What is a Transactional Email?

Transactional Email

What is a Transactional Email?

A transactional email is an automated email sent to one person because of an action they took or an event on their account, such as an order confirmation, receipt, shipping update, password reset or booking reminder. It delivers information the recipient needs, rather than marketing.

Examples

Order and payment confirmations, invoices and receipts
Shipping and delivery notifications
Account emails: sign-up confirmations, password resets and security alerts
Booking confirmations and reminders
Replies to contact form submissions

Transactional vs marketing emails

Transactional emails are expected, and usually don’t need marketing consent because they serve the transaction. They must not become a way to send advertising without consent: a small, relevant recommendation is usually fine, but the main content must be the transaction.

Good practice

Send them through a reliable service, such as Postmark, Amazon SES, SendGrid or Mailgun, kept separate from bulk marketing emails.
Authenticate your domain with SPF, DKIM and DMARC.
Make them clear, branded and easy to read on mobile.
Test that every trigger works, and monitor delivery.

Transactional Email