Without a doubt, transactional email is a very important (and valuable) type of email. Sometimes also called \u201ctriggered\u201d email, transactional email is triggered by a user\u2019s interaction (like a password reset) or process (like a monthly invoice).<\/p>\n
Examples of valuable transactional emails are:<\/b>
\n* Order requests and order confirmations
\n* Digital contract signature requests
\n* Invoices
\n* Digital entrance tickets
\n* Usage overviews as used by utilities companies.
\n* Auction sites and bidding updates
\n* Software as a service messaging
\n* Password reset mails<\/p>\n
Research shows that, compared with standard bulk mailings, the average revenue per email from transactional email is 2 \u2013 5 times greater, and can be up to six times greater than the all-industry average of $0.13.<\/p>\n
![\"transactional](\"https:\/\/www.emailvendorselection.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/transactional-email-revenue-statistics.png\")
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Delivering transactional email is an art. Even providers that have their own email component are now getting specialised companies to handle their transactional email<\/b> \u2013 just because these emails are so important. Beyond deliverability, here are 6 special functionalities to improve your transactional email flow.<\/p>\n
![\"special](\"https:\/\/www.emailvendorselection.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/special-transactional-email-features.png\")
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<\/span>1) Quality Assurance of dynamic transactional messages<\/span><\/h2>\nWith email marketing, one often sends a test batch to assess the campaign before the actual campaign is sent out. But what is the implication for testing and checks of transactional messages of automated flows that might run all year long?<\/b> The risk of fully automatic flows is that the output is never seen by the sender.
\nLook for a transactional email provider that allows you to \u201cSet it and Check it\u201d.<\/p>\n\n- Source check email notification:<\/b> if no input has been received from a source system, the administrator will get a notification in his or her mailbox. This can prevent, for instance, failure of system integration and impediment of mail delivery caused by the source system! Certain systems have daily or weekly triggers and, if an event occurs that stopped the trigger, you want to know that.<\/li>\n
- Input validation:<\/b> Include checks to ensure that messages are not sent when input data is not as expected.
\nFor example: if a client ID number is missing, the message is not sent out. Or an email address has an invalid character. Such messages should be put on hold and listed, so they can be dealt with separately.<\/li>\n- Failure notification:<\/b> When it is essential that email is sent correctly and on time, it is important to generate a notification if a message is \u201con hold\u201d or \u201cbounced\u201d.<\/li>\n
- Send Carbon-copy sample mails:<\/b> Most of the valuable transactional messages are dynamically and automatically populated with content. An extra quality check is to receive sample mails. A carbon copy of every X messages will be sent to a designated email address. In this way one can see what is sent and check if everything is as expected.<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n
<\/span>2) Sending PDF attachments with transactional email<\/span><\/h2>\nMany email marketing solutions don\u2019t offer a way to include any attachments, but in transactional mail there are cases where automated email attachments like PDFs are a requirement.<\/p>\n
for more details, read our full guide to sending attachments with transactional email<\/a> here. <\/p>\nSince these emails are all about the PDF attachments, you\u2019d probably like the PDFs to be well-formatted and easy to understand. So as long as the email tooling doesn’t allow you to create or edit the format of your (dynamic) PDF attachment templates, some alternative is to use a PDF Editor<\/a> that will give you the freedom to arrange and improve the communication with your customer.<\/p>\nThere are two options to attach a PDF:<\/p>\n
1) Send along an external PDF with the trigger or let the transactional email provider pick up the PDF externally and then attach it. You can even add some logic that lets the provider determine which PDF to attach.<\/p>\n
For instance, an ecommerce shop wants to add a PDF product sheet to their order confirmation. It can be picked up and attached based on product ID.<\/p>\n
2) Let the transactional email provider generate the PDF. This is based on a dynamic PDF template. The template just needs to get the data to fill in pieces that are dynamic. Think of the fields for invoices, policies, tickets, etc.<\/p>\n
![\"dynamic](\"https:\/\/www.emailvendorselection.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/dynamic-pdf-generation-example.jpg\")
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It is possible to include other attachments \u2013 because of the risk of spam filtering, not every filetype would be smart. But there are exceptions, like sending an XML file in automated invoicing (called a UBL invoice).<\/p>\n
<\/span>3) Archive your transactional emails<\/span><\/h2>\nThere are different reasons why archiving transactional emails is desirable:<\/p>\n
\n- The ability to resend the identical email on customer request is a requirement. <\/li>\n
- The ability to retry sending the email if a previous attempt has (temporarily) failed to deliver is required. And, very important:<\/li>\n
- Proof that the email has been sent is desired (more on this below).<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n
It is important to realise that archiving should involve recording the message that was actually sent. Most email marketing applications will rebuild the message. As a result, it is possible that the data no longer matches the data used in the original message. (For instance: someone has moved to another home address or got married and last name has changed).<\/p>\n
The period of archiving can be set based on what makes most sense. For instance a year, but also shorter (6 months, 3 months or 1 month). We have recently introduced the adjustment of the duration of archiving in the context of GDPR<\/a>.<\/p>\n<\/span>4) Provide proof that an email was sent<\/span><\/h2>\nProviding proof of sending can be extremely important. In legal proceedings one must demonstrate that email has actually been sent.<\/p>\n
For example:
\nA university that has a number of lawsuits from students each year who say they didn\u2019t get an essential email.
