A guide to transactional emails in legal workflows

Legal communication isn't just confined to courtrooms and boardrooms anymore. It’s embedded in everyday operations, whether it’s an enterprise updating a contract with their partner, banks changing their terms of service, or even HR sending out confidentiality agreements with their new joiners. And a major driver of this communication is email.

While teams have long relied on emails for their daily correspondence, they’re being used more often as a part of their workflows in the form of transactional emails. Transactional emails are automated and triggered emails that are unique to a customer, like a password change or a compliance request. They are crucial in building trust and credibility with the customers. Since legal emails are confidential by nature, it is necessary to understand the role of transactional emails within the legal ecosystem.

This article explores how transactional emails enhance legal operations and some of the best practices to follow across different sectors.

Legal teams and their functions

Legal teams are responsible for protecting organizations from risks. They provide guidance, ensure compliance, and manage litigation in an organization. Their scope of work extends beyond internal teams to external vendors or clients to mediate and communicate legal matters.

Some of the key responsibilities of a legal team are:

• Contract management: Drafting, reviewing, and negotiating contracts with vendors and clients.
• Ensuring compliance: Tracking local laws and regulations to ensure the organization is in compliance with them.
• Litigation management: Handling disputes, lawsuits, and customer grievances.
• Intellectual property management: Registering and maintaining an organization's patents, trademarks, and copyrights.
• Internal support: Collaborating with HR to handle labor law issues, offer guidance on compliance standards, and help IT teams with data privacy concerns. 

These roles require constant collaboration across teams and often involve time-sensitive communication with internal teams, clients, and vendors.

Legal communication

Legal teams deal with a wide range of communication. This can include:

• Informing employees and partners about any legal changes.
• Contracts, amendments, and modifications sent over a period of time.
• Confirmation of compliance acknowledgment from employees and third parties.
• Regulatory disclosures and mandatory submissions to legal authorities.
• Court notifications and details about hearings, case updates, and rulings.
• Updating and sharing the progress of ongoing legal communication with clients.
• Legal warnings, notices, or other formal correspondence to clients and partners.

Given the confidential and time-sensitive nature of these emails, it’s essential for legal communication to be both reliable and secure. This is where transactional emails come in with their automated and secure delivery.

Why do legal teams need a transactional email service?

Using transactional emails for legal communication has multiple benefits, which will be explained in detail below. 

Timely delivery of crucial information

Legal communication is often time-sensitive, whether it's a court-hearing reminder, contract approval deadline, or policy updates. A transactional email service ensures that these emails are delivered exactly when needed, without any delays or manual intervention. 

Security and confidentiality

Legal documents often contain confidential information and require airtight security. Transactional emails offer built-in encryption and authentication mechanisms that ensure the data is well-protected.

Automates workflows

Tools like contract lifecycle management or compliance software often handle predictable workflows. A transactional email service can be seamlessly integrated with them to trigger the required emails, streamlining the process and reducing human errors.

Traceability 

Every transactional email is logged with detailed data like timestamps, recipient details, and delivery status. This creates an audit trail that helps the legal team track what was sent, when, and from whom.

Enhanced customer experience

Consistent and timely communication will build trust in your brand. Clients and vendors are more likely to view your organization as a credible and trustworthy source when these emails are delivered on time.

Let's break down the types of transactional emails that are used in legal systems.

Examples of transactional emails in legal workflows

With most legal workflows being automated—from contract lifecycle management (CLM) systems that handle everything from contract creation to renewal, to services that manage e-signatures—transactional emails can be seamlessly integrated into each stage. This allows for timely communication without any manual intervention. 

• Welcome emails: Online legal portals allow users to file cases; register intellectual property, companies, or contracts; and even consult with lawyers. To use these services, users must first register with them. Welcome emails are sent out when a user registers with the portal.
• Password reset emails: These emails help users reset their passwords to gain access to the portal.
• Payment receipts: Payment confirmations that are made on the legal portal.
• Case filing confirmations: These emails are sent out when a user files a case.
• Case status updates: These emails include any changes made to ongoing cases.
• Consultation schedule emails: These emails are triggered when a lawyer is assigned and a consultation is scheduled.
• Follow-up reminders: These remind clients about upcoming cases and consultations.
• Contract requests: These emails are triggered when a new contract request is raised.
• Document submissions: Confirms the submission of forms or documents required for drafting a contract.
• Acknowledgement receipts: Verifies that a policy, clause, or document has been read and accepted.
• E-signature requests: They are sent out to employees, clients, and stakeholders requesting their signature in a contract or an agreement.
• Signature confirmations: These notify the involved members that the documents have been signed.
• Document delivery emails: Shares the final or revised contract/agreement with vendors.
• Policy updates and contract renewals: These are shared automatically when the contracts or policies are updated.
• Certificate updates: These emails are triggered to customers and internal teams about updates in certifications like ISO, IEC, or BIS.
• Compliance reminders: Alerts employees about an upcoming compliance action.
• Audit schedules: Informs clients or teams about upcoming audits.
• Meeting or hearing reminders: Apart from legal workflows, there are certain emails that remind internal teams, clients, or vendors about a pending legal action. They can be recurring or one-time reminders.

