How to Optimize Transactional Emails to Increase Revenue

If you ever did email marketing you know how hard it is to get your message to your clients so it’s not ending up in their spam folder. Promotional emails are often deleted with no look inside, ignored or filtered.

They have very low CTR and do not bring a lot of traffic. Marketers really have to get creative if they want to catch a glimpse of attention from their customers.

But there are some emails that clients are not only accepting but are anxiously waiting for.

I’m talking about transactional emails that we as shoppers are expecting from stores where we placed an order or signed for services. Ever wondered whether your payment went through? Your order is confirmed? The merchandise shipped? Waited on those to appear in your mailbox to take a big breath of relief? Well so do hundreds of thousands of online shoppers and you as a marketer can install a little promotion to your confirmation message.

How Transactional Emails are Optimized

Here are some practical advices I would like to offer you on how to optimize your transactional emails with a goal to increasing your sales revenue. Before we proceed any further let me assure you that the optimization is fully legal and allowable. On the other hand keep in mind that this type of emails must be first and foremost about the transaction and only tiny bitty promotional and about your featured products.

Examples of transactional Emails:

1. Order status/tracking number
2. Account information
3. Customer service information
4. Cancellation confirmation
5. Registration confirmation
6. Wish list summary, etc.

Recommendations on creating transactional messages:

1. While creating transactional emails apply so called 70/30 rule where 70% of a content is transactional and only 30% is promotional.
2. Make sure that the information about the transaction is above the fold which would clearly indicate the purpose of the message and comply with all the rules and regulations.
3. Use email templates developed coherently with the IT, marketing, creative, customer service and UX department. Add links to your landing pages.
4. Increase KPIs by improving the look and the feel of transactional messages with HTML in place of a text.
5. Tag links for Web Analytics;
6. Monitor transactional ROI with detailed reportings such as CTR, pass alongs, revenue per delivered message and so for.

5 key elements of a good transactional message:

1. A message is HTML-written with product images and your brand logo;
2. Includes product recommendations
3. Includes relevant offers – timely news are critical (those could be loyalty, reward or an app information)
4. Email Opt-in (very important – don’t miss on offering email subscription)
5. Includes link to a landing page (make sure that you are sending your customers where you want them to land on your site)

As a marketer you are working very hard to promote your product and increase the revenue so make sure that you are not overlooking tools that can help you to achieve your goals with just a simple optimization of the message. Statistically optimized transactional emails can bring 1 to 3% revenue increase and it should inspire you to implement this highly effective marketing technique. Please share in comments your experiences or let me know if you have questions.