Internet Marketing Digital_marketing_for_dummies | Page 266

Relational emails
Relational emails deliver value to your customers by providing free content and
information such as subscriber welcomes, newsletters, blog articles, webinar guides,
surveys, social updates, contest announcements, and more.
Relational emails may not sell a product or brand directly, but they build relationships with
the customer by adding value upfront. For example, when your email subscriber receives a
piece of high-quality content in an email newsletter, he or she is interacting with your
brand in a deeper, more meaningful way.
Transactional emails
Transactional emails are sent in response to an action that a customer has taken with your
brand. They include messages such as order confirmations, receipts, coupon codes,
shipping notifications, account creation and product return confirmations, support tickets,
password reminders, and unsubscribe confirmations.
These emails reengage customers who have engaged with your business in some way (see
“Reengagement campaigns,” later in this chapter) and give the customer an idea of the
voice behind your brand.
Do you follow up quickly and deliver what you promised? Do you have systems in place
that give the customer true value? Do you respect your customers’ wishes? The leads and
customers on your email list are observing how you conduct business, and your
transactional email is a big part of that.
Transactional emails meet all the primary goals of marketing (refer to Figure 1-2). They
offer a customer service experience, tell customers about your brand, generate leads,
increase customer retention and loyalty, engage customers, and even help with sales. Yet
most businesses rarely use transactional emails properly, mistakenly assuming that
promotional and relational emails are more effective.
Research shows, however, that transactional emails have the highest open rates of the three
types and produce 2 percent to 5 percent more revenue than standard bulk email does.
We’ve come to a fascinating conclusion: Transactional emails are chemically more likely
to be successful (see the nearby sidebar “The chemistry of transactional emails”).