If you have a business website or app, the chances are that you have to** send hundreds of transactional emails **all the time. Order confirmations, welcome emails, subscription renewals, etc. — these all are transactional emails.
Given that transactional emails are often** created by IT and development teams,** they may not be properly aligned with the company’s brand message. They might be dated, and they may lead to inconsistent customer experience, undermining your email marketing efforts.
When marketers don’t pay enough attention to transactional emails, they miss out on many opportunities to generate sales. The reason is that these emails have eight times higher engagement and open rates compared to traditional marketing emails.
In this article, we will consider the main types of transactional emails and think of how your marketing campaign can benefit from them. But first, let’s figure out what transactional emails are, and how they work.
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WHAT ARE TRANSACTIONAL EMAILS?
Transactional emails are triggered by certain events or users’ actions. Depending on a user’s activity or the stage of the sales cycle, the company’s website or app can send a certain type of transactional email. Most consumers deal with such emails on a daily basis, receiving emails with login details, order confirmations, cart abandonment notifications, etc.
Quite often, transactional emails contain very important information, which is a reason why they are opened more often than regular marketing emails. As a result, transactional emails can generate six times as much revenue. For example, if you receive an email with a flight confirmation, the chances are that you will not only open it immediately but also check any attachments and bookmark it.
Interesting Read : 13 Best Email Scraping Tools for Sales Prospecting in 2020
Although transactional emails give businesses a chance to engage with their existing and potential customers, they often consist of textual content only. The reason is that, in many companies, transactional emails are not marketers’ responsibility.
Moreover, many techniques that marketers use all the time, including upsell, cross-sell, real-time reporting, and mobile optimization, are unavailable when dealing with transactional emails. Unlike traditional emails, transactional emails are not about precision but about innovation and creativity.
Now let's take a look at some examples of transactional emails you can use in marketing and consider them in more detail.
1 . CART ABANDONMENT
Many consumers browse eCommerce websites, choose some products, add them to the shopping cart, and then abandon it. They may get distracted, close their browser, or forget about your website while checking out other options.
You can always remind your visitors about the products that they’ve liked. You may even offer a discount. Cart abandonment emails have a 44% open rate so we recommend that you don’t give up and use these emails to make more sales.
In an email, include links to the products from an abandoned cart, and make sure to provide a link that will enable users to quickly complete their order. We also recommend that you add images so that your customers can quickly understand what products you’re talking about.
2. ORDER CONFIRMATION
These emails are very important because they provide important information about orders and include receipts. Most likely, the recipients will open such emails and check all the information to make sure that their payment was successful and the order is correct.
Although such emails have a specific purpose, it doesn’t mean that you cannot engage with the recipients and make them read further. According to research, consumers are 60% to 70% more likely to buy something on a website they’ve already used. Therefore, order confirmation emails give you an opportunity to suggest other products that your customers might like.
Order confirmation emails are especially important when a customer asks you not to call them back. In this case, such an email is the only communication tool you can use so we recommend that you make it informative and engaging.
3. DELIVERY CONFIRMATION
Customers also always pay attention to delivery confirmation emails. When people order something online, they want to know where their package is, whether or not it’s ready for delivery, and how soon they’ll get it. Therefore, customers not only click delivery confirmation emails but they are also waiting for such emails.
By notifying users about the status of their delivery, you demonstrate that you care about them, and unload your support department at the same time. Besides, these emails enable you to offer discounts or suggest other products your customers might be interested in.
The main thing is to provide all the information on shipping at the very beginning of your email so that the marketing content won’t make tracking orders more difficult.
4. ASKING FOR FEEDBACK
First, customer feedback is important because it enables you to improve your products and services. Secondly, it’s an important factor that influences purchasing decisions. According to statistics, 88% of consumers trust online reviews as much as personal recommendations.
Not all customers, however, are willing to leave a review, especially if their customer experience was good. To motivate your customers to leave feedback, you can send them emails, explaining how important their opinion is to you, and offering discounts or gifts.
5. NOTIFICATION EMAILS
Great examples of notification emails are emails from Facebook or other social media platforms. Thanks to such emails, users get notifications about reactions to their posts or new comments. You can notify your website visitors when other people visit the same pages or purchase products they’ve been interested in. You can also use notification emails to let your customers know when their order is successfully formed, waiting for payment, or ready for shipping.
Interesting Read : How to Prevent Pixel Trackers in your Emails
6. DOUBLE OPT-IN
More and more businesses start to use double opt-in techniques, and one of the main reasons is that people become more and more careful when it comes to sharing their contact information online. Such emails require users to confirm that they want to subscribe to your newsletters or create an account.
Double opt-in emails are beneficial for your business for many reasons. First, you will make sure that your emails reach people who really want to receive them so these emails won’t end up in the spam folder. Secondly, you can demonstrate that you care about your customers’ privacy. Last but not least, when users click the confirmation button or link, you can redirect them to a product page and start selling.
7. SUBSCRIPTION RENEWAL
When a user’s subscription ends, you can lose them. They might be interested in renewing their subscription but they may forget to do it. Transactional emails of this kind are likely to be opened by the recipients because they want to be informed about everything that happens with their wallets.
Such emails also let you enable your subscribers to continue their subscription without forcing them to do it. Unlike an automatic subscription renewal, subscription renewal emails enable users to decide whether or not they want to stay and demonstrate that you’re completely honest.
These emails also enable you to include an upgrade link and to explain the advantages of your products or services once again.
8. SOFTWARE UPDATES
Software updates may change the way software works and have a significant impact on user experience. Therefore, it’s important to explain your software updates in detail, and sending emails is a great way to do it. Besides, this way, you’ll make sure that the users will visit your website.
Interesting Read : The Modern Rules of Lead Generation that will work in 2020
When explaining updates, make sure to use simple language while also providing all the necessary details. A good solution is to hire professional technical writers who are familiar with your niche and know how to explain complex things in an easy to comprehend way. For instance, you can use writing services review websites like Best Writers Online and Online Writers Rating to find professionals with the necessary experience.
9. CANCELLATION EMAILS
If your users decide to cancel their subscription, it doesn’t mean that you should burn bridges. We recommend that you always try to win your customers back, and well-written cancellation emails are a great tool for this. Say goodbye but let your users come back or learn about your other products or services.
For example, you can offer a discount if they decide to renew their subscription. You may also suggest other products or services that your customers might like. You can also include links to your social media profiles so that they can continue to stay in touch with your brand. Besides, you can ask them to leave a review and reward them for it.
10. ANNOUNCEMENT EMAILS
Announcement emails enable brands to inform users about important events. This is a great opportunity to engage with them and to increase your website traffic or to boost sales. For instance, if you have an eCommerce store, and you’re going to open a physical store soon, your customers will certainly be excited to hear about it.
You can also use announcement emails to inform your subscribers about upcoming webinars or sales. You may also announce new products and enable your subscribers to make a pre-purchase.
About the author
Rachael Chapman
A Complete Gamer and a Tech Geek. Brings out all her thoughts and Love in Writing Techie Blogs.
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