Transactional Email: 5 Common Examples and 9 Best Practices

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As with every interaction that you have with a lead or customer, transactional emails are crucial to your business’ success.


Ignoring the importance of these communications can have a major impact on your customer’s experience and your brand’s trustability.


In this post, you’ll learn everything there is to know about transactional emails — 5 of the main types with examples, plus we’ll offer insight into:

  • Practices to optimize your next transactional email
  • The best platform to handle all of your email marketing needs

Let’s get started!

1. What is a transactional email?

What is a transactional email?

These emails are intended to provide all the necessary details that the recipient needs based on the specific action or request that they’ve made.


Common examples of transactional emails include:

  • Purchase receipts
  • Password reset emails
  • Shipping notifications
  • Responses to customer service inquiries
  • Security and account alerts

To send transactional emails, you’ll need to integrate with a transactional email service provider.


This ensures that the emails are sent over a dedicated SMTP server or a transactional email API to improve your email deliverability.


With systeme.io, transactional emails are sent with dedicated IP addresses to ensure that the emails get received.

1.1. Why are transactional emails important?

When a lead or customer takes a specific action on your website, they’re waiting for the relevant information to proceed in their customer journey.


This is why transactional emails typically see higher customer or user engagement click rates — 8x that of standard marketing emails.


Here’s what you risk by not providing a transactional email with what they need in these critical moments:

Why are transactional emails important?

Transactional emails encourage repeat business — this explains why they can increase your revenue by 6x that of your marketing campaigns.


Let’s take a closer look at what makes an email transactional, and how they’re different from a marketing email.

1.2. Transactional emails vs. marketing emails

Transactional emails vs marketing emails

1.2.1. Can I use transactional emails for marketing purposes?

When it comes to the legality of including marketing content in your transactional email, this depends on your local laws:

  • In the US (CAN-SPAM Act), you can include promotional content, but there are still rules that apply
  • In Canada and Europe, this is completely prohibited by their laws

Be sure to check the regulations in your and your recipients' areas carefully.


Going against these laws can do more than just impact your email deliverability.

1.2.2. Are abandoned cart emails transactional?

Emails triggered by abandoned carts are also only sent to the individual.


This might sound like it fits the requirements for a transactional email, but some laws consider it a marketing message.


Before you send these kinds of emails, be sure to read up on the relevant laws as we mentioned in the previous section.

2. 5 common types of transactional emails with examples

These are the 5 most commonly used transactional emails that we’ll be exploring:

5 common types of transactional emails with examples

2.1. Confirmation emails

A confirmation email can include:

  • Purchase confirmations
  • Shipping notifications
  • Delivery confirmations
  • Cancellation confirmations

A customer should never be left unsure about the status of their transaction.

2.1.1. Order confirmation

Order confirmation notification emails are one of the most popular transactional emails that are sent.


In these emails, you can expect to see the following 7 elements:

1. A clear subject line

2. Reassurance that the order has been received

3. The customer’s name and order number

4. Billing information

5. Shipping expectations

6. Details related to the purchase, or purchase receipts

7. Customer service contact details

Here’s an example of a confirmation email that includes the above, plus a few extras:


CompanyCasper


Subject line — Thank you for your order (#R650000650)

Source: ReallyGoodEmails.com

Casper’s order confirmations start by nailing the first 3 elements, plus they’ve added the main benefit of the product to get the customer excited.


Next, they provide the billing and shipping details:

Source: ReallyGoodEmails.com

This is followed by a summary of the purchase details, including the items ordered, and what was paid:

Source: ReallyGoodEmails.com

The email ends with information to contact support and a CTA to encourage customers to refer Casper to their friends:

Source: ReallyGoodEmails.com

Once the order confirmation has been sent, you should continue to keep your customer in the loop about their order.


Here’s where delivery and shipping confirmation emails come in.

2.1.2. Shipping and delivery confirmation

Besides a clear subject line, you can expect to see the following:

1. A link to track their order and/or an expected delivery date

2. Order number and purchase receipts

3. Shipping details

If there are delays or cancellations, these should be acknowledged and communicated to the customer immediately.


Shipping notification emails like the one from Feals use all the elements listed above to create a successful transactional email:


Company Feals


Subject line — Feals Shipment Notification #65000050

Source: ReallyGoodEmails.com

The beginning of the email starts with a tease to remind customers of what’s on its way.


This transactional email continues by providing all 3 elements:

  • A link to track their order
  • Purchase details including the order number, date ordered, and a summary of the purchase
  • Shipping details
Source: ReallyGoodEmails.com

As with Casper’s transactional email, this email also ends with a CTA to refer Feals to their friends:

Source: ReallyGoodEmails.com

To ensure a hiccup-free customer experience, you should also add contact details in case your customer needs to contact support for assistance.

2.2. Account notifications

To build trust with your customers, you should ensure that they’re notified of matters related to their account activity, some examples include:

  • Password resets
  • Account creation notifications
  • Unusual logins from an unknown device

The most common of these are account creation emails and password reset emails.

