Transactional mailings are important. A sales confirmation, a welcome greeting, an order update, shipment details, even a password change, all, for one reason or another, are messages that are highly valued by the recipient. And they are often the first messages a subscriber or customer will receive from your company.
But, in addition to delivering valuable and expected information to the recipient, there is another reason that makes them particularly important to the sender. And what reason is that? They work better than mass messaging campaigns.
That's right, a welcome message can generate up to 320 % more revenue than promotional campaigns. It's no wonder that the click-through rate of transactional mailings is 7 to 8 times higher than that of email marketing, and generates up to 6 times more revenue.
Why, then, is more use not made of this type of message? For several reasons:
- Because the message is sent in an environment designed for commercial transactions (such as an eCommerce platform) and not in a marketing platform and, therefore, they are usually messages with many limitations in terms of format and design.
- Because they are driven by data that sits on that transactional system as well, which most likely means you have less flexibility to segment your audience.
- Because they are 'owned' by Operations or IT rather than marketing. A clear sign in this is a 'noreply@...' type of sender. Definitely a bad practice.
There may be other reasons why transactional messages are discouraged. There is often nervousness about trying to mix marketing and sales messages with service or functional communications.
These reasons are understandable to a certain extent, but you should not let them become an obstacle.
We know that transactional messages are winners. So, as a marketer, they're worth your consideration. A lot.
Here is a quick overview of each of these types of messages:
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Welcome messages
This is the most important message you will send and, therefore, the first impression your audience will have of your brand.
If you click here you can read an article from our blog that gives more details of its importance and how to work with it in MasterBase®.
A poor welcome message is a poor presentation of your business. The best examples of good welcome programs, on the other hand, point to key points to communicate to the reader:
- That he made a good decision, that he is valued by your company and what it represents as a brand/company.
- That you are in good company.
- What they can expect from your company. It is an opportunity to confirm the proposition that convinced the reader to subscribe or make their first purchase.
🟢 Success story:
A financial institution incorporated a welcome email with a 30-second video and useful links to their most consulted services. Result: increased account activation rate by 62 % within the first 7 days and reduced initial support requests by 30 %.
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Confirmation messages
These messages include everything from double confirmation of opt-in through purchase and shipment, to recoveries and password changes.
They all have a very specific function, confirming that the event in question has occurred (e.g., your order has been received or shipped to you). Good programs, among other things, tell the reader:
- That you made a good decision, that it is valued by your company and what it represents as a brand/company.
- That you are in good company.
- That your company delivers. Use it as an opportunity to confirm the proposition that convinced the reader to subscribe or make their first purchase.
🟢 Success story:
A logistics services company automated order and delivery confirmations with personalized messages and tracking links. This reduced order status-related support tickets by 45 % and raised customer satisfaction (NPS) by more than 12 points.
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Reminder messages
These messages differ from confirmation messages in that they often, but not always, require action by the reader.
This includes verifications, product or service renewals, reservations, and end of trial periods. The best reminder messages target the following:
- That the requested action is important to receive the material they have requested.
- That action is necessary and sometimes urgent.
🟢 Success story:
An event management platform automated staggered reminders (one week before, three days before and the day before). Emails included add to calendar button and contact for questions. Result: increased effective attendance at online events by 34 %.
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Request messages
The wide range of messages covered by this category ranges from requesting feedback on the service provided and querying the reader's preferences, to surveys. Unlike the other categories, these messages are not necessarily related to an order or an event of which the reader is aware. Therefore, they are messages that the recipient does not expect and may not recognize when he sees them in his inbox. A good message of this type tells the reader:
- That you want to know their experience. But be careful: there is nothing worse than asking the opinion of a customer whose order went wrong. Before sending such a message, it is essential that you make sure you have excluded all customers who have complained or expressed dissatisfaction.
- That your feedback is important and will translate into better service. Make the What's In It For Me (WIIFM) statement in advance.
🟢 Success story:
A regional marketplace sent out post-delivery satisfaction surveys, but automatically filtered out cases with active returns or complaints. Result: they obtained a response rate of 47 %, and their insights were used to redesign the most visited product page, improving conversion by 18 %.
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Abandonment alerts
To some, these messages may be simple reminders, but to a good marketer they are much more. Shopping sessions that are initiated and interrupted, shopping carts that are abandoned, all missed opportunities are potentially significant.
This warrants much more than a reminder and there are compelling numbers to prove it: About 65 % of baskets are abandoned. But, with recall programs, sales can rise by 70 % for abandoned carts and 30 % for interrupted searches (Source - Triggered Messaging 2014).
🟢 Success story:
A sporting goods brand developed a series of three automated abandoned cart recovery messages. Including product images and a limited-time discount helped recover 29 % of sales and increase average ticket by 12 %.
Conclusion
To create effective transactional messages, it is necessary to understand very well what they are, what differentiates them from traditional email marketing campaigns, what are their benefits and what are their best practices.
And to implement all this with control, efficiency and scalability, you can count on a specialized platform. MasterBase®with more than 20 years of experience in the market and presence in multiple countries, allows you to automate this type of messages in a secure, personalized and fully traceable way.
