b2b email marketing best practices: 10 tips for 2025 success
Explore b2b email marketing best practices with practical tips to boost open rates, engagement, and conversions in 2025.
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Choosing the best cold email software is more than just picking a tool with a slick interface. It's about ensuring your carefully crafted messages actually land in the primary inbox, not the spam folder. Most online reviews and "best of" lists blur the lines between email marketing (for opt-in subscribers) and cold outreach, but they are fundamentally different disciplines. Cold email requires a relentless focus on technical deliverability, domain reputation, and scaling infrastructure.
This guide is built for sales teams, agencies, and founders who understand that difference. We move beyond marketing claims and dive into the critical features that drive successful outbound campaigns at scale: inbox warming capabilities, automated SPF/DKIM/DMARC monitoring, and robust API access for custom workflows. You won't find generic feature lists here. Instead, we provide a detailed analysis of 12 leading platforms, from all-in-one solutions like Instantly and lemlist to infrastructure-first providers like InboxKit.
We’ll dissect each option, complete with screenshots, direct links, and insights pulled from real-world user discussions on forums like Reddit. You'll learn not just what each tool does, but how to implement it effectively for your specific use case. Whether you're a startup building your first sales pipeline or an agency managing hundreds of client inboxes, this resource provides the clarity needed to select the right software and protect your most valuable asset: your sending reputation.
InboxKit stands out as the premier choice for agencies and B2B sales teams that treat cold email deliverability not as a feature, but as a core business function. It’s not just another sending tool; it’s a turnkey infrastructure solution designed to maximize inbox placement by building a rock-solid foundation with genuine Google Workspace and Microsoft 365 mailboxes. This approach makes it some of the best cold email software for those who prioritize long-term reputation and scalable results.
As an official Google Cloud and Microsoft Partner, InboxKit automates the complex, error-prone process of setting up and managing sending infrastructure. Within about 10 minutes, you can deploy hundreds of mailboxes, each with correctly configured DNS records (SPF, DKIM, DMARC), US-based IP allocation, and automated MFA. This eliminates the technical headaches that often derail even the most well-crafted campaigns.
InboxKit’s core strength lies in its obsessive focus on domain and sender reputation. Each domain is managed in an isolated control panel, preventing one client’s poor practices from contaminating another’s deliverability. As one Reddit user in r/salesdevelopment noted, "The biggest mistake we made was running multiple client campaigns from the same agency pool. One bad list tanked everyone. Isolating domains isn't a luxury, it's a necessity." This is a critical feature for agencies managing multi-client campaigns. The platform also includes built-in deliverability monitoring, from automated warmups to real-time analytics on bounces, replies, and blacklist status.
Key Takeaway: Unlike all-in-one platforms where your reputation is tied to shared infrastructure, InboxKit gives you dedicated, authentic Google and Microsoft mailboxes. This directly translates to higher trust with email service providers and a site-reported ~95% inbox placement rate.
InboxKit offers a tiered pricing structure that scales with your needs:
Per-mailbox add-on costs decrease with higher-tier plans, going as low as $2.50 per mailbox on an annual Enterprise plan. While it requires a separate sending tool like Instantly or Smartlead, this unbundled approach ensures you are using best-in-class solutions for both infrastructure and sequencing.
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Mailshake is a comprehensive sales engagement platform that excels at simplifying cold email outreach for small to mid-sized businesses (SMBs). It combines core email automation with optional LinkedIn and phone dialer add-ons, making it an all-in-one solution for teams looking to scale their outbound efforts without overwhelming complexity. The platform is particularly strong for teams that need to get up and running quickly, thanks to its intuitive interface and helpful onboarding resources.
Its standout feature is its clear, tiered pricing and transparent feature set, which removes the guesswork often associated with sales software. Users can easily see what they get at each level, from email warming and A/B testing in the entry-level plan to more advanced dialer and social selling features in higher tiers.
