How to leverage transactional email to achieve business & marketing goals
When asked about how to run effective email campaigns, digital marketers often say that you need to:
Given that transactional emails are perceived as over 300% more valuable than promotional emails, I like to think that it’s a good idea to allocate a percentage of email marketing budgets to include transactional email.
What exactly is the difference? In a nutshell…
Transactional Email
- Emails generated automatically by user actions on your website or app. I.e. purchase confirmations, password resets, receipts, check-in information, etc.
- Primary purpose is not commercial in nature
- GDPR compliance does not apply to these emails.
Promotional Email
- Emails sent in bulk for promotional purposes, typically mailed to lists or segments of lists. I.e. Newsletters, special offers, etc.
- Primary purpose is commercial in nature
- GDPR compliance does apply to these emails.
Wait, you mean to tell me that transactional emails fall into a different set of regulations than promotional emails? Yep, that’s right.
Now that we’ve got that covered, let’s have a look at how differently people respond to transactional email as opposed to promotional email. The following figures were pulled from Experian’s Transactional Email Report. I don’t know about you, but I find them very illuminating.
How many businesses out there can ever even hope to get these kinds of open and click-through rates on their promotional email? I’d be willing to bet the tally comes in somewhere between slim and none. Looking at these graphs, it’s apparent that – on average – many transactional emails get opened more than once. And with CTR’s in excess of 10%, 15%, and 20% what’s not to like?
Transactional emails typically have much higher engagement rates than traditional marketing emails. Why? Transactional emails are personal, directed at an individual and tied to action taken by the user making them highly anticipated. On average, links back to your website from transactional emails also provide substantially more revenue per email.
This report provides some pretty staggering statistics as to just how differently users respond to these different types of emails. Not only are transactional emails opened more readily, they are often opened repeatedly. Looking at the figures, it’s pretty easy to see how they would be a great place to continue the user experience with your brand.
Consider leveraging well-designed transactional emails to promote your brand and core offerings as a business. Remember, navigating from an email to your website should be seamless, on brand, and aesthetically consistent.
Need help with preparing some rock solid transactional email templates for your business? Contact Blizzard for expert help with any or all steps in the content creation, promotion, or assessment process.