacturers is that personal e-mails (written in an Outlook-type e-mail client) and marketing e-mails written by professionals in specialized software (Dreaweaver, for example) are well written and comply with current standards (RFC, etc.). Spammers, on the other hand, work by hand, aiming for volume rather than quality.

Here is a non-exhaustive list of things to consider:

MIME format

In theory, an e-mail should contain an HTML version and a text version, all encapsulated in multipart format.

This statement should not be taken literally. If the text version is different from the HTML version, deliverability will be greatly reduced. It’s better to ignore this criterion if you get poor results (common with Orange).

Character encoding

Spammers try to prevent spam filters from analyzing their content. A common way of doing this is to use base64 encoding (intended for attachments) when it’s plain text. Mails are displayed correctly because e-mail clients can handle this, but the antispam content filter won’t be able to perform any semantic analysis.
Their reaction in this case is often to automatically classify the message as spam.

This type of behavior is not always malicious. For a developer, it’s quicker to encode everything in base64 so as not to have to worry about finding the best encoding for each part of the e-mail.

However, in the eyes of content filters and e-mail administrators, this will give an image of incompetence or dishonesty.

Images

Another way of thwarting antispam analysis is to use images. The classic case is to use just one large image in any text.

Of course, this type of message doesn’t pass the spam filter very well, because a minimum of “normal” text is required in an e-mail:

– an unsubscribe link
– a box with the advertiser’s contact details to comply with most legislation

HTML coding

An unreadable e-mail with broken images or links is not usually sent by a serious advertiser. Each image must have its own ALT tag, so that people who don’t display images can see what’s going on, but also so that filters will find the message more intelligible from their point of view.

Generally speaking, the HTML code must be correct.

Phishin

Some phishing messages will include code such as: Ma-Banque.com, to make the recipient think they’re visiting their bank, when in fact the link will take them to a malicious site.

Of course, anti-spam software will heavily penalize this type of message. Unfortunately, e-mails sent via a professional routing platform may be affected.
In order to provide you with statistics, routers replace your links with links to their tracking platform.

So avoid URLs in your messages coming from a router, or disable tracking.
Otherwise it will look like <a href=”http://www.eml-srv.com/tracking?id=45454515151″>http://www.votre-url-initiale.com</a>
Some anti-spam software will block messages containing a link of this type. This seems to have been the case with Wanadoo / Orange for several weeks now.

Form and content

Even if all your recipients are eagerly awaiting your newsletter, some words can cause you more problems than others. “Looking like a spammer” is very penalizing. If you really must use words like “Paypal”, “VISA”, “Viagra”, “Pharmacy” or “Porn” in your newsletter, expect to spend a lot of time optimizing the rest…

Reputation of sending domains and landing pages

If two e-mails look the same and the recipient reports one as spam, it’s highly likely that the second will go to spam.

Detecting the “similarity” of two e-mails is complex. So a common and simple method is to rely on the “fingerprint or signature” of a message. Other considerations may come into play, but sometimes it comes down to the domain names used by the message.

Domain names are used in two places: in the sender’s e-mail (and/or reply e-mail) and in the links in the e-mail. Public lists of domains that are urgently needed exist (www.uribl.com for example) and are used by some anti-spam software.

Free translation. Find the original version of this Fiddly Trivia article on wordtothewise.com

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