Make the Most of Your Transactional Emails

Author:

Sherry Chiger

Source:

Transactional emails—order confirmations, shipping notifications, billing statements, and the like—are known to have appreciably higher open rates than marketing emails. So if you’re not using these messages to bolster your brand’s relationship with the recipient and even to encourage additional sales, you’re truly missing out on a prime opportunity. 
 
Before you can think about that, though, bear in mind the Hippocratic oath: “First, do no harm.” Make sure that you’re not damaging your relationship with customers by sending messages that don’t even provide the basic transactional information correctly. These tips should help: 

* Remember that transactional messages are not completely exempt from CAN-SPAM regulations. Most provisions of CAN-SPAM do not apply to transactional messages, according to BlueHornet Networks. But the Federal Trade Commission’s definitions of transactional emails and marketing emails are somewhat vague. “How much marketing content can a transactional email contain before it crosses the line into the realm of commercial email regulation by the FTC?” BlueHornet asks in its white paper “Best Practices for Transactional Email Messages.” “That’s a question only a federal judge can decide.” 
 

Obviously you don’t want...