Zrinity Email Marketing Blog

A transactional email is a form of creative communication whereby a company uses operational forms of communication, such as an order confirmation or invoices and uses these emails to also deliver marketing information.

Examples provide just transaction data to Amy. To better utilize the communication opportunity the transactional email, if more dynamic, could present more useful transactional details, such as a method to approximate arrival dates, as well as providing more up-sell opportunities. With additional transactional details, there is more opportunity to provide marketing information, while keeping the sales to transaction info ratio lower. Many companies are beginning to use transactional emails to promote products that compliment the products purchased. An email from the company in the opening scenario to Amy, had they fully used transactional email, might look like as shown in the full Transactional White paper.

The first email had a small amount of information and no marketing purpose. The second had more useful information as well as a marketing purpose. The company is using the transaction confirmation to create a possibility whereby the customer might make another purchase while keeping the ratio between operational and sales information low. The key is to ensure that the customer can make the purchase from the email as opposed to returning to the site and mandating they go through the shopping cart experience all over again. Remember: simplicity is key - you want the customer to be able to click on your email, and place the order, seamlessly.

To further explain the technicalities of transactional email and what exactly constitutes such a communication, we look to the definition provided under CAN-SPAM. We will get more into the specifics such as the potholes associated with CAN-SPAM in a later section, but as for the basic definition, we see that it means any email facilitating, completing or confirming a previously agreed upon transaction. Unlike commercial messages, transactional messages aren’t required to carry any of the following:

• An advertisement notation at the top
• A U.S. Postal Service address
• An unsubscribe link

More Transactional Email Marketing Sources: Transactional Email Server, Transactional Email Marketing White Paper (PDF), Email Marketing Best Practices