How can the performance of transactional email be optimised · Transactional email : n - A...

Transactional email : n - A transactional email is an email sent in re-sponse to an action by (or the inaction of) an individual.

Examples of these are: emails confirming a newsletter subscription or a pur-chase, order delivery tracking emails, or even abandoned shopping basket reminder emails.

It is not unusual for notification emails (alerts, auto-reply messages, etc.) to also fall within the definition of the term “transactional email”. Although the two concepts must be kept separate for legal purposes (for more information see “The different kinds of email”), they are in fact very similar, and good practice with respect to transactional emails also applies to notification emails.

TRANSACTIONAL EMAIL:

How can the performance of transactional email be optimised ?

INTRODUCTION

1. WHY INVEST IN TRANSACTIONALEMAIL?

1.1. Reduced customer support burden

1.2. Brand image strenghtening

1.3. Improved customer experience

1.4. Generation of additional sales

The right message at the right time

Using the transaction data

Retargeting

Creativity is the only limiting factor

1.5. Improved deliverability

An advantage related to reactivity rate

How to avoid bad delivery of your transactional emails ?

2. PREREQUISITES

Designate a transactional email marketing manager

Centralise reporting

Generate dynamic content

Deliver the emails in real time

Authenticate the emails

3. GETTING STARTED

3.1. Emails to develop as a priority

Account confirmation

Reactivation emails

Only two examples ?

3.2. The structure of a transactional email

3.3. Thresholds: a rich source of ideas for your transactional strategy

4. MEASURE AND OPTIMISE

4.1. Measure

The metrics

Representing the data

4.2. Checklist

Identification

Content

Technique

Follow up

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03 © 2013 MAILJET SAS - ALL RIGHTS RESERVED - WWW.MAILJET.COM

TRANSACTIONAL EMAIL : HOW CAN THE PERFORMANCE OF TRANSACTIONAL EMAIL BE OPTIMISED ?

Introduction

Transactional email is often neglected.

However, it has numerous advantages to offer:

• Reduced custom supports burden

• Brand image strengthening

• Improved customer experience

• Generation of additionnal sales(Cross-selling and Up-selling)

• Improved deliverability

This guide will help you to implement a high-quality transactional program by

building a solid foundation and establishing the right priorities. We will explain how

you can measure and optimise your transactional email performance.

04© 2013 MAILJET SAS - ALL RIGHTS RESERVED - WWW.MAILJET.COM


01. Why invest in transactionalemail ?

Transactional email offers better reaction rates (opens and clicks) than it is possible

to obtain with a newsletter or a promotional message. However, it is one of the least

exploited forms of marketing!

WHY IS IT NEGLECTED ?

Because transactional email is rarely managed by marketing teams and is often sent

out by the organisation’s CMS rather than through infrastructure dedicated to email

marketing.

Once it has been implemented,

transactional email offers

numerous advantages . Open a

free account with Mailjet!

1.1. REDUCED CUSTOMER SUPPORT BURDEN

Through the provision of information and useful tools via transactional email, it is

possible to reduce the number of customer service contacts made by clients. This is

perhaps the greatest benefit a high-quality transactional email system brings.

This alone justifies a complete reformulation of your strategy.

Additionally, with full tracking of your transactional messages, your support service

will be able to access all the data pertaining to a client: a click on a confirmation

email, the time and date a notification was sent, etc.

https://www.mailjet.com/signup



1.2. BRAND IMAGE STRENGTHENING

Every contact with your consumers is an opportunity to strengthen your brand

image. It is therefore essential to take as much care with your transactional mes-

sages as with your newsletters. Your brand identity and your corporate style must

be perfectly integrated.

1.3. IMPROVED CUSTOMER EXPERIENCE

User experience is now a more important element of differentiation between

you and your competitors than it has ever been.

Imagine receiving your flight confirmation with the following message attached :

“Thank you for choosing the option allowing you to change or cancel at any time”

But then, at the same time, you notice there is no link in the email to enable you to

change your flight. You are therefore obliged to go to the airline’s website, bring up

the flight details, and look for the option which allows you to change it.

