Goodsender of the week: The Thalys email that arrives on time!

published on 23/10/2013,

updated on 19/12/2022

Since a few weeks, with the number of trips I make every month between Brussels and Paris, I decided to register to the Thalys loyalty program: Thalys TheCard. For the moment, I'm a Silver member, the lowest category. But given the number of trips I make, I'll soon become Gold and be able to double the speed at which I earn my miles ;-). Well, I'm not going to continue this Goodsender by telling you my life story, but on Tuesday I received an email from Thalys entitled "Access even more privileges...". Coincidence or not (ladies and gentlemen of Thalys, if you're reading this, please feel free to comment), I received this email in the Thalys, just a few minutes after being checked in. Well, unless there's evidence to the contrary, I still think it was a coincidence, but if it wasn't... hats off.Anyway, I love this email :

It's transactional! It is the consumer who indirectly triggered the sending of the email. The attention is therefore at its maximum.
Great for upselling! I won't hesitate long before spending my next trip to get the gold card.
Good for commitment! Thalys is very attentive. They think of me, and I'm happy.

Well, as much as I love this email, that's not why it's perfect ! Some small remarks:

The subject line of the email is not ideal ("Get access to more privileges..."), it would have been even more effective to talk about the transaction, for example: "Only two more trips to get access to our Gold card" (or something similar).
The visual is, uh, corporate, but soulless, and the link with the content of the email is not obvious.
The call to action ("Discover all the privileges of the Thalys TheCard Gold...") could have been better highlighted. Here, no button, no underlining, very long, ...
The train is a 100% mobility service ! So it's time to adapt this email so that it can be displayed correctly on a smartphone.
The design is gone, but like the whole Thalys TheCard site, it's time for a big update.

Identity card

Generic email information:

Subject of the email : Access to more and more privileges...
From : Thalys TheCard
Preheader : If this e-mail is not displayed correctly, view it in your browser.
Email Router : Neolane

Checklist :

Link to privacy : KO
Link to unsubscribe : OK
DKIM : OK
Text version : OK
Text to Image Ratio : OK
List-unsubscribe : KO
Friendly reply : ??
Mobile ready : KO

Screenshot of the email

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The author

Jonathan Loriaux

I've been involved in email marketing for over ten years, and my career path began on the technical side (email campaign integration) before moving on to sales (as an eCRM expert) and finally marketing consultancy. For the past 9 years, I've been the author of the Badsender.com blog. Emailing isn't just an expertise, it's truly become my passion, which is why Badsender is now my main activity, with the creation of an emailing consulting business linked to the site.

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