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Because transactional, event-triggered and other service-based messages are typically the purview of IT departments, many marketers neglect to incorporate these business-critical messages into their email marketing programs. Of course, you need to carefully evaluate each transactional message and determine the appropriate strategy based on consumer expectations, preferences and CAN-SPAM regulations, but at the very least, you can make sure that the template and content properly reflect your brand.
If you don't have access to deliverability metrics for your transactional email, you should add that to your list as well. Transactional emails that go undelivered for any reason can damage your brand and ruin a sale. Ideally, you should have a centralized view into all email being sent to your email recipients.
While JupiterResearch finds that the average retailer can generate an additional $2.9 million by adding cross- and up-sell promotions to transactional emails, that's just one lucrative application. Adding relevant information or easy access to customer service support can go a long way to creating a satisfied customer.
Getting started with a marketing program for transactional email doesn't have to be difficult, and the following tips will show you how:
Inventory Your Transactional Messages:
The first you need to do is inventory all of your current and planned transactional messages. When evaluating your various types of customer email communications keep in mind that transactional messages take on many different forms. While confirmation emails for website registrations and product purchases are the most obvious, don't forget to include warranty information, periodic account balance notifications, product updates and other terms-of-service communications.
Create Objectives for Leveraging Each Type of Message:
After identifying all of your transactional emails, the next step is to determine what kind of marketing messages are best suited for each communication. Adding cross- and up-sell product promotions to purchase confirmation emails is a good start, but there are many other messages that can drive customer retention and engagement with your brand. These include relevant resources, such as whitepapers and consumer guides, or even information on local weather or events. In some cases, you may just want to reinforce a positive perception of the brand itself. Just be sure your messages are relevant to the transactional message and your audience.
Develop Dynamic Email Templates and Integration:
In order to ensure that you're adding relevant content, you need to design a dynamic email template with business rules that pull the relevant information from various internal and external databases. Integration with these systems will enable you to send a customized, real-time message that demonstrates your understanding and respect for the customer relationship.
Set up Tracking and Initiate Testing:
The last step, and one of the most important, is to set up all of the proper email tracking and reporting mechanisms that will enable you to adjust your marketing programs based on real-time delivery and open and click data. Ideally, your email marketing system should offer a centralized view of all your transactional and non-transactional marketing streams. Of course, you don't want to deploy something as critical as transactional email without proper testing. When setting up a testing program, make sure that you evaluate every aspect of the email – including design, integration, deliverability, tracking and reporting.
If the data integration and performance tracking steps exceed the capabilities of your current system, you should consider upgrading to a commercial-grade solution like Aghreni's email platform. In the meantime, you should begin the inventory process and make sure the all the messages being sent to your customers properly reflect your brand.
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