E-mail Marketing: Four Ways to Improve Transactional E-mails

From catalogs to package inserts to shopping cart checkout pages, direct marketers by their very nature seek to make the most out of every customer touchpoint. One touchpoint that’s gone largely unused, however, is the transactional e-mail, claims e-mail marketing solutions provider e-Dialog in its recent white paper “Unleashing the Power of Transactional Messages.” Below are four strategies e-Dialog recommends to turn transactional messages (e-mails sent to update customers on the status of their orders) into branding, promotional, customer-engaging opportunities:

1. Enhance messages with HTML. Because most transactional e-mails are automatically generated by an IT or e-commerce system, they often are plain text messages with little appeal, e-Dialog officials write. Using HTML to create the messages allows you to customize text, formatting, graphics and links within the message.
2. Include dynamic content. Like any promotional e-mail, a transactional e-mail should contain information relevant to the recipient. For example, you could “include an image of the product they have just purchased in their order confirmation or warranty recall,” e-Dialog suggests.
3. Improve deliverability. As with any e-mail correspondence to a customer, transactional e-mails should include a link encouraging customers to add the “from address” to their address books, effectively removing one more barrier to the inbox, the whitepaper’s authors note.
4. Increase acquisition. Include an opt-in link for your promotional mailings, e-Dialog writes. Customers already have given you their e-mail addresses; so explain the benefits of allowing you to e-mail coupons or a newsletter on a regular basis.

For more information, visit http://www.e-dialog.com