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

One question we often get from our customers is, “What’s the difference between transactional emails and marketing emails?”.

Transactional emails vs Marketing emails

Quickly differentiate between these two types of emails by answering four simple questions:

What?

Transactional emails carry crucial information that is unique to the recipient of the email, whereas marketing emails relay the same promotional content to multiple recipients at once.

Example: Onboarding emails with unique account credentials are transactional emails, while a product update email is a marketing email.

Why?

The foremost purpose of transactional emails is to relay crucial information to your user or to acknowledge an agreed-upon transaction. On the other hand, marketing emails are sent with the aim to promote and sell a particular service.

Example: An order confirmation email for an online purchase is a transactional email, whereas a year-end offer email is a marketing email.

When?

More often than not, transactional emails are triggered by user action or interaction with an application or service. Marketing emails, on the other hand, do not have an automated trigger and can be sent whenever necessary.

Example: Account notification emails sent by banks upon withdrawal of funds is a transactional email, and a monthly newsletter is a marketing email.

How?

Transactional emails are one-to-one messages that are sent to one individual at a time. In the case of marketing emails, messages are often sent in bulk, broadcast to multiple recipients simultaneously.

Example: A password reset email is a transactional email, and event invite emails sent to a group of people are marketing emails.

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.

Account notification emails
Account notification emails

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.

User requested emails
User requested emails

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.

Receipts and invoice emails
Receipts and invoice emails

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.

Support and feedback emails
Support and feedback emails

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.

Referrals and invites
Referrals and invites

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