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What would your email marketing team do with $650,000?
Whether you're a hundred-man team or a team of just one, that's a lot of money.
That's the extent of an FTC settlement against Experian Consumer Services for violating CAN-SPAM by confusing transactional and promotional emails. The problem wasn't that their emails contained colorful designs or that they even contained information about Experian products.
It consisted of them not allowing members to unsubscribe from their emails.
Don't make the same mistake.
Your transactional emails aren't a place to promote upcoming offers, products, or partnerships—but they don't have to be boring letters full of legalese, either. Below we discuss the differences between commercial and transactional emails (and how best to optimize them):
What is a transactional email?
Transactional emails are messages related to the exchange of goods and services – particularly e-commerce emails such as receipts, shipping confirmations, invoices, password reset requests, support interactions, or legal notices. Basically, if it feels like a “boring” email, it’s probably a transactional email.
Source: Really Good Emails
The FTC calls this “transactional or relationship content” and defines it as “emails that facilitate an already agreed-upon transaction or inform a customer of an ongoing transaction.”
Don’t let the word “relationship” in this definition confuse you.
The relationship to which it refers is limited in scope. When a customer interacts with your support team in a chat, the system automatically sends them a transcript of the conversation. Or when someone books a room in a hotel, they receive confirmation of that booking as well as all other relevant information about their upcoming stay.
But that’s it – no more emails unless they are directly related to that specific transaction. This also applies to subscriptions and memberships.
The difference between commercial and transactional emails
Commercial emails are the most important promotional messages you send every day as an email marketer – be it newsletters, offers, product launches or recommendations, giveaways or invitations.
The FTC defines it as “an email with the primary purpose of promoting a commercial good or service.” If you send an email with the hope that someone will buy something from you, it is essentially advertising. (And yes, top-of-funnel content counts.)
Source: Really Good Emails
What's special about transactional emails, aside from the fact that they specifically relate to the exchange of goods and services, is that anyone can receive them – regardless of whether they have subscribed to your emails or not. From a legal perspective, transactional emails do not have to contain an unsubscribe link.
5 Ways to Optimize Transactional Emails (+ Transactional Email Examples)
But wait! Yes, consent is not required for transactional emails. However, that doesn't mean there's a green light to bombard them with more promotional content.
Transactional emails must primarily focus on the specific transaction. Therefore, you can't write a one-sentence email confirmation about a spread for your next product launch.
How to optimize your transactional emails to meet your business goals (without risking a CAN-SPAM breach):
1. Only provide relevant information
Think of it more as an 80/20 rule. The majority of your email needs to be related to the specific transaction – the notification of a product's shipment or the receipt of a recent purchase – but you can also add some other information.
Be very, very conservative with your transactional emails. Think a line or two of text or a single block of images at the end of your email and no more.
Source: Really Good Emails
For example, this booking confirmation contains a single block about their mobile app, which is a bit promotional. However, it makes sense for this stage of the customer journey because it helps the person prepare for check-in rather than promoting other properties or upselling amenities.
2. Keep transactional emails on brand
Just because it's transactional doesn't mean it has to be boring. You can certainly use color and design for these emails, as long as these designs do not interfere with the main message of this email.
Source: Really Good Emails
The most important element of a transactional email is the text, such as the receipt, confirmation or other number.
But you don't need to bury this information in too many images or text. Keep it simple and use a minimalist version of your branding so that important information is easy to see at a glance. This example above does a great job of using colors and images without overwhelming the important message.
3. Add an opt-in message
Depending on the transactional message, someone may receive it without actually signing up to receive your commercial emails. Make it easier for them to access your email list with the option to sign up in the email or a link to a preference center.
Source: Really Good Emails
This back-in-stock email walks the line between promotional and transactional (if this was truly a transaction, the trending products block should be a little smaller, and you'll see there's an unsubscribe link). ). But what stands out is the footer block: “Want early access? Sign up here”. This is a great way to encourage guests to deepen their relationship with you.
You can also add a subscribe checkbox at trigger points on your website, such as: B. at checkout or for a back-in-stock email like this one, so they're already on your list.
4. Personalize your transactional emails
Transactional emails should stay true to their place in the customer journey. They are intended to perform a specific task – provide business-critical information to a person who may or may not be a subscriber – and that task only.
That doesn't mean you can't spice them up a little. A little “first name” personalization doesn’t hurt. But what it's really about is including the important information they need to know: their order number, shipping confirmation number, reservation number or other data from the transaction.
Source: Really Good Emails
You can also add recommended products based on their purchase. In this case, limit this to an image block at the end of the email, like in this example.
5. Keep your email designs minimal
Above all, don't try to tempt fate by including too much information in a transactional email. If they've gotten this far along the journey with you to making a purchase, booking, or subscribing, then they're already interested in what you have to say.
That's why your transactional emails should remain minimalist in both design and content.
Source: Really Good Emails
This example does a great job of keeping the focus on the email message, clearly stating the order number at the beginning of the email, and including a link to browse the help forum in the meantime.
Why context matters for transactional emails
The true definition of a transactional email depends on the context. For example, while an abandoned cart email feels more transactional (it is triggered by behavior related to a purchase), it is actually a promotional email because it is pre-purchase because it occurs before the purchase Purchase is made.
Source: Really Good Emails
But an automated welcome email related to account creation or approval? Depending on the product, this can be transactional.
Source: Really Good Emails
That doesn't mean all welcome emails are transactional. Keep in mind that emails sent to community members or for subscription services are also often considered promotional emails, even if they occur after a purchase. For example, this welcome email is promotional:
Source: Really Good Emails
Yes, it's confusing! If in doubt, consider the email as a commercial email and include an unsubscribe link.
Don't be afraid to unsubscribe
In the Litmus community we constantly receive threads asking whether an email needs to have an unsubscribe link. These questions are well-intentioned ways to figure out what is commercial and what is transactional. But these email marketers often ask these questions out of fear, not strategy.
Yes, technically you don't need to include an unsubscribe link in a transactional email – at least not for your US-based subscribers.
Aside from legal and geographical intricacies, If someone doesn't want to hear from you, let them go.
It's much, much better for people to unsubscribe than to hang on to them and have them hurt your engagement – and potentially hurt your deliverability. If you weren't sure what the differences between these email types are before reading this article, a regular non-email geek certainly won't know this. They are much more likely to mark you as spam than to understand why they can't unsubscribe. Since email clients like Gmail and Yahoo now require one-click unsubscribe anyway, it's better to include an unsubscribe link.
Send better transactional emails with Litmus
Transactional emails have a reputation for being do-it-yourself and forget-it-all, but that's not always the case. With Litmus, you can be confident that your trusted transactional emails will look great no matter where your customer opens them – giving you peace of mind. See how we can help.
Create your very own Auto Publish News/Blog Site and Earn Passive Income in Just 4 Easy Steps