9 legal emails best practices

Now that we’re clear on the types of emails sent by legal departments, let's focus on crafting them. This is important because these are the touchpoints that shape your client's perception of you. So it's important to make an impression that sticks.  

Choose a dedicated transactional email service

Pick a service that sends transactional emails alone. This ensures faster delivery, better tracking, and added security, which are all critical while sending deadline-bound updates or legal confirmations.

Use a valid domain

A clean domain is the key to deliverability. Domain verification helps you prove your authority over the domain and will indicate trustworthy sources. Always authenticate your domain using SPF, DKIM, and DMARC to ensure that your domains are trusted and reach your recipient's inbox. 

Use a clear subject line

Make sure that your subject line is clear and to the point. Your recipients are usually flooded with many emails, and a direct subject line like "Action pending: Contract approval needed" helps the recipient grasp the information quickly. This avoids delays and missed actions.

Structure the content for readability

The content you add, however small, should be well structured. Use headings, short paragraphs, and bullets wherever needed. This improves readability and helps recipients process key information quickly. 

Include citations

While referencing legal policies or precedents, make sure you add proper citations to your claims. This builds trust and adds credibility to your email. 

Proofread the content

Typos in legal emails aren't just unprofessional; they can change the meaning of a message or create ambiguity. Always double-check your grammar and proofread your emails before sending them out.

Include a plain-text version

Always include a plain-text version of the email you’re sending. This will replace the HTML version at times of poor internet connectivity. 

Make it mobile-friendly

Emails are opened on all types of devices with varying screen-sizes. You should optimize your content for different devices. This ensures a better user experience irrespective of what the email is viewed on. 

Monitor performance with email metrics

It's not enough to send emails; you should also monitor them regularly to track their performance. You can do this by analyzing their opens and clicks. This will give you an idea of how effectively your emails are being engaged with.

Picking the right transactional email service

When it comes to legal communication, there shouldn't be any compromise. From compliance updates to policy renewals, everything depends on how quick and reliably your emails are being delivered. This is why it’s important to pick the right service to do that for you. Here are the key factors to consider:

Good deliverability 

Legal emails should reach the recipient's inbox and not the spam folder. The service you pick should be built for consistent inbox delivery.

Fast delivery

These emails are time-sensitive, and the user expects them. So timely delivery is non-negotiable. 

Security 

Legal emails often carry confidential data. The platform should provide encryption and protect you against malicious attacks. 

Technical assistance

Delivery issues, especially for confidential emails, should be addressed immediately. Ensure that the service offers support around the clock. 

Cost effective

With everything in place, the service should be cost-effective without forcing you to buy unnecessary plans. It should be priced reasonably for any volume of email you send.

ZeptoMail can help you achieve this and checks all of these boxes. 

Why should you choose ZeptoMail?

ZeptoMail was built with the sole purpose of sending transactional emails and eliminating any other form of email, like marketing emails. This is because marketing emails may not always carry information that the customer needs and can be marked as spam, causing deliverability issues. When you use the same service to send both transactional and marketing emails, the overall deliverability of your transactional emails can take a hit. Because ZeptoMail focuses on sending only transactional emails, your emails have the highest delivery rates possible. You, your clients, and your vendors will all get them on time.

ZeptoMail takes a security-first approach with well-protected data centers, access control, and encryption to protect your information. And you get all of this at an affordable price. ZeptoMail doesn't make you commit to monthly packages, but rather gives you a credit system where you purchase only what you use. Here, a single credit allows you to send 10,000 emails. So, you’ll be paying only for the emails you send. This flexible plan makes it affordable for any kind of business model and any volume.

Wrapping up

Transactional emails are often underappreciated, but they’re essential units in your business. Choosing the right service ensures that your communication remains secure and consistent without fail. With ZeptoMail, you get a platform that’s specially built for this need and delivers the best performance, so you can rest assured that your customers receive their emails securely and on time.