Mailshake's strength lies in its balance of powerful features and user-friendliness, making it one of the best cold email software options for growing teams. The built-in deliverability tools, such as automated email warm-up and inbox rotation, are critical for maintaining sender reputation. For more in-depth knowledge on this topic, you can explore this guide to mastering email deliverability. A practical insight from Reddit highlights its value: a user in r/startups mentioned, "We needed something that just worked. Mailshake let our first sales hire set up sequences in an afternoon without needing a tech person to hold their hand." Additionally, its native integrations with major CRMs like HubSpot, Salesforce, and Pipedrive ensure that sales workflows remain unified and data flows seamlessly between platforms.
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Woodpecker is a dedicated cold email platform laser-focused on deliverability, making it a top choice for users who prioritize inbox placement and sender reputation. It distinguishes itself with built-in tools designed to protect and enhance deliverability, such as real-time email verification powered by Bouncer, inbox rotation, and adaptive sending logic. This makes it an ideal solution for anyone from solo entrepreneurs to high-volume agencies that need robust, scalable infrastructure without the complexity of building it from scratch.
Its core value lies in bundling essential deliverability features directly into its plans. Users don't need to patch together multiple services; Woodpecker provides a cohesive environment for warming up domains, verifying lists, and sending compliant campaigns, which is a significant advantage for teams wanting to maintain a healthy sending reputation.
Woodpecker earns its spot as one of the best cold email software solutions due to its unwavering commitment to deliverability and compliance. Features like the integrated spam checker and automated warm-up are critical for ensuring emails land in the primary inbox. The platform also guides users through proper email authentication, a fundamental step for any serious outreach campaign. For a deeper understanding of this technical setup, you can review this in-depth DNS guide. Its conditional workflows and A/B testing capabilities allow for sophisticated, automated follow-up sequences that adapt based on prospect engagement. This focus on fundamentals is often praised in forums, with one Redditor explaining, "Woodpecker forces you to do things the right way. The built-in verification and slow ramp-up saved our domain from getting torched when we were new to this."
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Instantly is an all-in-one cold email platform that has quickly become a favorite for agencies and high-volume senders. Its core value proposition is straightforward: unlimited email accounts and unlimited warm-up on all of its outreach plans. This model removes the per-seat or per-inbox pricing friction common with other tools, making it an incredibly cost-effective solution for teams managing dozens or even hundreds of client inboxes.
The platform bundles sending automation, lead sourcing (via its "SuperSearch" add-on), and a centralized inbox (Unibox) into a single interface. By combining these core functions, Instantly aims to be the go-to operating system for outbound teams that prioritize scale and predictable base costs.
Instantly earns its spot as one of the best cold email software options due to its aggressive pricing model and focus on scale. The unlimited email account and warm-up features are game-changers for agencies and power users. This approach simplifies budget forecasting and encourages best practices like using multiple domains and inboxes for a single campaign to maximize volume while protecting sender reputation. To fully leverage this, it’s crucial to understand the principles behind it; you can explore this guide on mastering cold email warm-up for a deeper dive. A common sentiment on Reddit's r/coldemail is, "The value of Instantly is being able to connect 50+ inboxes for one client campaign without our costs exploding. The Unibox makes managing replies feasible."
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lemlist is a powerful all-in-one outreach platform that bundles cold email automation, multichannel sequencing, and a built-in lead database. It's designed for sales teams and agencies that want to consolidate their tool stack, combining lead sourcing with personalized outreach campaigns that incorporate email, LinkedIn actions, and cold calls. The platform is known for its strong focus on personalization at scale, particularly through its use of dynamic images and videos.
Its standout feature is the integration of a 450M+ contact database directly into the outreach workflow, allowing users to find and engage prospects without leaving the platform. This makes it a comprehensive solution for teams looking to streamline their entire outbound process from start to finish, which is why it's considered one of the best cold email software choices for those seeking efficiency.
lemlist secures its spot by offering a uniquely integrated experience that combines lead data with advanced multichannel outreach features. Its AI-powered sequence and copy generator helps teams craft effective messages quickly, while robust team management features like roles, permissions, and SSO/SAML support cater to larger organizations with complex security needs. The platform's extensive documentation and training resources, known as "lemlist family," provide significant value, especially for teams new to cold outreach. One Reddit user in r/sales commented, "We use lemlist for the LinkedIn steps. The automation is solid, and having it in the same sequence as our emails keeps our reps organized without needing another tool." This highlights its practical value for multi-channel strategies.