You are also aware of a competing airline offering similar destinations (at comparable

prices) and providing all these options directly from the confirmation email.

Which one would you choose ?



1.4. GENERATE MORE SALES

A transactional email is an expected event ! This expectation leads to a high

level of attention on the consumer’s part. It is possible to use this attention to op-

timise sales methods. But be careful: even if the promotional content is accepted in

a transactional email, the transaction must remain at the centre of the process. If this

is not the case, there is the possibility that the consumer will feel deceived.

THE RIGHT MESSAGE AT THE RIGHT TIME

This is one of the fundamental principles of direct marketing ! Make the con-

sumer an offer which suits them at the point in time when they need it. Transactional

data allows linked offers to be generated automatically, taking advantage of times of

maximum attention.

USING THE TRANSACTION DATA

The content of the transaction determines the offer ! A flight confirmation can

be used to sell a car rental or a one-night stay in a hotel. The purchase confirmation

for a cooking appliance can be used to offer an extended warranty. Read our blog

post on: Pre-requisites for concrete transactional emailing.

https://www.mailjet.com/blog/what-are-the-prerequisites-for-concrete-transactional-emailing/



But you do not necessarily have to sell to make an offer. A transaction linked to the

creation of an account or a change to a profile also provides an opportunity to push

promotional content.

Some ideas for transaction-linked promotional content :

• Warranty extension

• Similar products

• Linked services

• Reward points

RETARGETING

Retargeting is a marketing technique that involves retargeting a consumer fol-

lowing an action performed on a website. You have probably seen those banners

displaying a product you have just been looking at on an e-commerce site: that is

retargeting.

It is entirely possible to use retargeting with transactional email. For example, when

shopping the consumer adds two products to their basket but only actually pur-

chases one of them. The purchase confirmation email thus becomes an opportunity

to talk to them about the second product.

CREATIVITY IS THE ONLY LIMITING FACTOR

Transactional email provides numerous ways to generate additional sales! Make a

point of including representatives from different departments within your company

(technical, sales, marketing, etc.) in meetings where transactional email is discussed.

This is a good way to push your creativity as far as possible.

The revenue per email is $0.10 in Q2 2014 compared to

$0.11 in Q1 '14 and Q2 '13. However average order values

were consistant year-over-year at about $192.

Source : Experian “Q2 2014 Quarterly Benchmark Study”



1.5. IMPROVED DELIVERABILITY

Transactional emails have an advantage in deliverability terms. But if the message

ends up in spam or is lost, it has a very detrimental impact on your business.

AN ADVANTAGE RELATED TO REACTIVITY RATE

In order to calculate a reputation score, anti-spam filters analyse the reactivity rates

of the emails from an advertiser (opening, clicking, deleting, etc.). It is the reputation

score that determines whether emails go to spam. With reactivity rates for transac-

tional emails high, they have an advantage compared to marketing campaigns.

HOW TO AVOID BAD DELIVERY OF YOUR TRANSACTIONAL EMAILS.

Though transactional email does offer a number of advantages, this does not mean

your messages will always arrive in the inbox. Imagine your double opt-in emails

going straight to spam ... disaster.

Fortunately, this pitfall can be avoided:

• By using separate sending IP addresses for your transactional emails and

your marketing campaigns.

• By correctly configuring your sending platform (SPF, DKIM, etc.)

• By using one or several IP addresses and one or several domain namesdedicated to your transactional email.

• By increasing interactions through the use of a dynamic subject line and byincorporating calls to action within the email.

• By using a specialised platform ... Mailjet for example ;-)

• By adopting all the good practices associated with deliverability.

A good dedicated IP reputation can provide "qualified

senders an average 27% increase of inbox placement"

(Source : Return Path “What are the Advantages of a Shared IP...” 2014)



2. Prerequisites

It is essential that the foundations of your transactional program are solid. To help

you in this, we have highlighted five essential steps to take :

DESIGNATE A TRANSACTIONAL EMAIL MARKETING MANAGER.