2.2.1. Account creation emails

Account creation notifications can be used to:

  • Simply confirm the account
  • Provide a double opt-in confirmation to verify the information used
  • Welcome new users or provide steps to get started

A double opt-in process helps to ensure that a valid email address was used which reduces your hard bounces and improves your email deliverability.


Here’s an example of an account creation confirmation email that acts as a double opt-in and a welcome email:


CompanyDiscord


Subject line — Verify Email


As stated in the subject line, the purpose of this transactional email is to get the user to verify their email — it starts with a welcome message:

Source: ReallyGoodEmails.com

The email goes on to provide:

  • A personalized greeting
  • A thank you message
  • A CTA button to verify their email address
  • A fun fact
Source: ReallyGoodEmails.com

Including welcome messages the way Discord has is also a great way to show new customers that you value them.


To learn more about crafting killer welcome emails, click here.

2.2.2. Password reset request emails

If a user can’t gain access to their account promptly, this will impact your customer satisfaction and the trust you’ve built with them.


Password reset emails are short and they provide clear reset instructions — usually with a single CTA button as the focal point, or a link (sometimes both).


For password resets, it’s best practice to ensure that:

  • Your process is smooth (and safe) to avoid losing customers
  • Sensitive customer data (such as passwords) isn’t included in the email

Here’s an example:


CompanyTrello


Subject line — Trello Password Reset

Source: ReallyGoodEmails.com

Trello makes password resets personal, secure, and easy — and they’ve added:

  • Clear branding
  • Personalization by addressing the user by name
  • A brightly colored CTA that stands out
  • Reassurance that the site it redirects to is safe

2.3. Feedback requests

Communication is key to providing positive customer experiences — whether it’s responding to a support request or requesting feedback.


Even an automated email acknowledging support requests or feedback will go a long way in terms of your customer support satisfaction.


Sending a transactional email requesting feedback from a customer who has recently bought something from you, will allow you to:

  • Show customers that their input is valued — This can provide an even better customer experience
  • Capitalize on customer reviews — People trust actual customers far more than your promotional emails
  • Address any negative feedback — This could even result in receiving positive feedback

These emails tend to include:

  • A link or a CTA button
  • An incentive such as the chance to win something in exchange for their feedback

As we can see with the example below, the email isn’t smothered with irrelevant content and CTAs:


CompanyLyft


Subject line — Your recent experience with Lyft

Source: ReallyGoodEmails.com

Lyft's feedback request includes:

  • A message emphasizing that they value the customers’ feedback
  • A colorful CTA to complete a survey
  • Reason for the email, and the option to no longer receive them

Let’s get into 9 practices that successful transactional emails have in common before we unveil the perfect all-in-one email marketing tool.

3. 9 best practices for your transactional messages

1. Use clear branding

2. Personalize your emails and be enthusiastic

3. Place the important information close to the top of the email

4. Have your email subject line reflect the content within

5. Comply with the email marketing laws

6. Use email automation to ensure that the emails go out right away

7. Make it easy for customers to contact support

8. Optimize your emails for mobile devices

9. If the laws permit a promotional message, keep the main focus of the email on the transaction

As with your marketing emails, your transactional email messages should be personalized, informative, and engaging.

4. Systeme.io — One tool for all your email marketing needs

systeme.io logo

systeme.io logo

Systeme.io is the only marketing platform that you need to handle all of your customer communication needs.


Using our email marketing tool, you can send your automated emails with our workflow builder and automation rules:

systeme.io’s powerful workflow builder

systeme.io’s powerful workflow builder

Simply pick the action and the corresponding trigger to ensure that your email reaches your customers right when they need it.


For example, you can send automated transactional emails such as:

  • A welcome email that’s triggered when someone signs up for your newsletter
  • A double opt-in email
  • A password reset email

Etc.


Plus, our email marketing tool also allows you to:

  • Send unlimited email messages on all of our plans
  • Create newsletters and campaigns with our text or visual email editors
  • Monitor your marketing efforts with in-depth statistics
  • Manage and segment your contacts with tags to create targeted (personalized) campaigns based on your customer’s journey

Not only does systeme.io provide everything to meet your email marketing needs — we’re an all-in-one marketing machine!


Launch, automate, and grow your entire business all from one platform with these tools:

systeme.io’s toolbox of features

systeme.io’s toolbox of features

Scaling with us is also super affordable — we even have a forever Free plan:

systeme.io’s pricing plans

systeme.io’s pricing plans

With our Free plan, you’ll get 1:

  • Email campaign
  • A/B test
  • Automation tools (workflow, automated rule, and tag)

Plus you’ll get:

  • Space for up to 2,000 contacts
  • 3 sales funnels with 10 funnel steps
  • Online sales features (coupons, upsells, downsells, etc.)
  • A custom domain

And more!


For an in-depth look at what our platform has to offer on each of our 4 plans, click here.

5. Conclusion

Sending a transactional email when your customer needs it is crucial to building strong customer relationships.


Partnering with a platform like systeme.io that allows you to send automated emails is a no-brainer.


Make sure you never miss another customer communication opportunity — and see what more systeme.io can do for you by signing up today.

Other posts about email marketing:

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