What is a transactional email?

A transactional email is an automated message that your brand sends to a single customer at a time. It’s triggered by a particular action your customer takes, like ordering a product from your website. Here are a few examples:

Transactional emails don’t require explicit user consent—instead, it’s implied. A specific user activity that triggers them is all the consent you need to send a transactional email.

The goal of transactional emails is to provide excellent customer service and offer timely status updates.

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How to send transactional emails

To introduce transactional emails into your email marketing strategy, follow the steps below:

1. Choose an email marketing platform

A quality email marketing platform makes creating, scheduling, and managing transactional emails easier and faster. The right tool should offer options such as:

  • Templates: Pre-made templates simplify creating transactional emails, enabling you to start sending them as soon as possible.
  • Automation: Quality email marketing tools have drag-and-drop automation builders to give you absolute control over your transactional emails’ triggers and contents.
  • Writing assistance: The right platform should assist you in creating subject lines and copy for your transactional emails to simplify the process.

2. Define the email’s purpose

The content of your transactional emails depends on their purpose—for example, your email copy won’t be the same for an order confirmation and a password reset. To avoid losing sight of what the email is supposed to contain and prevent driving your subscribers away, define the purpose first.

3. Write a straightforward subject line

Keep your transactional email subject lines concise and to the point. The reader should have a clear idea of what the email is about as soon as they read it. One of the best ways to ensure this is to mention the user’s action that triggered the transactional email. For example:

  • “Thanks for your purchase!”
  • “[Product] has been shipped!”
  • “Thank you for subscribing!”
  • “Your order has been delivered!”

If you’re not sure how to approach writing subject lines, follow these guidelines:

  • Keep it short: Subject lines shouldn’t contain more than 40–50 characters.
  • Create urgency when necessary: If the recipient needs to confirm their password or verify their account, use words and phrases like “Action required” or “Important” to clearly convey a sense of urgency.
  • Personalize: If it makes sense, add the recipient’s name to the subject line. You can also add your company’s name or their order number.
  • Avoid spammy words: Words such as “price,” “free,” “limited time,” or “deal ending” can trigger spam filters and make the email bounce.

4. Keep your email content brief and on-brand

Writing copy for a transactional email is straightforward—you mention the user’s action and provide the necessary details. For example, if you’re sending a shipping confirmation, include information such as the shipment’s number, product name, and expected arrival date. 

You can also include a CTA inviting the recipient to provide feedback and rate their experience. Complement the copy with an email header and footer, which you can use to further promote your brand by adding a company logo, contact information, and social media profiles.

Keep in mind that transactional emails shouldn’t promote your other products or services or be sales-y in any way. Reserve such content for separate, promotional messages.

5. Select your trigger

Automating emails involves choosing the email triggers. Once you set them up, the emails go out without your involvement—for example, if a user registers their account on your website, a transactional email thanking them for their registration goes out instantly.

By automating emails using a quality email marketing tool, you provide an immediate response to users, prevent confusion, and save time.

Easily create transactional emails with Klaviyo

Writing, scheduling, and managing transactional emails can be tricky if you don’t have a marketing platform like Klaviyo to support your initiatives. This marketing automation tool has an impressive feature set that you can rely on, including:

  • Flows: Rely on 60+ automated flows to set up transactional emails to land in the recipients’ inboxes immediately after a trigger.
  • Segmentation: Categorize customers based on predictive analysis, specific shopping behavior, or other criteria to offer them a better experience with your brand. 
  • AI: Take advantage of Klaviyo AI to write engaging subject lines and email copy.
  • Forms: Grow your marketing list, gather more customer data, and drive more conversions with Klaviyo’s custom form builder.
  • Integrations: Centralize information by pulling data from 350+ integrations to create highly personalized experiences for your customers.

Ready to start sending transactional emails? Sign up for Klaviyo and ensure your automated messages reach customers’ inboxes at the right time.

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