The responsibilities relevant to transactional email strategies are seldom defined.

They can be found spread across the IT department, the marketing department,

as well as the research and development department. This dilution of responsi-

bility leads to transactional programs of a low standard. These run the risk of not

conforming to corporate styles and failing to exploit the opportunities for increased

sales.

To avoid these problems, a responsible person must be designated to monitor the

coherence of all transactional email. Ideally, the marketing department will assume

this responsibility. The person in question will take charge of managing the project,

assuring coherence with the rest of the marketing strategy, examining the results,

and carrying out cost-effectiveness analysis.

CENTRALISE REPORTING

The behaviours observed when analysing the results from your conventional

emailing campaigns and your transactional programs are complementary! It is

therefore important to structure and reconcile the analysis of both these channels.



GENERATE DYNAMIC CONTENT

Exploiting the power of transactional email involves making the emails more per-

sonalised. In other words: provide dynamic content tailored to the recipient’s profile

(purchasing history, behaviour, etc.

DELIVER THE EMAILS IN REAL TIME

Each minute that passes between the transaction and receipt of the email means a

reduction in your ROI! With email, consumers expect things to be instantaneous. As

soon as a purchase is completed, the first response is to verify that the confirmation

message has been received. If this is still absent several minutes after the trans-

action, the open rate tends to decrease. There is then a risk that your consumers

will contact your customer services, resulting in additional support costs.

AUTHENTICATE THE EMAILS

Transactional email contains data which is much more sensitive than that found in a

newsletter. For this reason, it is essential to authenticate emails using DKIM and SPF

authentication technology. Not only does this allow you to combat phishing, it also

guarantees improved deliverability.



3. Getting started

3.1. EMAILS TO DEVELOP AS A PRIORITY

ACCOUNT CONFIRMATION

Account confirmation is the starting point of your relationship with your online ac-

count holders. With the development of intelligent mailboxes, the sooner you are

able to establish the relationship the greater the chance of reaching the consumer’s

inbox. The first contact is thus critical to the success of your future interactions.

REACTIVATION EMAILS

All email senders are confronted with the progressive loss of interest displayed by

some of their subscribers. This is why it is important to develop a program of auto-

matic reactivation. This can take several forms:

• Interrogate subscribers to find out the reason for their lack of interest and

follow-up the enquiry with a reactivation measure tailored to their response;

• Send a series of ultra-personalised emails demonstrating the relevance of

your service;

83% of brands do not make a good first impression with

new email subscribers

Source : Ciceron “The First Impressions Email Marketing Study” 2014



For every situation there is a solution ! Bear in mind that it is always less ex-

pensive to reactivate a former customer than to acquire a new one.

ONLY TWO EXAMPLES ?

It is all quite reductionist ! There is a third and seemingly indispensable cat-

egory: the email which says “confirmation of...” This is what makes your business

profitable. If you manage an e-commerce website, this will be the purchase confir-

mation; if you are providing a service, it will be the payment confirmation, etc.

This confirmation email is essential - even vital - for your business! Thanks

to this email, your customer should feel reassured that their order has been correctly

processed.

3.2. THE STRUCTURE OF A TRANSACTIONAL EMAIL

In a transactional email, and to a much greater extent than in a newsletter or a pro-

motional email, information hierarchy is of primary importance. Whether your email

is an alert, a notification, or a confirmation the information it contains is of significant

value to the recipient.

It is therefore essential to structure it, giving prominence to the most important

information. Your email must also include the appropriate tools for the information

concerned: it must be possible to find out more, or to cancel or modify an action

taken.



Below, we analyse and discuss the structure of a transactional email:



1. THE SENDER : It is essential that the sender can be immediately identified.

2. REPLY TO : In order to give the recipient the option of asking a question by

replying to the email.

3. EMAIL SUBJECT LINE : This should contain the most important information

pertaining to the transaction.

4. HEADING : This should provide the opportunity to reaffirm the identity of the

sender, but it must not take up too much space in order to leave enough

room for the main content.

