Your e-mailing campaigns are not efficient? Focus on transactional e-mails which are opened a few times more frequently than traditional newsletters. Hundreds of transactional messages that you send to your Clients and users can be an excellent marketing tool, that will work for your success. Learn about 5 pieces of advice on how to improve transactional e-mails and to be ahead of your competition.
Transactional e-mail – a quiet hero of e-mail marketing
Transactional e-mails (https://www.growcode.com/blog/transactional-emails-templates-examples/), i.e. messages that are sent automatically in a reply to certain operation of a user, are often underestimated. Marketers are more prone to use mailing campaigns and newsletters, while it’s transactional messages that are opened more frequently by users, who often open the links that are enclosed in them. Where does the strength of such automatic messages lay? In user’s expectations − users often expect such e-mails and when they don’t receive them, they feel disappointed. Among transactional e-mails it is worth to differentiate the following messages:
- confirming a purchase, subscription or payment,
- notifying about non-finalised purchases (the so called abandoned cart),
- confirming a newsletter signup, change of a password
- thank you messages (thanking for filling in of a questionnaire, participation in an event, for giving an opinion),
- welcoming – e.g. new members of a loyalty club or a newsletter.
The power of transactional e-mails [transactional e-mail] lays in their personalised character − messages are directed to a particular user, not a whole group. And although transactional e-mails can alone be an effective tool for increasing profit, they can additionally be made more attractive. How to improve a transactional e-mail?
- Personalise
Forget about message titles that do not say anything, and about e-mail addresses that sound strange and unclear. People like to know that there is a real human being on the other side, therefore mails such as notifications@ or noreply@ won’t work very well. Focus on a clear and simple message and a two-way communication − encourage a Client to contact the staff in a store or with customer service in order to clear any doubts or to ask questions.
- Take care of the visual aspect
While crating transactional e-mails it is worth to remember about a coherent communication − a message should contain brand’s logo, links to social media channels, as well as attractive graphic elements. Remember, however, not to push it too far – too many dynamic elements may bring chaos and discourage a user.
- Build trust
Do you want to make sure that Clients will satisfied with purchases that they make in your store? Pay attention to such details as:
- sending time of a transactional e-mail − confirmation of an order should be sent to a Client’ s e-mail box almost immediately,
- style − although transactional messages are often sent automatically, it’s good to make sure they use a “human” language − they should sound natural and be adjusted to a user,
- address a recipient − transactional e-mails should start with a name; for marketing purposes you can add products in them that are complementary to those that the Client already has in his/her cart;
- a footnote − there you can include links to Social Media channels,
- attractive and visible CTA keys and contact details.
- Achieve marketing goals in a wise way
The main goal of transactional e-mails is to inform a Client about the status of an order, payment or shipment. Those messages, however, can also be used for marketing purposes, but it’s advisable to do it in moderation − marketing content should make up maximum 20-30% of the whole message. To Customers who haven’t finalized their purchases it’s useful to offer a discount or to encourage them to increase the value of the cart in order to gain benefits − e.g. free shipping. This method is the so called up-selling. However, if you want to keep a Client, who has already made a purchase in your store, for longer, you should go for cross-selling, that is offering complementary products. For that purpose it’s worth offering a discount code with a short expiry date. For Clients who signed in for a newsletter you can also offer free e-books or additional content that is unavailable for others. Remember, that such benefit is important for a user and it builds trust. Don’t forget about analysis of the results − measure conversion and react, if the rates that you are interested in are decreasing (for example conversion rate, links clickalbility rate) or increase (rejection rate).
- Focus on responsiveness
These days mobile devices are much more popular than PCs, therefore it is worth to make sure that your transactional e-mails look as good on smart-phones, tablets and PCs, as well as in different search engines. This way you will reduce rejection rate, and affect increase of a clickability and conversion rate.
5 pieces of advice on how to improve transactional e-mails will allow you to effectively adjust transactional messages to individual users, which will positively affect not only your image among Clients, but it will also increase the conversion and profits.