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Smartlead is a powerful cold email platform designed specifically for high-volume outreach, making it a favorite among lead generation agencies and sales teams operating at scale. It distinguishes itself by offering unlimited sender accounts, AI-powered warmup, and a centralized master inbox, all aimed at maximizing deliverability and campaign efficiency. The platform is built to handle complexity, providing robust features like inbox rotation and detailed analytics right out of the box.
Its standout capability is the scalability it offers, from affordable entry-level plans for smaller teams to dedicated infrastructure options for power users. This flexibility allows businesses to start small and grow their outreach efforts without needing to switch platforms, ensuring consistent performance and management as their needs evolve.
Smartlead earns its spot as one of the best cold email software choices due to its unparalleled focus on scalable infrastructure and value. The ability to connect unlimited email accounts and automatically rotate them within a single campaign is a significant advantage for maintaining high deliverability and avoiding spam filters. For agencies, add-ons for client workspaces and white-labeling provide essential tools for managing multiple accounts seamlessly. A practical tip shared on Reddit is that "Smartlead's API is killer. We've built custom dashboards that pull campaign data directly into our client reporting, which saves us hours each week."
Furthermore, its API and webhooks are extensive, allowing for deep integration into custom sales and marketing stacks. This technical flexibility, combined with its ecosystem of add-ons like SmartSenders for sourcing pre-warmed inboxes, makes it a highly adaptable solution for sophisticated outreach operations.
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Apollo.io is a unique and powerful entry on this list, functioning as both an extensive B2B contact database and a comprehensive sales engagement platform. It streamlines the entire top-of-funnel process by bundling prospecting, data enrichment, and email sequencing into a single, integrated tool. This consolidation makes it an incredibly efficient solution for teams that want to find their ideal customers and engage with them without juggling multiple subscriptions and complex data exports.
Its main appeal is this all-in-one approach. Users can leverage its massive database, which includes advanced filters and intent signals, to build highly targeted prospect lists. From there, they can immediately enroll those contacts into automated email, call, and LinkedIn sequences. The platform’s robust free plan also makes it an accessible starting point for startups and individuals looking to test a complete outbound sales stack before committing financially.
Apollo's combination of high-quality data and built-in outreach tools solidifies its position as one of the best cold email software solutions for teams focused on efficiency. The ability to source, verify, and contact prospects within one interface eliminates the friction common in multi-tool workflows. The platform’s AI-driven insights help tailor messaging for better engagement, and its widely used Chrome extension allows reps to prospect and enrich contacts directly from LinkedIn and company websites. A common Reddit praise is its efficiency for one-person teams: "As a solo founder, Apollo is my entire sales stack. I can find 100 leads and have them in a sequence in under an hour. It's not the best at any one thing, but it's the best at doing everything."
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Reply is a powerful multichannel sales engagement platform designed for teams that need to execute complex outreach strategies across email, LinkedIn, SMS, and calls. It stands out by offering deep automation capabilities combined with a robust suite of deliverability tools, including unlimited email warm-up. The platform is particularly well-suited for agencies and larger teams that require flexible packaging and dedicated workspaces to manage multiple clients or campaigns efficiently.
Its core strength lies in its ability to centralize diverse outreach channels into a single, cohesive workflow. With features like AI-powered personalization, data credits for lead sourcing, and detailed analytics, Reply equips users to build, test, and scale their outbound efforts effectively, making it a comprehensive solution for sophisticated sales operations.
Reply earns its spot as one of the best cold email software choices due to its deep multichannel automation and flexible structure. The platform's dedicated agency features, including white-label options and separate client workspaces, are a significant advantage for businesses managing outreach for others. Its unlimited email warm-up service, included even in lower-tier plans, provides immense value by helping maintain sender reputation without extra costs. A valuable insight from a Reddit agency owner was that "Reply's agency dashboards are great. We can give clients their own login to see campaign stats without giving them access to our other accounts. It solves a huge reporting headache."