5. MAIN INFORMATION : This should be emphasised (font size, bold text, etc.)

and be placed in the upper part of the email.

6. DETAILED INFORMATION : This must stand out less than the main infor-

mation, but it must be comprehensive enough to reassure the recipient.

7. TOOLS RELEVANT TO THE TRANSACTION : The options (modifying, can-

celling, etc.) used most often should be provided in the email.

8. MARKETING OR PROMOTIONAL CONTENT : This should be found below the

transaction-related information and linked to it. Some experts advise that

marketing content should not amount to more than 20% of a transactional

email.

9. CONTACT DETAILS : Particularly when purchase confirmation is involved, do

not forget to provide contact information so that your customers can get in

touch with you.

10. PERSONAL DATA : As with all communications, the customer should feel

comfortable with the use to which you put their data.

In spite of lower click rates, year-over-year

revenue per email and average order values rose

in Q2 2014

Source : Experian “Q2 2014 Quarterly Benchmark Study” 2014



3.3. THRESHOLDS: A RICH SOURCE OF IDEAS FOR YOUR TRANSACTIONAL STRATEGY

The use of thresholds with transactional email allows the recipient’s attention to be

drawn to an event which they themselves have generated, and around which it is

possible to build a strong history. Strong, because it involves the relationship the

sender and recipient are maintaining in a highly personalised way.

A threshold is a value which, when attained, causes an event to occur. In the case

of transactional email, the event is the sending of an email. The two classic uses of

this are anniversary dates (account creation, first purchase, etc.) and the number of

points collected through a loyalty card.

EXAMPLES :

In the case of an airline, a threshold might be reached when a passenger has flown

more than 40,000 km, which is once around the Earth. In these circumstances, the

subject line of the email could be: “Jonathan, do you realise that we have travelled

around the world together?” This is an excellent opportunity to target the customer

with an offer, for a loyalty program reserved for VIPs for example.

A further example: if you encourage your clients to share information on social net-

works you could, for example, reward them after a certain number of shares. In this

case, the email subject line could be, for example: “Thank you. It is thanks to you

that we exist!”.

The use of thresholds can be implemented across the board! Think about the core

of your business, about the services you provide to your clients, and it will not be

long before you find inspiration !



4. Measure and optimise

4.1. MEASURE

Measuring the performance of a newsletter and comparing it with previous cam-

paigns is perfectly normal practice! However, how to carry out that task with respect

to transactional email is... not so obvious.

It is not so obvious because transactional emails are often sent from a system which

does not manage email tracking (CMS, or an alternative). But very often as well, it

is down to a lack of interest, with nobody caring about the performance of transac-

tional emails.

However, by measuring the effectiveness of your transactions it is possible to op-

timise your transactional emails and generate even more additional sales.

THE METRICS

NUMBER OF EMAILS SENT : To a much greater extent than with a newsletter, the

number of emails sent is an indispensable metric because it is dependent on the

number of transactions generated. It is a key indicator of the amount of business

you are doing.

OPEN RATE : This is the most obvious metric where confirmation emails are con-

cerned.

CLICK RATE : It is useful to categorize different kinds of link in order to distinguish

between clicks relating to the transaction, clicks on promotions, and clicks on

product recommendations. By doing this, you will be able to compare the perfor-

mances of your different calls to action.

RETURN ON INVESTMENT : This is a metric which is rarely used with transactional

email. Nevertheless, if you add value to your transactional emails through recom-

mendations or promotions, it is essential to measure their performance.



REPRESENTING THE DATA

The metrics for transactional email are no different from those analysed for email

marketing. However, when you send out a newsletter you have the option of ana-

lysing the results a week later. For transactional emails it is very different: as they are

generated continuously, it is difficult to draw definitive conclusions from the results.

It is useful to represent the results of your transactional strategy in a graph which

aggregates the data on a weekly basis. This data will then be cross-referenced with

the different factors that can affect campaign performance (specific actions, vaca-

tions, public holidays, etc.).

