Marketing vs. Transactional Emails Explained

What’s a marketing email?

A marketing email is any email you send to recipients advertising your products, services, or company in general.

These emails are also known as promotional emails or commercial emails.

Examples of marketing emails include:

• Sale announcements
• New product launches
• Seasonal and holiday promotions
• Invitations to events and webinars

What’s a transactional email?

A transactional email (or triggered email) is an automated email sent to an individual and is prompted by an action they took on your website.

Transactional email examples

Here are a few examples of transactional emails you may send to your customers or website visitors.

Welcome emails

Welcome emails (or welcome messages) are sent to customers after they sign up or register for something on your website, like an account, a newsletter, or an event.

It confirms that the customer signed up successfully and provides useful information, like login details and how to get in touch if they need additional help.

Account activity emails

Account activity emails inform customers about specific actions they have taken or significant changes that have taken place within their account.

They include password reset emails, email address and phone number verification, and notifications if a payment method is added or removed.

These notification emails alert customers about the state of their account, meaning they can take quick action if they think there’s a security issue.

Order notification emails

Order notification emails keep customers informed when they order a product or service online.

Examples of order notification emails include:

• Order confirmations and proof of confirmation numbers
• Invoice emails
• Shipping notifications
• Reminder emails
• Delivery confirmations and delivery details

These notification emails reassure customers that their item is on the way and let them know when they can expect delivery. They help build trust and free up resources, as businesses don’t have to reactively answer customer queries.

How are transactional and marketing emails similar?

While transactional emails and marketing emails serve different purposes, they also have the following commonalities.

#1: Both increase engagement and conversions

Marketing emails serve 2 primary purposes. The first is to promote a business’s products and services, engaging new and existing customers and encouraging them to visit your website and make a purchase. The second is to nurture customers who may not be ready to buy just yet, building trust and connections and nudging them when they are more open to conversion.

Transactional emails don’t directly encourage conversions and engagement like marketing emails do, but they do so indirectly. These messages build trust and create loyal customer relationships, which in turn lead to increased customer lifetime value.

#2: Both encourage the recipient to take action

Both transactional and promotional email messages are intended to drive the recipient toward a particular outcome.

In the case of a marketing email promoting a new product line, the goal is to encourage recipients to buy these products. For a transactional email providing reservation details, the goal could be to encourage the recipient to add the reservation to their phone calendar.

It’s essential that any calls to action in these email messages are clear, persuasive, and consistent with your overall email marketing strategy.

#3: Deliverability is critical for both

Transactional and promotional emails provide your customers with valuable, albeit different, information.

If these emails end up in the spam folder or are blocked by a customer’s email service provider, they won’t receive this content.

This can lead to a loss of trust in your business, as well as reduced brand awareness.

How are transactional and marketing emails different?

Transactional emails and marketing emails are viewed differently not only by recipients, but by regulations including CAN-SPAM and the Privacy and Electronic Communications Regulations (PECR). Here’s a summary of the key differences.

Difference #1: Both emails are triggered in different ways

Transactional email sending is always triggered by an action your customers take. For example, welcome emails get sent when a customer opens an account or signs up for your email newsletter.

Marketing emails can sometimes be triggered by user interaction. For example, an abandoned cart email is sent when a customer adds an item to their shopping cart but doesn’t buy it. However, the majority of marketing emails aren’t triggered by user actions—they are scheduled or one-off content sends.

Difference #2: Marketing emails are sent to groups of people

Transaction emails are always uniquely relevant to a single person. For example, if someone buys a product from your website, an order confirmation detailing what they bought and confirming the delivery address is sent just to them.

Marketing emails are sent to clusters of people. This group may be large (your entire email marketing list) or small (a micro segment of your mailing list), but you’re unlikely to send a promotional message to an individual.

Whether you send your marketing emails to a single person or a group of people, email personalization is essential for encouraging engagement. We’ll look at personalization in more detail at the end of this article.

Difference #3: Speed is more important for transactional emails

As mentioned in the previous section, good deliverability is vital for both transactional and marketing emails. However, transactional emails must land in your customers’ inboxes more quickly, ideally in a matter of seconds.

Say a customer wants to buy from your e-commerce store but has forgotten their account details. If the transactional email with a password reset link doesn’t appear in their inbox as soon as they request it, they may give up and leave your site.

With marketing emails, while you want to ensure your emails land in your recipient’s inboxes at an appropriate time to optimize conversions, there is more flexibility.

You can improve your email delivery speed by building and maintaining a strong sender reputation. We’ll look at how to do this in more detail later in this article.

Difference #4: Recipients must opt in to marketing and promotional emails

Customers must opt in to their email being used for marketing purposes—either through signing up for a mailing list or checking a box when they make a purchase.

If businesses add customers to their promotional mailing lists without their explicit consent, they can fall foul of federal, national, and international regulations including CAN-SPAM.

