If you’re an ecommerce marketer, I’ll bet that transactional emails must be a part of your email marketing strategy. And at one point in your professional career, you have either heard or learned for yourself that transactional emails perform better than promotional ones.
But do you know that the CTR of transactional messages is 3 times higher than non-transactional messages!
Well, now you do! If you’re thinking why are transactional emails so effective? The answer is very simple – because these emails are super relevant as they are usually triggered by your customer interaction with your website or the app. For example, subscription confirmation emails, order confirmation emails and shipping confirmation emails.
But that doesn’t mean you should use these emails just to intimate your customers. In fact, you should optimize these emails to drive purchases and more profit from your customers.
The question is how to optimize your transactional emails? Well, given below are few ways to do that along with some real-life examples.
Let’s get started.
General Best Practices for Transactional Emails
These best practices may seem obvious to some marketers, but they’re certainly not universally in play. Make sure that you follow them when creating your transactional email campaigns’:
1. Use a recognizable From name
Inducing people to open your transactional emails is easy, but getting lost in their crowded inbox is even easier. Ensure that your transactional emails don’t get lost by using a recognizable ‘From’ address.
2. Add clarity to your subject lines
You’ve probably heard it before, but it bears repeating: the clearer your subject line, the better your open rates will be. As people take only a glance at your email before deciding whether to open it or delete it. Given below is an example from online clothing retailer ModCloth:
They surely know how to stand out in their prospects jam-packed inboxes:
3. Provide information
What does your recipient want from these emails? Well, they want the information regarding the action they have taken on your site or app. For example, if they have purchased a product from your site they want the information that their transaction has been completed and the details of the transaction. Though you can use these emails to promote other products, the sole aim of these emails is to convey the information your customers have been looking for and thanks the subscriber for their activity.
4. Utilize your pre-header space effectively
The preview text of your email is as important as your subject line – yet it’s often underutilized. If you are not utilizing this space effectively then you’re wasting valuable real estate. Use this space effectively to improve the open rates of your emails. Given below is an example to show you how to utilize your pre-header space effectively:
5. Use a separate domain to send transactional emails
If you want your transactional emails to land in your subscribers’ inboxes – always use a separate domain and email address to send your transactional mailers.
Why?
To ensure that the performance of your marketing mailers does not ruin the performance of your transactional mailers.
Actionable tips to take your Transactional Emails to the Next Level
6. Personalize your email copy
We all know that personalizing our email copy can result in better click rates, but when it comes to transactional mailers most marketers forgot to follow this rule. Don’t make this mistake.
Why?
Because your customers receive transactional emails constantly, and frequently. The only way to differentiate your mailers is to personalize them. Now by personalization, we don’t mean using the recipient first name in the copy – though that would be a nice touch. But you can go a step further by using words like “you,” and “your” in the copy.
When you add words like ‘you,’ and ‘your’ in the copy it will give your customer the feeling that these messages are explicitly written for them. Which, in turn, drives engagement and compels them to take action.
If you want inspiration take a look at this welcome email from Fitbay:
7. Design your emails to match your brand’s look and feel
Transactional emails are as much a part of your email marketing strategy as promotional emails. So make sure every transactional mailer you send reflect your brand identity. The moment someone opens these emails they should be able to recognize your brand immediately. Now if you are wondering how to do that? Well, it’s quite easy – to build familiarity with your brand you can put your logo in the upper left-hand side of your mailers. Also, use can use your brand color and fonts to make your emails familiar to the customer.
Branding your emails will not only make your business recognizable but it will also help your business standout in your recipients’ inboxes.
8. Add value
The goal of every email you send to your subscribers should be to add value. Your transactional emails shouldn’t be an exception. They don’t just have to contain transactional information. But you can use them to add value to your recipients’ inboxes. Given below is an example to show you how:
I received this email from Forever21 when I added a product to their wait list. The email is simple and to the point – they’ve confirmed that I have been added to their wait list. But to make the copy more valuable they’ve included few relevant suggestions in the bottom of the email. Which is a good way to provide value and lure me back to the site and make a purchase.
9. Optimize your call to action (CTA)
No matter how good your transactional emails are if you don’t include a clear CTA in it people won’t take an action. So, make sure you include a clear CTA in your email. Here’s an example from MatchesFashion.com to show you how:
I received this notification email from Matchesfashion when a product I added in their wait list is back in stock. The email is nicely designed and well crafted. They’ve included everything in the email – the details of the product along with the image to jog my memory. Also, they’ve utilized bold CTAs in order to grab my attention and entice me to take an action. Nicely done!
When it comes to transactional messages very few marketers test their CTA copy; always test it. Sometimes, simple changes in the copy can make a big difference in the response and conversion rate.
10. Avoid spam folder
No matter how good your transactional emails are if they don’t land in the inbox you won’t get returns from them. To prevent that from happening pay attention to these things:
- Use a valid and trustworthy domain name.
- Don’t use spam trigger words in the email subject line.
- Make sure your subject line clearly conveys what’s in the email.
- Use a reliable transactional email service provider.
- Verify that IP or domain isn’t blacklisted with this free blacklist checker
11. A/B test your transactional emails frequently
When it comes to email marketing it’s important to base your decisions on data rather than your gut. As intuition can be surprisingly off the mark when it comes to what will work and what won’t.
A/B testing is the only way you can make real improvements in your transactional emails.
The more data you collect, the more you’ll able to find out what’s working, and the better your transactional emails will be.
If you aren’t sure what elements to test given below are some ideas for split tests you can try:
- Adding the first name of the recipient in the subject line or preheader.
- Experimenting with different wording and text length in your email copy.
- First name personalization in the body content of your email.
- Comparing different calls to action – you can try different colors, sizes, text, placement etc. Also you can try image CTA vs. text CTA
Wrapping Up
Transactional emails are a super important part of an email marketing strategy – yet they’re used less than optimally by many email marketers. Don’t make this mistake – when used well these emails can help you drive up your purchases and increase your customer lifetime value.
Also, don’t forget to split test your transactional emails, as no matter how good they are, they can always be improved. And there’s no reason not to work at making them better.
If you are looking for a reliable Email Service Provider for sending Transactional Emails – you can Try us For Free.