The combination of built-in data enrichment and AI tools for writing personalized emails helps teams improve their efficiency and response rates. While the pricing structure can seem complex, it offers the flexibility to choose between email-focused plans and full multichannel packages, allowing teams to pay only for the features they need.
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Snov.io is an all-in-one platform designed for sales and marketing teams that need to find, verify, and engage with leads from a single dashboard. It uniquely combines a powerful email finder and verifier with a flexible drip campaign builder, making it a strong contender for teams that want to manage the entire top-of-funnel process without juggling multiple tools. The platform operates on a credit-based system, which provides flexibility for various usage levels.
Its standout feature is the integration of lead generation and outreach. Users can discover prospects using the Email Finder tool, validate their contact information instantly, and then add them directly into automated email sequences. This streamlined workflow saves significant time and reduces the friction commonly found when using separate tools for data sourcing and outbound campaigns.
Snov.io secures its spot as one of the best cold email software options due to its efficient, integrated approach to prospecting and outreach. The platform is particularly valuable for teams that prioritize data accuracy, as the built-in verifier helps protect sender reputation by minimizing bounce rates. Its ability to handle unlimited follow-ups and support unlimited team members in higher-tier plans makes it highly scalable for growing organizations. A practical tip from Reddit's r/salesdevelopment is that "The best part of Snov is the verifier. Before sending any campaign, we run our list through it. Our bounce rate dropped from 8% to under 2%, which is huge for deliverability."
The system's flexibility is a key advantage. While the credit model can take some getting used to, it allows teams to pay only for the data-related actions they perform, such as finding or verifying emails. Outreach campaign functionality, including sending emails and follow-ups, is generally unrestricted by credits, which is a major benefit for high-volume sending.
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GMass is a powerful cold email and mail merge tool that operates directly inside your Gmail account, making it a favorite for individuals, freelancers, and small teams. It transforms your existing Gmail interface into a robust outreach machine through a simple Chrome extension, eliminating the need to learn a new, complex platform. This approach allows for incredibly fast setup and a seamless workflow for anyone already comfortable with Gmail.
Its primary appeal lies in its simplicity and direct integration. Users can build campaigns, schedule automated follow-ups, and track performance without ever leaving their inbox. Despite its lightweight feel, GMass packs serious features like its "Spam Solver" to test email copy and MultiSend inbox rotation to distribute high-volume sends across multiple accounts, helping to protect sender reputation.
GMass earns its spot as one of the best cold email software choices for its unmatched convenience and affordability for Gmail-centric users. It democratizes cold outreach by making advanced features accessible without the high cost or steep learning curve of traditional sales engagement platforms. The ability to bypass Gmail's sending limits using an external SMTP service is a key advantage for users looking to scale. As one freelancer on Reddit put it, "I run my entire business out of Gmail. GMass lets me send personalized follow-ups to 200 prospects a day without ever leaving my inbox. For the price, it's unbeatable."
Furthermore, its deliverability tools are surprisingly robust for a plugin. You can assess your setup and improve your chances of landing in the inbox by understanding your overall email deliverability score. For those who live and breathe Gmail, GMass offers the most direct path to launching and managing cold email campaigns efficiently.
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While not a software platform itself, G2’s Sales Engagement category is an indispensable resource for researching and comparing the best cold email software on the market. It serves as a comprehensive review marketplace where you can shortlist vendors, read verified user reviews, and view aggregated rankings. For teams just starting their search, it provides an invaluable bird's-eye view of the landscape, helping to filter options based on company size, industry, and specific feature requirements.
Its primary strength lies in its user-generated content, which often provides more candid insights than vendor marketing materials. You can see how real sales teams are using a tool, what deliverability issues they've faced, and how responsive customer support is. This helps you move beyond feature lists and understand the practical, day-to-day experience of using a platform for scalable outreach.
