Transactional emails bring 69% higher open rates and generate 165% higher CTR compared to regular email campaigns. Read the article to learn more about transactional emails, understand their difference from promotional campaigns and familiarize yourself with their types.
Transactional vs. promotional emails
Transactional emails are system-messages triggered by the user’s activity. The primary purpose of these emails is to inform users about any changes or updates on their accounts.
Examples of transactional emails include
- Double opt-in;
- Order confirmation;
- Order and shipping status;
- Password change confirmation, and so on.
Promotional emails, for their part, are aimed at driving conversions and strategically promoting a particular product or brand as a part of a marketing campaign. New product announcements, sales offers, giveaways, new blog publications — all these are examples of traditional promo emails.
Now that we know the difference, let’s see what types of transactional emails there are.
Subscription confirmation
Let’s start with the basics, subscription or registration confirmations, often called double opt-in. New subscribers receive these confirmations after sharing their email and other contact information to sign up for emails or register an account.
Confirmation emails can help you get the right audience, leaving you with a clean mailing list as these messages also serve as a means of verifying users’ email addresses. When creating such message, remember to mention what your future subscribers should expect: perks, updates or useful information.
See what registration confirmation Blinkist sends. The service offers potential customers to confirm email address by clicking a bright CTA button designed in their corporate color and lists the content that will be featured in its emails.
Here’s another example from MailUp:
It’s a good idea to provide a full link in case the button doesn’t work.
Order confirmation
Order confirmations are usually triggered by purchases. Retailers use these messages to confirm details of the order including the number of the order itself and the number to track the shipped package. For you to know, over 50% of recipients open order confirmation emails and 5.5% click, and their ROI per message amounts to $0.30.
Encourage users to become your regular customers and reach them out after their first purchase using cross-sell — like Envato does in its order confirmation.
Order update
Order updates, or follow-ups, are used to inform customers about the status of their orders. Brands usually send these notifications at different stages of the order delivery including shipping preparation and confirmation, delivery details. By the way, shipping confirmations drive up to 6.6% conversion rates. So you’d better not neglect this marketing opportunity.
Check out an example from ASOS. As you can see, the brand includes helpful links into their email. Following them, a customer can track the order, see the delivery details, review the return policy, and contact customer service directly.
You can also use shipping confirmations to cross-sell or up-sell. Have a look at how AliExpress uses this strategy: the service includes personalized product recommendations in the “You May Also Like” section to encourage customers to come back for more items.
Booking services also send out order updates for customers to confirm or cancel their booking as well as provide some more details for the chosen accommodation. Booking.com, for example, divides all important information into a few blocks with slightly different design and adds useful buttons to make the navigation easier.
Moreover, the company reminds customers about the upcoming trips and provides the most important information such as a hotel address and contact details.
Another example from Booking.com, this time of the booking cancellation:
Notifications
Notifications serve to inform users about updates on their accounts. Typical examples include new friend requests on Facebook, password change on Instagram, and so on. Check out how LinkedIn notifies its users of profile views:
So, use transactional emails to bring greater value to your customers and build strong relationships with them. And if you’re looking for a reliable solution to send your transactional emails, try SendPulse and send up to 12,000 emails via SMTP or API for free!Transactional emails bring 69% higher open rates and generate 165% higher CTR compared to regular email campaigns. Read the article to learn more about transactional emails, understand their difference from promotional campaigns and familiarize yourself with their types.
Transactional vs. promotional emails
Transactional emails are system-messages triggered by the user’s activity. The primary purpose of these emails is to inform users about any changes or updates on their accounts.
Examples of transactional emails include
- Double opt-in;
- Order confirmation;
- Order and shipping status;
- Password change confirmation, and so on.
Promotional emails, for their part, are aimed at driving conversions and strategically promoting a particular product or brand as a part of a marketing campaign. New product announcements, sales offers, giveaways, new blog publications — all these are examples of traditional promo emails.
Now that we know the difference, let’s see what types of transactional emails there are.
Subscription confirmation
Let’s start with the basics, subscription or registration confirmations, often called double opt-in. New subscribers receive these confirmations after sharing their email and other contact information to sign up for emails or register an account.
Confirmation emails can help you get the right audience, leaving you with a clean mailing list as these messages also serve as a means of verifying users’ email addresses. When creating such message, remember to mention what your future subscribers should expect: perks, updates or useful information.
See what registration confirmation Blinkist sends. The service offers potential customers to confirm email address by clicking a bright CTA button designed in their corporate color and lists the content that will be featured in its emails.
Here’s another example from MailUp:
It’s a good idea to provide a full link in case the button doesn’t work.
Order confirmation
Order confirmations are usually triggered by purchases. Retailers use these messages to confirm details of the order including the number of the order itself and the number to track the shipped package. For you to know, over 50% of recipients open order confirmation emails and 5.5% click, and their ROI per message amounts to $0.30.
Encourage users to become your regular customers and reach them out after their first purchase using cross-sell — like Envato does in its order confirmation.
Order update
Order updates, or follow-ups, are used to inform customers about the status of their orders. Brands usually send these notifications at different stages of the order delivery including shipping preparation and confirmation, delivery details. By the way, shipping confirmations drive up to 6.6% conversion rates. So you’d better not neglect this marketing opportunity.
Check out an example from ASOS. As you can see, the brand includes helpful links into their email. Following them, a customer can track the order, see the delivery details, review the return policy, and contact customer service directly.
You can also use shipping confirmations to cross-sell or up-sell. Have a look at how AliExpress uses this strategy: the service includes personalized product recommendations in the “You May Also Like” section to encourage customers to come back for more items.
Booking services also send out order updates for customers to confirm or cancel their booking as well as provide some more details for the chosen accommodation. Booking.com, for example, divides all important information into a few blocks with slightly different design and adds useful buttons to make the navigation easier.
Moreover, the company reminds customers about the upcoming trips and provides the most important information such as a hotel address and contact details.
Another example from Booking.com, this time of the booking cancellation:
Notifications
Notifications serve to inform users about updates on their accounts. Typical examples include new friend requests on Facebook, password change on Instagram, and so on. Check out how LinkedIn notifies its users of profile views:
So, use transactional emails to bring greater value to your customers and build strong relationships with them. And if you’re looking for a reliable solution to send your transactional emails, try SendPulse and send up to 12,000 emails via SMTP or API for free!