Sample email: Welcome to the Boardriders loyalty program

Last Friday, I bought two pairs of shorts (and flip-flops for my darling) at a Quiksilver outlet in Grenoble. At the checkout, the salesman offered me an extra 10?% discount if I signed up for the loyalty program. I accept, of course. What the salesman doesn't know is that I'm deliverability consultant. And that in such cases, I'm not just interested in reductions...

I go home. And as is often the case in these situations, I go to see if the welcome email arrives in my inbox. It arrives, yes. But now.., bingo Gmail shows me the dreaded gray banner, the one that stings the ego a little when you work in emailing:

“The images in this message are hidden. This message looks suspicious. Do not display the images unless you trust the sender and the message.”

Here's an example:

I open the email, and draw my pen.

Why is Gmail suspicious of this email?

After a quick inspection of email smtp headers, a few things stand out:

• The email is sent from the adobe-campaign.com, a generic domain used by all Adobe Campaign clients.
• It's not not the brand's core domain (which is boardriders.eu). Result: loss of legitimacy in Gmail's eyes.
• The IP address used seems to be shared by other brands in the group (Quiksilver, Billabong, Roxy...).
• After a bit of searching, I found that Boardriders has set up a subdomain. news.boardriders.eu for its marketing mailings... but with a sloppy DMARC recording policy to none, and no active reporting (no address to receive reports).
• The DKIM of this email welcome uses a selector named internship. In other words, this shipment seems to have come from a test environment. Not exactly reassuring for a production email.
• On the other hand : the receipt sent immediately after use notification.boardriders.eu, a well-configured, dedicated domain with its own routing. The only downside here, too, DMARC remains minimalist.
• And a not inconsiderable detail: welcome email does not include header List-Unsubscribe, which contravenes Gmail and Yahoo! compliance rules updated in early 2024. For a «relationship» email, that's tough luck.

Provisional conclusion : it's likely that a configuration error resulted in the wrong sender being used for the welcome email. I'll try to contact the brand to dig into this.

What about content?

The classical quartet

• Object Welcome to Boardriders
• Pre-header 1 program, 6 brands. Exclusive benefits.
• Main title Welcome to Boardriders
• Main AHU : There isn't one.

Too bad, really. A welcome email is the perfect place to incite action. Here, there's no log-in button, no link to a loyalty area, no movement.

And the message?

The content is clean, clear and not visually unpleasant. We're told we're joining a community of gliding, style and freedom enthusiasts. We're promised loyalty points, private sales, exclusive products, gifts... It's well presented.

But then a simple question arises: how do you access these advantages?

Because at the end of the email, we're told to create our personal space... with six different links, one for each of the group's brands (Quiksilver, Billabong, Roxy, DC Shoes, Element, RVCA).

But:

• I have already given my email address and my phone number why should I start again online?
• Are accounts pooled?
• Is the points pool common to all brands?
• Are the benefits valid online? and in store?

No reply in the email.

And that's a shame. Because a welcome email is often the most open email in an entire program. That's where we build relationships. It's where we reassure. It's where we trigger the first action.

Summary - What needs to be reviewed (or tested)

🔧 Technical to-do (deliverability) :

• Do not use adobe-campaign.com as a sender domain
• Use news.boardriders.eu or a sub-domain specific to your brand
• Correct DMARC record :
  • Policy stricter than none (at least quarantine)
  • Add a reporting address to activate monitoring
• Do not send production messages with a DKIM selector named stage
• Add List-Unsubscribe headers to meet Gmail/Yahoo! requirements.
• Harmonize logic between marketing (news.) and transactional (notification.) areas

✍️ To-do content :

• Add a clear CTA to a personal space or loyalty hub
• Explain the relationship between the 6 brands: shared accounts or not?
• Clarify how to access benefits (and when: online / in-store)
• Test a more dynamic version (buttons, visuals, customization...)
• Bonus: personalize the email according to the brand of purchase (e.g. here: Quiksilver).

In conclusion, this kind of small friction - a message blocked by Gmail, unclear content - can be enough to undermine a well-thought-out loyalty program. And as always in deliverability, trust is built... in the details.