Transactional Emails, those dull, boring receipts and shipping notices that go on 24 & 7, 365 days a year don’t really have to be dull and boring.

The CAN SPAM act allows you to send them to everyone who does business with you. They don’t have to do a double opt-in, they don’t have to check the box that says they’d like to be informed of your specials and new items.

You can send these “transactional emails” without their specific permission, as part of them making a purchase, so why not turn them into sales messages?

By law, they must relate to a recent purchase by your customer. And, a reasonable portion must be devoted to information relating to the purchase. But, there is nothing saying you can’t include a sales message.

Several basics you should follow:

Your email address should relate to your company.

Keep in mind you are not only trying to get your message read, you are also threading it through an ever-growing assortment of filters. So, don’t use the word “sales” or “order” in your address. “shipping-info@yourcompany.com” should work. Or, possibly “acknowledgements@yourcompany.com” You may even have to test here, to find what gets through 100 % of the time.

Your subject line should always mention your company name. “Confirming your recent purchase at your company.” Here. Again, consider getting through the filters.

And since so many people use the “preview” option on emails, your first line of the message itself should relate to the order, letting them know it is a legitimate order confirmation, not SPAM. In fact, you should then give the confirmation information, before any sales or promotional pitch. This helps ensure that the message is truly a transactional message.

Most gateways and shopping carts produce their own “receipt type” email. But many folks are still not sure you actually got the order, they only know their card has been charged. So, start off with an Order Acknowledgement such as this:

“Our automated order system just notified us of your recent order number wxzy for a total of $ XX.XX. We wanted you to know that we did actually receive the order and will have it on the way to you by ZZ/ZZ/ZZ.

“As a token of our appreciation, we’d like to extend to you our gift certificate/discount code/etc. We’d also like to call your attention to our new such-and-such."

The object here is not to develop offers for you, simply to make you aware of the opportunity to include them in your Order Acknowledgement. One note, however: A recent study found that “click rates for emails offering a specific dollars off amount were 45% higher than those offering a percentage discount.”

Of course, it is always wise to have several offers, with tracking codes, to test which are the most effective. Since it is not the subject of this article, we will not go into detail, but as with any type of promotion, “keeping score” is suggested when using transactional emails. And time limits for offers is a must.

Whether to use text or HTML is up to you. Here you may need to do some testing to see which gives you the better response. One further suggestion is to always keep these emails to one printed page in length.

After the Order Acknowledgement, it’s only polite to inform your customer that their order has been shipped and give them the tracking number (along with a link to the delivery service tracking page).

Again, this would have an address including your company name and the subject line and first line of the message would clearly indicate the email concerns their recent purchase.

Naturally, you would use the bottom portion of this email to also promote your current offerings. And, if you included a discount code or coupon in your earlier email, you might further mention that it can still be used.

Surveys have found that most online shoppers appreciate the two emails mentioned so far. There seems to be a mixed reaction on sending a third. However, if you have the capabilities and it is worded properly a third “follow-up” email can certainly work to your advantage.

By tracking the shipment yourself, if you send a follow-up email on the day after delivery, you can enhance your standing with your customer by showing that you are going “above and beyond” in your concern for their positive shopping experience with your company.

“We noticed that your package(s) have been received. We simply wanted to once again thank you for your purchase and to remind you that if anything at all was unsatisfactory, to please contact us as soon as possible.”

Of course, your address, subject line and first line of the email are all similar to the first two. And you’ll list all of your customer support information, should they have a problem. Further, by now it should go without saying, you will have yet another offer in the second half of the message.

As you can see, instead of simply a plain vanilla, generic receipt, you can turn a single purchase into at least 3 email contacts with your customers, with several sales promotion offers in each.

Done properly, with taste and concern for their satisfaction you can let them know that you:

Want then to feel they are valued customers

Appreciate their business

Would like to do more business with them
Have some specials just for them when buying from you on the net.

Will it happen automatically? No, at least not for the smaller companies. Can it be set up as a routine that runs fairly simply? Yes, by even the smallest seller. In fact, the smaller companies have an advantage, since they often have one person who would handle it all.

Larger companies, even the largest, for the most part are not taking advantage of this overlooked marketing opportunity. Those that want to are often hamstrung by having different functions split amongst several departments. So, in this case, score one for the little guy.

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