Zrinity Email Marketing Blog

Zrinity Inc., a Utica, New York-based email marketing server provider, produced a white paper titled, “Improving the Buyer Experience (and ROI) Through Transactional Email Marketing” in which it addressed the mandatory presence of six components in every transactional email. While the components individually are not earth-shaking, the necessary combination of all six in each email may come as a surprise to many.

A transactional email, in short, is a company’s opportunity to utilize a communication that must already be distributed to a customer (i.e. order confirmation) to further promote the company, sell additional products or services, or build brand loyalty. Zrinity, however, is raising the bar by announcing that businesses must be especially careful when constructing transactional emails to ensure that they are meeting the goal of building rapport without burning bridges, which can occur if any of the six components Zrinity has found to be crucial, are not present.

The six components are divided amongst two categories: Content and Delivery.

Content

1. Relevance—Content must speak to the relevance of the transaction. For instance, you do not want to send a promotion of a fur coat in a transaction email confirming the purchase of an “I love PETA” t-shirt. Customization options, such as those offered through Zrinity’s Campaign Intelligence allow businesses to access the type of profile information that makes these more customized emails possible.

2. HTML Formatting—Research shows that recipients are more receptive to HTML formatting than standard text. This allows for improved visibility, appearance and usability through links. It also provides more tracking options for the sender.

 3. Urgency—Use of phrases such as, “Purchase now and for the next 20 minutes, you’ll also get XX for free,” implies that the recipient must act now before losing the opportunity.

4. Brand Consistency—Ensure that you are using your brand consistently in every message. Not only should your email communications match each other, but they too should match other communications where brand is represented including Websites, brochures, etc.

Delivery

5. Real-time—Timing is everything, so companies must ensure that relevant messages are also timely, which usually means less than a 24 hour time frame from the original transaction time.

6. Testing and Tracking—test, test, test, and then track everything.

More Sources: Email Marketing Server, Transactional Email Marketing