When it comes to sending out emails, the strategy is not the same whether you’re writing to your client base or it trying to reach out to other businesses. In short, B2C and B2B communication are different. So why use the same tools? French startup Lemlist sticks to the B2B emails with a strong sense of community.
In the HEC incubator
The adventure started fresh out of French Business School HEC for Guillaume Moubeche. He founded an acquisition agency within the HEC incubator to help fellow startups with the complicated task of hunting for new clients. This involves sending out what is called “Cold Email”. An unsolicited email to get people interested. Tough marketing stunt with very diverging thoughts on what works and what doesn’t.
For instance, Guillaume often heard that adding pictures within the email was a bad call. However, his metrics didn’t quite confirm that statement. Then a chance collaboration led to something much bigger.
The Talkus brothers
Guillaume worked with two brothers Vianey and François Lecroart who were working together on TalkUs, a messaging solution. He helped them with the acquisition of new clients but soon realized they really enjoyed working with each other.
Impressed by their computer wizardry, Guillaume decided to work with them on a new solution.
Lemlist : to the moon and beyond
They started working on an email solution for B2B in November 2017 and released the beta in January 2018. They are not the only ones out there but their benchmarking showed most other solutions were cumbersome and complicated. There was no room for community and users were drowned in marketing jargon.
They had to come up with something more human. Starting with the name. Some believe is a mix of the letters of the founders plus the word ‘list”. But those of you who thought of the Apollo missions are right. “Lem” is from the Lunar Excursion Module. To the moon and beyond! Kudos to Guillaume’s father for coming up with that one.
Clever features and gamification
To get a response from an email, let alone an unsolicited one, personalization is the key. But “Hi {{firstName}}” doesn’t quite make it every time. Lemlist offers to add a picture with text that can adapt to the recipient’s name. Higher plans allow for personalized videos.
But Lemlist’s strength is also its ease of use. No fancy terms, no complicated options. Sending out a campaign is a no-brainer.
Among the upcoming milestones is gamification with the possibility to rank those with the best results. They can, in turn, share their tips with the rest of the community.
The Lemlist Family
The Lemlist team also takes great pride in creating a devoted community. Lemlist can be used by small teams who might not have a dedicated marketer around. Support from other users confronted with the same issues in wording their emails is heartwarming. Guillaume often steps in to give advice. The community started really early on as Lemlist was featured as n°1 on Product Hunt and on AppSumo.
The family is global as Lemlist was, from the beginning, in English. Although settled in Station F, France is not the primary market for Lemlist. It only comes in 5th position behind the US, England, Australia and India.
Station F testing grounds
Station F is a great testing ground for Lemlist as getting new clients, investors, patrons is the key to growth. But it goes well beyond getting “easy clients”. Being in Station F helps opening up to others, identifying startup issues and sometimes getting new beta-testers.
Lemlist is still a young company but their will to be in constant contact with their clients will help them grow as a global user-oriented solution. Cold emails are warming up.