\nAn online auction site that has legal proceedings regarding \u201cyou have been outbid\u201d messages.<\/p>\n
But how does one prove that a transactional email has been sent? For one, emails can be archived. Additionally, one can record and report on the technical 250OK \u2018delivered\u2019 event per email message sent.<\/p>\n
<\/span>5) Responsive transactional email<\/span><\/h2>\n
\nLook for a transactional email provider that allows you to \u201cSet it and Check it\u201d.<\/p>\n
- \n
- Source check email notification:<\/b> if no input has been received from a source system, the administrator will get a notification in his or her mailbox. This can prevent, for instance, failure of system integration and impediment of mail delivery caused by the source system! Certain systems have daily or weekly triggers and, if an event occurs that stopped the trigger, you want to know that.<\/li>\n
- Input validation:<\/b> Include checks to ensure that messages are not sent when input data is not as expected.
\nFor example: if a client ID number is missing, the message is not sent out. Or an email address has an invalid character. Such messages should be put on hold and listed, so they can be dealt with separately.<\/li>\n- Failure notification:<\/b> When it is essential that email is sent correctly and on time, it is important to generate a notification if a message is \u201con hold\u201d or \u201cbounced\u201d.<\/li>\n
- Send Carbon-copy sample mails:<\/b> Most of the valuable transactional messages are dynamically and automatically populated with content. An extra quality check is to receive sample mails. A carbon copy of every X messages will be sent to a designated email address. In this way one can see what is sent and check if everything is as expected.<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n
<\/span>2) Sending PDF attachments with transactional email<\/span><\/h2>\n
Many email marketing solutions don\u2019t offer a way to include any attachments, but in transactional mail there are cases where automated email attachments like PDFs are a requirement.<\/p>\n
for more details, read our full guide to sending attachments with transactional email<\/a> here. <\/p>\n
Since these emails are all about the PDF attachments, you\u2019d probably like the PDFs to be well-formatted and easy to understand. So as long as the email tooling doesn’t allow you to create or edit the format of your (dynamic) PDF attachment templates, some alternative is to use a PDF Editor<\/a> that will give you the freedom to arrange and improve the communication with your customer.<\/p>\n
There are two options to attach a PDF:<\/p>\n
1) Send along an external PDF with the trigger or let the transactional email provider pick up the PDF externally and then attach it. You can even add some logic that lets the provider determine which PDF to attach.<\/p>\n
For instance, an ecommerce shop wants to add a PDF product sheet to their order confirmation. It can be picked up and attached based on product ID.<\/p>\n
2) Let the transactional email provider generate the PDF. This is based on a dynamic PDF template. The template just needs to get the data to fill in pieces that are dynamic. Think of the fields for invoices, policies, tickets, etc.<\/p>\n
<\/p>\nIt is possible to include other attachments \u2013 because of the risk of spam filtering, not every filetype would be smart. But there are exceptions, like sending an XML file in automated invoicing (called a UBL invoice).<\/p>\n
<\/span>3) Archive your transactional emails<\/span><\/h2>\n
There are different reasons why archiving transactional emails is desirable:<\/p>\n
- \n
- The ability to resend the identical email on customer request is a requirement. <\/li>\n
- The ability to retry sending the email if a previous attempt has (temporarily) failed to deliver is required. And, very important:<\/li>\n
- Proof that the email has been sent is desired (more on this below).<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n
It is important to realise that archiving should involve recording the message that was actually sent. Most email marketing applications will rebuild the message. As a result, it is possible that the data no longer matches the data used in the original message. (For instance: someone has moved to another home address or got married and last name has changed).<\/p>\n
The period of archiving can be set based on what makes most sense. For instance a year, but also shorter (6 months, 3 months or 1 month). We have recently introduced the adjustment of the duration of archiving in the context of GDPR<\/a>.<\/p>\n
<\/span>4) Provide proof that an email was sent<\/span><\/h2>\n
Providing proof of sending can be extremely important. In legal proceedings one must demonstrate that email has actually been sent.<\/p>\n
For example:
\nA university that has a number of lawsuits from students each year who say they didn\u2019t get an essential email.
\nAn online auction site that has legal proceedings regarding \u201cyou have been outbid\u201d messages.<\/p>\nBut how does one prove that a transactional email has been sent? For one, emails can be archived. Additionally, one can record and report on the technical 250OK \u2018delivered\u2019 event per email message sent.<\/p>\n
<\/span>5) Responsive transactional email<\/span><\/h2>\n
- Input validation:<\/b> Include checks to ensure that messages are not sent when input data is not as expected.
![\"devices](\"https:\/\/www.emailvendorselection.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/devices-used-regularly-check-email.png\")
<\/p>\n![\"revive](\"https:\/\/www.emailvendorselection.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/revive-transactional-email-responsive.jpg\")
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