The short version
- If you email anyone in Quebec, plan the French version from the brief, send it at the same time as the English, and have someone who reads French approve it. That’s what the law expects and what customers notice.
- Use separate English and French emails sent to a language segment, unless you have a good reason to combine them.
- Translate in context. Most French mistakes in email come from translators working on loose lines in a spreadsheet, not from bad translators.
- Keep a record of who approved each language, and when.
Where bilingual email goes wrong
If you’ve worked on a bilingual email team, this will sound familiar. The English email gets planned, built, argued over and approved. Then someone remembers Quebec. The copy goes into a spreadsheet, the spreadsheet goes to a translator with a two-day turnaround, the French comes back a line too long for the button, and the builder pastes it in at 6pm the night before send. Nobody who reads French looks at the finished email.
The mistakes that come out of that are predictable:
- The French goes out a day after the English, or not at all for that send.
- The body is French but the subject line, preheader or button isn’t.
- A price or a date comes back in English format ($29.99 instead of 29,99 $), or a merge tag gets translated and breaks.
- Text baked into the hero image stays in English.
- The French links go to the English landing page.
- The unsubscribe page and preference centre are English only.
- Welcome and basket journeys were set up once, in English, and never touched again.
None of these are hard to fix. They happen because French sits outside the main workflow instead of inside it.
What the rules ask, in plain English
Two sets of rules apply, and they do different jobs. CASL, Canada’s anti-spam law, decides whether you can email someone at all: consent, who you are, and a working unsubscribe. It doesn’t say anything about language. Our CASL guide covers it.
Quebec’s Charter of the French Language, rewritten by Bill 96 in 2022, decides the language. Businesses have to inform and serve consumers in French, commercial documents in any medium have to be available in French, and another language can only be offered if the French is available on terms at least as favourable. For email, that means French first or French alongside, never English instead. The Quebec French guide has the sections, sources and penalties.
This page isn’t legal advice. If you sell into Quebec at any scale, it’s worth an hour with a Quebec lawyer.
How a bilingual campaign runs in Mailfois
1. Both languages on the plan from day one
Add a campaign to the planner and give it its markets: Canada, Quebec, or both. Mailfois knows that Quebec reads French and that Canada reads English and French, so the languages the campaign needs are worked out for you. Each market has its own stage and send date, and the campaign has a translation due date that sits before sign-off, not after it. If the French slips, everyone can see it slipping.
2. Translators work in the email, not a spreadsheet
Once the English is in, Mailfois pulls every piece of copy out of the email: subject line, preheader, headings, body, buttons, image descriptions and footer. Your translator, in-house or an agency, gets a private link. No account, no seat to pay for. They see the email beside the sheet, translated as they type, with spell-check in French. Mailfois flags a merge tag that’s gone missing, a price or number that’s changed, and a subject line or button that has grown too long. More on how translation works.
3. The French email, built from your English HTML
When the French comes back, Create the email puts each translated piece into a copy of the English email and adds it to the campaign’s sign-off. The builder can click any piece to copy it into the ESP, so nothing is retyped.
4. Sign-off for each language
English and French are separate emails in the same sign-off, so each gets its own approval. The person who reads French can be a colleague, a Quebec market lead or the client, approving from a private link. Every version, comment and decision is kept, so you can show later who approved the French and when.
5. Before it sends, and after
Mailfois reads every landing page the email links to and checks the offer, price and end date against the email. Approved emails, in both languages, go into the library, and results can be split by market, so you can see whether Quebec behaves differently.
Mailfois or your ESP and a spreadsheet?
Plenty of teams run bilingual email with nothing but their ESP, a shared sheet and a lot of care. Here’s the honest comparison.
| ESP + spreadsheet | Mailfois alongside your ESP | |
|---|---|---|
| French on the plan with its own date | If someone adds a column | Yes, per market, with a translation due date |
| Translator sees the email | Usually not | Yes, beside the sheet, translated as they type |
| Merge tag, price and length checks | By eye | Flagged as the translator types |
| French approved separately, with a record | In an email thread | Yes, per language, kept for good |
| Lines reused next time | Copied from old sheets | Copy Bank: approved French offered first |
| Cost | Free, plus people’s time | Free plan, Pro NZ$24 a month, Team NZ$49 per seat |
If you send a handful of emails a year to Quebec, the spreadsheet is fine. Once French is weekly, or an agency or a client is involved, the time you lose chasing and fixing is the bigger cost.
What Mailfois doesn’t do
- It doesn’t translate for you. There’s no machine translation; your translators do the writing.
- It doesn’t send email or push the French into your ESP automatically. The builder copies it in.
- The Mailfois app and the translator’s page are in English. The French is what your translator writes.
- It doesn’t give legal advice.
Guides for Canadian email teams
- One email or two? Setting up English and French emails for Canada
- Writing French emails for Quebec: prices, dates, times and punctuation
- Canada email marketing calendar 2027: national, Quebec and provincial dates
- French-language email marketing in Quebec (Bill 96)
- Canada email marketing law (CASL)
Pricing
Try it free: one planner board, up to 15 campaigns and three sign-offs a month. Pro is NZ$24 a month for one person; Team is NZ$49 per seat a month, minimum three seats; Agency is NZ$79 per agency seat. Translators and approvers never need a seat. Billing is available in Canadian dollars. Full pricing.
Questions
Do I need to send French emails to customers in Quebec?
In practice, yes. Quebec’s Charter of the French Language, as amended by Bill 96, requires businesses to inform and serve consumers in French, and covers commercial documents in any medium. English can go alongside the French, but not instead of it or ahead of it. This isn’t legal advice; see our Quebec guide for the detail and sources.
Should I send one bilingual email or separate English and French emails?
Most teams are better off with separate versions sent to a language segment: each subject line fits, each email reads naturally, and results are easy to compare. A single bilingual email is simpler to send but long, and it has to show the French at least as prominently as the English.
Does Mailfois translate the email for me?
No. Mailfois doesn’t do machine translation. Your translators, in-house or an agency, work from a private link with the email beside the sheet, and Mailfois checks that merge tags, prices and numbers came through and flags subject lines and buttons that have grown too long.
Does Mailfois replace my ESP?
No. You keep building and sending in Klaviyo, Braze, Mailchimp, HubSpot, Salesforce Marketing Cloud or whatever you use. Mailfois handles the plan, the translation round, sign-off for both languages and the record afterwards.
Can I pay in Canadian dollars?
Yes. Mailfois bills in Canadian dollars as well as pounds, US dollars and Australian dollars.