If you go through your emails, including those marked “unread” you will quickly realize that they primarily fall into categories; they are either promotional or transactional. What’s the difference?
Promotional emails are what most of us get all the time, sometimes from unsolicited quarters. They might be campaign based or just out to inform you of a new-coming product or service. Consequently, promotional emails usually target that in the end, you will buy a product or service.
On the other hand, transactional emails hit our inbox through some prompting. They may be coming in to confirm an order, remind of a shipping order or delivery and so on. Even the password recovery email you received from your email provider falls under this category. They play a vital role in the influence of user experience. But how can transaction emails be made more interactive to give us an enhanced experience? Here are some suggestions.
- Explain the Importance: Let you be understood.
This actually applies across the board. People need to know why you are sending them an email in the first place, why it is important and what you want them to do. This is especially important when you are sending out a Welcoming Email, which means it is the first time and probably the first formal interaction with the person on the other end. Feed them with as much information about the product, organization or brand as you can at this point. They will feel, informed, relieved and glad to be onboard.
However, be careful not to be too verbose or give irrelevant information. This should be a guide and a welcome note, much like a cup of tea or coffee to get the conversation started.
- Suggest a next—line-of-action
Let us assume you’ve sent a Welcome email, reminder, confirmation, subscription, cancellation or whatever another kind of transactional email, what line of action does you want them to take? What is the next cause of action for your recipient? This is close and similar to a Call to Action in promotional emails but actually should lead to the recipient taking some action. In other words, ensure there is an open channel of reply or contact for the suggested action.
This is very important when it comes to reminders, authentication, payment and confirmation emails. It’s common to find a timeline attached to such emails indicating an expiry date and time for particular actions
- Be Relevant and Specific.
As we’ve earlier identified, there are several types of transactional emails. Ensure that you send the right kind of email to the appropriate audience and at the right time. That’s relevance and it ensures your good use of resources including your time.
It is possible to identify what people want from the kind of content they come looking for on your website and other platforms. If, for instance, if someone subscribes to your mailing list while searching for “Affordable Handmade Shoes,” on your fashion and clothing e-commerce site, it will do a lot of good if you send them suggestions including links to pages that carry such information on your e-commerce platform.
- Get Your Email Design Right
If there is one word that would summarize email design, it would be present ability. Make it catchy. Let the design arouse some curiosity and interest so that the reader will be willing to go the whole mile. A few things come to mind at this point; First is the email structure which looks at elements such as headlines, paragraphs, and lists. Then there is a general layout that gives the email its flow. Ensure that all these facets are well taken care of. You can also use postcards email builder to get design and start the campaign.
Source: freephotos.cc
- The Subtitle Still Sells.
In some cases, the email is prompted by the recipient. A pin reset or verification email most likely comes from an action taken on the platform. This, however, doesn’t mean that you can afford to be sluggish in your subtitle. You cannot just assume that it is less important. Give it the correcting heading eg.”Your Email Reset Code Has Been Sent” or “Your Payment has Successfully Been Sent.”
Such subtitles help the recipient to commit to memory a certain action. It becomes easy for them to trace or refer to the email if need be.
- Personalize These Emails
One of the reasons why names are important to individuals, streets, buildings, animals and just about any living organism is the fact that they make us stand out. This element of specificity plays an important role in transactional emails too.
The key point here is that it helps the recipient to relate to the action being taken at a personal level. Even when the email doesn’t require them to take any action, addressing them by name breeds familiarity thus enhancing your relationship and interaction.
Bear in mind that transactional emails are an important component of your marketing strategy and each customer or potential client must feel catered for in a specific and personalized way.
- Automation Can Help you Ride Higher
It is true that life demands may be overwhelming and sometimes you may not commit to memory all the activities on your schedule. This is, however, an unforgivable mistake when it comes to marketing. To avoid this, take advantage of various tools available in the market to automate your transactional emails.
This is particularly important when it comes to emails that must be sent frequently. You can schedule them for later and form a pattern that gives you consistent. In fact, the idea here is to make your emailing consistent, especially in cases where clients play an active role. For instance, if customers are supposed to renew their subscription after some period, make it your duty to remind them of this important action in a timely way.
Conclusion
Transactional emails play an important role in the interaction between buyer and seller. Their supportive role should be harnessed through proper actions including Call to Action forums. Both the sender and the recipient of the email should, however, be able to distinguish and establish an email cycle so that the actions as directed in the email are within the correct time frame.