Looking at the definition of a transactional e-mail, it's an automatized e-mail triggered by user's online activities. Welcome e-mails, confirmations, notifications, reminders, order status definitions, password renewals and online receipts are all transactional. In general, they are all helpful information that the customer needs to know.
The value of this form of communication begins with simplifying the customer experience. If you provide them with a logical documentation, you contribute to their satisfaction. Customers are not forced to be impatient, suspicious or eager to contact you. That's loading a burden off the support team's back, as they deal with the same repeating concerns in 65-70% cases. By avoiding these concerns, you spare some expenses and gain capacity to solve more complex issues. Beside providing a practical guide through e-mails you have the chance to stand out, if you do the job uniquely.
Be easy to understand
While delivering information, focus on doing it in a simple, direct, non-confusing manner. To achieve effective communication, make sure it's the right amount. Limit the details and include only what's inevitable. Build your system on revealing a few key steps of a chosen process (i.e. order shipment) that have an actual impact on the customer journey. Don't overdo it by informing them about everything you're doing.
Followingly, make sure the information is well stylized, gramatically correct and fact-based. The content of an e-mail has to be consistent and relevant, only addressing one topic or topics of similar character.
Think of the structure. Even in the environment of transactional e-mails, you have to introduce your reason to contact a person, deliver the information and provide them with a chance to get to know more.
Have a personality
A friendly communication style has become quite the trend. Even though you are reaching out through an automatized system, you don't have to give the impression of a robot.
If it represents who you are as a company, choose your tone to be unconventional. Add a little bit of edge. Ask yourslef who would your brand be as a person. Transform your style into something characteristic and remarkable. Carry that consistency through all of your channels of communication and create a pattern. Be a company to remember, provide an experience that is fun, special and your own.
Address the customer as a person, not a technological software template. Sign with a name at the end of the e-mail. Keep the e-mail address informal (johnny@abc.com). That way, the customer can imagine a team of real people behind the product.
While creating a transactional e-mail, a great deal of personal information is in your hands. Use it to portray the recipient as a person rather than a target for sales purposes. Personalize it. Start just as simple as addressing them by their first name.
Be joyful
Customers are what gives your business a meaning. Let them know and make them feel special. Express gratitude for choosing you. It creates a positive association with your brand and therefore enhances the relationship. Support this with offering a promotional code, discounts or other forms of rewarding. Again, consistency. If you're enthusiastic in your e-mails, continue to be enthusiastic through your social media etc.
Be a time-saver
To get your point across, and to navigate the customer to wherever they may need, use all the means necessary to make it fast. Visually, organizationally, structurally. The attention span is getting shorter and shorter, so if there's a call to action, highlight it and make it stand out. Be simple and straightforward. Limit it to one, the most important and use words wisely. The right word usage can increase your conversion rate by 14.79%. A reminder: consider the e-mail headline. Whatever CTA you implement, stick to the point.
Remember that a significant number of users open your e-mails through their phone. Make them smartphone adjustable and think of different levels of internet connection quality. Don't include a heavyload of pictures and graphic design elements that might be difficult for their software. If you want a customer to find a way to contact you or a use a link to a website, the transition between platforms has to be seamless.
Avoid spam folders
To keep yourself from ending up in the spam folder, restrain from using trigger words, use a credible e-mail service provider and make sure the e-mail is sent from a trustworthy address. Also, give customers a chance to make an opt-out request and honor it. Send a text version along with HTML.
Marketing
To use the transactional e-mail open rate wisely, don't take advantage of it too much. Being pushy and overwhelming might have the opposite effect of what you're trying to achieve. Instead, show customers what they're looking for. Recommmendations of products similar to what they bought, special offers that save their money, discount codes for their next purchase. The golden rule is 70% informational content, 20% promotional. In other case you're at risk of exploiting the opportunity you were given.