G2 is the starting point for due diligence. It allows you to cross-reference claims and identify potential red flags before committing to a demo or trial. The platform's category is broad, so it’s important to understand the distinctions between different tool types; for more clarity, learning about Sales Enablement vs. Sales Engagement can help you refine your search. By using its comparison tool and filtering reviews by keywords like "deliverability" or "email warm-up," you can quickly build a shortlist of platforms that meet your technical needs. One practical Reddit tip is to "search for 1-star reviews on G2. It tells you what breaks and what the absolute worst-case scenario is with a tool." This is invaluable intel.
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While not a cold email platform itself, Capterra serves as an indispensable research hub and software directory for anyone evaluating outreach tools. As a Gartner-owned marketplace, it aggregates hundreds of software solutions, including a vast selection of cold email and sales engagement platforms. Its true value lies in providing verified user reviews, detailed feature comparisons, and comprehensive vendor profiles, allowing you to cross-reference marketing claims with real-world user experiences.
The platform is particularly useful for discovering niche or emerging tools that might not appear in other roundups. Its robust filtering system lets you narrow down options by specific features like A/B testing or inbox rotation, business size, and pricing models. This makes it an essential first stop for building a shortlist of the best cold email software candidates before committing to demos or trials.
Capterra earns its spot by empowering buyers to make more informed decisions. Instead of relying solely on a vendor's website, you can use Capterra to sanity-check feature sets and see how platforms perform in practice through unfiltered user feedback. This is a critical step for B2B teams looking to avoid costly software mismatches. Its side-by-side "Compare" functionality is a powerful tool for visualizing the differences between top contenders on your list. A practical tip shared on Reddit is to "use Capterra's 'Alternatives' feature. If you find a tool you like but is too expensive, it will show you 3-4 cheaper competitors with similar features." This can uncover hidden gems.
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| Product | Core features | Deliverability / Quality | Value & Pricing | Best for / Audience | Unique selling point |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| InboxKit 🏆 | Official Google Workspace + Microsoft 365 mailboxes, fresh domains, automated SPF/DKIM/DMARC, per-domain isolation, bulk CSV provisioning, API/webhooks | ★★★★★ ~95% site-reported inbox placement; Max 3 mailboxes/domain; Warmup 14‑day (D1–3:5/day, D4–7:10/day, W2:15–20/day); After: 10–15/day; Bounce <5%; Spam <0.1% | 💰 $39–$299/mo (Prof→Ent); add‑on mailboxes $2.50+ (min $2.50 on Ent annual); domains $10–$15/yr | 👥 Agencies, B2B sales, RevOps, SDR/BDR teams | ✨ Partnered Google Cloud & Microsoft + US IPs; domain isolation & automated deliverability tooling |
| Mailshake | Multi‑step email sequences, A/B testing, CRM integrations, optional dialer/LinkedIn | ★★★★ Deliverability tools: warmup, throttling, rotation | 💰 Tiered per‑seat plans (transparent tiers); add‑ons for phone/LinkedIn | 👥 SMB outbound teams, sales reps | ✨ Strong onboarding & CRM connectivity |
| Woodpecker | Verification (Bouncer), inbox rotation, spam checker, workflow automation | ★★★★ Deliverability‑centric; warmup & verification included | 💰 Per‑seat with add‑ons for integrations/dedicated infra | 👥 Deliverability‑focused teams & agencies | ✨ Real‑time verification + optional dedicated servers |
| Instantly | Unlimited inboxes on Outreach tiers, warmup, built‑in lead DB & Unibox | ★★★★ Good for scale; warmup on outreach plans | 💰 Predictable base costs at scale; higher tiers add infra cost | 👥 Agencies managing many client inboxes | ✨ Unlimited inboxes + centralized reply handling |
| lemlist | AI personalization, multichannel (email + LinkedIn), 450M+ leads, templates | ★★★★ Strong personalization & sequence control | 💰 Per‑seat pricing; discounts quarterly/annual | 👥 Teams wanting outreach + data in one tool | ✨ Built‑in lead DB + AI copy personalization |
| Smartlead | Unlimited rotating accounts, AI warmups, dynamic IPs, analytics | ★★★★★ Value at entry level; scales with dedicated infra | 💰 Strong annual value; add‑ons for white‑label/dedicated servers | 👥 Agencies and high‑volume senders | ✨ Unlimited accounts + SmartServers ecosystem |
