How to Optimize Different Types of Email, Part 3: Transactional Email

Posted on October 17, 2012 by David Fowler | 11 Comments |

I have covered the peaks and valleys of Retention email and Acquisition email over the last couple of weeks. For my final blog in this series I am going to discuss Transactional email.

Messages that have NO commercial content at all are considered transactional messages and don’t have to comply with CAN-SPAM. Order confirmations, promotional messages and newsletters (informational) are examples of transactional communication.

Where marketers may get into hot water is when they use the transactional message to cross-sell or upsell their commercial products in the same message.

Let’s take a look….

The Primary Purpose Rule

“No CAN-SPAM – great!” I hear you say, but what about messages that have BOTH transactional and commercial content included in the same message? I know we all need to get more bang for our email marketing bucks.

When you use transactional messaging to promote your commercial products under CAN-SPAM the Primary Purpose rule comes into effect. This is where the gray area of transactional messaging kicks in, and it can easily be misunderstood.

If the recipient determines that the “primary purpose” of the message they received to be commercial in nature then the message MUST be CAN-SPAM compliant, no exceptions. That means: No matter how certain the marketer is that the message’s primary purpose is transactional…it is the recipient’s perception that matters.

There are a few other interpretations under CAN-SPAM on the Primary Purpose rule, but in my opinion it’s better to comply than not.

So, what factors would drive a recipient to think that a message is “commercial” in nature?

Leading with the offer BEFORE the transactional information
Placement of commercial images within the body of the message
Too much “offer real estate” in the message, dominating the theme

So as you can see – transactional messages are not quite as straightforward as you would think.

Best Practices in Transactional Email

During your onboarding or preference center user experience, ask your client if they would like to receive cross-promotional messaging within their transactional messages.
If they say No, honor their preferences
Request your client to add your From address to their safe senders list or address book to ensure deliverability continuity
Place any offer “below the fold” of the email
Keep the offers real estate within the message to a third of the message itself
Use your soft sell techniques as part of your strategy
Ensure that all transactional messaging that contain offers are CAN-SPAM compliant
Manage your deliverability; transactional messages generally are better performers for engagement because of the intent of the message and the expectation that it’s going to arrive.

Hopefully these last few weeks have provided some insight on the types of messaging and some of the challenges and rewards associated with each one.

I am confident that when you adopt the best practices and implement them into your marketing strategies you will see the benefits and results that will affect, deliverability, reputation management, engagement and ultimately ROI.

One last note: We cannot offer any legal advice on any related email matter. If you have questions that may affect your obligations under CAN-SPAM, check with your legal teams or resources.

Thanks for reading and let me know your thoughts.

Cheers!

Tags: Act-On, Act-On Software, b2b email, CAN-SPAM, email marketing, Transactional Email

Categorized in: Act-On in Action, B2B Marketing, Email Marketing

http://www.iGrafx.com Guedo Fanony

This is very interesting. I think the guidelines you provided could actually help a lot of people become more effective with their marketing, as well as maybe appear less intrusive, which could lead to even more sales and upsales!
Nuala

Great information. I think this topic can be a little confusing. I will be adopting the best practices and implementing them into my marketing strategies.
Jeff

Definitely a lot of grey areas. This helped me understand it a lot better though. Excellent article. Some good tips on what to avoid in transactional emails. How would you know if a recipient thought your email was more than just transactional?
Tim

David, thanks for clarifying. It is important to know that it is up to the contact to determine whether an email is commercial in nature and not the marketer. We as marketers can sometimes have blinders on when it comes to how our messages are perceived by customers and prospects. The gray areas are definitely there and I guess it is always better to be safe and not sorry. I’m typically not a fan of combining messaging anyway. I think it is better to be direct and focused on the messaging. Normally, trying to combine messages doesn’t work. Better to have two distinct emails with a clear purpose than trying to do too much with one email. At least, from my experience.
http://www.jacobcurtis.co Jacob Curtis

I agree that the guidelines you provided could actually help a lot of people become more effective with their marketing but more importantly keep them out of legal trouble if they are sending messages that don’t adhere to the CAN-SPAM act rules.

I had no idea there was a difference of which emails have to contain and which emails don’t have to contain an unsubscribe. Though it looks like it would be best to include them in all messages as it’s ultimately up to the recipient if they feel it was sales-ish.
http://www.mybusinessintegrated.com Chris Kiersch

Thank you for reinforcing the guidelines, too bad the political campaigns over the last few months seem to get by with anything. Ever notice how often you hear from them after the election;)
Cheers, Chris
Monica Seely

Perhaps this is a grey area, but on occasion we use our newsletters to introduce a new product or service that we offer. We want to educate as well as inform and hope that our readers express interest in the new offering. Your post serves as a reminder to choose our words carefully!
Dani Calvert

Thanks for sharing this – I think that too often, companies don’t follow these guidelines which has a multitude of negative consequences. It’s always helpful to re-read these as a helpful reminder.
http://www.taos.com Dave Gross

Good guidelines to follow. Sometimes it’s not what you don’t do it’s what you do that can cause a lasting bad impression.
That first impression is a tough thing to change if it was bad.
http://www.spandex.com Frederik Claessens

It would be helpfull if we could also make the distinction between commercial and transactional e-mails within Act-On. If I’m not mistaken, an opt-out for commercial messages now also prevents us from sending transactional messages.
- http://act-on.com David Fowler
  
  Frederik, we provide an opt-out link on all emails we send as a matter of corporate policy. We have seen that customers won’t opt-out of messages they actually want to receive. As there is a lot of grey area pertaining to transactional messaging and the recipients determination of the primary purpose, we would rather take the position of requiring the opt-out in all messages as an industry best practice.