The document discusses incorporating marketing into transactional emails. It defines transactional and marketing emails, and notes that transactional emails typically have higher open and click rates. The document provides examples of ways to subtly incorporate marketing, like through surveys, referrals, opt-ins, social follows, and proactive support. It stresses knowing your audience and their interaction lifecycle with your product or service. The document also covers measuring the results of these hybrid emails through metrics like open and click rates.
3. Delivering Email at Scale
Serving 60,000+ customers
Sending 4 billion emails
per month
Transactional and marketing
email solutions
3
4. Agenda
• Categories of Email
• The Value of Transactional Email
• Ways to Incorporate Marketing into Transactional
• Knowing Your Audience
• Shades of Grey
• Examples
4
5. Categories of Email
Definitions
Transactional Marketing
• Sent based on direct • Commercial in
interaction and within nature, either
the bounds of a VS advertising or
previously agreed promoting
upon contract commercial product
or service
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7. Categories of Email
Typical Volume
Transactional Marketing
• 1% of all email • 99% of all email
volume volume
• 2% of all recipients • 98% of all recipients
email email
Source: SendGrid Source: Jupiter Research “US email Marketing Forecast” 7
8. Categories of Email
Success Rates
Transactional Marketing
Open: 41 - 54% Open: 15 - 19%
Click: 18 - 23% Click: 2 - 5%
Unsubscribe: < .4% Unsubscribe Rate: 1.2%
Average of ~20% Better Open and 16% Click Rates!
Source: SendGrid Source: Juniper Research 8
11. 5 Easy Ways to Incorporate Marketing
Follows Proactive
Surveys Referrals Opt-ins
and likes support
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12. Surveys
• Gain customer
feedback by asking
them to complete a
quick Net Promoter
Score survey
• Ask them to answer a
single question. A
click-to-answer
approach works well.
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13. Referrals
• Ask happy customers
to refer your company
to their friends
• Give the opportunity
for them to earn a
reward.
• We’ve seen great
success with this
approach at SendGrid.
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14. Opt-Ins
• Allow recipients to
subscribe to your
marketing emails
• Incorporate a link
inside the
transactional email.
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15. Follows and Likes
• Include a few
unobtrusive (and
nowadays, almost
obligatory) social icons
• Facilitate extra follows
and likes on
Facebook, Twitter and
LinkedIn and Google+.
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16. Proactive Support
• Include a link to
documentation, forums
or support page to offer
help when the user
most needs it.
• Help your users while
avoiding customer
support time.
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21. Know Your Audience
Know Your Interaction Lifecycle
• How do your clients react with your
application?
• What is the typical path a customer takes
when making a decision to purchase?
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22. Know Your Audience
Know Your Customer’s Interaction Lifecycle
Map your application’s transactional work flow:
Example Work Flow
1. Email Validation
2. Sign-Up Completion
3. First Purchase
4. Shipping Notification
5. Delivery Follow-up
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23. Know Your Audience
Example Work Flow Complementary Marketing Message
1. Email Validation - Account Completion
- Product Walk-Throughs
2. Sign-Up Completion
3. First Purchase
4. Shipping Notification
5. Delivery Follow-up
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24. Know Your Audience
Example Work Flow Complementary Marketing Message
1. Email Validation - Further engagement, push next
steps
2. Sign-Up Completion - Product Recommendations
3. First Purchase
4. Shipping Notification
5. Delivery Follow-up
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25. Know Your Audience
Example Work Flow Complementary Marketing Message
1. Email Validation - Recommendations
- Social Sharing reminders
2. Sign-Up Completion
3. First Purchase
4. Shipping Notification
5. Delivery Follow-up
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26. Know Your Audience
Example Work Flow Complementary Marketing Message
1. Email Validation - “Thank You”s
- Social Sharing reminders
2. Sign-Up Completion
3. First Purchase
4. Shipping Notification
5. Delivery Follow-up
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27. Know Your Audience
Example Work Flow Complementary Marketing Message
1. Email Validation - Surveys
- Proactive Support
2. Sign-Up Completion
3. First Purchase
4. Shipping Notification
5. Delivery Follow-up
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28. Know Your Audience
• Pro-Tips:
– Don’t repeat yourself.
– Aim, then fire
– Weekly Summaries:
Consolidate the
transactional
notifications to
increase your ability to
engage your customers
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29. Measuring Your Results
• Metrics To Track
– Open Rate
• Unique Opens / Deliveries
• Reflects on the effectiveness of your subject lines, the
timing of your message, and the strength of the call-to-
action implied
– Click Rate
• Unique Clicks / Deliveries
• Measures the strength of the call-to-action and the
perceived benefits
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30. Measuring Your Results
• Metrics To Track
– Email-To-Action
• From Open to Purchase
• Open -> Click -> Landing Page -> Desired Action
• Find weak-points in your customer interaction cycles
• Desired Actions: Purchase, Sign-Up, Engagement
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31. Measuring Your Results
• Tools To Use
– Multiple-Link Tracking Reports
• Show where in the email recipients are clicking
• Help you tailor and adjust your messaging to put the
most important links where users are most likely to
click
– A/B Testing
• Automatically test out content variations to send our
messages with proven mark-up
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32. Measuring Your Results
• Tools To Use
– Content Versioning
• Allows you to track changes to similar content over
time
Version • 13% Click
1
Version2 • 14% Click
Live
• 15% Click
Version
33
Industry-wide there are traditionally two main types of B2C emails; transactional and marketing. The definitions are important because this is how they are classified by the CAN-SPAM regulation.
Some examples of the types of emails sent in each category. Generally, the transactional are all driven by actions that have taken place and marketing are scheduled
These figures show the average volume of each type of email.The high percentage of the marketing emails show the noise a typical recipient will have in their inbox, hinting at the value transactional emails contain.
As you can see, transactional emails have a much better open and click rate. Recipients more willingly engage with emails that are action-driven and targeted.This data was pulled from emails sent through our system over the course of the last 3 years. The ranges percentages are a reflection of the differences that are seen between industries, industries like music, politics and medical see open rates on the very low end (13%) and industries like Construction, Home and Garden and Photo&Video see higher rates (28%).The unsubscribe rates are both low, but when you add in SPAM reports, Blocks, and Bounces, you see a much more successful engagement rate overall for transactional emails
Here is a little look at our systems’ aggregate data for the last few years. The numbers are artificially by approximately 5% because a not all of our email is sent with open and click tracking enabled.
Warning: You must exercise caution when adding marketing content to transactional emails as you run the risk of spoiling your most valuable emails. Make sure you proceed with changes slowly to minimalize the risk to your critical emails.
One of the most important aspects of successful marketing through transactional email is knowing your audience. You have to know your customers, your product and how they interact.
Remain CAN-SPAM compliant by not taking up too much space. Keep the main focus of the email on the transactional message
Some ConsiderationsWhat state is your customer in?What is the next thing you want them to do?What has changed since their last visit?What are their friends doing?
Expand all examples and call out why they’re succesfull
Use Dynamic ContentUse place holders in your content and replace with personalized call-to-actions