A Direct Marketing Agency - Helping Brands Acquire and Retain Customers

MediaPost’s Aaron Smith provided some great suggestions to improve routine transactional e-mail messages—including membership confirmations, password requests, shipping notices, and so on:

1. Include your company logo and colors to be consistent with your other marketing materials.
2. Improve legibility and usability with text treatments, color, and graphics.
3. Include navigation that’s relevant to the transaction so customers have what they need at their fingertips.
4. Show product images and names that link back to your Web site.
5. Include customer service contact information. Not just a URL, but a phone number with hours of availability. Show customers you care about their experience beyond the initial purchase.
6. Keep relevant information together and visible in the preview pane. No one wants to search for the crucial order and account details.
7. Pay attention to tone and format (a letter may feel more genuine and personal). Whatever tone and format you use be sure to say, "thank you."
8. Cross-sell and up-sell relevant products to engaged buyers. Choose products that support or add value to the initial purchase.
9. For major purchases, offer follow-up content to educate customers on features or offer helpful tips on how to get the most from their purchase.
10. Protect the primary purpose of the transactional message by keeping the focus and emphasis on transactional content and limiting promotional content and offers.

Source: “Email As Experience: Punch Up Your Transactional Messages” by Aaron Smith, Media Post’s Email Insider, August 13, 2008.