13 Email Marketing Trends Explained: #9. Transactional Email

Transactional email is probably the biggest wasted opportunity in marketing.   

I bought a 42 inch plasma television online a couple of weeks ago.  It was from a company that I had never done business with before and I came to them through
a search on Shopping.com.   These people had done a good job of acquiring me for this one time purchase…but then what?

What I get is a text only confirmation acknowledging my order, giving me a tracking number and admonishing me not to reply to this email!? 

This company invested plenty to get me into their system from Shopping.com...(aquire). All they know about me is that I'm willing to spend money on their products on the web.   They paid big money to find me, or help me find them.  Now they have done nothing to convert me.   

Isn’t this a great opportunity to engage me?  Maybe a survey?  An upsell? (I forgot to order the wall mounting bracket and wound up buying that from another vendor). 

You can be almost guaranteed that transactional email will be read.  Take advantage of this opportunity to grow the relationship instead of just sending your customers the message that you could care less if we have a relationship or not.

Comments

[Deanna]

I agree. Why waste an opportunity like this? You know they are going to read it to find out when they should receive their purchase. A lot of people, including myself, print it as a receipt. Use every opportunity you can to market and upsell! Good post Chris.