Newsletter: frequently asked questions


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Newsletters and mailing lists are two very distinct services. Both allow you to send e-mails to a long list of recipients, but they differ in one fundamental aspect:

  • mailing lists generally enable subscribers to interact with the whole list: it’s possible to send an e-mail to other people on the list while being a simple subscriber, for example by replying to incoming e-mails.
  • newsletters, on the other hand, are sent unilaterally: it is not possible to reply to all recipients as a subscriber. A subscriber can only contact the sender of the newsletter.

In other words, newsletters are more suitable for vertical information distribution (monthly newsletter…), while mailing lists are preferable for horizontal communication between list members.

We do not provide mailing list services, only this newsletter service. If it doesn’t meet your needs, we can recommend the excellent Framagroupes (free of charge with certain usage limits).

It is not recommended to use an address created via our mail service or another e-mail provider to send mass e-mails.

There are legal requirements governing the sending of mass messages, which is why you absolutely must obtain your recipients’ consent to send them your communications, and you must allow them to unsubscribe with one click (for example, with an unsubscribe link).

Most conventional e-mail services don’t integrate this kind of functionality, and therefore can’t legally satisfy this need.

On the other hand, some e-mail providers, such as Google (Gmail), set a limit on the number of e-mails that can be sent to their addresses within a given time. So if a newsletter is sent to 500 people, including 300 Gmail addresses, Google will drastically slow down the reception of each email sent, spreading it out over several days, sometimes up to a week.

This is also why it’s not possible to use our mail service to send mass e-mails: this slowdown in reception applies to all mailboxes hosted on our service, which would therefore affect the reception of e-mails from other people on our server than yours.

This service uses its own mail server, separate from the mail service, so it doesn’t matter if it’s temporarily slowed down by Gmail, as it won’t affect other people.

For more information on legal obligations and best practices when sending mass e-mails, see the following question.

You must comply with the legislation related to e-mail prospecting, i.e. French CNIL guidelines:

  1. Individuals who receive your communications must have given their informed, explicit and unrestricted consent to receive your newsletter;
  2. All your recipients must be able to permanently unsubscribe from your newsletter: by default, our service adds an unsubscribe link to all emails sent; just make sure you don’t add people back to your list who have opted out of receiving your communications.
  3. Each of your e-mails should clearly indicate who the sender is: for example, if you’re an organization, specify the name and address of your structure.

We also recommend that you send your newsletters at a reasonable frequency for your audience, so as not to overwhelm them with your solicitations. In addition, you can follow Google’s guidelines to send mass mailings.

Even if you follow these guidelines, it may happen that your e-mails are classified as spam by your recipients’ e-mail service, which is why we recommend that you ask your recipients to mark your e-mails as “reliable” with their e-mail providers; if many of your recipients reclassify your e-mails in the right category, the reception rate of your communications will improve.

You need to designate one or more people in your organization with the right to edit e-mail campaigns, contact lists and send the newsletter. Only these people will be able to connect to this service.

To send your newsletter, after gathering your recipients in the Lists tab, you will need to create a new campaign.

You can freely customize the subject line and campaign name, but make sure to always leave the sender address unchanged. You can change the sender’s name (replace Newsletter <noreply@lacontrevoie.fr> with My Organization <noreply@lacontrevoie.fr>), but you must always leave the address <noreply@lacontrevoie.fr> unchanged; otherwise, your emails will not be delivered.

Screenshot of the “New Campaign” page with the content of the “From Address” field highlighted in red.

In the screenshot: do not edit the address underlined in red.

In the Lists field, specify the mailing lists to which you would like to send your email, then write the content and launch the campaign.

In the Lists tab, under the Forms sub-tab, you can select the public lists you’d like to make available for sign-up through an online form:

Screenshot of the “Forms” page

Then, copy the resulting HTML code and paste it onto your website. Make sure your site loads the CAPTCHA correctly.

If you don’t have a website, contact us and we’ll set up an HTML page for you for free.

Yes. By default, a single list is added to your account, but you can contact us if you need more.

In the Campaigns tab, under the Templates sub-tab, you can create your own template based on the default template, by writing HTML or by using the visual editor.

If you write your own HTML code, don’t forget to add the unsubscribe link to your emails:

<a href="{{ UnsubscribeURL }}" style="color: #888;">{{ L.T "email.unsub" }}</a>