Making Transactional Email Capture Work for You

Building a strong email list is one of the best ways to market your business, but you don’t have to limit your collection to website subscription boxes. With strategic use of transactional email capture, sometimes referred to as point of sale (POS), you can realize fast, substantial list building that will generate new leads and greater revenues.

The most important thing to keep in mind is that transactional email capture shouldn’t be reserved for financial transactions. There are many ways to implement this highly effective strategy for your email marketing.

Why this tactic works

In general, open rates for email marketing hover between 10 and 20 percent, depending on the industry. However, the open rates for transactional emails are consistently higher across industry demographics—in some cases, up to 75 percent.

The reason for this staggeringly high open rate is simple: Customers took an action, and they expect confirmation. Transactional emails are those sent in response to people who have joined a mailing list, signed up for notifications, enrolled in a service, or placed an order—and confirmation messages, or transactional emails, are not only expected, but also sought out.

Transactional emails present a strong opportunity to engage new leads and drive sales, because they are viewed so often. They’re practically a guaranteed way to get your customers’ attention.

Using transactional emails effectively

First, you need to know the one thing you must NOT do with transactional emails: automatically add the addresses to your mailing list. Non-permission-based marketing is considered spam, and doing this will immediately turn off your customer base.

So what can you do with transactional emails? Here are four great suggestions:

• Surveys. Customer feedback is a powerful marketing tool. By including a link to a survey that asks how you’re doing in your transactional messages, you’ll see a higher response rate—and your responders will remember that you care about their opinions.
• Referrals. Happy customers are great—and it’s even better when they tell their friends and family about you. Use transactional emails to ask for referrals. You can even sweeten the prospect by offering referral rewards, such as discounts or freebies.
• Opt-ins. For any transactional email that isn’t a subscription confirmation, feel free to mention your e-newsletter or mailing list. Briefly outline the benefits of opting in, and including either a link to your subscription landing page or an embedded subscription form for added convenience.
• Sharing. Grow your social media networks by including share buttons for Facebook, Twitter, Google+, and other social networks where your business is active. This makes it easy for leads and prospects to not only receive updates, but also to tell their friends about you with a single click.

Don’t waste the opportunity presented by transactional emails. Make the most of these often-read messages to build your lists and grow your company. Need help crafting powerful transactional messages? Contact Informatix to learn more about our email marketing, online survey, and design services.