In this installment of Ecommerce Fundamentals (see Ecommerce Fundamentals Part 1) we’re taking a glimpse at the often-overlooked “Transactional Emails”. By virtue of their high open rates, great conversion rates, and warm audience we believe that this class of email has enormous potential to provide value to all ecommerce companies, when implemented correctly.
With revenue generation that is 6 times higher than your typical marketing email, Transactional Emails really are the proverbial ‘Low-Hanging Fruit’ and one of the ways a Digital Marketing Agency like us, or a savvy business leader can effortlessly provide near instant value to a company. Unfortunately your average SMB, and lets face it, the majority of the big players stick to the utilitarian templates that look like they were designed in Microsoft Word. These victims of mediocrity see transactional emails as a chore, and not what they really are, an opportunity!
Before we get too stuck in the weeds, its best that we define what a transactional email is. Most define the category as ‘any email that is triggered by a user’s interaction with a website’. Some notable examples include: purchase receipts, tracking updates, and subscription confirmations.
An Absurdly High Number of Interactions = Retail Gold Mine
Some may ask, “Why put any effort into the email a user receives after they have converted, or purchased a product?” The answer is because they drive additional conversions, and have engagement that is better than any other email campaign out there. Transactional Emails hold important information, information that users either need or want to see. This means that transactional emails are opened by a majority of users, and are often opened more than once. Messages pertaining to an order confirmation have an open rate just above 70% compared to a typical promotional email at 17%. With today’s on demand, and ephemeral mindset you literally can’t buy this level of attention.
A Warmer Audience
In addition to the staggering open rate, transactional emails convert more often than a promotional email. On average a transactional email has a click through rate of 12.5% and a transaction rate of .76%, compared to the ecommerce average of 3.1% and .09% respectfully for a typical marketing email and its clear that this portion of your email marketing demands some consideration.
The lofty conversion, and open rates of transactional emails come as no surprise when you think about who it is receiving them. The recipients of these emails aren’t just a good representation of your customers, THEY ARE YOUR CUSTOMERS. Customers who have paid cold hard cash for your products/services in the past, and likely have the ability to do so again in the future. We highly recommend that you take full advantaged of the eyeballs that are fixed on you while you have them.
Designing Your Transactional Emails
To design an effective email it’s critical to remember the primary function of the message you are sending. Make sure the purpose of your email is fulfilled quickly, and easily BEFORE adding ANY marketing material. A good rule of thumb is to follow the 80/20 rule. 80% of your email should be functional, and serves its primary function. Whether that’s a password reset, or order confirmation make sure the need is met before moving forward. The remaining 20% can be used for your marketing purposes. This is important not only from a User Experience point of view, but also to keep you in compliance of the Can Spam Act.
A great example of a Transactional Email that is taking full advantage of its captive audience is Huckberry.
In this email the important information has taken priority and is easy to find. Once the primary function has been served, then the marketing content is added without distracting from the email’s main purpose.
Another good example of a transactional email turned promotional is Etsy’s order confirmation email.
You can quickly access any information you could need, the branding is consistent to the website, and it quickly solves its purpose. Etsy then uses the information it knows about you to provide suggested products from a seller you already trust.
Of course there are a couple of examples that make an attempt at this philosophy and fail hard. My favorite comes from the real world, The CVS Receipt.
Ah so that’s what I’m supposed to do with those
Implementation
To properly redesign your Transactional Email strategy remember to keep the fundamentals of digital marketing in mind.
- Have a mobile first design. Email has higher mobile usage than the rest of the Internet so a mobile first design is especially critical. On average nearly 40% of these emails will be opened on a phone, with the majority being viewed on an iPhone. Manually test your email on multiple clients, and devices to ensure that it looks great all the time.
- Meets the customers needs quickly, and efficiently. These are not meant to be promotional emails, and by law can’t be overly promotional. Serve the function, and satisfy the need before asking for anything.
- Keep your brand consistent. Your brand, messaging, and style must be consistent with the website. Failing to do so may result is a decrease in trust, and a declining conversion rate.
- TEST YOUR RESULTS! This should be a no brainer but it bears repeating that testing is imperative to measuring the efficiency of any marketing endeavor. Many transactional emails are sent from different systems than classic campaigns so make sure you have some form of analytics set up before launching your new emails.
Hopefully you’ve gleaned some insight or at least walked away with an idea on how you can up your email game. If you’re craving more ecommerce tips make sure and check out our first installment of Ecommerce Fundamentals, and stay tuned for future issues. If you’re still adrift in the digital marketing sea, feel free to contact us, ThoughtLab, we’d love to take a look at your marketing strategy, or website.
Brandon Wright
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- The Hidden Value of Transactional Emails for Ecommerce - July 28, 2017