| Apollo | Prospect database + outreach, enrichment, intent filters, CRM integration | ★★★★ Data + outreach combined; free plan available | 💰 Freemium → credit/seat tiers for exports/enrichment | 👥 Teams wanting integrated prospecting + outreach | ✨ Large prospecting DB with intent signals |
| Reply | Multichannel (email/LinkedIn/SMS/calls), warmup, agency workspaces | ★★★★ Deep automation & reporting; warmup included | 💰 Flexible packaging (volume/multichannel/agency) | 👥 Teams needing heavy multichannel automation | ✨ Strong multichannel workflows & agency features |
| Snov.io | Email finder & verifier, drip campaigns, credits model, LinkedIn add‑on | ★★★★ Good verification + drip features | 💰 Credit‑based pricing; frequent promotions | 👥 Teams needing built-in data + outreach | ✨ Built-in finder + verifier in one product |
| GMass | Gmail‑based campaigns & follow‑ups, MultiSend rotation, Spam Solver | ★★★★ Quick deploy via Chrome/Gmail; lightweight | 💰 Affordable individual/team plans (per‑user) | 👥 Solo senders & small teams using Gmail | ✨ Fast Gmail integration for simple outreach |
| G2 (category) | User reviews, rankings, feature comparisons, vendor links | ★★★★ Aggregated user ratings & reviews | 💰 Free to browse; vendor trials linked | 👥 Buyers shortlisting tools & reading reviews | ✨ Marketwide reviews + category rankings |
| Capterra | Vendor profiles, verified reviews, compare functionality | ★★★★ Verified reviews & feature grids | 💰 Free directory; vendor links for pricing/trials | 👥 Software buyers researching options | ✨ Side‑by‑side vendor comparisons and filters |
Navigating the landscape of cold email software can feel overwhelming, but after analyzing the top contenders, a clear theme emerges: the "best" tool isn't a single platform, but a strategic stack built for your specific stage of growth. Your decision shouldn't be based on which tool has the longest feature list, but on which one solves your most critical bottleneck, which for serious B2B outreach, is almost always deliverability.
As we've explored, the market is broadly divided. On one side, you have all-in-one platforms like Apollo and Snov.io that bundle lead sourcing with sequencing. On the other, you have dedicated sending tools like Instantly and Smartlead, which excel at managing campaigns at scale. And underpinning it all, you have foundational infrastructure providers like InboxKit, which focus exclusively on the technical health of your sending domains.
The single most important takeaway from our analysis is the shift from a "tool" mindset to a "stack" mindset. Even the most brilliantly crafted email copy and hyper-personalized sequences are worthless if they land in spam. This is why prioritizing your technical foundation is non-negotiable for anyone serious about predictable pipeline generation.
A common pitfall, often seen in Reddit discussions in subreddits like r/sales, is focusing on flashy features like AI writers or A/Z testing while neglecting the unsexy but essential work of domain setup, authentication, and gradual warmup. This is where a modular approach shines. By combining a dedicated infrastructure solution with a user-friendly sending platform, you get the best of both worlds:
This separation of concerns allows you to scale your outreach without constantly worrying if you're one campaign away from getting your domains blacklisted. It transforms cold email from a high-risk gamble into a predictable, repeatable system.
So, how do you make the final call? Your choice for the best cold email software depends on where you are on your journey.
As you finalize your decision and build the right stack for predictable results, you might also find this guide on the Top 12 Email Outreach Tools for High-ROI Campaigns to be a valuable cross-reference for your evaluation process. Ultimately, the right software empowers you to focus on what truly matters: writing compelling messages and building relationships, confident that your emails are actually being seen.
Ready to build a cold email foundation that never fails? Stop worrying about blacklists and start focusing on booking meetings. Get your domains, DNS, and warming managed for you with InboxKit, the infrastructure layer that ensures your messages land in the inbox, no matter which sending tool you use. Learn more and secure your sender reputation with InboxKit today.
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