Eurostar's email evolution

Brief

Eurostar appointed Red C as their strategic and creative email marketing agency, with the objective of transforming their underperforming eCRM programme into a high-performing, database-driven channel. The travel operator required an agency capable of combining email marketing strategy and planning, design and copywriting, and technical expertise to deliver measurable improvements across both their B2B and B2C communications, including loyalty programmes.

Eurostar’s eCRM programme was underutilised, with emails failing to consistently engage their database and drive conversions. The challenge was to create a solution that would deliver value to subscribers while supporting commercial objectives, integrating both promotional content and informative, value-add material to maintain audience interest. Red C was brought in to redesign the email strategy from the ground up, providing a combination of email marketing templates, automated campaigns, and strategic oversight to drive meaningful results.

The project required a holistic approach to email marketing, balancing creative visual design, brand consistency, and technical performance, while ensuring that campaigns were scalable and adaptable for multiple markets. By approaching the programme strategically, Red C aimed to improve all key performance metrics, including open rates, click-through rates, engagement, conversions, and ROI, creating an email programme that actively supports Eurostar’s broader business objectives.

Approach

The first stage of the project involved an in-depth understanding of Eurostar’s business, audience segments, and existing email marketing practices. Red C worked closely with key stakeholders across multiple offices to gain insight into the company’s objectives, priorities, and audience behaviour. This collaborative approach ensured that the email marketing strategy and planning would align fully with the brand, audience expectations, and commercial goals.

Red C then developed a suite of email marketing templates designed to be visually engaging, content-rich, and flexible for ongoing use. The templates delivered a balanced mix of value-add content, promotions, and special offers, appealing to different segments of the audience. Each template was modular and easy to adapt, enabling Eurostar’s marketing team to efficiently produce consistent, on-brand communications for a wide variety of campaigns.

The scope included both B2C and B2B communications. For B2C, the focus was on driving bookings, promoting loyalty programmes, and maintaining customer engagement through relevant, inspiring content. For B2B, emails were designed to provide insights, offers, and programme updates relevant to corporate clients and partners.

An important aspect of the project was adapting the email marketing templates for multiple international markets. Content was translated into French, Flemish, and German to ensure local relevance and maintain brand consistency across all regions. This multi-market approach allowed Eurostar to deliver a cohesive email marketing programme while respecting regional language preferences and cultural nuances.

Once the templates were established, Red C developed a comprehensive suite of automated campaigns. Automation ensured that Eurostar’s eCRM programme delivered targeted messages to the right audience based on engagement, website activity, and previous booking behaviour. Automated campaigns included a welcome programme, nurturing emails, re-engagement campaigns, and anniversary emails.

Each automated campaign was designed to reflect customer preferences and behavioural data, creating a personalised experience that maximised engagement and conversion potential. By integrating data-driven insights into the email programme, Red C ensured that every email served a specific purpose in the broader eCRM strategy, supporting both retention and acquisition objectives.

In addition to creative and automation work, Red C provided strategic guidance on design and copywriting for subject lines, headers, and calls to action to improve open rates, click-through rates, and conversions. This included ongoing testing and refinement of templates and campaigns to identify the most effective combinations of design and copywriting.

The result was a hard-working, multi-market, and multi-segment email programme that delivered consistent, personalised communications to Eurostar’s diverse audience. By combining email marketing strategy and planning, modular email marketing templates, and expert design and copywriting, Red C ensured that the programme supported Eurostar’s commercial goals while being scalable and easy to manage.

Conclusion

The enhanced eCRM programme delivered by Red C significantly improved Eurostar’s email marketing performance across all key metrics. The richer, more varied programme increased open rates, click-through rates, and conversions, demonstrating the effectiveness of combining email marketing templates, automated campaigns, and a strong email marketing strategy and planning approach.

By implementing modular email marketing templates and personalised automation, Eurostar was able to deliver highly relevant content to its audience, creating a more engaging and rewarding subscriber experience. The programme not only improved engagement but also drove tangible business outcomes, enhancing ROI and providing a scalable foundation for future email marketing activity.

Red C’s approach highlights the importance of integrating design and copywriting, automation, and strategic planning in modern email marketing. By creating flexible templates, tailoring content for multiple markets, and implementing behaviour-based automated campaigns, Eurostar now benefits from a sophisticated, high-performing eCRM programme that continues to deliver measurable results.

This case study demonstrates that a well-executed email marketing strategy and planning, supported by modular email marketing templates and expert design and copywriting, can transform underperforming programmes into high-value channels that engage audiences, drive conversions, and support long-term business growth.