Who hasn't looked at the age on the bottom of their glass at the canteen? Duralex, a French company well known for its glassware, manufactures not only glasses, but also other 100 % products made in France, renowned for their high resistance. In July 2024, Duralex became a SCOP, taken over by its employees.
Curious to follow their news, I signed up for their newsletter. I quickly received a confirmation email that Gmail has considered suspiciousfollowed by a welcome email.
Areas for improvement
- The welcome email arrived in the "Promotions" tab, whereas this type of marketing automation email should be categorized in the Main/Priority tab.
- The preheader has not been thought through.
- The main block contains important text embedded in an image, which is not ideal. This text should be in text format for a better accessibility.
- On mobile, the main image is simply resized, making the text even harder to read.
- The text below the image repeats the text in the image, creating an unnecessary duplication.
- The request to add the sender's address to the address book is frightening, especially with a domain containing the word "partenaires" and an unrecognizable or even suspicious domain name (lmfv.frLMFV should stand for La Maison Française du Verre, but the site lmfv.fr doesn't exist). Good practice is to use a sender address that is a sub-domain of the main site, for example : yesreply@newsletter.duralex.fr. Webmails/FAIs would appreciate this more.
- Missing non-breaking spaces cause unwanted line breaks for exclamation marks.
- A non-web safe font is used, resulting in different displays depending on the opening environment.
- The blue and orange lines in the header visually weigh down the email and reduce the email height as soon as it opens.
The positives
The editorial content is not bad at all. I enjoyed learning the secret of the ages inscribed on the glasses and the origin of tempered glass.
With the news of the last few weeks, I imagine they'll change the content of this welcome email to talk about the transformation into a SCOP and the employee takeover. The kind of news that reinforces the company's values and makes you want to support them even more.
Suggestions for improvement
- Setting up another sender address seems urgent!
- Configure BIMI to have the Duralex logo next to the sender label
- Add a preheader linked to the essential message such as: "-10% discount to thank you".
- Delete the phrase "Welcome to the family", since it's already present in the email subject line. No need to repeat it.
- Replace the image block with a text block :
- Main title: "Glasses for everyone, every day and forever" in text format.
- Subtitle: "-10% on your next order with code WELCOME10".
- Text: "Since 1945, Duralex® has been making products in France, at La Chapelle Saint Mesmin, that are designed to be both functional and aesthetically pleasing. Icons of design, these products are durable and stand the test of time."
- CTA: "Take advantage of my discount code".
- Add a strip below this block to highlight the brand's 5 distinctionsinspired by the one on the website: Design, Colours, Ultra-resistant, Made in France, Durability. Highlighting these assets right at the start of the email would quickly underline the reasons to buy Duralex.
- Include a reinsurance block similar to the email footer, explaining a little more about the company's distinctions and playing an educational role:
- 2 times more impact-resistant thanks to tempered glass
- Long-term economics: detail this section
- Fabriqués en France: to educate readers and explain why producing glass in France is virtually mission impossible, and what new business model employees are imagining for the company's long-term future.
- Heat-resistant: for use in microwaves.
Note: if the subjects are too long to develop. We could envisage a welcome scenario involving several emails with several messages to get across.
- Reinforce the footer by integrating the "4.8/5 based on 2653 reviews", the Pyrex-Duralex parent company logo and using the same color scheme as the website footer (navy-blue background). This would highlight the unsubscribe link (yes, you read that right, "highlight").