Transactional emails don’t need an opt-in as they aren’t promotional. For example, if someone who isn’t the user signs into their online account, you must share this information with the user for security purposes.

Difference #5: Transactional emails don’t need an unsubscribe button

As transactional emails convey critical information, they are exempt from including unsubscribe links.

While you technically can include an unsubscribe link in these emails, it’s not recommended, as there is the risk that recipients opt out of essential alerts about their account or orders.

Conversely, recipients must be able to easily unsubscribe from promotional campaigns or adjust their email preferences.

Can you advertise promotional messages in transactional emails?

While you can promote marketing messages in transactional emails, it’s best to keep the 2 message streams separate.

For example, say you send a transaction email to a customer asking them to review a product they purchased. However, at the bottom of the email, you include links promoting other products the customer might like. This turns your transactional email into a marketing one.

Regulations like CAN-SPAM require explicit consent for marketing emails, which can cause legal issues if an email recipient reports you. There’s also the risk that if they mark your message as spam, it can affect the deliverability of all your transactional emails.

It’s best to completely avoid promotional content in transactional messages. If you opt to include promotional messages, keep them simple and unobtrusive.

How to use marketing and transactional emails in your marketing strategy

Both transactional and marketing emails play a significant role in forging customer relationships and providing prospective and paying customers with information about your business.

Here’s how you and your business’s Customer Success Manager can use both in your email marketing.

Tip #1: Separate transactional emails from marketing emails

It’s vital to keep your promotional and transactional message streams separate from each other.

Promotional messages are more likely to be flagged as spam by recipients. Multiple spam reports can damage your sender reputation, which means your promotional email campaigns are more likely to land in recipients’ spam folders.

If you bundle your transactional and promotional email campaigns together, this increases the risk of your transactional emails going to spam too. If customers can’t find their order confirmations and password reset links, this can have a catastrophic effect on your business.

The best way to keep your transactional emails and promotional emails separate is by using different IP addresses. This protects the deliverability of your transactional emails.

You can also use different email addresses and subdomains.

Tip #2: Ensure clear and consistent branding

It’s highly likely that your regular customers will receive a combination of transactional and marketing emails. While the content in both may be different, it’s vital that they contain the same branding elements.

This builds brand awareness and, most importantly, trust. For example, if a customer receives a password reset email or login verification email, they will know it has come directly from you.

Ensure your transactional emails and marketing emails use the same logos, color palette, typography, and tone of voice. Providing your team with good marketing and transactional email examples can help them see how to write and style emails that get the best results.

Tip #3: Use personalization in both types of emails

Email personalization is when you tailor your email message as closely to each individual email recipient’s needs as much as possible. This boosts open rates, click-through rates, and conversion rates.

With transactional emails, you’re sending your message to a specific person, so it’s already highly personalized. However, you can still implement data-driven personalization to make the interaction more bespoke.

For example, say you operate brick-and-mortar stores as well as an e-commerce store. When you send a shipping notification, you can list the store closest to your customer if they need to arrange a speedy return.

There’s more you can do with personalization when it comes to marketing emails. You can use:

• Merge tags: These are used to display custom information about your contacts.
• Segmentation: This is applied to split your main email database into smaller, more targeted groups.
• Dynamic content: This shows personalized content to your different segments.

Tip #4: Monitor your email campaigns closely

Your email campaigns should constantly grow and evolve. Monitoring your transactional and marketing emails can help you see what content customers respond to best, as well as identify any minor issues before they become major problems.

As well as metrics like click-through rate, open rate, and conversion rate, consider the following:

• Delivery rate: The percentage of emails that reach the recipient’s mail server. A rate below 98% can indicate problems with your sender reputation or the quality of your email list.
• Bounce rate: The percentage of emails that couldn’t be delivered, both temporary (soft bounce) and permanent (hard bounce). High bounce rates can affect your sender reputation.
• Unsubscribe rate: While it’s normal to receive some unsubscribes from your promotional emails, a rate above 0.5% can indicate recipients have issues with your emails.
• Spam complaint rate: The percentage of recipients that mark your email as spam. Too many complaints can lead to email service providers marking all your emails as spam.

Key takeaways

• What is a marketing email? A marketing email (or promotional email) is an email communication you send to a group of customers promoting your business. Marketing email examples include product launches, holiday promotions, and webinar invites.
• What is a transactional email? A transactional email (or triggered email) is an email you send to an individual that is triggered by a specific action they took. Transactional email examples include a password reset request, purchase receipt, or delivery confirmation email.
• These emails are similar but different: Both types of email encourage engagement, and good deliverability is critical. However, marketing emails are subject to regulations that transactional emails aren’t, for example, recipients need to opt in.
• Avoid adding promotional content to critical transactional emails: If you do, keep your message simple and make sure it doesn’t detract from the transactional information.
• Marketing and transactional emails play a vital role in your marketing strategy: Ensure your branding is consistent, implement personalization, and use separate IP addresses for optimal results.