When to Use Transactional Emails

Transactional emails refer to messages that organizations send to provide a product/service or facilitate a transaction, as per the customer’s request. Unlike other emails, you are not required to obtain consent from the customers for transactional emails.

Organizations rely on transactional emails to circulate critical information to customers at the right moments during the customer journey. A customer interaction or prospect triggers transactional emails with a mobile application or website.

Support and Feedback Requests

Communication is necessary for positive customer experience. When a customer does not receive a confirmation after submitting a request, it can be quite troublesome. In addition, if a support team fails to receive the request quickly, it can delay the response time, frustrating the customer. Support-based transactional emails assist both sides by facilitating the communication process and alerting each party of status updates.

Similar to support requests, feedback is used to make the customer experience positive.

Referrals and Invitations

Different services offer users a way to send invitational and referral emails for inviting friends and colleagues for account registration. Rather than utilizing their email application or sending invites, users can simply enter their friends’ email addresses into a form. The service will then send the invitation emails. Referral emails work similarly, but what makes them different from the invitations is that the former provides incentives to the senders and recipients. Gift cards are one of the examples of rewards.

Receipts and Confirmations

Receipts and confirmations are the most common form of transactional emails. When customers receive an email comprising of their online purchase, it is mostly an order confirmation or a receipt. Downloadable goods like PDFs and e-books are also sent as part of an email receipt. A monetary transaction is not always associated with confirmation emails. Event RSVPs and new account sign-ups also trigger confirmation emails that verify that the user has successfully registered.

Explicit Requests

These forms of transactional emails contain information that users explicitly request from a service or application. Since these requests are urgent in nature, users expect them to show up instantly. For instance, a password reset is an example of explicit request. Since users require a password to access their accounts, a password reset request needs an immediate response.

Behavioral Triggers

Behavioral emails are marketing-oriented as they are used to boost customer loyalty. After users interact with an application or service, they receive emails after achieving milestones or meeting different conditions. An on-boarding email is one of the examples of behavioral emails. Once users create new accounts, a welcome email is sent to make them familiar with an application. After some time, a second email can educate about check-in or features to ensure that they are satisfied with the service.

Final Thoughts

Transactional emails are an effective tool for improving relationship with your audience by delivering a targeted, rapid response.