What are
transactional emails?

Transactional emails are unique, automated messages that are sent to customers. More often than not, they are prompted by the customer's action in your application or website and the customer expects to receive them.

Your transactional emails should check these boxes:

Personalized emails sent one at a time
Real-time emails triggered by user action
Communicate unique information related to the action
Complete an agreed-upon transaction with the user

Transactional emails vs Marketing emails

Unlike transactional emails, marketing emails promote the same content to many at once. They have a lower engagement rate and may be marked as spam. Since engagement affects email deliverability, separating your transactional email service from your marketing emails can ensure it reaches your customers.

Why transactional emails?

The foremost aim of a transactional email is to deliver crucial information to your customer. It must reach their inbox instantly, not eventually. Pick the right service for these important emails, for a great customer experience.

Engagement

Engage with customers. With eight times the open rate of marketing emails, transactional emails can be your ticket to building brand visibility and great customer relationships.

Communication

Your transactional emails carry important information that is vital to your customer. You can ensure customer satisfaction with instant delivery of these emails.

Trust

Transactional emails build trust by making good on an agreed-upon transaction between you and your customer. By sending a timely acknowledgement for their transaction, you encourage your customer to trust you.

Retention

Happy customers are loyal customers. Deliver your transactional emails instantly to their inbox to keep your customers happy.

Types of
transactional emails

Most businesses send transactional emails in varying forms. While the purpose is unique in each case, the most common ones can be broadly classified into a few types.

Account
notification emails

Emails sent out to keep your customer informed about changes in their account. They can notify order updates, login attempts, new comments on a blog, and much more.

User requested emails

Time-sensitive emails that usually carry information explicitly requested by the user. They can be link or verification code emails that help your customers recover or set a new password.

Receipts and invoice emails

Emails that contain details of a completed transaction between you and your customer, such as order confirmation, product invoice, subscription receipt, etc.

Support and feedback emails

These transactional emails help relay user feedback and support requests to the relevant teams. Most common examples are emails triggered by support requests, customer feedback or contact us forms.

Referrals and invites

Emails typically sent from your application to invite users to join or create an account. These invitation emails can also include referral links.

What are transactional emails?