The central point of the statistical analysis of transactional email is performance vari-

ation, primarily over time, but also between the different types of email and the level

of reaction (open, click, etc.).

Here is some more information on: How to measure the performance of your

tranasactional emails.

4.2. CHECKLIST

IDENTIFICATION

SENDER : Use a sender name and an address that are unambiguous: you need to

be identified by recipients at first glance.

https://www.mailjet.com/blog/how-to-measure-the-performance-of-your-transactional-emails/

https://www.mailjet.com/blog/how-to-measure-the-performance-of-your-transactional-emails/



SUBJECT LINE : Mention the contents of the transaction in the subject line of your

email. For example: “Order confirmation - Apple MacBook Air” and not “Order con-

firmation”.

JUSTIFICATION : Explain the reason the email has been received in the first few lines

of its text, even if it seems obvious. For example: “You are receiving this email as a

result of your message on our site www.mailjetairways.com”.

CONTENT

MAIN CONTENT : Ensure that your transaction makes up the main content of your

email. It should be visible within the first 300 pixels of your email.

VERIFICATION : If it is a confirmation email, make sure you include enough in-

formation for your customer to be able to see that everything is in order: details,

delivery address, meeting time, event venue, etc.

TOOLS : Within your message, place a link to the tools available on your site for

managing the transaction. For example: modifying, cancelling, delivery tracking, etc.

MARKETING : Take advantage of your transactional emails to push other offers. But

be discreet! Under no circumstances should the promotional offers become more

important than the transaction.

TECHNIQUE

REAL TIME : You should decide, on a case-by-case basis, whether to send your

transactional emails in real-time. In the case of a confirmation email, it is essential,

but that is not necessarily the case for a notification or an alert.

SENDING SERVER : Do not let your web server send your emails automatically! They

deserve as much (or even more) attention and professionalism as your marketing

emails.

PRIORITY : Use an email sending platform which allows you to set the priority level

of your emails. This is important to ensure that the most urgent emails arrive first.



DOMAIN NAME : Use the domain name of your site (or a subdomain) to generate

tracking links for your transactional emails.

HTML : In some cases, delivery of your transactional email is so critical that you may

want to consider the possibility of sending it as plain text. This is a way of further

optimising deliverability to a small extent.

FOLLOW UP

REPLIES : Do not use a no-reply type email address. Ideally, use a sender email ad-

dress that is associated with your customer services.

PERFORMANCE : Do not forget to measure the performance of your transactional

emails (opens and clicks) so that you can then optimise them.

MONITORING : Set up alerts to ensure that your transactional emails are always sent

AUTHOR

Jonathan Loriaux is Mailjet’s deliverability expert. Author of the blog www.bad-

sender.com and email marketing consultant, he addresses the themes of deliver-

ability, transactional email and email in general.



Mailjet is an all-in-one solution to create, send and report, both marketing and

transactional emails. Our technology is cloud-based, highly scalable with

proprietary technology that optimizes email deliverability. Mailjet can be

accessed via an easy-to-use online drag-and-drop interface, through APIs that

allow developers to integrate its array of features within their applications or

send through its sophisticated SMTP relay.

Founded in 2010, Mailjet is now an international leader within the Email Service

Provider space, with more than 60% of revenues generated outside of its native

France. To date we have processed over 12 billion emails for nearly 200

thousand customers around the globe; and our team has expanded within 5

countries in 3 continents. You can pay us a visit at our local offices in Paris,

Berlin, New York, London, Ho Chi Minh City and Toronto.

At Mailjet we believe in honest deliverability and dedicate substantial amount of

our resources to innovation, as well as fighting the war against SPAM. This is to

provide a seamless service, high deliverability and a next generation emailing

platform with 99.998% uptime for our customers. We can do this, because

Mailjet is built from the ground up.

Be sure to check our blog regularly for how-to guides, posts on optimizing your

emails, the latest digital marketing strategies, and occasionally just to hear

about our awesome adventures!

www.mailjet.com - 2014

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